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tranquilspot · 1 year

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[S] ==> The Note Desolation Plays

Very long thread ahead!

Alright! Time to comment on one of the most iconic Homestuck flashes. It has no command or name, so we'll use the name of the act:

The Note Desolation Plays First of, the flash itself.

The closeup on John never fail to get me, it's moving and impressive. The technique is simple and yet it's efficient. I think it's the first time we witness the Hero Mode. Followed by a change of scene (the empty streets). Then we zoom out, back to a more general shot, zooming out twice. Cue the visual narration.

The streets are empty. Wind skims the voids keeping neighbors apart, as if grazing the hollow of a cut reed, or say, a plundered mailbox.

Really interesting start. A simple direct description. 'The street are empty'. And then a more metaphorical one. Wind, void, neighbors. Cut reed. We went from a human/civilized/controlled concept to nature. Then back to a man-made object, the mailbox. There's an early preview of what's to come, the challenges and ideas that John will be confronted to. A breathe among the void, wandering, singing in a tube to travel and signal its presence. It's a pattern that will appear more and more in the future: the postal system on LOWAS, the pipes, and the organpipe at the end of his Land Quest. Heck, we were already introduced by DAD's pipes.

A familiar note is produced. It's the one Desolation plays to keep its instrument in tune.

The wind travels and sing. It's now music. I always was fascinated by the instruments before the beginning of a concert. It seems dissonant by actually it creates something melancholic, anticipation, yet hopeful. The beginning before the beginning. A hint, to whats to come. 'Get ready'.

But who's playing? It is us, it is John, it is.. someone else?

It is your thirteenth birthday, and as with all twelve preceding it, something feels missing from your life.

This 'something feels missing from your life' is kinda vague. It seems like a neutral statement, but actually it's worrisome. Early signs of depression? Or does he feel like he hasn't done much in his life yet? Boy you're 13, you've got a lot of time ahead!

The game presently eluding you is only the latest sleight of hand in the repertoire of an unseen riddler, one to engender a sense not of mirth, but of lack.

Oooooh a mysterious character, a hidden Sphinx-like entity. They're holding the game like a playing card, one yet to be putted on the table. I like this part of the paragraph very much. But who's holding the card(s)? The author? The CEO of the Skaianet, the one behind the development of Sburb, Jake Harley? Or perhaps alt!Calliope herself, she herself is quite enigmatic and speak in riddles. 'One to engender a sense not of mirth, but of lack.' I think this sentence is quite ignored by all. One more reason to dig as much as we can. Mirth is laughter, joy and life, the opposite of lack. Life vs Void. I also found funny to see a word having 'gender' in it. OOOOHHH a new meaning appeared! If you're team eggbert, then the lack, the discomfort that John is feeling could be interpreted as gender dysphoria. The mirth being gender euphoria. But if you're on team cis, then it's highly possible that it's depression. Though it works for both cases.

His coarse schemes are those less of a prankster than a common pickpocket.

'His'? Is that a pronoun chosen by default, or specifically picked? LE? Also, alt!Callie and Jake don't fit the prankster shtick.

Maybe John is projecting because he's an aspiring prankster. Hmm, so this mysterious figure is not funny but more criminal. Malicious, perhaps? Or just cruel?

Unseen figure with unspoken plans, keeping like an apathetic thief the long-awaited game, the start of all, the end of all. The main plot, the full(ness) that will fill the empty. Additionally, 'His' could be God himself. Jesus' pronouns in the Bible are He/Him capital H if I recall correctly.

His riddle is Absence itself.

Can this riddle linked to the Ultimate Riddle? Or perhaps it's one and same thing? There is interpretation of what the UR can be, including a long-ass post that I read several times, cause it's dense and complex. For those that don't want to read the whole thing, the answer of the riddle would be: Do as you wish. Absence. 'Waiting for something to happen', perhaps? John wishes that something happen to him, something that will motivate him and change his life. It's an early exhibit of John's mindset. Doing nothing and waiting for an external output to push him around. It's a passive and submissive behavior.

It is a mystery dispersing altogether, like the moon's faint reflection, with even one pebble of inquiry dropped in its black well.

The ripples creates movement, and once it's set in motion, he sure is going, for a little while. Here, the answer seems to be within reach, but when we look for it it gets blurry. A mix of a truth not ready to be discovered yet, and an unseen force preventing him to uncover it.

It is the most diabolical riddle of all.

Me, when I try to understand why I'm not feeling well and what's my body trying to communicate to me..

But yeah, the kids will scratch their head for a while with that one!

