#Substack Is Too Good to Be True

[mehmetyildizmelbourne-blog]

What Is the Future of Substack

Will it face Enshittification like other platforms? Thought Experiment: Here’s Why Some People Say Substack Is Too Good to Be True Tackling “Enshittification” as It Matters It is not difficult to feel something has gone wrong with the apps and platforms we once loved. They were places where creativity flourished, connections deepened, and communities thrived. However, over time, they have…

[drdemonprince]

do you see this tendency of people to believe telepathy is real (re: TTT / the commenters on your substack essay) as at all connected to like, how widespread belief in astrology is, and people talking about being witches and doing magic and casting spells, and other similar very woo stuff? it seems like a lot of people are very invested in what i would see as being Fake Shit, obviously some of which is much more harmful than others, and they don’t seem to understand that this thing they expect everyone around them to also believe is true is actually like a supernatural belief or whatever that other people should not be expected to also believe in

I think the cultural and ideological pathways of some of these things can be fairly different. We should be very precise about the mechanisms through which the extreme conspiratorial ideological capture happens and how and why it does.

On the one hand, there is a clear throughline connecting a variety of types of "Conspiritualist" thinking that radicalizes people -- parents who cannot cope with their kids' Autism initially invest their hopes in special gluten-free allergen-free diets, then have Reiki performed on them, then shell out thousands of dollars for dubious untested supplements, then become antivaxxers and claim their children have telepathy and vote for Robert F Kennedy Junior. These beliefs progress in intensity and remove from reality, and they're linked usually to organizations or spiritual leaders who profit off of people and move them forward along the radicalization pipeline.

Similarly, there's a spiritualist/reactionary ideological pipeline that begins with being deeply fatphobic and obsessed about fitness and clean eating that morphs into regular enemas, eating nothing but raw meat, taking Joe Rogan supplements, eschewing all medicine, and voting for conservatives.

Those ideological pathways are quite different from the ones followed by a queer witchy type who initially got into tarot or pendulum-reading as a conscious fuck-you to the homophobic Christianity that they were raised with. I do not see the degree of radicalization happening there that you see with the right-wing conspiritualists and I think it's somewhat messy to conflate the two.

If a person gets into astrology as an queer-dating icebreaker or takes a spellcasting class at the local witchy bookstore, it progresses to, what? Buying too many decorative crystals? Maybe refusing to have a Virgo as roommate? There's biased, unscientific thinking happening here but there simply isn't a massive industry in place devoted to capturing this group, isolating them, leeching them of huge sums of money, and moving them further down an ideologically extremist pipeline.

Of course both communities share interests at times -- astrology, alternative medicine, white person pagan bullshit -- but I think we should be really precise about exactly what's going on here because it's not the case that the bulk of the damage is being done comes from people having a silly hobby or believing something untrue. (Most humans do to some extent). There is a significant difference between owning a few spiritually elevated good-luck items on the one hand, and becoming completely isolated from anyone who believes differently from yourself, eschewing all medical care and educational resources for you and your family, depending upon predatory hucksters and joining hate movements on the other.

There are spiritualist/woo woo communities that capture individuals and move them further along the pipeline of far-right radicalization but picking up a Chani Nicholas book or a steven universe tarot deck is just not gonna lead to that.

[ofmdrecaps]

06/01-06/04/2025 Daily OFMD Recap

TLDR; OFMD Dates; David Jenkins; Rhys Darby; Taika Waititi; Nathan Foad; Samba Schutte; Vico Ortiz; Dominic Burgess; Craft Fair For Pride; Our Flag Means Pride Reminders; Siren Events - The New-Unicon Advent Calendar!; Fan Spotlight: OFMD Mermay 2025: Mer-Izzy!, OFMD Fic Club; Big Gay Energy Pod; Our Flag Means Fanfiction; Garlic Soup Week; Love Notes;

== OFMD Dates ==

A few people have mentioned some key OFMD dates so I thought it would be good to include them! Let me know if I've missed any!

06/01/2025 - Third Anniversary of S2 Renewal Announcement

06/03/2025 - June the 3rd, An Excellent Day! The day that Stede and crew plundered the plant in the pilot! Mentioned by Lucius in Act Of Grace

= David Jenkins =

Chaos Dad Decided to start pride month off making all of us cry <3

Source: David's Bsky

And Chaos Dad reblogged this all too true line posted by AnnaaCoola

Source: David's Bsky

= Rhys Darby =

Rhys is super busy out in Cardiff!

Source: Rhys' IG Stories

Two new Daily Darby's!

June 2 / June 3 / June 4

Source: Rhys' Free Substack

Rhys has been being a complete menace again if you can't tell.

Source: Rhys IG Stories

He was also featured in TheTime.Com! Check out the article here!

Annnnnd Good news, The Cryptid Factor is live at Appleton Tower - Orchard, 05-10 Aug at 16:15! You can get tickets at gildedballoon.co.uk

Source: Rhys IG

= Taika Waititi =

Taika is in Africa with NVFilmStudiosAfrica's Chairman Simo Kubheka!

Source: NVFilmStudioAfrica's IG

= Nathan Foad =

Lots of Nathan sightings lately! Out with a friend <3

Source: Nathan's IG Stories

= Samba Schutte =

Samba is NOT happy with the heat going on!

Source: Samba's IG

= Vico Ortiz =

Vico's busy with their show Rise of a King! They're announcing an ASL interpreter at the show, and discounts for hard of hearing and deaf fans! Check out the video below!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Vico Ortiz (@puertoricaninja)

Source: Vico's IG

= Dominic Burgess =

Our dear Jeffrey Fettering is sending us some love for pride with his fiance! He's out in Chicago this week!

Dominic has a lot in the works right now! Below is a screenshot from Caged, and a trailer for XY!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Stephan Fleet (@stephanfleet)

Source: Dominic's IG

= Craft Fair for Pride =

Our lovely friends that worked on the OFMD Craft Fair are participating in another craft fair-- while not OFMD Themed, it is Pride themed! Check it out here if you'd like to grab some pride swag!

Source: @ghostalservice's Bsky!

= Our Flag Means Pride =

Reminder! You can still sign up (no purchase necessary) for many of the Giveaways going on for Our Flag Means Pride!

Source: AOC Bsky

Current Milestones Hit, and the forms you can use to enter them!

