#because it reminds me of edgar allan poe. that's not the point

[thebirdandhersong]

Also to be completely honest--warning: I have been obnoxious about names since I was a kid (which is why I gave up reading the Green Ember series... I remember reading it in high school and being Incredibly Frustrated by the lack of consistency in the way the writer chose his characters' names, so despite the fact that I liked the story somewhat, I just never read the rest of the series based on this sticking point)--it really bothers me that Paige and Rose are named Paige and Rose

[knockyasocksoff2022]

Some quotes from the actual Edgar Allan Poe that I think really fic BSD Poe.

This is just me rambling so it's all under the cut.

"From childhood's hour, I have not been. As others were, I have not seen. As others saw, I could not awaken. My heart to joy at the same tone. And all I loved, I loved alone."

This would refer to BSD Poe's isolation from being an ability user and a person of great intellect. (I feel like people don't talk about how actually smart he is enough because he's constantly compared to Ranpo. But if he could even challenge Ranpo that means he must be way smarter than the average person, not to mention to create mystery plots that stump most ordinary people.) When he found Ranpo it must have been a relief to find someone like him, who shared his passion for crime mysteries, only to be humiliated by him.

~

“I remained too much inside my head and ended up losing my mind.”

“I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity.”

“I do not suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.”

“And being so young and dipped in folly, I fell in love with melancholy.”

These remind me of the six-year period he spent obsessing over his rivalry with Ranpo and plotting vengeance.

~

“I was never really insane except upon occasions when my heart was touched"

“Sometimes I'm terrified of my heart; of its constant hunger for whatever it wants. The way it stops and starts.”

And then of course, these give me Ranpoe vibes.

~

“The believer is happy. The doubter is wise.”

“Science has not yet taught us if  madness is or is not the sublimity of intelligence.”

“Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality”

“Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.”

These are just the ones I think fit his general personality. I really like the one about madness being the sublimity of intelligence for him because I feel like many people characterize him as just a really stuttering and shy person (and he is, sometimes, especially around Ranpo) but he's also more than that. He's smart and creative and a lovable dork. I wish there were more Poe-centric fics.

He's very aware of how intelligent he is. And he's proud, maybe even more so since his defeat to Ranpo because he feels being smarter than most people is all he has and that he must cling to that to become superior to Ranpo. He has great confidence in his novels, only worried about what Ranpo thinks of them, not the general readers. (I'm thinking of the scene of him on the roof after Ranpo uses his novel to trap Chuuy in the cannibalism arc.)

Not to mention that, six years ago, he dared to challenge Ranpo, who by that point was already probably well-known for being a genius detective (as the agency had been around for six years by that point). He most likely knew that Ranpo was very smart, though maybe not the full extent of his skills, and was confident he could best him anyway. His defeat thoroughly surprised him, meaning his confidence wasn't based just on arrogance. He actually thought that with his great intelligence, he could beat Ranpo.

Another thing (which mostly stems from my personal interpretations of the characters) is that he and Ranpo have slightly different types of intelligence. Ranpo is skilled in detective work, but not much else (like riding the train or navigating), but Poe I think has more broad intelligence. It makes sense because he has to be very aware of the world and what goes on in it to write convincing stories. 

Both are skilled at reading people (Poe would have to be, to write characters that seem authentic and engaging) but I feel like Poe is more eloquent (he's totally an overthinker), whereas Ranpo just says exactly what he's thinking with no filter, he doesn't bother with fancy words. Ranpo may be able to read everyone in a room and know pretty much everything about them, but he isn't as good at reading the room in the emotional sense, he just says the truth and doesn't care if he upsets people.

So while Ranpo is more skilled at detective work, Poe is a very creative person, who is more socially and emotionally skilled. He's aware of the people and world around him, (despite his being an introvert) not only specific scenarios, like crime scenes. 

He has a galaxy brain that's always thinking of new and increasingly intricate ideas for his novels. But he isn't as skilled in detective work.

Same for Ranpo, for all his skill in crime solving, he would have a hard time writing a novel because he understands how people think logically, and what motivates them to commit crimes, like money, anger, or other criminal motives, but not socially. So he'd have difficulty writing dialogue for characters that weren't exactly like himself or the people he's very close to. (This is based on my reading of Untold Origins, namely his first encounter where he explains to Fukuzawa why he was kicked out of his job and seems not to understand at all why the boss got angry at him for revealing his secrets and kicked him out.)

