#and in it shes like ''the british taught the natives their more civilized magics''

[inkskinned]

i. about 2 weeks ago, i was told there's a good chance that in 5 or so years, i'll need a wheelchair.

ii. okay. i loved harry potter as a kid. i have a hypothesis about this to be honest - why people still kind of like it. it's that she got very lucky. she managed to make a cross-generational hit. it was something shared for both parents and kids. it was right at the start of a huge cultural shift from pre to post-internet. i genuinely think many people were just seeking community; not her writing. it was a nice shorthand to create connection. which is a long way of saying - she didn't build this legacy, we built it for her. she got lucky, just once. that's all.

iii. to be real with you, i still struggle with identifying as someone with a disability, which is wild, especially given the ways my life has changed. i always come up against internalized ableism and shame - convinced even right now that i'm faking it for attention. i passed out in a grocery store recently. i hit my head on the shelves while i went down.

iv. he raises his eyebrows while he sends me a look. her most recent new book has POTS featured in it. okay, i say. i already don't like where this is going. we both take another bite of ramen. it is a trait of the villain, he says. we both roll our eyes about it.

v. so one of the things about being nonbinary but previously super into harry potter is that i super hate jk rowling. but it is also not good for my mental health to regret any form of joy i engaged with as a kid. i can't punish my young self for being so into the books - it was a passion, and it was how i made most of my friends. everyone knew about it. i felt like everyone had my same joy, my same fixation. as a "weird kid", this sense of belonging resonated with me so loudly that i would have done anything to protect it.

vi. as a present, my parents once took me out of school to go see the second movie. it is an incredibly precious memory: my mom straight-up lying about a dentist appointment. us snickering and sneaking into the weekday matinee. within seven years of this experience, the internet would be a necessity to get my homework finished. the world had permanently changed. harry potter was a relic, a way any of us could hold onto something of the analog.

vii. by sheer luck, the year that i started figuring out the whole gender fluid thing was also the first year people started to point out that she might have some internalized biases. i remember tumblr before that; how often her name was treated as godhood. how harry potter was kind of a word synonymous for "nerdy but cool." i would walk out of that year tasting he/him and they/them; she would walk out snarling and snapping about it.

viii. when i teach older kids creative writing, i usually tell them - so, she did change the face of young adult fiction, there's no denying that. she had a lot more opportunities than many of us will - there were more publishing houses, less push for "virally" popular content creators. but beyond reading another book, we need to write more books. we need to uplift the voices of those who remain unrepresented. we need to push for an exposure to the bigotry baked into the publishing system. and i promise you: you can write better than she ever did. nothing she did was what was magical - it was the way that the community responded to it.

ix. i get home from ramen. three other people have screenshotted the POTS thing and sent it to me. can you fucking believe we're still hearing this shit from her when it's almost twenty-fucking-twenty-three. the villain is notably also popular on tumblr. i just think that's funny. this woman is a billionaire and she's mad that she can't control the opinions of some people on a dying blue site that makes no money. lady, and i mean this - get a fucking life.

x. i am sorry to the kid i was. maybe the kid you were too. none of us deserved to see something like this ruined. that thing used to be precious to me. and now - all those good times; measured into dust.

/// 9.6.2022 // FUCKING AGAIN, JK? Are you fucking kidding me?

[marauders70s]

So I just watched Crimes of Grindelwald and I have a huge rant list.

Spoilers (obviously). 

Also, I did not like hardly any of it, so I’m sorry. Don’t pick a fight with me after reading a post entitled rant list and then be upset that they are all rants.

- wow AMERICA yeah jo we know what you think of us. it’s obvious in our de-tonguing geneva-convention violating (i know it’s not around in 1927 okay) inhumane treatment of not just grindelwald but apparently all the prisoners and animals we keep in cages (i know our prison system is inherently terrible i’m very aware) but to transport him like a paralyzed stroke victim drooling to a thestral carriage on a Dark And Stormy Night really just is lazy writing on why we should dislike aurors without giving anyone a plot, dialogue, or exposition

- this guy who has been posing as Grindelwald....since the beginning? since when? they cut out his tongue?? but then? it’s just forked? there’s magic? like? could they grow the tongue back?? they can regrow bones in harry’s arm but okay

- this thestral carriage chase scene is really CGI explosion heavy turned actioned film and mostly consisted of me being like what. what. WHAT. wait what. wait who is that. what. why wouldn’t he just disapparate. what happens to these thestrals. okay. what. grindelwald can just dissolve wands since when can people do that why didn’t voldemort do that why didn’t harry do that this presents problems

- okay look david yates and co. you had this incredible opportunity to create an entire wardrobe of WIZARD FASHION in THREE COUNTRIES, most notably the fashion capitol of the world and what did you do you put every single person in trench coats and random muggle garb. Also, not even cool wizard hats. No. Just muggle bowlers and mobster hats.

- Does Newt have a job. If so, what is it? How can he pay for this lovely house with magical modifications? Don’t you have to get a contractor to put that in? Did he do it himself? How does he pay Sad Girl In Love With Protagonist tm? Does he pay her? How did they meet? Why do we never see her again?

- For a movie entitled ‘Fantastic Beasts’ we really gloss over looking at any of the in-house beasts, learning anything about them, or doing anything except a CGI palooza.