$250 - Form

$500 - Form

$750 - Form

$1000 - Form

$1500 - Form

$2000 - Form

$2500 - Form

$3000 - Form

$3500 - Form

$4000 - Form

$5000 - Form

$6000 - Form

Source: Adopt Our Crew Bsky

= Siren Events - The New Uni-Con =

Our lovely con-hosts over at @siren-events-uk have got a A Very Piratey Advent calendar up and running as the Countdown to The New Uni-Con has begun! The New Uni-Con will be going on at the Hilton London Gatwick, 20th - 22nd of June! Each day of the advent, there's a new announcement or discount so be sure to follow them on their socials to catch the updates! Tumblr / Instagram / Bsky

Day 2

"Advent treat number two isn't just for today, but for two whole weeks! Any purchase of convention extras or merch from June 1st through to the online store closing at midnight (bst) on June 15th, will give you the chance to win one of the following #TNUC extras, which you can keep for yourself or gift to a friend! * David Jenkins Coffee Break * Group Photo * Welcome Meet & Greet * Breakfast Meet & Greet Winners will be behind doors 16 through to 19!"

Source: Siren Events Day 2 Advent Calendar Page

Day 3

Some cool news -- Gypsy will be judging the costume contest! 😱

Source: Siren Events Day 3 Calendar Page

Day 4

There's a flash discount code for 20% off Meet and Greets going on until Until noon (bst) on Saturday 7th June. 👀 Check it out here!

Source: Siren Events Day 4 Calendar Page

= Fan Spotlight =

= OFMD Mermay 2025 =

I know we're in June, but I wanted to highlight this really gorgeous fan art of Mer-Izzy by @volkradugiart! I love the detail on the tail!

Source: Volkradugiart's Tumblr

= OFMD Fic Club =

I know many of you are already aware and partake in the fabulous OFMD Fic Club Discord Server, but for those who don't I wanted to make sure to highlight this month's featured Author as well as their monthly server plans!

The Featured Author for this month is El aka BonnyPitty! The fic the club is highlighting this month is Even Lovers Drown! You can join them to discuss the fic in the appropriate channel, found in #Announcements, and they'll be chatting with El on Saturday, June 14, 2025! Their featured topic this month is The Queer Muse and they'll be having a chat later on in the month on Friday, June 27, 2025 to explore the theme in depth! Wanna join in the fun? You can join the OFMD Fic Club Server here!

Source: KaraWrites, OFMD Fic Club Admin

= Big Gay Energy Pod =

There's a new episode of Big Gay Energy Pod - and this episode our dear Jim, Vico Ortiz is on the pod talking about Drag, Vulnerability, and "Rise of a King"! Check it out here!

Source: Big Gay Energy Podcast

= Our Flag Means Fanfiction =

New episode of OFMFF! Check out the episode on your favorite listening platform by visiting their linktr.ee!

Source: OFMFF IG

= Garlic Soup Week =

Reminder! Garlic Soup Week is coming up fast! June 22-28, 2025 remember to share all your lovely celebrations of our favorite polycule with the #GarlicSoupWeek on the various platforms! Wanna learn more? Visit @garlicsoupweek on Tumblr or Bluesky!

Source: Garlic Soup Week Bsky

== Questions / Love Notes ==

Hey lovelies. Wow, so many recaps in a couple of days, there's just so much going on. I would love some feedback when you have time -- I don't know if life will make it harder for me to do recaps for a while-- so I would love it if I could chat with a few of you that read regularly about some ideas I have regarding a discord server that might serve the same purpose. If you're interested in brainstorming with me, please feel free to DM me here or @gentlebeardsbarngrill!

Sorry for taking up a bit of the love notes for that! I saw this love note from TheLatestKate today and it made me think of you all. I know we're all trying really hard to fix all we can, but remember that it doesnt have to happen all at once. You'll get there.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by @thelatestkate

Source: The Latest Kate IG / Linktr.ee

[carnalhaus]

american tradition: title card

subscribe to the substack here.

American Tradition paints an absurd idea of American life, almost cartoonish, with obnoxious usage of the flag, guns, and gas station slushies. It’s completely nonsensical, reminiscent of corn syrup blood and chainsaw massacres. All smiles over here, digital camera family moments punctuated with a severed head, because nothing means anything. I can kill ‘cause in God I trust. It’s evolution, baby! It’s herd behavior! 

Behind all this shocking, violent, bizarre, and brash imagery of the American dream, lies inklings of deeply rooted socioeconomic decline. Urban decay, the rust belt, generational trauma, the war on drugs, and the poverty stricken middle-of-nowhere. It’s a song and dance, an opera, an elaborate fictitious play attempting to make sense of gritty reality. The Northeast is a place of diners, forests, bricks, and factory-working-beauty. 

The culture expressed is something bleak: this is where you’re from, this is what you have, and this is all there is. The nonchalance and acceptance of violence is apart of you and your family before you. There is pride in being a pauper, nobody can take that from you like they took everything else. Cruelty is what it’s all about. Cruelty and hate. Hate and cruelty and no remorse. There aren’t enough mountain lions in the east to kill the deer anymore, but you are an American and you know the barrel of a shotgun like you know the holes in your fathers eyes. You are an American and you kill the weaker ones off like piebald fawns. 

Beautiful women roam around the American wasteland like wildcats, teeth yellow from nicotine and clothes too big or too small because Pizza Hut doesn’t pay well. Beautiful women who should be in magazines with Kate Moss, all cheekbones, pretty eyes, and squared shoulders, with nothing but Cookie Monster pajama pants and a Pure Leaf iced tea, because nothing means anything if the model scouters don’t see you eating Macdonald’s in the mall food court. This is Miss America, patron saint of the All American Massacre. 

There is beauty in the journey of traversing the highway on foot, dodging Ford Wranglers and Honda Civics like corpses reaching out from the River Styx. Barefoot and weary on hot pavement, roadkill in the sun lingering like souls bound to the spirit of the interstate. You hold the fast food bag in your hand like a hawk with a rodent, lukewarm from the journey and greasy with deep fried love, the true American way. Whether your slushie is red, blue, or melted by the sun, it’ll be warm and vibrant when the tremors make you vomit it up later either way, staining your teeth just the same. The Big Gulp and five dollar foot-longs become your saint attributes, what people will remember you by when you leave your things behind in your motel room. 

American Tradition is not white picket fences and jury duty. It’s your neighbor bringing you a plate of food. It’s hitting a buck in the road. It’s crying when your stalker dies. It’s the birth of a newborn. It’s warm, hard, and steely like the freshly fired metal in your pocket. 

US of A, land of the free, where I can get my gun from Walmart, freak out on fentanyl, and get gunned down by the cops all within the same Sunday, day of the lord. Nothing is sacred but the police and the republic, and God bless the holy war on drugs for the good of the people, amen. What’s two things you can put trust in? Your God, and your gun. Your what? Your God, and your gun. My God, and my gun. What’d I say? My God, and my gun. 