I love both Ranpo and Poe, and both are very smart, equally so when you compare them in their specific skill sets (Poe is just as skilled at creating new and captivating mystery worlds as Ranpo is at solving crimes). Neither is smarter than the other on the whole, just in specific areas.

My point is I just want to see Poe being shown in fanworks as intelligent as well. Like him helping Louisa with strategy maybe or him being at the agency when they get a job that Ranpo deems boring, and he helps Atsushi solve the case. Maybe one of the guild/ada members reads his book and is really impressed. Or He traps a criminal inside and it takes them days to get out

Oooh, it'd be so cool if someone wrote a fic about one of Poe's victims getting trapped in his novel and slowly going insane trying to escape the complex mystery, one based on their own regrets, just to torment them with guilt, and eventually starving, dehydrating or killing themselves. And imagine it being in the original Edgar Allan Poe style!

Sorry, for my rambling, I hadn’t intended for this to get quite so long. I was so nervous to post this. I'm always nervous about posting my opinions about things.

[the-rewatch-rewind]

Here we go again, we're changing the scene.

Script below the break.

Hello and welcome back to The Rewatch Rewind! My name is Jane and this is the podcast where I count down my top 40 most frequently rewatched movies in a 20-year period. Today I will be discussing number six on my list: Shipwrecked Comedy and American Black Market’s 2017 film noir parody The Case of the Gilded Lily, directed by William J. Stribling, written by Sean Persaud and Sinéad Persaud, and starring Sean Persaud, Sinéad Persaud, Sarah Grace Hart, and Mary Kate Wiles.

It's 1939 in Los Angeles. Hardboiled private eye Ford Phillips (Sean Persaud) doesn’t touch Hollywood cases, until junior ace reporter Fig Wineshine (Sinéad Persaud) convinces him to help her childhood friend, starlet Wilhelmina Vanderjetski (Sarah Grace Hart) find out who is blackmailing her.

In my episode about Edgar Allan Poe’s Murder Mystery Dinner Party, which was number 13 on this list, I discussed how I found and fell in love with the work of Shipwrecked Comedy. If you haven’t listened to or don’t remember that episode, to summarize, I had incredibly high expectations for Edgar Allan Poe’s Murder Mystery Dinner Party, aka Poe Party, that were exceeded in every possible way, and in joining this small but enthusiastic fandom, I finally felt that I had found my people. I was very excited to learn what Shipwrecked’s next project would be, and I didn’t have long to wait. On May 30, 2017, just under seven months after the Poe Party finale, they shared a teaser poster for The Case of the Gilded Lily, which showed silhouettes of the Core Four (Sarah Grace Hart, Sinéad Persaud, Sean Persaud, and Mary Kate Wiles) in a style consistent with film noir. Since one of my favorite things about Poe Party had been the way it reminded me of classic movies, I was ecstatic to see them leaning even more directly into Old Hollywood.

The Kickstarter campaign launched a week later. Unlike Poe Party, which was an 11-episode series, Gilded Lily would be a short film, and they were only asking for $25,000. It didn’t even occur to me to be disappointed that this was going to be so much smaller; I was just excited that Shipwrecked was making another project so soon. In some ways, this Kickstarter experience was similar to the Poe Party one – the fun livestreams with backers’ names on the wall, the character reveals when milestones were reached – but in others, it was very different. For one thing, I had by this point met Shipwrecked and gotten to know many of their other fans, so instead of interacting with a bunch of pleasant strangers, these livestreams felt more like hanging out with friends. And for another, they reached their goal in less than a week, whereas Poe Party had taken almost a month, so it felt a lot less stressful, at least from a will-this-get-to-exist? perspective. They set a few stretch goals and ended up raising just over $43,000 by the time the campaign ended on June 25. I pledged a bit more to this project than I had to Poe Party, partly because I felt like I owed them for how much Poe Party had already changed my life, but also of course because of how thrilled I was that they were making something else that was related to my interests.