- Wow Queenie and Jacob are here ‘hope you don’t mind we let ourselves in’ ah yes rude american trope again. who on earth would do that. also this entire time jacob acts like a goon and newt is like let’s take the enchantment off and i’m like hi that’s hella nonconsensual you’re basically raping and kidnapping him and jacob is somehow okay with this. newt is somehow okay with this. 

- ‘please don’t read my mind’ um dude you’re talking AT her??? 

- movie glosses over how jacob got his memories back with a throwaway line of unbelievable dialogue. If obliviate only worked on bad memories, Hermione Granger really needs to go to family counseling with her parents. 

- mysterious postcard is exposition over really dumb journalism error that could have been easily fixed within seconds by sending an owl because owls don’t need addresses, something queenie conveniently forgets by not knowing how to find her sister

- queenie is a Dumb American for cheap laughs by letting a woman say something in french, laughing, and saying she doesn’t understand anything only for the droll French woman to repeat it in the exact monosyllabic voice. Apparently everyone entering/leaving a country needs to register a visa or something, which is conveniently circumvented by going through a muggle port? It’s unclear. Queenie herself does not seem to have registered.

- French Ministry of Magic is gorgeous. Has a cool roots to iron elevator. It is also probably improperly named as they put ‘American Ministry of Magic’ despite America not having ministries or ministers outside of some serious religious stuff. They put all this effort into creating MACUSA but didn’t use it.

- Is it just me or does the MoM change the interior every time I see it.

- Queenie is devastated she can’t find her sister in a city of millions despite having magic, a means of communication that is foolproof, and enough money to find a hotel and wait to meet up. Queenie is overwhelmed that other people think in their native language. Instead of finding this helpful for tuning out a crowded city (like she does on the daily in New York), she somehow finds it overwhelming even looking for Newt/Jacob. 

- Random woman is Silence In Queenie’s Head. I literally never learned who she was except Hard Bitch Kills Toddler. Or why Queenie can’t hear her thoughts. (Plot twist she’s Bella Swan).

- Toddler didn’t get his own little casket in the French mourning cart. Nice of Grindelwald to give a supposedly muggle family a funeral cart when he could have transfigured their bodies into armchairs or something. (Muggle supposed after he makes the remark about a ‘thorough cleaning.’)

- No one in Paris uses French in spellcasting. Spells are still English-based. 

- Dumbledore is a dramatic bitch for gloves and rooftops. It’s a very specific brand of Gay. 

- Don’t kill me but I don’t...hate? Jude Law as Dumbledore. He was still kind. But he wasn’t auburn and that was dumb. 

- Unclear why Jacob and Queenie have to live in shame and secret when they could move to another country especially when Jacob loves bread and would like Paris. This seems to be Queenie’s motivator which is thin as hell and I didn’t follow her ‘logic’ at all. LAZY WRITING.

- Queenie immediately doesn’t disapparate upon seeing Grindelwald. Queenie somehow gets into this rhetoric. Later Queenie does not get disgusted with apropos wizard-Hitler being like ‘they are lesser beings’ and she, who wants to marry one, is like ‘yeah they totally are because I’m basically Jacob’s mom.’ 

- Grindelwald, in addition to being played by Johnny Depp, is albino, has one mutilated eye with a bad color contact clearly visible in multiple scenes, and is British when it is specifically stated he went to Durmstrang and was expelled for Dark Magic (at Durmstrang, which is noted for its Dark Arts program). As an allusion to wizard-Hitler, I always inferred that Grindelwald was German or Austrian. 

- Wow Paris street magic carnival gave me LIFE and WOW and MAGIC feels. I loved the ducking through the barrier. 

- Weird freakshow circus gets blown apart but Newt only manages to catch one creature that is helpfully foreshadowed it can leap Paris in a single bound. It is a Chinese creature when no mention of Chinese magic, Chinese handlers, or any sort of Asian magic is referred to (except in the cringe-worthy case of the ‘South Asian blood curse of Nagini’ which is a whole other can of worms). In all likelihood, as China is one of the oldest civilizations, their magic and dragon worship would be more paramount. China cat’s serious Great Beast’s weakness is a cat toy. 

- Why is Nicholas Flamel....like that. Sure he’s like 600 years old but (a) is Jacob literally breaking his hand what the hell, (b) as much money and life as you could want does that mean he has to be like 100 years old forever that sucks that’s not even worth being immortal. (c) Where’s his wife. (d) When he goes to battle I thought he’d drink some elixir and be young again but...no.

- Nagini has no purpose in this movie other than to be snake slave and love interest and run around in a circus outfit with tits out bra off. She did not do a single useful thing.

- Wait I’m sorry WHAT you can like...fuck house elves now?? There are half-elves? How....you know what no thanks I don’t want to know.

- Credence, despite the last movie setting up an obscurial as like a suicide bomb, can relatively control mega destruction now and get back into his body fairly easily. No one even wonders why this lacemakers roof apartment exploded.

- Are he and Nagini in love? Are they escaped carnival freak bros? Why isn’t Nagini heading for the hills? She literally has no personality of her own at all.

- Paris is suspiciously white in this film. Especially for the 20s art renaissance. 