[yermes]

POOKIE! You are going to be so many amazing things that having a man make or break you is a huge FUCKING NO!!!!! 🍾🪽🦷🫖💡

I hope you are diabolical today pookie

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Pick a meme

123

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Disclaimer: please take what I say with a grain of salt and not as the gospel. I just want to share some ideas of practicing and giving advice using the medium as often as I can with school, work, and my own personal studies and practice. But I am working on sharing my notes soon so that will be exciting! Liking and sharing does a lot 🥰

I made a substack to keep up more with magical post overall but would you like more magic based posts here too? To be clear I will basically keep the same content from site to site I just want to announce a change in language essentially with more magical based posts I may have

I also just want to make magic as a whole accessible and I love to talk so YK

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Socials: TipJar | Follow me!

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The cards

**IX of wands 🦉 REVERSED**

I get the need to want someone because your inner thoughts and imposter syndrome is violently loud. But pookie you cannot find peace from external resources, true happiness and understanding of being must come from within before you can attempt to understand it from without. You need to feel the negative emotions and over come it because you are a strong lady with the capacity of saving oneself without projecting it on a man who lets be real would probably only make a situation worst bc like have you met a man???

**IV of wands 🎡 REVERSED**

People don’t understand your trials, tribulations, struggles, hopes, dreams, and accomplishments quite like you do. Be joyful in everything you have accomplished because pookie bear you have done so much, the people in your life highlight you but they do not define you. Being w man would not define you all that you are as an individual is what does.

**V of swords ☕️ REVERSED**

If there was a man it looks like you are recovering, you must not let this man define you and maybe some good old feminine urge revenge is in order. Deep fry his clothes, print out his nudes and put them in his grandmas mail box, make yourself feel better because shitty dudes is not what you should be tearing yourself down over. Tear them down as revenge and have them fearing what the true feminine energy is.

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Extras:

Story/vent: be diabolical today u deserve it

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[queenlua]

this substack i used to have a paid subscription to is hosting an essay competition with a $10,000 prize

which seems like a thing that might be relevant to some of y'all's interests? so i'm sharing that news here

(full disclosure, i downgraded my subscription from paid a while back b/c they started getting very... metafictional... and weird... with their median post, and i simply don't think the author (authors?) are nearly as good at their weird metafictions as they were at their essays

(like check out how crabby they get at the possibility that "maybe more people aren't talking about the random announced-out-of-nowhere extremely-high-dollar-value essay competition because they're wondering if it's another bizarre metafictional stunt":

("[. . .] perhaps again it was because readers are so used to our horseplay here at The Hinternet that they cannot tell when we are really being serious — thus a variation on the “boy who cried wolf” problem. We insist, as to this latter possibility, that anyone who really reads what we write will always be able to distinguish between the two registers at which we operate, and that it is therefore not at all our fault when you are confused. This is a widely forgotten fact today, but just as true as ever: readers have responsibilities too."

(giving huge "Leslie Lamport being grumpy b/c the original Paxos paper was so fucking opaque" energy lmao

(but this DOES seem like the sort of realm of combat at least one of y'all poasters may enjoy partaking in so have at it)

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Secret Service: "Use the Gate." Jimmy Carter: "Hold my Peanuts." Life is full of obstacles. Pres. Carter showed us how to jump them like a boss. RIP #JimmyCarter

* * * *

Jimmy Carter’s final gift to America.

December 29, 2024

Robert B. Hubbell

Dec 30, 2024

One of the most decent men ever to hold the office of President of the United States passed away in his 100th year on December 29, 2024. I am not a historian, so I will leave the assessment of his presidency and equally consequential post-presidency to others who are better equipped to make those judgments. But one does not need to be a historian or student of politics to know that President Jimmy Carter was a good man whose decency acted as a balm for a troubled nation following a time of crisis.

It impossible to reflect on Carter’s decency, humanity, and humility without experiencing a foreboding sense of dread about the lack of integrity and amorality of the incoming presidency. Many tributes make oblique references to that contrast. President and Dr. Jill Biden issued the following statement:

[T]o all of the young people in this nation and for anyone in search of what it means to live a life of purpose and meaning – the good life – study Jimmy Carter, a man of principle, faith, and humility. He showed that we are great nation because we are a good people – decent and honorable, courageous and compassionate, humble and strong.

If there is any lesson in the life and passing of President Carter, it is that we are a good people capable of electing good leaders. We should not surrender to a false sense of inevitability that lies and narcissism are permanent fixtures of the American political landscape.

Over the coming weeks, I will highlight commentary regarding President Carter that deserves the attention of readers of this newsletter, and I invite readers to use the Comment section to post links to non-paywalled articles.

As of Sunday evening, James Fallows has published a freely accessible version of an article he previously published in The Atlantic. See James Fallows, Breaking the News (Substack), Jimmy Carter: Unlucky President, Lucky Man.

Fallows’ article is a bracing reminder of how much has changed since Carter’s presidency. Fallows reminds us:

In office [Carter] also had the challenge of trying to govern a nearly ungovernable America: less than two years after its humiliating withdrawal from Saigon, in its first years of energy crisis and energy shortage, on the cusp of the “stagflation” that has made his era a symbol of economic dysfunction. It seems hard to believe now, but it’s true: The prime interest rate in 1980, the year Carter ran for reelection, exceeded 20 percent.

Imagine running for re-election when 20% interest rates put home ownership out of reach for all but the wealthiest Americans.

And the political landscape in 1980 is unrecognizable today:

The South was then the Democrats’ base, and the West Coast was hostile territory. Jimmy Carter swept all states of the old Confederacy except Virginia, and lost every state west of the Rockies except Hawaii. In Electoral College calculations, the GOP started by counting on California.

The Democrats held enormous majorities in both the Senate and the House. Carter griped about dealing with Congress, as all presidents do. But under Majority Leader Robert Byrd, the Democrats held 61 seats in the Senate through Carter’s time. In the House, under Speaker Tip O’Neill, they had a margin of nearly 150 seats (not a typo). The serious legislative dealmaking was among the Democrats.

Writer and journalist Steven Beschloss published a tribute to Jimmy Carter in America, America (Substack), Jimmy Carter's Enduring Humanity. Beschloss writes:

At a time when too much of our political sphere is poisoned by cruelty and hate and malignant narcissism—and where too many self-described Christians appear driven by grievance and self-righteous aggression—the good works of Jimmy Carter offer a refreshing antidote and a necessary reminder of the power of humanity.

