#as-long-as-there-is-thinking

[talkingwoman]

Call me Cassandra….*

Having a history of offending members of the Charmie fanhood, many of whom will not even see this post since they blocked me, I will nonetheless state my bona fifes openly. I love Armie Hammer and I love Timothée Chalamet. Being older, more educated, and a practicing professional provides me with apparently annoyingly inconvenient insights when discussing the two men I love and the years since CMBYN changed so many lives. The upset in the fandom occasioned by Timmy’s liaison with the Jenner person compels me to express the following. Believe me, my goal is to soothe rather than irritate.

First and foremost, I have said before and repeat here that one of the worst failings we have made in viewing the Charmie myth is that we tend to conflate Armie and Timmy IRL with their characters in CMBYN, Oliver and Elio. Neither man is much like their movie role at all. Briefly, Elio is sensitive, highly educated and intelligent, as well as emotionally vulnerable. Timmy is, based upon his interviews, observed public behaviors, etc., probably none of these. He is, as he says, an engaging goofball. Often he misuses and/or mispronounces words and creates word salad answers to interviewer questions. He’s a player more than a mensch, and his ambition knows no bounds. Armie is more like Oliver than Timmy like Elio, but without the redeeming affection the movie version of Oliver brought to the mutual seduction. The Oliver of the book was far less open and affectionate than movie Oliver, but both men were emotionally insincere, dishonest, and manipulative. Oliver was having a summer fling before finishing his degree, marrying, and getting on with life in both book and movie. Even more publicly than Timmy, Armie is a player who admits to manipulating and using people as personal convenience items. It’s questionable whether he remembers anything 😉, let alone everything.

Similarly, we are willfully blind to the realities of the profession that introduced us to Armie and Timmy in the first place. Show biz is a relentlessly demanding and often cruel bit of work. Timmy was born into a theatrical family and groomed through auditions and training from an early age. Small wonder that virtually all of the directors he has worked with mention his drive and ambition to succeed. That desire rules Timmy’s life and he is not likely to squander his opportunities as Armie tragically and so unnecessarily did. There is a new article out that captures this essential characteristic, titled the making of a global superstar. Timmy is surrounded by a team that calculates every move the young man makes, scrupulously. For instance, while Armie has loudly proclaimed his heterosexuality, Timmy’s team has assiduously cultivated an aura of androgyny, assuring that both the gay and straight communities can identify with and thereby claim Timmy as one of their own. The revision of Lee in Bones and All from jock to bisexual predatory adventurer is a classic example. So, in short, almost anything in the public eye should be viewed through the lens of this effort to promote Timmy to the highest artistic and popular levels of his profession. Most of you will hate this, but Timmy’s utter and complete failure to utter one supportive word about Armie, once his role model and mentor, throughout the shitstorm that Armie’s professional and personal life became. Many no doubt wish and fervently hope that there is still a viable bond between these men, but if there is, it requires a very steep price from one of them.

Before I go, one little observation that I hope will bring some solace regarding the PDAs seen at the Beyoncé concert. Kissing is an expression of intimacy that is usually accompanied by intense mutual gaze. Both participants in these lip locks looked directly toward the camera the second the kiss ended, not at each other. Telling…,

*Cassandra was a figure in Greek mythology who was reviled and tortured for telling true, but unwanted truths.

[inkskinned]

please i love you i'm begging you bring back suspension of disbelief bring back trusting the audience like. i cannot handle any more dialogue that sounds like a legal document. "hello, i am here to talk to you about the incident from a few minutes ago, because i feel you might be unwell, and i am invested in your personal wellbeing." "thank you, i am unwell because the incident was hurtful to me due to my childhood, which was bad." I CANT!!!!

do you know how many people are mad that authors use "growled" as a word for "said"? it's just poetics! they do not literally mean "growled," it's just a common replacement for "said with force but in a low tone." it's normal! do you hear me!! help me i love you please let me out of here!!!

[christadeguchi]

MONKEY MAN (2024)

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

The math just adds up!

[surkeart]

be free!!

[mangozic]

my dead goth son and his friendly neighborhood personified concept of insanity

[pigswithwings]

the angel staying over at my house asked for a nightlight in their room and i told them buddy, don't you produce your own light? what're you gonna do with more? and they said they wanted to see why people like it so much. and also that the nightlight i own is blue and they've been trying to understand color. anyways i think they've stared at it for an hour now

[darksouls2yuri]

hey is it okay if i eat my nature valley oats and honey granola bar here. yeah its the kind that comes as a two pack and immediately disintegrates into millions of annoying crumbs. its okay my ants that follow me everywhere will eat them. youll have ants now though.