- I don’t know why Credence falls into Orphan Must Know Parentage Trope because it’s really overused and boring. And frankly the superfluity of ravens was really beating me over the head. Credence can like...do anything. He could get some money and go to a wand shop. He could just...disappear. I don’t know why he has to be so easy to track.

- By the way who is this weirdo tracking him for Grindelwald/the ministry. It’s very unclear. I never got his name. It’s probably one of the many death eater names they throw in to make sure you know these families great-grandparents are also running around being evil instead of, you know, regular people doing it. So he could be Travers. I guess. LAZY WRITING. 

= Now is a special segment on Hogwarts = 

- The layout of Hogwarts changes every time I see it. Why are the classrooms always different. Why would the wood still have carvings. Why is there a bridge over this lake which is different than the covered bridge leading towards the Forest that Harry and Lupin have a Serious Chat on. 

- YOU CANNOT APPARATE IN HOGWARTS GROUNDS. And don’t you try to tell me Dumbledore instituted that because it’s directly stated in Bathilda Bagshot’s Hogwarts, A History as being a longstanding charm with muggle repelling. 

- Everyone apparates onto the bridge and walks through the castle without anyone bothering them into the correct classroom right away?? Like did they get a copy of the teaching schedule? Did Peeves show them?

- Dumbledore did NOT teach DADA. Dumbledore taught transfiguration. He was still teaching Transfiguration when Tom Riddle went to school. So if Dumbledore is teaching Transfiguration, Minerva McGonagall would not be at Hogwarts because she taught transfiguration after Dumbledore. Pretty sure mcgonagall was too young in 1927 to be a professor. LAZY WRITING. 

- Just looked it up. Pottermore (official JK writing, btw) states that Minerva McGonagall was born in 1934. So she’s officially negative 7 years old and a professor. That’s GOT to be a record. Poor Rowan Khanna will never beat preconception tenure.

- Despite me being ecstatic to hear/see a young McGonagall, the camera never held still long enough for me to see a young McGonagall. Any far away shots only demonstrated despite this being 1920s, she was still dressing in the 1890s. McGonagall, despite the obvious laughs it was going for, would never use magic against a student.

- Haha this dumb neanderthal student is Grandpa McClaggen. 

- Dumbledore, being known for wearing really flamboyant robes, dresses in conservative three piece suit. 

- Why would you not go home for the holidays when you have to take care of a baby raven you can just put it in a box or your pocket for christ’s sake you’re carrying like 6 niffler babies at one time but you never even show them again

- Will say that young Newt’s casting is A++

- WHY ARE THE UNIFORMS NAVY BLUE. WHY DO THEY WEAR RED TARTAN SKIRTS. WHY DO THEY HAVE PHD EMBELLISHMENTS ON ACADEMIC REGALIA? Why do they have colored hoods when the original films (and books to boot) say all black robes. Why are these robes not even proper wizarding robes but just like...cambridge robes. 

- To be honest this boggart lesson is like?? insane?? how did it last for 70 years it’s honestly so unethical and cruel. I’ve ALWAYS thought this even reading it for the first time in POA I was like “people’s worst fears are spiders and mummies?” like my greatest fear even at 12 was people I love dying. The fact that Newt is more scared of a desk than Theseus dying is weird.

- “I don’t want to talk about my boggart” Leta LeStrange means there was an Incident where Dumbledore realized that some students don’t have Great Home Lives and yet persists in this lesson for the next 70 years knowing that multiple kids are going to have their parents abusing them as their greatest fear. 

- Corvus, as a name, just means Raven. How stupid. “Is your house crest a raven?” “Yes. Also my brother. Like if you were named Badger McHufflepuff.” “Oh don’t worry my name is just Lizard Lizard.” “Cool."

- No background or even hints at future background (e.g. they haven’t written it yet) on why Leta gets with Theseus even after the first film where he has a picture of Leta in his suitcase. 

- Theseus and Newt have no screen time interaction. They do not behave like brothers. They have no flashbacks. Even young Newt never interacts with his brother. There is no realism here that Newt says they have a complicated relationship or is annoyed by his brother. This exposition is just lazy writing with nothing on screen to back it up. 

- So you’re telling me Dumbledore had the mirror of erised for SEVENTY YEARS and yells at harry for looking in it for three nights. How did Dumbledore not go mad? Where did he get it? I feel like 70 years is a long time to have it. 

- I guess when you think about it yeah being 40 in the 1920s does put you on the mark to be 110 when Harry meets you but fuck the books did NOT explain HOW OLD Dumbledore was to me I always thought he was like hale and sprightly 70s/80s

- Okay so you’re looking in the mirror and going to just BRAZENLY FLOUT CANON and say his deepest desire looking in the mirror is to relive the memory of the blood oath? That’s exposition. That’s a memory. That’s a pensieve not a mirror. Your greatest desire has ALWAYS BEEN saving Ariana. And even if it was loving Grindelwald this is your GREATEST DESIRE like being together not reliving a blood oath just for the sake of audience explanation. LAZY WRITING. 

------ Back to other rants

- Most of this movie was me squinting being like ‘what’s the plot??’ and if there was a whiff of plot (”we all have to find credence’s birth records!”) most of it was me being confused “why does this matter?” “how did they all get there?”