Beschloss quotes Jimmy Carter on the role of immigrants in America’s tradition of service to others. Carter said,

America is the most diverse or heterogeneous nation, comprised primarily by immigrants who were not afraid of an unpredictable future in a strange land. Almost all of them had great need when they arrived here and were then inspired to be of help to others. This concept of service to others is still a crucial element in the American character and has always prevailed in overcoming challenges and correcting societal mistakes.

“Service to others” as a defining trait of an immigrant nation. The difference between Carter's and Trump's views regarding immigration could not be more stark.

There is much more to be said, but I would like to end on a personal recollection of the unfairness of media coverage of Carter’s presidency. I was in law school as Carter’s presidency sputtered and groaned under the weight of serial international crises: the oil crisis, the Iranian hostage crisis, and international recession.

Carter worked tirelessly to navigate crises that were beyond the control of any global leader. The media—recently emboldened and vindicated by reporting on the Watergate scandal—was merciless. For understandable reasons, the media no longer trusted American presidents. Journalists were keenly aware that the road to Pulitzers and lasting fame ran through aggressive reporting on the president.

Even when Carter did everything right, he could do nothing right—at least according to the media. When the media learned that Carter shooed away a swamp rabbit from his boat while fishing in a Georgia pond, the story became front-page news on the Washington Post, New York Times, and all three broadcast news networks—at a time when Carter was successfully negotiating the SALT treaty limiting the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

The “killer rabbit” story dominated major media outlet coverage for a week—often with the self-serving angle, “President Carter can’t shake bad press over the killer rabbit story.” Carter couldn’t shake bad press over the rabbit story because the media had settled on a negative narrative about Carter—and they wouldn’t let it go.

[Sigh. Even today, on the day of his passing, the NYTimes has an above-the-fold story, “That Time President Carter Was Menaced by a ‘Killer Rabbit’ - The New York Times.”]

Watergate broke journalism—and the profession has never recovered. As will become plain in the coming weeks, the re-assessment of Carter’s presidency will show that he was a strong president who accomplished great things. For example, the Camp David Accords created a framework for peace between Israel and Egypt that remains in place today.1

At the time, a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt seemed impossible. Carter achieved the impossible because sworn enemies put their trust in Jimmy Carter. Few presidents can claim an achievement solidly built on their universally recognized reputation for integrity.

President Jimmy Carter was a good and decent man whose presence elevated the office of the presidency.

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

[pepgione-punk]

people automatically assume everything Mike said was true and go on to diagnose Luigi as autistic, what the hell? he may or may not be autistic nobody knows, because how you define having eye contact? staring at you all the time is eye contact or catching your eyes every now and then during a conversation is eye contact? it's a subjective perception and who knows is Mike exaggerating or making up the whole thing? and about the not laughing at Mike's jokes, maybe they're just lame and stupid that Luigi didn't find it funny? or maybe Luigi was stressful at the time and not having the spirit to joke with them? whether these things happened or not, it's no big deal and do not automatically make you autistic, everyone has their emotional ups and downs and behave differently

From your tone I don’t sense any negative feelings about autism which is good. You’re right tho, we can’t 100% take at heart what Mike says about Luigi and sure, there can be others explanations as to why Luigi allegedly acted the way he did but I do want to clarify that people thinking Luigi is autistic it’s not a new thing.

Luigi followed neurodivergent people and substacks, his mom also apparently shared a post about having a neurodivergent kid (never saw this post myself so take it with a grain of salt). Myself and other autistic (other neurodivergent people too, not necessarily autistic) people have noticed certain traits, we could be wrong sure which is why I say I’m just a 95% sure he is one of us.

I don’t think speculation about this is wrong because I don’t see autism as something bad.

[lesmisletters-daily]

The Man Aroused

Les Mis Letters reading club explores one chapter of Les Misérables every day. Join us on Discord, Substack - or share your thoughts right here on tumblr - today's tag is #lm 1.2.10

As the Cathedral clock struck two in the morning, Jean Valjean awoke.

What woke him was that his bed was too good. It was nearly twenty years since he had slept in a bed, and, although he had not undressed, the sensation was too novel not to disturb his slumbers.

He had slept more than four hours. His fatigue had passed away. He was accustomed not to devote many hours to repose.

He opened his eyes and stared into the gloom which surrounded him; then he closed them again, with the intention of going to sleep once more.

When many varied sensations have agitated the day, when various matters preoccupy the mind, one falls asleep once, but not a second time. Sleep comes more easily than it returns. This is what happened to Jean Valjean. He could not get to sleep again, and he fell to thinking.

He was at one of those moments when the thoughts which one has in one’s mind are troubled. There was a sort of dark confusion in his brain. His memories of the olden time and of the immediate present floated there pell-mell and mingled confusedly, losing their proper forms, becoming disproportionately large, then suddenly disappearing, as in a muddy and perturbed pool. Many thoughts occurred to him; but there was one which kept constantly presenting itself afresh, and which drove away all others. We will mention this thought at once: he had observed the six sets of silver forks and spoons and the ladle which Madame Magloire had placed on the table.

Those six sets of silver haunted him.—They were there.—A few paces distant.—Just as he was traversing the adjoining room to reach the one in which he then was, the old servant-woman had been in the act of placing them in a little cupboard near the head of the bed.—He had taken careful note of this cupboard.—On the right, as you entered from the dining-room.—They were solid.—And old silver.—From the ladle one could get at least two hundred francs.—Double what he had earned in nineteen years.—It is true that he would have earned more if “the <i>administration</i> had not <i>robbed him</i>.”

His mind wavered for a whole hour in fluctuations with which there was certainly mingled some struggle. Three o’clock struck. He opened his eyes again, drew himself up abruptly into a sitting posture, stretched out his arm and felt of his knapsack, which he had thrown down on a corner of the alcove; then he hung his legs over the edge of the bed, and placed his feet on the floor, and thus found himself, almost without knowing it, seated on his bed.

He remained for a time thoughtfully in this attitude, which would have been suggestive of something sinister for any one who had seen him thus in the dark, the only person awake in that house where all were sleeping. All of a sudden he stooped down, removed his shoes and placed them softly on the mat beside the bed; then he resumed his thoughtful attitude, and became motionless once more.

Throughout this hideous meditation, the thoughts which we have above indicated moved incessantly through his brain; entered, withdrew, re-entered, and in a manner oppressed him; and then he thought, also, without knowing why, and with the mechanical persistence of reverie, of a convict named Brevet, whom he had known in the galleys, and whose trousers had been upheld by a single suspender of knitted cotton. The checkered pattern of that suspender recurred incessantly to his mind.