The main reason they were making Gilded Lily right then was because they had been invited to premiere a new project at Buffer Festival in Toronto, where they had screened all of Poe Party the year before when only the first 9 episodes were up on YouTube. I would have loved to have gone, both to see Poe Party and to see Gilded Lily, but it didn’t work out. However, Kickstarter backers at the $25 level and up would get access to watch The Case of the Gilded Lily soon after Buffer, before it was posted publicly, and that was good enough for me. Buffer Festival was only about three months after the Kickstarter ended, so Shipwrecked had a ridiculously short period of time to complete this video that they had originally intended to be about 20 minutes long but ended up with a runtime nearly twice that. I still don’t understand how they did it. I know, from talking to members of Shipwrecked at the time and from behind-the-scenes content they’ve released, that they were incredibly stressed about things like finding and locking locations, a cast member having to drop out last minute, and, of course, the budget, but still, they managed it. They successfully premiered their 38-minute long “short” film at Buffer Festival 2017 and emailed a link to backers a couple weeks later, on October 12.

I had a lot of trouble setting my expectations for The Case of the Gilded Lily. This group had just made Poe Party, so I knew they were capable of greatness, but I also knew I had no right to expect this to be on the same level as that, since it was always intended to be a much smaller project. I was sure I was going to enjoy it, but I was very curious to see how much. The first thing that struck me after I clicked the early access link was the music. The soundtrack was composed by Dylan Glatthorn, who had also composed the Poe Party soundtrack, which I absolutely should have mentioned in that episode because it is incredible. But the Gilded Lily soundtrack is somehow even better. Shipwrecked had released a video of a song from the short called “A Change of Scene” in September, written by Glatthorn and performed by Mary Kate Wiles as lounge singer Vivian Nightingale (a name that had been mentioned in Poe Party), so I already knew that was a bop, but it didn’t prepare me for how hard the opening credits music would slap. The theme is so delightfully jazzy that even after nearly six years, I can’t sit still when I hear it. That music over the black and white shots of the Hollywoodland sign and palm trees was the perfect way to set the scene. And then the opening credits finished and the film itself began.

So here’s the thing about film noir. In general, I enjoy it: I think it’s a fascinating filmmaking style and a very effective technique to tell a certain type of story, and two of my other top 40 most frequently rewatched films – Notorious and Gaslight – are fairly noir-esque, but also, film noir can get very dark. Every November, along with many film lovers on the internet, I celebrate Noirvember, a time to watch and appreciate film noir. In 2015, I actually managed to watch 30 noirs in Noirvember, and by the end of the month I noticed that it was really getting to me. I was starting to feel a constant vague sense of unease, dread, and despair. So in every November since then I’ve forced myself to consume noirs somewhat more moderately. I must have known that Gilded Lily was going to be more of a parody and not like one of the darker noirs. The group was called Shipwrecked Comedy, after all. But even Poe Party had had some pretty dark moments. I’m sure I expected jokes in The Case of the Gilded Lily, but I was utterly floored by just how laugh-out-loud funny the whole darn film was. It wasn’t dark at all, at least compared to most noirs or even to Poe Party. There wasn’t even any murder! The first time I watched it, I must have missed at least half the jokes because I was still laughing at prior gags. The plot was just as complicated and twisty as most noirs, but that first time I was barely paying attention because, again, too much laughing. Therefore, once I finished it, I naturally had to immediately rewatch it several times to pick up on the jokes and plot points I’d missed, and I was delighted but not at all surprised to find that it held up very well. I don’t recall exactly how many times I’d seen it before the link was made public on December 11, but by the end of 2017 I’d watched it nine times. I then watched it four times in 2018, six times in 2019, five times in 2020, three times in 2021, and four times in 2022. And I still think the jokes are funny. So if you haven’t watched it, you absolutely should, it’s still available for free on YouTube (link in the show notes) and it’s like the length of one episode of a TV show.