- The confession of Newt trying to talk to Tina in the records room was painful. Not cute. Not even funny. Just so painful. It was like secondhand embarrassment but like...pity embarrassment. 

- I don’t know why Grindelwald has a map of a Parisian cemetery. I don’t know why he had to give it to Credence except as a big reveal. I don’t remember how Queenie got there. I genuinely DO NOT understand how Jacob got there much less passed through to the secret wizard place as a muggle. 

- No idea why the records lady was attacking them when Leta checked in twice (once as Tina). NO CLUE why they were the worst animated cats of all time or why they became multiple cats or even why when taken out of the French records they became even worse animated ‘real’ cats when they could have just used real cats. The entire chase scene was baffling and unnecessary. The records lady was not an agent of Grindelwald so no idea what’s up with her bee in the bonnet sorry for wrecking all your shit bye.

- I saw this movie less than an hour ago. I’m still confused how Leta, Newt, and Tina all teamed up or why they were cool teaming up or what. 

- This mausoleum has a Greek hellenistic statue of a man reclining for no apparent reason and these shelves are supposed to bear ashes right so why are you putting a dumb pop up book there. Why would Grindelwald’s agent remove the record in drag as an old lady? It was weirdly unnecessary. 

- Yosef’s exposition on how a white man literally imperiused and raped his mother was like WOW NO ONE IS GONNA EVEN TOUCH THAT???? and then for her to die in childbirth it’s like...my dudes wizards have cured so many diseases muggles haven’t you know they’re up there inventing the c-section with Julius Caesar and accio’ing babies out of utero like ‘gimme that catcher’s mitt she’s fully dilated.’ This whole “oh it was the 1900s” nonsense does NOT apply to magic. LAZY WRITING. 

- I immediately forgot what happened to Corvus’ mom. but whatever right? she’s just a disposable woman! this movie does NOT care about consent! much less women! haha they’re just flowers!

- ‘I killed my brother’ yeah i mean we saw that coming she was REALLY SURE he was dead. But I was 90% sure it was going to be a child accident like dropping him down the stairs or shaking him too hard to get him to stop crying and then swapping him with a live baby but no? so i don’t know i feel like you didn’t really kill him.

- this steamer going down is confusing. is it a muggle ship? if it’s a muggle ship than is Credence swapped a baby with...a muggle born wizard? Are their other wizarding families on the ship? If so then why did they drown? you can all magic out of there? your lifeboat wouldn’t go down? why even take a steamer ship to america? you can...apparate or portkey or floo or fly like this titanic nonsense makes NO SENSE. And if Papa LeStrange hates muggles so much why put his only children on an all muggle ship with a half elf (again why) who can’t do magic to protect them

- Finding Credence’s identity REALLY doesn’t need to revolve around the LeStrange’s sordid past. Steamer ships keep passenger logs. So. We really should leave the mausoleum now to go find that. 

- Yosef took an unbreakable vow to kill this white baby and it’s dead so is he released? He was released like...20 years ago. Why does he continue to hang out with these people? Your endless vengeance has rested? No need to team up with the sister you never knew? apparently (their family dynamic was also poorly/not explained). 

- Why is this mausoleum an underground amphitheater. Literally why it makes no sense. Is it supposed to bring up the first David Yates film OotP? I don’t know. It also has a lot of blue fire and people rapturing the fuck out of there (literally when did apparating involve staring up at the sky and blasting off in rocket smoke). Also in re this movie how can you be tracked after apparating (Newt/Dumbledore’s tail). 

- So if you touch this curtain do you automatically teleport to this amphitheater. Also what if you touched it by accident and were like OH SHIT HOW DO I GET OUT. Like wow this guy wasn’t kidding when he said there’s no wizard that can match him magically. This is like Charles Xavier Magneto Level 1 Mutant Power kind of shit. Not even Voldemort could do that. Big Power Too Big trope. Again. How did Jacob even GET there. 

- Johnny Depp wears leather pants. Costume department, get your act together.

- Grindelwald, continuing to be British, shows clips of the Great War, approx 1914-1918. While the tanks and biplanes were appropriate, there were also lines (assumingly?) to concentration camps and the nuclear bomb of Hiroshima, which wouldn’t take place until 1945. So is Grindelwald also a prophet? Is he a seer? They kept referencing this book of poems and prophecy but without letting us see it? it went along with my general ‘I’m getting the gist of this but not really the why because it doesn’t make sense.’ And then Grindelwald rumor mongers and uses fear tactics when one of the police aurors straight up KILLS A WOMAN like wow can we cool it with use of force/police brutality is this guy going to get written up or is he fire now? 

- Ethnically ambiguous Grindelwald supporter (only person of color) gets immediately incinerated for not being 100% sure of his side. When Credence feels the same way, he gets a couple of gifts. 

- Look, I didn’t start this way but I stan Leta LeStrange. She was honestly one of the only people and the only woman in this film with a personality. 

- Queenie stands still as weak, silly, expositional, dumb American. For those of you about to be like ‘She’s spying on Grindelwald! She’s the greatest legilimens that ever lived!’ I just want to beg you to reconsider because if you’re right and if the writers get wind of that you know they’re going to have her like teach little Tom Riddle something just BECAUSE everything has to connect. 