He remained in this situation, and would have so remained indefinitely, even until daybreak, had not the clock struck one—the half or quarter hour. It seemed to him that that stroke said to him, “Come on!”

He rose to his feet, hesitated still another moment, and listened; all was quiet in the house; then he walked straight ahead, with short steps, to the window, of which he caught a glimpse. The night was not very dark; there was a full moon, across which coursed large clouds driven by the wind. This created, outdoors, alternate shadow and gleams of light, eclipses, then bright openings of the clouds; and indoors a sort of twilight. This twilight, sufficient to enable a person to see his way, intermittent on account of the clouds, resembled the sort of livid light which falls through an air-hole in a cellar, before which the passers-by come and go. On arriving at the window, Jean Valjean examined it. It had no grating; it opened in the garden and was fastened, according to the fashion of the country, only by a small pin. He opened it; but as a rush of cold and piercing air penetrated the room abruptly, he closed it again immediately. He scrutinized the garden with that attentive gaze which studies rather than looks. The garden was enclosed by a tolerably low white wall, easy to climb. Far away, at the extremity, he perceived tops of trees, spaced at regular intervals, which indicated that the wall separated the garden from an avenue or lane planted with trees.

Having taken this survey, he executed a movement like that of a man who has made up his mind, strode to his alcove, grasped his knapsack, opened it, fumbled in it, pulled out of it something which he placed on the bed, put his shoes into one of his pockets, shut the whole thing up again, threw the knapsack on his shoulders, put on his cap, drew the visor down over his eyes, felt for his cudgel, went and placed it in the angle of the window; then returned to the bed, and resolutely seized the object which he had deposited there. It resembled a short bar of iron, pointed like a pike at one end. It would have been difficult to distinguish in that darkness for what employment that bit of iron could have been designed. Perhaps it was a lever; possibly it was a club.

In the daytime it would have been possible to recognize it as nothing more than a miner’s candlestick. Convicts were, at that period, sometimes employed in quarrying stone from the lofty hills which environ Toulon, and it was not rare for them to have miners’ tools at their command. These miners’ candlesticks are of massive iron, terminated at the lower extremity by a point, by means of which they are stuck into the rock.

He took the candlestick in his right hand; holding his breath and trying to deaden the sound of his tread, he directed his steps to the door of the adjoining room, occupied by the Bishop, as we already know.

On arriving at this door, he found it ajar. The Bishop had not closed it.

[drdemonprince]

I was writing this when I saw your most recent substack post on sexuality, so please forgive if I'm not super coherent.

As someone who has been living in a country without much, if any, real legal protections for most of my time as an out trans person, that while I understand the fear right now is high it was not until a few years ago that we did not exist at all in the public consciousness. That terrible prison show was the first time a trans woman appeared in a not "haha look at the gross tranny" way, and that was maybe 10 years ago. Non-binary people existence is even more recent. While I get having a bunch of religious fanatics hate you sucks, from what I gathered despite some claiming otherwise, the rest of the people don't really care that much. It's an issue that gets blown up by the media because it's nice and controversial which gets ratings (or these days, clicks/views), and, as a made-up problem, allows politicians to appear strong and decisive. (Also, there being lots of local differences and court stuff I can't even begin to understand influencing this because your country is very confusing.) It's hard for me to properly measure what people claim and what is actually true.

Come what comes, but there's a difference between preparing for the worst and assuming it already happens. This is going to sound callous, but people need to remember that as much as it sucks to stuck in survival mode and not being able to get government documents corrected, they probably have the grit deep-down to get through this. Maybe it's easy for me to talk, I used to work in building when I was on hormones, didn't tell anyone in that setting, and just shrugged it off and cherished the time I spent with friends & supportive people who knew me as *me*, and lied through my teeth whenever it was necessary and off from being assaulted a few times (not work related, school days) without major injuries because I was good at getting the fuck out. Then again, I've had a therapist tell me I'm scary good at compartmentalizing, so take that as you will.

Now we finally get to why that post about sexuality prompted all this. The bit about the trans woman finally being able to relax when dommed... That struck a nerve, which is strange because I don't really have much sex-drive, but that kind of softness is not something I've had in my life much. Always in the role of taking care and looking after others, never being on the receiving end, not just emotionally, but sexually also because oh dear is it an ordeal when people project the trans dommy mommy shit on you. Especially as now, 8 years after the first go around I find myself being the calm and collected one supporting others again and it's not even a conscious act on my or their behalf, despite setting boundaries (and having them respected mainly) I somehow got the invisible label of "mom who got her shit together" (as if) when I too would sometimes like to unwind and get fucked properly into the next timezone.

thank you for your message. I hope that a lot of younger or less seasoned American trans people who are freaking the fuck out right now are able to put some of their own understandable stress activation aside to read it and really take it in. also, it's a real bummer when people lean on you to always be the strong and capable one. and it is miserable how this role gets voiced upon us simply by virtue of having endured a great deal, or having grown a little bit older than some other people. obviously in your case this dynamic is far more deeply entrenched because of misogyny and transmisogyny and how that shapes people's expectations of the labor that women provide to them, especially trans women, but I do understand a little bit of how miserable it feels to be shunted into that kind of role. and I hope that somebody really just pounds you into the mattress or gives you whatever kind of sexual attention and care-taking helps you feel weak and needy and okay and like somebody else has it all together for a while sometime soon.

[rjzimmerman]

From The Bulwark Substack:

Another three-percent pummeling for Dow futures this morning on the heels of China’s announcement of retaliatory tariffs against the United States—looks like we’re shaping up for another fun day on the stock market. Happy(?) Friday.

Yesterday afternoon, having dispatched his regular mid-day newsletter, my friend and colleague Jonathan Last was moved—compelled, I think—to write a second, emergency newsletter. His eloquent and powerful missive arrived in our inboxes around 6:30 p.m. If you haven’t yet read it, do so now.

The heart of Jonathan’s argument is that yesterday, April 3, 2025, was the day that, in his words, “The age of American empire, the great Pax Americana, ended.”

We cannot overstate what has just happened. It took just 71 days for Donald Trump to wreck the American economy, mortally wound NATO, and destroy the American-led world order.

It was almost 111 years earlier, on August 3, 1914, that the British Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey, stood with a friend at dusk at a window of his room in the Foreign Office, looking out across St. James’s Park. Seeing the first lights being turned on along the Mall, Grey famously remarked, “The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.”