There are so many different types of humor in this film, and all of them are great. There’s the whole playing with and making fun of noir tropes aspect, including several instances of characters interrupting each other’s voiceovers, a camera rotation into a Dutch angle causing Ford to fall over, and Wilhelmina trying to smoke and drink to fit in but not quite understanding the concept. That last one serves the dual purpose of making fun of the excessive smoking and drinking common in noirs and further developing one of my favorite types of character: the confidently clueless. The Case of the Gilded Lily has two of these: Wilhelmina Vanderjetski, the starlet who’s being blackmailed, played by Sarah Grace Hart, and Dash Gunfire, Ford’s rival private eye, played by Joey Richter. Wilhelmina’s cluelessness mostly makes her happy and charming, whereas Dash’s makes him frustrated and annoying, and it’s very entertaining to see two such similar yet very different characters in the same project. Basically everything either of them says or does makes me laugh. There’s also some great physical comedy, mainly from Clayton Farris as the disgruntled Buster Keaton. Similarly, there’s humor with the set and props, like when Cliff Calloway (played by Tom DeTrinis) switches between smoking a cigar and a cigarette in the same scene depending on who he’s talking to, and when Officer Claudette Knickerbocker (played by Joanna Sotomura) is talking to Ford on the phone about how hot she finds Cliff, and it cuts away to Ford putting down the phone and pouring himself a drink and when we see Claudette again her office is in complete disarray. And then there are all the hilarious running gags. Like how whenever someone brings up that Wilhelmina’s real name is Lily THomas, Ford has to argue that it should be pronounced Thomas. And how every time the scene changes after Vivian sings “A Change of Scene” the first time, there’s a little reprise of her singing about how we’re changing the scene. And the way Fig is obsessed with cookies and keeps getting them – I am truly in awe of Sinéad Persaud’s brilliance in writing a character for herself that required her to eat lots of cookies. What an iconic move. And then there’s the running bit where Ford will pause and stare into the distance dramatically before mentioning The War, much to Fig’s confusion, until it’s finally revealed that The War was a movie he and Claudette acted in when they were children. Another running bit is the bartender Bixby Crane (played by Dante Swain) repeatedly saying his own name unnecessarily, and taking things very literally in unexpected ways. This bit was particularly funny to me because my high school band director’s name was Parker Bixby, and when we marched in the Tournament of Roses parade, one of the announcers commented, “I want to change my name to Parker Bixby.” Later somebody put that on t-shirts and Mr. Bixby ended up with one. So seeing a character named Bixby who was obsessed with his own name made me laugh even harder than it would have if they’d picked any other name for that character.

Like in Poe Party, the actors in The Case of the Gilded Lily were encouraged to play around, at least as much as their limited production time would allow, which once again resulted in an excellent blooper reel, and also some great moments in the film. One of the best is when Wilhelmina’s husband, producer Roger Haircremé, played by Gabe Greenspan, comes into the lobby from the Sufferin’ Safari premiere and says, “Sweetheart, it’s nearly giraffe time!” which was improvised. Also, major shout out to the Persauds for their incredible character names, and also to Gabe Greenspan, who filled in last minute when the original Roger had to drop out of the project. It’s kind of mind boggling that this was the first time Gabe worked with Shipwrecked and that he almost wasn’t even in this, since it’s hard to imagine their more recent projects without him. Another unscripted moment that I love is when Vivian is telling Fig about an underground gambling ring and says that they meet on Wednesday nights, adding, “Tonight. And next Wednesday. And the Wednesday after that…” That last part wasn’t in the script, but they brought it back again when Fig passes this information on to Claudette, saying, “Vivian only knew they meet tonight. And then next week. And the week after that. Basically, it’s a weekly thing.” And Joanna, not really knowing how to respond to that, just had Claudette go, “Oh, okay” and move on with her lines, and for some reason that just really tickles me.

I think the thing I appreciated the most about The Case of the Gilded Lily, once I stopped laughing long enough to analyze it, was that it felt like a typical Shipwrecked project while also feeling completely different from what they’d done before. The sense of humor felt the same as Poe Party, even though the Gilded Lily gags tended to be on the sillier side. The story was just as well thought out as Poe Party’s, but while Poe Party was being released I was constantly trying to figure out who the murderer was, whereas with Gilded Lily I didn’t even attempt to guess who the blackmailer was, I was too busy laughing. Also, being a short film rather than a series released over 11 weeks, there was much less time for speculation. Of course, the overlapping cast made the projects feel similar, and I particularly enjoyed seeing Ryan W. Garcia, who had played Eddie in Poe Party, show up as an extra in about half the Gilded Lily scenes. This ultimately inspired me to write a rather long and intense fan fiction tying a bunch of Shipwrecked projects together with the time traveling ghost of Eddie. Tom DeTrinis’s Cliff Calloway seemed about what you’d expect if Oscar Wilde was trying to pretend to be a straight film star. Joey Richter’s Dash Gunfire was similar to his Ernest Hemingway in that both were rivals with Sean’s character, although Dash is way sillier.