- Poor Jacob he seems okay with being stranded in another country. Is his bakery okay? Do his friends know he isn’t dead? He is super super super brave throughout this movie despite his main comedic strength in the other movie being nervous. But this time he’s like meh firefights and large monsters.

- Credence I understand going over. Nagini continues to not be a character and did not go with Newt and Crew. 

- Wasn’t even sad for Theseus because again, Theseus had little to no character development except being a Whipping Boy to authority. Theseus and Leta never interacted in any meaningful way. Their relationship didn’t even seem real. I wasn’t even sad.

- I feel like Leta isn’t dead though because who the fuck else is carrying this LeStrange line to give birth to Rabastan and Rodolphus. 

- At this point everyone apparates AGAIN to Hogwarts. This time I guess a ghost went and alerted Dumbledore because he’s waiting. But yeah like come on in for tea Newt but fuck all those kids they can wait here. 

- What is this plot?? Is there a plot?? What is going on??

- Who gives someone a wand like this hi I hid it up my sleeve touch me my boy I long for your touch.

- This is a phoenix, not a Raven. Newt is a sad ordinary bird but you’re a bright beautiful phoenix. Apparently phoenixes can grow up in ONE DAY. Foreshadowing Dumbledore is foreshadowing. LAZY WRITING this is so stupid. The books would have been EXPLICIT about a fourth child. 

- Maybe he’s a cousin. Close relative, perhaps? *Pleakley voice*

“He hasn’t got a brother?” 

Dobby shook his head. 

Literally where I’m at right now. 

- ABRUPT ENDING IS ABRUPT I didn’t even realize this was the end of the film because the score, cinematography, and writing did NOT cue me that this was winding down. I literally was like ‘how long does this last’ and then it was like DAVID YATES. Okayyyyyyy. 

- Anyway my sum feeling upon the lights going on was: what the fuck. was there a plot. there were so many loopholes. i was confused about many things almost the whole time because nothing was fleshed out and if they threw enough CGI at me I’d be patched up. 

Final rating: It matches up pretty well to the middle film of The Hobbit trilogy. 

[fuckyeahjamieandclaire]

This week’s episode of Outlander, “Common Ground,” featured a moment readers of Diana Gabaldon’s Drums of Autumn have been waiting for: Jamie going toe-to-toe with a bear. But the writers of the Starz drama—who like to give fans what they want but not necessarily how they expect it—added their own twist. In the episode, the bear is actually a man who, after being shunned by his Cherokee tribe for sexual assault, assumed the persona (and skin and claws) of a bear to steal food and terrorize Fraser’s Ridge. Jamie drives a stake through the intruder, then lugs the body back to his Cherokee neighbors, who give Jamie the name Bear Killer and introduce Claire to their healer, Adawehi (Dances With Wolves’ Tantoo Cardinal).

While we await the meaning of Adawehi’s cryptic message for Claire (Caitriona Balfe)—“Death is sent from the gods, it will not be your fault”—Sam Heughan, who plays Jamie, talked with Vulture about the battle, life in the backcountry, and whether we’ll ever see Jamie knit.

How did you find out about the writers’ plan to have the bear be a man, and what was your reaction? We didn’t really know until we actually first read the script. We were obviously thinking at first, you know, it’s going to be a lot like The Revenantand the DiCaprio [bear] fight. To read it’s actually a man, I think it’s a really nice twist. We have a few of those this season—moments that I think fans of the books are gonna be surprised by—and I think it really adds to it. It’s fun to keep them on the front of their seats. And it’s also the beginning of the sort of understanding and mutual respect that Jamie has with the Native Americans. This moment, really in their eyes certainly, gives them some respect for who he is and vice versa.

What do you remember about filming that fight? It’s dark, you’re battling a man in a bear costume with claws. What was that experience like? I mean, we always talk about the weather, but it was -7 degrees Celsius at night, and it was so cold, because you know Jamie, he’s just in his shirt. But it was fun. It’s hard to light that kind of stuff in a forest, but it’s a pretty intense fight, and he’s a big guy and certainly Jamie is; it just shows how dangerous this land is. Jamie and Claire really are having to forge their way in the wilderness and build their home and their new settlement, and there are so many dangers there.

The Cherokee are doing some kind of ritual at the same time as the fight. How did you interpret that? That’s actually in the edit—I didn’t know that was gonna be cut in. It certainly gives it this spiritual, otherworldly feel to it, and that’s definitely a theme that runs through the season, especially when dealing with the Native Americans. They’re this ancient civilization that were there before all these settlers and immigrants. I know our writers did a lot of research and went to meet a lot of the Cherokee elders. It’s what makes the season so interesting—we have this completely new world and a new people that we’re introducing.

You’ve said before that the similarities between the Highlanders and the Native Americans fascinate both Jamie and you. What were you looking forward to exploring this season? When we were reading the scripts and started shooting, I was very much into showing that [fascination], even if it’s unwritten. Jamie, at first, is very wary and knows nothing of the Native Americans. I think even at the beginning he calls them “savages” and is very distrustful, and quite quickly you see there’s this unwritten understanding that develops and actually an interaction—and it’s because they’re both very similar in that they’re warring nations, they have the same history. The same thing is happening to the Native Americans as has happened to the Scots: their land was taken by the British. It’s a very similar scenario. There’s a great respect, and certainly by the end of the season, without giving away spoilers, Jamie actually entrusts the Native Americans with one of his family. He really has a great understanding and respect for them.