The Liberal statesman was right. World War I, the Russian Revolution, the rise of fascism, the Great Depression, Stalin and Hitler, World War II and the Holocaust—these all followed in the space of three decades. The lamps were not to be lit again in Grey’s lifetime. A century of relative stability and peace, of progress and prosperity, was followed by thirty years of chaos and war, of darkness and misery.

Midway through this terrible period, the imprisoned Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci—a very different man from Grey, but as perceptive in his own way—is said to have remarked, “The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.”

And so it was.

And yet. That time of monsters was succeeded by another stretch—an 80-year-long stretch—in which the forces of civilization were once again mostly in control. The United States picked up the baton of liberalism and leadership from Britain.

Many of us have had the good fortune to live for most of our lifetimes in a world more like the one Grey looked back on in 1914 than the one Gramsci experienced in the 1930s.

But now a new time of monsters—of terrible mistakes, monstrous deeds, and disastrous consequences—could well be upon us.

It was difficult for those alive in 1914, having been formed in the relative peace and tranquility of the late 19th century, to even begin to imagine the horrors of the following 30 years. It is difficult for us to imagine today how dangerous a future we are inviting.

Jonathan closes his piece with this observation:

We have a deeply stupid government . . . But also, we have the government we deserve. The American age is over. And it ended because the American people were no longer worthy of it.

I very much want to believe that this terrible judgment is not true. I very much want to believe that the lights have only been temporarily put out. I very much want to believe that we will once again find our way before too much damage is done, before we descend into a time of monsters.

But I very much fear that the lamps are once again going out all around us.

[moirindeclermont]

Bridgerton folks! How are you? I hope this monday is treating you well

A couple of things before we start toda's story. I'm finally able to share that my substack is ready. The only thing that is missing is an actual post, but it's a matter of a couple of days at worst, so if you already want to check it out the link is https://moirindc.substack.com/7days

I'll make a post explaining everything but for now just know I'm not going anywhere and you'll never have to pay for my Bridgerton content.

As for today story, I'll took @artofmel81 prompt (thank you btw) "What if Elosie haven't interrupted their lesson?" Let me premise this that Colin is not an idiot on this one - not that he is, but I let him roll a nat 20 on perception for the purpose of the fic.

I hope you'll enjoy this (part 2 tomorrow) 🖤

---

There was something strange about Pen.

He didn't really notice until that moment. They were alone, in the Bridgerton drawing room - her most safe space, according to her - and yet there was something that didn't sit right with him.

The flirt-with-a-friend for one, it felt, well it felt real. Like she was telling those words to him. And if she was telling those words to him, if she thought they were true, what did it mean?

An awkward silence had fallen in the room, and he couldn't resist pushing a bit. It was Pen, and he wanted to help. So, he did what he knew he shouldn't. He asked.

"Did you think those things about me? About my eyes?"

Pen looked at him - in her eyes there was fear but also hope and... love? He saw lust in so many eyes, but he only saw love in the face of people looking at others, never looked at him. She turned around, evidently embarassed.

"Please Pen. Don't be embarassed. I'm just curious, I guess"

When she didn't answer back, he tried to push one more time. "It's just... I want to help."

She tunred around, her body rigid and her arms circling her bosom, like a protection, like she was bracing for inevitablity.

"Yes, Colin, I thought those things about you."

Hearing the confermation made his heart sing. Why was his heart singing? Was he...?

He got close to her, taking her hand in his. A scandalous move for propriety, for sure, but he needed to touch her. "Why Pen?"

She shook her head. "I don't know if I can say it out loud Colin. Don't make me said it."

Her plead was so raw and honest that he nodded before he could think of it.

Then, the sparkle of an idea.

"Can you show me?"

She looked at him again, surprised. He looked into her eyes and saw her insecurities, the things she wanted to ask as well as one "are you crazy again?" for good measure. He also saw a yearning so powerful he was like he got punched - a desire that maybe, just maybe, was matching is own.

Colin saw Pen deciding. She nodded at his question. "Get on your knees, you're too tall for me to show you," she said, her tone now low.

He obeyed without even thinking about it.

The net thing he felt was her other hand, now on his chin, going up to his ear and in his hair. He did slept with women and men across countries, but no one made him feel like Pen did with a simple touch. She was breaking him down and remaking him as her life long servant. And he was tottaly on board with the plan.

He saw her hesistating before going for the kiss she clearly wanted to give to him.

He smiled, sensing at least one of the reason behind her nerves. "First kiss?" A murmur that was only for them. She nodded. Oh, Pen.

He got a bit closer, their breath now mixing. "Can I?"

But in the end his brave Pen decided to go first, pressing her lips on his.

He didn't lose time - capturing her again for a second kiss that was much more open and passionate.

He let her explore and take her time, while his hand find her waist.

The kiss ended after some time - that one at least. But the moment that Colin discovered of Pen felt, the dam opened for him too.

He kissed her jaw and her neck, hearing her little gasp for air that were already unravel him.

"To my studio, darling? We have to talk... and then other stuff," he said as it was the most normal thing.

She kissed him once more - just because now she could apparently - and then nodded. "You still have a lot to teach me!"

Oh well, maybe talk would have to wait.

TBC

[mightdeletelater]

when fame turns fatal: the tragic cycle of celebrity exploitation

this blog post was originally posted on my substack

How do you capture the unknowable life of someone else? Someone only seen through interviews, music videos, and invasive paparazzi snapshots? Maybe starting by laying out the simplest biographical details? Liam Payne was born in 1993 in Wolverhampton. He first auditioned for The X Factor at 14. Joined the boy band One Direction at 16. Had a son named Bear at 23. Released his only solo album at 25. And passed away at 31 after falling from a hotel balcony in Argentina.

Another approach could be to focus on the photos, the ones from both the beginning and the end. In 2010, when One Direction was formed, judges Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh, and Nicole Scherzinger hovered over a polaroid of a 16-year-old Payne, arranging it with pictures of three future bandmates – Niall Horan, Harry Styles, and Louis Tomlinson – as if they were playing with dolls. "That looks good." "That looks great." "It looks unbelievable." When Payne passed away in 2024, TMZ published zoomed-in, cropped photos of his lifeless body. His arm, and section of his side, both with his distinct tattoos. The article had no warning of the contents. 

Denial of dignity in death is a tragic culmination of a toxic kind of fame, one especially endured by pop stars and teen idols. Payne was simply just another one who was dehumanized throughout his life – by the music industry that propelled him to stardom, by the tabloids, by social media, and even by his own fans. Being idolized can be as depersonalizing as being vilified. He became a pin-up poster, and eventually a literal doll (fans could collect all five members of the boyband). 