[whatkindofnameisella]

can you believe that we have fanfiction. that we have websites dedicated to fanfiction. that there is a place that you can go and read tens, hundreds, thousands and thousands of pieces of writing that strangers have made. people who are not "writers". people who come home at the end of the day and have feelings and say, i am going to put that into words. i am going to share those words. short, long, sweet, sad, horny, funny, wonderful words. we are all just human and we all love to make and remake and share that with others. can you believe that.

[aesethewitch]

When I was a kid, we moved into a house that had a huge lilac tree out front. It was mostly rotten, and it needed to be taken down before it fell. It took a while, but eventually, it was gone.

Mostly. A couple years later, little lilac babies popped out of the ground in its place. My mom was determined to get rid of them, because she'd planted a beautiful flower garden there, and the lilac trees would overshadow and kill the whole garden. I insisted on saving at least a few saplings. She said fine, but I had to dig them out and put them in pots myself.

So, I did. I spent days digging little lilac bushes out of the ground and putting them into pots. Some couldn't be saved, but some could. When all was said and done, I had five brand-new lilac saplings. Seven or eight years old, and it was my absolute pride and joy.

Three died due to sun scorching, severe drought that no amount of watering could save, and perhaps just being moved from their place in the ground. But two survived, and I was awfully proud of them! I'd go out and talk to them every single day. I watered them by hand and made sure they were fertilized properly. I learned all about their favored environments, and I was determined to make sure they lived.

One of my mom's friends saw what I was doing with the lilacs. She asked if she could have one to put in her backyard, and I agreed on the condition that she take very, very good care of it.

It's now fucking enormous. I'm talking ten feet tall and bursting with beautiful purple flowers every spring. My mom still gets updates each year as they start to bloom, which she forwards to me. And all I can think is, "That's my friend! Thriving some twenty years on, there it is."

The other tree nearly died, too. It lived in a pot for far, far too long. I wanted to plant it somewhere in my parents' yard, but my mom was reluctant. Eventually, we agreed to put it in the far back garden. It grew okay for many years, despite the shade, but in all these years, it's never bloomed.

Last year, the massive tree casting massive shadows over the lilac and the garden cracked in half and fell. It tumbled into the garden, crushing part of the nearby shed and destroying a few plants beneath it.

It missed my lilac by inches.

The clean-up is long done. The rest of the tree has been cut down, and my lilac has full sunlight for the first time in fifteen years. It won't bloom this year, I know. But it's got new shoots up. It's taller than ever. I spent half an hour a few weeks ago praising it for surviving all this time, dreaming about its future and telling it how I believe it'll become the tall beauty it's always been meant to be.

I think next year, I'll see flowers.

[wildbasil]

things haven't been great but i think they will be. eventually 🌻🌼🩷

[talkingwoman]

Disbelief, disappointment, resignation...

Just a few moments ago, I re-posted the text I wrote the day Elizabeth and Armie jointly and quite amicably announced the ending of their marriage. I posited that for better or worse, we would discover whether the belief in the Armie/Timmy ship was, like the profoundly wished for sequel to CMBYN, in fact a mirage, a chimera born of heated imagination, fan fictions, and yearning for romantic beauty. As often happens when I post something contrary to the prevailing beliefs in the fandom, the response was crickets. Turns out I may have been prescient, but this is not about a "Toldja so!!" moment. Rather, this post is like my stages of grief, as yet incomplete.

When Armie embarked on his parade of liaisons with young, yet publicly active and recognizable women, I questioned the move, but could never have imagined the shitstorm that descended as women complained vociferously about his sexual and emotional treatment of them. What happened next was swift and merciless. Crisis management researchers may use Armie's experience as a case study someday, but the finstas, DMS, and other messages central to the events are probably too raunchy for academic texts. Certainly his flat denial of any wrongdoing strategy failed dismally. Throughout the cascading losses of agents, film, tv, and stage contracts, I kept waiting for someone, ultimately anyone, to speak in defense of Armie. Most particularly I was stunned by the silence from Timmy, Luca, and others I had foolishly believed would publicly support a colleague, let alone friend or lover, who was enduring such attacks. Well, forget that. I literally could not believe no one came forward, but having stumbled down the Charmie trail, I couldn't understand why even a very simple line like, "Talented actor and scene partner. Loved working with him. I don't comment on anyone's private life." was not forthcoming. Mostly, I couldn't believe Timmy would display such public indifference. Saddening. Hurtful, whether intentional or not (see? I'm still making excuses for Timmy,)

In the ensuing years, Timmy gave three interviews to major media outlets. To say that I was disappointed that he dismissed the question posed by Time, as "worthy of a larger discussion" and said nada, zilch, nothing remotely supportive of the guy he once called his brother, role model, etc. is a massive understatement. In his second "Woodstock" interview with GQ he not only took pains to address rumors that his relationship with a woman he loved (his words), LRD, was a PR sham, but also failed once again to affirm his onetime friend and mentor, Armie, was a part of the "making and re-making of Timmy" that the article focused on. Well, he didn't credit Luca G. or James I. either, but they were not twisting in the wind like a bashed in dollar store pinata. Loyalty counts, even in the often cynical world of entertainment, right? Not so much, maybe.