It’s safe to say that relationship, like all relationships in Outlander, will have complications along the way. What can you tease about the layers we’ll see? It’s much like Scotland and the clans in Scotland: there are many different tribes, and some are friendly and some are not. The end of the season, the climax and finale, is based around them, and I think it’s probably our strongest finale yet. We really loved shooting all that, and it really is a completely different look to the show to see these Native American settlements and their houses. I think people are gonna really… I wouldn’t say learn about that culture—you know, we’re not some big history lesson—but we’re certainly featuring them a lot, and I think we were very fortunate to have over 100 [First Nation Canadians], mostly Cree, come over [to act in the show]. And they brought with them this great culture and taught us a lot. They were really fun as well and brought a great humor to set and also their music. There were times when we were between takes, they would just start singing some pow wow [songs] or playing drums by the fire, and it was just quite magical.

Looking ahead to the next episode, we get our first look at Jamie and Claire’s finished cabin. What is your favorite part of it? Obviously [production designer] Jon Gary Steele every season makes the show so incredible to look at and work on. He’s done it again. The cabin is something that Jamie has built, and throughout the whole season, you see the settlement grow: it goes from being a basic lean-to to being a full-fledged settlement with various houses, all the allotments, and the garden that Claire grows. Early settlers really are building everything for the first time, and so it feels fresh and new. That’s what is surprising about this season: we got to see America in its infancy really growing from the ground up.

Caitriona told us she found it odd that Jamie and Claire don’t have a separate bedroom in their cabin. [Laughs] No, why would you? Why would you need a separate bedroom? Jamie’s practical, very practical. And it means it’s closer to get to the table and the food and the kitchen. Maybe next time he can do an extension.

Jamie will be looking for settlers to live at Fraser’s Ridge in the next episode. How does that go? There was a statistic, and I think it was around 40 percent of settlers at that time were Scottish, and that’s very much the line he goes down. Jamie wants to surround himself with fellow Scots that will be loyal to him and understand his way of working. They go to the towns and try to encourage settlers to live on his land. Very much in a similar way to what they do in Scotland with the clan system—they all pay a rent but he’ll look after them —and it’s something that he’s always wanted. He’s wanted to be the laird and to be almost the clan leader, and this is it really—this is him beginning to build his legacy and heritage.

Did that change your approach to playing Jamie this season? Yeah, I mean, [he and Claire] have finally found each other and they’re together, and for three seasons that’s what they’ve been fighting to do. And they’ve grown up, they’ve experienced a lot together and also apart, and now he’s more mature, he’s less impulsive, and he does think a bit more before he acts. Of course, he is Jamie Fraser, so there are a couple times where he doesn’t and that does get him in trouble, but he’s actually happy. For the first time he’s able to relax and to lay down some roots, and I think we’ve seen them for the first few episodes definitely relishing and falling in love with the land. Then, of course, the second half of the season it’s all shaken up again.

Last question: Will we see Jamie knit at some point this season? Claire and the audience just learned from Young Ian that Jamie knows how. The mention feels like Chekhov’s Gun. I think Jamie’s far too busy to do any knitting. But I think there was a scene, actually, that they wrote that Jamie is, but I don’t think it quite made it. But to be honest, Jamie can do a lot things, and it’s funny: when they first get [to the backcountry], they really have nothing, and over the course of the season you’ll see that more pieces of clothing appear and more knitted wear. So in the evenings they’re definitely busy and making stuff. They have to survive, and it’s also very, very cold in North Carolina over the winters, so you’ll definitely see it through the costuming.

[bhuva23]

'The Tempest' as a Postcolonial Text

The Tempest as a Postcolonial Text

According to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the word ‘colonialism’ emerges out of the Roman ‘colonia’ which translates to ‘farm’ or ‘settlement’. It was a reference to Romans who settled down in other lands while retaining their citizenship. The OED definition of colonialism as Ania Loomba points out in her book Colonialism/Postcolonialism, does not make any reference to the natives, people who might have been living in places where colonies were established. This essay will consider The Tempest in the light of postcolonialism using Loomba’s theories and the relationship between the natives of the island and Prospero, Stephano and Trinculo.

William Shakespeare draws inspiration for The Tempest from William Strachey’s account of a ship that ran into a storm. It was on its way to Jamestown, Virginia. The passengers surprisingly were safe and it resulted in the first colony which was set up in 1607. The play was written in 1611. Loomba states that Shakespeare adds a major component to the play, which was absent in the account. This is the idea of the island being inhabited prior to Prospero’s arrival. It renders the play into an allegory of a colonial encounter, more than a romance. In order for Prospero to sustain his power, there was a certain “re-forming” and “un-forming” (Loomba, 8) that had to be done. It includes practices such as “trade, plunder, negotiation, warfare, genocide, enslavement and rebellions.” (Loomba, 8).