The cycle of objectification persisted even after One Direction disbanded in 2015. Payne's solo career and erratic interview behaviour became a source of online mockery. Once endearingly called the "dad" of One Direction for being more serious, ambitious, and occasionally a bit awkward, these traits grew exaggerated over time. His ‘cringe moments’ became viral content on social media. Despite being open about his struggles with mental health and substance abuse, he received little empathy. He was open about by long periods of boredom that came after the highs of performing to sold out arenas which led him to an alcohol and drug addiction and suicidal thoughts. Speaking on the Diary Of The CEO Podcast in 2021, Payne said: “I was worried how far my rock bottom was going to be. Where's rock bottom for me? And you would never have seen it. I'm very good at hiding it. I don't even know if I have hit it yet. I can either make that choice now and pick my last moment as my rock bottom or I can make a whole new low.” While the exact circumstances of Payne's fall from the balcony remain unclear, emergency services were called to the hotel for “a guest who has had too much drugs and alcohol.”

Before his death, Payne was accused by his ex-fiance Maya Henry of physical and emotional abuse, including chasing her with an axe and forcing her to get a self-induced abortion. Last week, Henry had issued a cease and desist against Payne, accusing him of repeatedly contacting her. She also alleged that the singer continuously contacted her friends and family, including her mother. 

The fantasy that One Direction embodied for a generation was always deeply co-dependent – a symbiotic relationship between the fevered daydreams of millions of teenage girls and the dream come true for five young boys. But what once seemed like a fantasy looks more like a nightmare. There is something undeniably troubling about adults marketing 16-year-old boys to children for maximum profit, despite the clear risks to their well-being and mental health. Why do we only recognize this when tragedy strikes? How can we justify doing this to such young people – isolating them from their families, their normal lives, and their sense of self – only to mock them as they struggle through adulthood? How many more lives must the pop industry claim before something finally changes? It all just feels irredeemable. What is someone supposed to do with all that fame and then all that vilification? What does it say about us when there is a market for identifying tattoos from a corpse?

And there will never be closure. Henry will not get justice. Payne will have never beaten his battle with addiction. While the tributes pour in for Payne, it is clear how most of the decisions he made – and that were made for him – never were in his best interest. But that never mattered because the industry chews and spits out young people but will continue to thrive and produce entertainment. Unregulated fame has horrific ramifications, for the person in the spotlight and all the people in their lives standing just outside of it. 

[rustbeltjessie]

The other night, I got into a particularly good flow while working on one of my writing projects, and got excited by what came out of it. Afterwards, I realized, for approximately the 1000th time, that I’ve never had any success with my writing when I tried to suit it to what the market, or the general public, or even the lit world at large, wanted. The only successes I’ve had, in the 30+ years I’ve been writing professionally (I started young), have come when I’ve written what I most powerfully wanted to write, and written it how I felt most drawn to writing it.

This isn’t true of everything I’ve written or published; I have gotten paid for content and tech writing, as well as for reviews that were too short for me to go crazy with my writing style. I’m talking creative writing, here. So, with poetry, fiction, and personal essays/memoir, anytime I’ve tried to write in a way or about a topic that I thought was more likely to get published/win awards/find a bigger audience/whatever—it has completely failed. Those are the books and pieces that have never gotten published, that wind up moldering in a drawer somewhere because they’re so blah that I forget about them, too.

But when I write what, and how, I want to write, that’s when the successes come. Sometimes it comes in the form of publication, or accolades, but a lot of times the success isn’t financial or critical. Hell, sometimes I’m not even aiming for that sort of thing—I often write things that are specifically for my blog or my Substack or my zine. But they’re still more successful than when I try to write what I think people want to read; they always find their audience, no matter how small or niche. And sometimes no one ever reads those poems or essays or stories, either, but at least they’re something I can be proud of.

I’ll end this with a reminder to myself (in case I ever forget this again), and maybe it’ll resonate with some of you, too, whether you’re writers or visual artists or musicians, or any kind of creator: success in any kind of creative field is a crapshoot, and it’s not guaranteed, whether you try to make what you think other people want or you make what you most want to. So why not make what you most want to? Don’t try and sand all the edges off of, or take all the you-ness out of, your creations. Make what you’re passionate about, and it’ll find its audience, somehow, some way.

[valor21]

Introduction to My Profile

Hello, dear sojourner—whether saint, cynic, misfit, or moth—welcome.

I go by Valor21 here, but in print, I write under the pen name Caleb W.H.

I am an Orthodox Christian, a poet-philosopher, and—on most days—an endearing failure with a fondness for saints, fools, and moths who chase the light too recklessly.

If you like your theology with a touch of psalmist sorrow, your philosophy with a pinch of absurdity, and your humor somewhere between tragic and Orthodox, you’re in the right place.

I hope something I write—whether here or elsewhere—nudges you a little closer to the Bridegroom.

📖 My Substack:

It’s a chapel of thoughts, jokes, confessionals, and essays on love, loneliness, saints, and why the outcasts belong at the Eucharist table. Subscribe if you like poetic sermons, video game metaphysics, or stories about moths and Marxists somehow ending up in church together.

🕊 Published Books (so far):

Spring Releases:

The Wretched Psalter – A sacred lament from the broken altar of the self.

Oedipus and the Gorgon – A philosophical myth drenched in mercy.

Stadius and San La Muerte – Courtly decay and sacramental eros in strange lands.

Coming This Summer:

The Psalter of the Salt Flat – Toll houses, tenderness, and purgation by love.

Carnivale of Salt and Wounds: A Lovely Prequel to the Salt Falt

What’s Next:

This year, I’ll be:

Writing more articles (expect musings, hit pieces, hymns, and confessions).

Launching long-form theological video essays on YouTube.

Releasing original music inspired by saints, monsters, and the poor-in-spirit.

If you’re wandering, doubting, aching, laughing, or searching for something true—I welcome you. May you find joy here, or at least a poetic reason to keep going.

Long live the Good Fool. Long live the misfit lovers.

In Christ and irony,

—Caleb W.H.

[vickyvicarious]

(In order to not derail op's thread, and jic they've not finished reading the books, hope this is ok) The madness/mental illness discussion between Laura and Jonathan made me think about the in-between of Jonathan leaving the hospital and then being validated!

One thing is, pre-Hawkins death, Mina states to Lucy that Jonathan has been working hard, but that he is weak still and placid, and also that he has nightmares. It tells on them both, because Mina cannot get a full night's sleep due to him waking up screaming and she needs to soothe him. Journal aside, Mina says she is so worried about his nerves that she doesn't communicate with him about how tired she is herself. It reminds me of Walter wanting to protect Laura from distress.