"Absence diminishes little passions and increases great ones, as wind extinguishes candles and fans a fire." -Walt Whitman

Speaking of scratching, this one is a doozy. Extremely straight forward, and yet I have a hard time trying to link it to John's life and adventure. What would John attribute as "little passions" and "great ones"? "as wind extinguishes candles and fans a fire" is easily readable in a literal way. But for now its deeper meaning (how it applies to John) eludes me.

Alright, if it's the limits of my intellect, then let's check the work of someone who actually understood it! It's way too long to translate and put in this already long post, so I'm going to summarize it. This sentence is about relationship. According to Rochefoucald, there's no small loves but rather mediocre ones. Absence has a different effect depending of the nature of the relationship. If the bond is weak, the distance can make it dissipate. On the other hand, a strong bond can be strengthened by it. Distance makes us think and identify if a relationship is important for us or not. Thank fuck for this analysis. Now I get it! Anything that is of little importance disappear to John's eyes, but the game and his friends? It gets stronger. The more time separate him from Sburb and his reunion with the others, the more his desire is intensified.

Yes, you are certain Walt Whitman said that. One hundred percent positive.

Aaaand we're back to 'Attribute this quote to its proper author'. Woohoo! (audience claps) This time iiiiiit's…François Duc de la Rochefoucauld (pronounced rushfooko). Oh hey french dude. I wouldn't guess!

There's also several translations for this section: -"Absence diminishes mediocre passions and increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles and fans fires." -“Absence diminishes small loves and increases great ones, as the wind blows out the candle and fans the bonfire.”

I guess the one with mediocre in it is the closest translation.

Small love is fine too, after all when an author mentions 'passions' they often mean love. Also 'feu' refers to a chimney fire, or fire in general. If it was a bonfire, the author would have specified with "feu de joie/de camp". Anyway, that was the translation intermission haha. Gonna love language and interpretations~

You have a feeling it's going to be a long day.

Did you mean 3 years?! hahaha But yeah, it's going to be a long and tedious 24 hours. Well well, let's sum up and reach to a conclusion: Something is missing from John's life. Someone seems to play games with him, not of mischievousness, but cruelty. John is waiting, longing for something but isn't willing to be the one to make a move, no he rather be pushed in the desired direction in a passive way. John wants to reach a certain truth about himself, but fail to grasp it every time. He wants to but isn't ready to learn it. There's also the Ultimate Riddle, which is linked to his personal riddle. Maybe it's one and the same thing. And finally, the Rouchefoucauld quote. A meditation on John's relationships (friends), the game, and himself. A bond between absence and wind is made. The wind is a melancholic melody, the full, that fills the absence (depression?), the empty. Will John be able to take back control on his life? How will he transition to the rest of the afternoon after such a deep and heavy moment? ==>

#homestuck #act 1 #homestuck reread #reread blog #music #wind #note of desolation #analysing time #the ultimate riddle #françois de la rochefoucauld #translation #french literature #full and empty

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mistress-riddle · 11 days

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one day the world will realise that tom riddle is not a hypersexual sex god who calls you “doll” upon your first meeting and is instead quite literally a try hard NERD who most likely spent most of his time finishing his homework and then doing more academic research for “fun” and then i will be the happiest person in the world.

#-ˋˏ ❀ — mimi speaks 🤗 ˎˊ-#tom riddle #please let this image die #he’s just a nerd #who’s really desperate to live #and wants to be really powerful #but ultimately just give him a really good book and he might be content #he’s like a cat with yarn #i will always push forth the tom = cat agenda #but anyway #i doubt he felt the touch of a woman #and he probably doesn’t want to #demisexual bordering on asexual tom riddle agenda wya??#tom riddle headcanon #tom riddle jr #harry potter headcanon

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i-dreamed-i-had-a-son · 17 days

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Broke (2016): BBC Sherlock is a phenomenal piece of media and anything that seems like a flaw just hasn't been fully explored yet

Woke (2020): BBC Sherlock is an incredibly flawed series run by an egotistical writer, it never deserved the hype and is actively bad on so many fronts (especially representation)

Bespoke (2024): BBC Sherlock is flawed and bogged down by increasingly poor writing, which many fans refused to see while it was airing, leading to hugely misplaced expectations (particularly for the final series), AND it has the seeds of some compelling characterizations and portrayals, some genuinely solid performances, and touches--albeit imperfectly--on complexities that are still being discussed today (particularly as it relates to the relationship between Sherlock and John). The huge cultural impact of the show has created a massive pendulum effect in its public perception, leading to most people today remembering a caricature of the show (whether positive or negative) rather than appreciating its nuanced merits and failings...that being said Season 4 sucked