These are some of the factors that distinguish between colonialism in the Genghis Khan era and the modern colonialism. Modern colonialism made sure that there was a link between the economy of the colonized lands and the colonizers’ land. There was a flow of human and natural resources between the colonized and colonial countries. This was in the form of slaves and raw materials. The profits were obtained by the colonial powers. In The Tempest, Prospero uses Ariel and Caliban for their services claiming that he rescued one and raised the other. Ariel and Caliban are not only used for labor, but also are “educated” with the European ideology. Having established the colonized as the ‘other’, the Europeans felt the need to educate what they thought were savages. This idea is talked about by Edward Said in Orientalism where he notes how Arabs were seen as exotic, backward, uncivilized and dangerous. This idea is carried out in the case of Caliban who is described in an animal-like fashion. Prospero accuses him of attempting to rape Miranda in the past, a reason he uses to impose control on him.

Similarly, the idea of the cannibal was used by Columbus and by Spanish colonists later on to justify their brutal practices. Loomba talks about a Martin Frobisher who used an Eskimo for display in England. This idea resonates in The Tempest where Trinculo thinks about the money he could earn by doing the same with Caliban. He muses how people “will lay out ten (coins) to see a dead Indian” (1, ii, 32-33). This is a stereotype. Sander Gilman says that stereotypes promote an “artificial sense of difference between ‘self’ and ‘other’” (Loomba, 55). Prospero, Trinculo and Stephano clearly use this technique to degrade the position of Caliban.

On the other hand, the colonized people, as mentioned earlier with reference to Orientalism, were considered exotic, yet inferior, while the latter considered the former as enviable, and corrupt. This instance can be seen in The Tempest when Prospero refers to Ariel as “delicate” (4, i, 49) and as a “fine apparition” (1, ii, 319) but also reminds Ariel that he is a “malignant thing’ (1, ii, 259). Caliban views Prospero as powerful and desires to overthrow him. This highlights the ambivalent relationship that the two parties share. The idea of the colonized being “exotic” is carried out across the geography of the colonized land. This results in the colonizer using the colonized as a medium to access resources and ‘secrets’ of the land and culture. It shows how the colonizer considers it necessary to tame not only the natives, but also the land itself. Another factor used to create the binary of the European and non-European is the language.

Peter Hulme refers to two words which were derived from Native American languages. The words ‘cannibal’ and ‘hurricane’ were used to widen the gap between the colonizer and the colonized. Hurricane was referred to as a tempest, unique to the Caribbean and suggested the supposed violence and savage condition of the place. Similarly, cannibalism was not merely a synonym for ‘anthropophagi’ (savages who eat their own kind). Cannibalism was a marker for the threat the savages posed against Europeans, as Loomba points out. As a natural phenomenon and a cultural practice, the terms designated anything that was situated outside Europe. ‘Canis’ is a Latin word referring to dog, and the view was that the people of the Caribbean treated their victims in a ferocious, predatory manner. It is no surprise that Caliban is an anagram for cannibal (negating the ‘n’) and also explains why Prospero uses dogs to attack the rebels as Hulme points out. Cannibalism was also used as a pretext to justify the taking over the American lands.

Apart from the image of the cannibal, the image of the colonized as a dark-skinned rapist is established. Prior to this, the colonizers were seen as the rapists who plundered countries. The narrative changed with time. Caliban, too is alleged of an attempt to rape Miranda. The notion of the savage rapist, as Loomba argues, “…deflects the violence of the colonial encounter from the colonizer to the colonized” (Loomba, 70). Jenny Sharpe in her book Allegories of Empire: The Figure of Women in the Colonial Text demonstrates how Indians were seen as mild and meek until the 1857 revolt. Following this, the ‘mild Hindoo’ became a sexual predator who raped British women. Sharpe suggests that the rebellion left the British “without a script on which they could rely” (Sharpe, 67). Caliban is the more rebellious of the slaves. Ariel is mild and soft spoken. Caliban’s rebelliousness ears him the place of a savage rapist.

This brings up the need for civilizing the ‘savage’. The phrase ‘white man’s burden’ was used as an ideology to denote the duty of the white colonizers to educate the colonized with western ideologies in order to ‘help them out’. In the play, Prospero educates Caliban and teaches him the former’s language. Caliban exclaims “You taught me language, and my profit on’t / Is I know how to curse. The red plague rid you / For learning me your language!” (1, ii, 365-367). It is similar to the ‘subaltern’, a term coined by Antonio Gramsci to identify people excluded from society’s established institutions. Gayathri Spivak notes how the subaltern, in order to be heard, must adopt the Western language. Caliban, similarly, uses Prospero’s language to insult him and express his discontentment. Through his language, the colonizer creates narratives to explain the local history of the colonized land. These narratives overwrite and silence the local narratives. Prospero repeatedly tells Caliban and Ariel about how he rescued them. The story of Caliban’s childhood and Ariel’s imprisonment is continually repeated by Prospero. Joseph Goebbels says “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” So the questions one needs to consider while looking at The Tempest as a colonial text are – Did Caliban really try to rape Miranda, or could it possibly be a narrative used to oppress him, and one also needs to consider how much of the native perspective is highlighted. However, one does see Caliban claiming his authority over the island, as he is the true inhabitant and considers Prospero as an outsider. It is visible in the lines where Caliban says “This island’s mine, by Sycorax my mother, / Which thou takest from me.” (1, ii, 333-334). This leads to the representations of the play as a depiction of colonial oppression. In the 1960s and 1970s, de-colonization movements began in Africa, Caribbean and Latin America. The anti-colonial writers challenged the notion of Prospero’s ‘art’ being considered as a part of the civil world, while Sycorax’s natural black magic is considered evil. Writers began defending Caliban’s right to the island. The lines quoted at the end of the preceding paragraph highlights this. Aimé Césaire, a black writer from Martinique rewrote the play to celebrate Caliban’s verbal attacks on Prospero and questions his claim to the island. In Jonathan Miller’s 1988 production of The Tempest, Prospero is a white colonizer and Caliban is a black slave. In David Thacker’s 1995 production, Ariel was played by a woman with face paint of a Native American Indian. Hence it is evident how the text was interpreted from an anti-colonial point of view, recognizing the postcolonial ideologies and representations in the original text.