Post-Hawkins death, Jonathan gets worse. "He says the amount of responsibility which it puts upon him makes him nervous. He begins to doubt himself. I try to cheer him up, and my belief in him helps him to have a belief in himself. But it is here that the grave shock that he experienced tells upon him the most. Oh, it is too hard that a sweet, simple, noble, strong nature such as his—a nature which enabled him by our dear, good friend’s aid to rise from clerk to master in a few years—should be so injured that the very essence of its strength is gone."

Not a very traditionally ''manful'' picture, but Mina never goes there. Still, he throws himself into work. Mina says her belief in him helps Jonathan believe in himself. Maybe Laura would have benefited from being believed in.

What prompts Walter to do something drastic is when Laura weeps in her sleep. What prompts Mina to break the seal later is when Jonathan faints in public and loses the memory of it.

The way Mina treats Lucy and Jonathan in illness seems equal. She keeps their secrets upon their request too. Walter and Mina take similar active roles for their spouses, though Mina isn't necessarily masculine for it.

An interesting imho comparison could also be when Mina chooses to consult Van Helsing while Jonathan is away for his first work trip and how they communicate throughout it, and Walter with the sisters.

Aside, when she asks Van Helsing to help Jonathan, he says, "I promise you that I will gladly do all for him that I can—all to make his life strong and manly, and your life a happy one." Van Helsing promises to make his life manly, though Mina had asked to make him "well again". So he kind of made it about gender, though it wasn't for Mina.

(I also wonder if we can call Jonathan ''cured'' really, as he doesn't actually return to his former self, but it'd get too long!)

(Tagging @animate-mush because the WIW substack has ended now, hopefully you're all caught up... but regardless no spoilers past where we were last week.)

Anon, you sum up my thoughts incredibly well: "Maybe Laura would have benefited from being believed in."

I think that is perhaps the most major difference between the recovery period for the two of them. Because while they both have remarkably similar symptoms, and both their spouses hide stuff from them for a while... when things come to a head Mina chooses to believe in Jonathan. Not just in supporting him as he goes back to work (which you're right, he has little choice about doing - an external gendered element there, where societal pressures/norms mean Jonathan kind of has to get to work and Laura is never expected to at all); Mina trusts Jonathan with information, with an important role in what follows.

There's obvious contextual differences. Jonathan knew he could access his lost memories and explicitly didn't want to unless it was necessary. He put the power to decide that in Mina's hands (and it was his request but still her choice to share in his ignorance until she needed more information). When she reads his journal, she's trying to better help him within parameters they have both agreed to. When she eventually tells him everything is true, she's trusting that this will be validating for him and help him heal, help him be more "well again" (though you're right both that he never returns to his former self, and that Van Helsing is the only one who brings gender into it with his assumption that Mina's looking to make Jonathan more manly).

Laura never had an equivalent - both in terms of a discussion with the ones leaving her out for the sake of her mental health, and in the sense of some record she knows she can fall back on. She didn't have a hidden journal when she was being drugged or in the asylum. Most of the information Walter and Marian gather is from other people.

I think there is a period where both Jonathan and Laura have information hidden from them for their own sake. And I don't think that was inherently wrong or anything; in fact I think it was somewhat needed. Jonathan got the chance to explicitly ask for that period of ignorance. We don't quite have any such dialogue from Laura, but the narration still tells us that there were certain topics that were very confusing to her or which she didn't like to linger on (and her experience with Mr. Fairlie even after getting out of the asylum can't have helped), and there's that scene where she says she will "try to get better", showing recognition of how unwell she currently is. I think they both need this time to focus on recovering, and their spouses/loved ones want to support them so they can do so. Again, the societal gender role divides them here: Jonathan has to work and in fact has to take on new/more challenging work, while Laura doesn't and can devote more time to rest and recovery. There's benefits and drawbacks to both of those, in my mind. Jonathan got support from Mina and reassurance that she (and Mr. Hawkins) believed in him, which was helpful. On the other hand, it stressed him out more and he was still suffering from his nightmares, etc. Laura got more time to take it easy without having other stress added on, which was helpful. But on the other hand, she didn't get the same level of trust and belief in her ability to, if not 'return to normal,' at least to be productive and helpful in some way.

Yeah, I'm talking about her drawings. I think that is where the big divide comes. Because when she wants to contribute and help with the household, Walter decides to lie to her and play-act that she is bringing in money. I get that he's trying to avoid letting her stress over money, but it feels so condescending. He's treating her like a child rather than being honest with her - right after she asks him not to treat her like a child. Maybe being honest would just be telling her that she's not well enough to work/that it wouldn't be safe, and that he has the money handled. Maybe they'd come up with some other way she could chip in. At least she'd be involved in the discussion as she clearly wanted to be. And while I don't think she would be involved in the hunting down different accounts or confrontations that follow at the end of the book any more than Marian was, I think they should have told her what was going on. That doesn't necessarily mean giving her all the nitty gritties especially if they're triggering to her; but giving her the chance to speak for herself, to add her thoughts, even to ask to be left out if she thinks she can't handle it. She never gets that. There's no reevaluation later on.

Both Jonathan and Laura were denied validation in a way that made them doubt their sanity. Jonathan's experiences were supernatural and he fears he lost his mind. Laura was lied to and gaslit about her own identity, outright told she was suffering from delusions. Revealing that the supernatural things he remember are real was validating for Jonathan in itself, even as he still had all the accompanying trauma. Laura's (official/public) validation isn't possible until after the villains are defeated and everything is over, which in a sense stretches out that middle period. Similarly, Jonathan getting the information leads right into him getting a change to assuage his feelings of guilt and seek revenge, which could be cathartic for him. Laura probably wouldn't have the same opportunities or even desire to do so, and so maybe looping her in wouldn't have been as helpful. But it feels cruel to me never to give her the option. After a certain point, it's no longer just trying to spare her from distress, but it feels like believing she isn't capable of handling any at all.

I guess that's what feels most gendered to me. Walter, and to an extent Marian too, don't treat Laura like an adult or an equal after her experience. This does happen throughout the book, but it gets so much more egregious after she's rescued from the asylum. Marian talks about women/is kind of treated like an exception to women in general, and Walter is leaving both women out in key moments. So given how women were typically seen as less capable, to me it feels somewhat bound up in that rather than just being about her specifically (I think she handles/is capable of a lot more than she's given credit for). Mina doesn't do really that, she doesn't really bring gender into her treatment of either Jonathan or Lucy in the same way. And while others in Dracula do, it's shown to be more of a mistake.