Between the second and third GQ interviews, the AirMail interview Armie collaborated on appeared, and while that piece was gravely flawed and quickly vanished, it was another missed opportunity for Timmy or anyone else to speak consoling, compassionate words for a guy embarking on his addiction recovery journey. Not gonna happen. The most recent installment of the GQ articles should not have surprised me, but it's surely clear by now that for all my bluster I am not free of my gullible Charmie predilections. Timmy had every opportunity to say something kind, even in a dismissive mode, like, "aw, dude, ancient history. total mess for anyone to endure." about the scandal. Surely he and his team had prepared for this. What came out in the article was enigmatic in the extreme. "I don't know...it was..disorienting is a good word." Is that it? It's Timmy's world and Armie is exiled forever?

OK, I give. You, Timmy, owe me, your fans, and Armie nothing by way of explanation. Whatever you think or believe is your business. Having reluctantly accepted your continued behavior as personal agency in this matter, it is my problem and mine alone that I perceive it as a bitter betrayal of that gorgeous man who instead of showing resentment that he was not also Oscar nominated, gave you that momentous, loving push toward the snapping cameras and said "now, go shine, shine, shine". How long ago and far away that seems today.

And yet, it was there before my own eyes in this GQ article. Indisputable, maybe inadvertent revelation about the state of the Timmy/Armie ship came with the discussion of the fishy coincidence of the Bones and All announcement less than two weeks after the cannibalism stories erupted. What were the chances, Timmy questioned? What is immediately clear is that neither he nor Luca was in touch with Armie at all. When there is even a casual friendship between actors they talk about projects they are pursuing, engaged, and don't forget, co-producing. If there was any contact Armie would already have known. But check Timmy's reaction. Did he say, "I needed to let my friend know there was no evil intent in our announcement." Instead, he felt he HAD to do the project b/c it came from a book rather than someone's social media nightmare. Still, the cannibalism/Armie/Bones and All discussions endured and some would argue were exploited through to the premiere and even into awards season, with Dakota Johnson's snarky joke at Armie's expense when introducing Luca at a banquet. That's what friends are for, yeah?

The mirage seemed real. Sometimes I still flail, but time and circumstance continue to pile on evidence to the contrary. That does not make me happy AT ALL.

#heartsandparts

[michameinmicha]

Stumbled upon this random ship (in a fandom im not active in myself) that has like 150 works on ao3 which are all from just two people gifting each other fics about this pairing back and forth and theyve been doing it for 3 years... i think thats true love probably

[buzzrds]

here's my wonderful isopod child, handcrafted in leather

[zanmor]

We are well beyond canary in the coalmine warning levels with the way trans people and particularly trans women are treated on this site.

Maybe you've heard the metaphor of allowing wolves and sheep to share the same space, welcoming everyone. You end up with just wolves because allowing them in that space makes it unsafe for any sheep. Or the story about how a nazi goes into a dive bar and is refused service. The bartender then explains to someone else at the bar that if you serve them once they tell their friends and before you know it you're the nazi bar they all go to and normal customers don't feel safe.

Terfs and other bigots are seeing these targeted harassment campaigns succeed against trans women and rejoicing. They see Tumblr ban them and officially stand by those decisions as endorsement for their harassment. It's a sign to bigots across the internet that Tumblr is a good place for them.

And what's more is that a lot of us probably don't realize just how much trans women contribute to Tumblr. The women banned recently were sources of site-wide memes and posts I wasn't even aware originated from them.any years old memes and references can be traced back to trans women on this site.

How many of these folks have to be removed before this is no longer a site you want to be a part of it? Sure you cultivate your own experience, but you can't follow or interact with people who aren't here. And if I wanted to interact with the nazis and terfs I'd go to reddit.

I encourage everyone to reblog this. Trans women shouldn't have to be the only ones speaking out against the bigotry they're experiencing. They shouldn't be the only ones risking their blogs being nuked by staff. We have to stand with them.

[christadeguchi]

gritty both capturing the zeitgeist as usual AND educating me on the availability of free flow butter at american cinemas