On a similar note, Joanne Drayton in her article talks about how chess is seen as a metaphor for the “postcolonial relationship between Maori (indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand) and Pakeha (New Zealander of European descent) in Aotearoa New Zealand.” (Drayton, Researchgate). It brings about questions of diaspora and the idea of the carrying of culture, since chess has been attributed to Viking culture. In the play, one finds Ferdinand and Miranda playing a game of chess. This symbolizes how Prospero’s every move is calculated and used to manipulate the rest of the characters in in the play.

With regard to a counter-view when studying the play as a postcolonial text, Meredith Anne Skura suggests that the parallels to colonial discourse are unintentional and cannot be taken seriously. She claims that the exploitation of people has been dealt with in several other plays of Shakespeare, and that it was too early for the colonial ideology to set in, since the play was written merely four years after the setting up of a colony in Virginia. She further explains how the characters can be seen as manifestations of human personalities. Caliban could be a representation of Prospero’s evil side. The latter acknowledges this at the end of the play when he says “This thing of darkness I / Acknowledge mine.’ (5, i, 277-278). Skura makes several important points including the fact that Caliban is not a representation of the cannibal, since he does not eat meat, instead “confining himself more delicately to roots, berries and an occasional fish” (Skura, 59).

However, as pointed out by Loomba, the fact that the playwright added the presence of inhabitants, slavery, narratives, and a subjugation and exploitation of the inhabitants renders the play as a portrayal of colonialism, whether or not the writer intended to represent it in that light. In popular culture, one sees colonial ideas and attitudes, for instance, in the Tintin comics, the artist depicts gypsies, native Americans, and Indians in a racist and stereotypical light, and the same can be said about the film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Professor Yvette Rosser comments on how the film is a racist portrayal of Indians. Kayleigh Donaldson in her article Problematic Faves: Indiana Jones talks about the blatant racist outlook on Indians and South Asians, as the Hindus are represented as blood drinking, demon worshiping savages with odd and revolting food habits. Hadley Freeman highlights the racism in the movie in her article Blacking up, wacky Asians and the Libyans: the worst of 80s movie racism, where she makes references to the racist representations of Blacks and Asians. Hadley Freeman hardly finishes pointing at how the films have shown to be racist, when the stark irony is revealed, when she exclaims “Ha ha ha, Asian people are GROSS” (Freeman, The Guardian) .This goes on to show how racism and stereotypical notions along coupled with the white man’s superior attitude still permeate the society today, as a result of colonization.

To conclude, The Tempest has been considered from a postcolonial critical viewpoint, since it embodies the attitudes, practices and ideologies of the European colonizer. It has also been observed how colonization has led to racism and stereotypes that still exist in today’s society.

WORKS CITED:

Books

Loomba, Ania. (2005). Colonialism/Postcolonialism. Routledge, 2005.

Shakespeare, William, and John Crowther. The Tempest. Sparknotes, 2003.

Speaight, Robert. Shakespeare On The Stage. Little, Brown, 1973.

Sharpe, Jenny. Allegories Of Empire. University Of Minnesota Press, 1993.

Gilman, Sander. Difference and Pathology: Stereotypes of Sexuality, Race and Madness. Cornell University Press, 1985.

Websites

Donaldson, Kayleigh. "Problematic Faves: Indiana Jones". SYFY WIRE, 2019, https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/problematic-faves-indiana-jones. Accessed 2 Apr 2019.

Freeman, Hadley. "Blacking Up, Wacky Asians And The Libyans: The Worst Of 80S Movie Racism". The Guardian, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/may/10/wacky-asians-blacking-up-and-the-libyans-the-worst-of-80s-movie-racism. Accessed 2 Apr 2019.

"Joseph Goebbels On The "Big Lie"". Org, 2019, https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/joseph-goebbels-on-the-quot-big-lie-quot. Accessed 2 Apr 2019.

"Production History | The Tempest | Royal Shakespeare Company". Org.Uk, 2019, https://www.rsc.org.uk/the-tempest/past-productions/production-history. Accessed 2 Apr 2019.

Anne Skura, Meredith. Discourse And The Individual: The Case Of Colonialism In "The Tempest". 1989, https://www.jstor.org/stable/2870753. Accessed 2 Apr 2019.