And then there’s the Core Four. Sean and Sinéad’s characters and dynamic were very similar in A Tell-Tale Vlog, Poe Party, and Gilded Lily: both Poe and Ford are loners who secretly desire friends, and both Lenore and Fig are outgoing and talkative and enjoy winding up Sean’s character, who begrudgingly appreciates them despite his best efforts to abhor them. But of course, they are unquestionably different characters, and I think they both did an excellent job of adjusting their mannerisms to make them feel distinct. Mary Kate and Sarah’s characters, on the other hand, are essentially the complete opposite of what they played in Poe Party. Annabel was sweet and naïve and wanted everyone to be happy, whereas Vivian is bitter and jaded and having affairs with four different men in five different states (another great line) and doesn’t seem to care about anyone besides herself. Going straight from an ingenue to a femme fatale and absolutely nailing both was an excellent way for Mary Kate Wiles to demonstrate her incredible acting range. I’d already been a huge fan of her work for over five years at that point, and I was still blown away. Vivian doesn’t even get that much screentime, but gah, what MK does with her voice, like, just, close your eyes and listen to Annabel and then listen to Vivian, you can’t even tell they’re the same person. I feel like this also helps distinguish Edgar and Ford from each other. It’s a running theme in most Shipwrecked projects that Sean’s character is super into Mary Kate’s character, although they rarely end up together, and I can’t really explain why, but I don’t feel like Poe would be particularly into Vivian, nor would Ford be interested in Annabel. But I could be wrong about that, I don’t really understand how sexual or romantic attraction works. Anyway, all that being said, if I had to pick one single favorite aspect of The Case of the Gilded Lily, it would have to be Sarah Grace Hart as Wilhelmina Vanderjetski, mostly because she is absolutely hilarious, but also because she is so different from Emily Dickinson in Poe Party. Emily is forgotten by everyone the second after she introduces herself, whereas Wilhelmina is one of the most famous stars in Hollywood. Emily seems to know what’s going on, and I have a theory that she could have figured out the whole thing if people would have just listened to her, whereas Wilhelmina, bless her, is paying blackmail while also telling everyone what she’s being blackmailed for. Also it’s literally just… having a stage name. Not really something worth paying $20,000 per week to keep secret, especially if you’re just going to tell everyone anyway. But Sarah commits to this character so hard that you never once doubt that Willie would absolutely fall prey to this ridiculous scheme. She’s so earnestly oblivious in the most endearing and hilarious way that she’s probably my favorite Shipwrecked character, and possibly my favorite character in anything ever.

What I didn’t know at the time was that originally, Shipwrecked had planned to follow Poe Party with a whole series featuring these characters, but when they got invited to Buffer they knew they wouldn’t have time for all that, so they made The Case of the Gilded Lily as kind of a pilot for the Fig and Ford series. They did make it clear that they had at least some intentions of continuing the story, with a question mark appearing after “The End” and a quick post-credits scene with Vivian bursting into Fig and Ford’s office and saying, “Mr. Phillips, something terrible has happened!” After years with no word of what this could be leading to, I had almost given up hope of more from this world, and then, in 2022, Shipwrecked launched a Kickstarter for an audio narrative called The Case of the Greater Gatsby, currently coming out weekly on all major podcast platforms, and we’re finally getting more, and it is so delightful. Once again, I don’t feel like I’m doing a very good job of trying to figure out what’s going on, but I am living for the jokes.

Classic film noir tended to be relatively sexually explicit for its time – at least, as much as it was allowed to be under production codes. In particular, the male protagonist was often led astray by his attraction to the sexy but dangerous femme fatale. The Persauds had said that they were inspired by Who Framed Roger Rabbit, another noir parody, which turns these sexy expectations around with a femme fatale type character who is, if not overtly asexual, certainly ace-coded – she’s married to a rabbit, and when asked what the attraction is, she says, and I quote, “He makes me laugh.” The Case of the Gilded Lily finds a different way to put a twist on the femme fatale trope with Vivian Nightingale, who is certainly not ace-coded, but also doesn’t seem to be particularly dangerous – at least in the Gilded Lily plot, I don’t know where Greater Gatsby is going yet. Vivian is a possible suspect, and Ford is very attracted to her, but she’s innocent and nothing bad really comes of her involvement in this story. She has an attitude of, “I have no clue how I got mixed up with you clowns, but I’ll be fabulous while I’m here" that you have to admire. Really the only romance in The Case of the Gilded Lily is the one between Wilhelmina Vanderjetski and Roger Haircremé, and that one is… questionable, to put it mildly. For one thing, Willie lied to Roger about her background to get him to marry her. For another, Roger saw through her ridiculous story but pretended not to, instead blackmailing her to pay off his gambling debts. When Fig and Ford uncover this, instead of being furious with her husband, Wilhelmina is delighted that the blackmailer was just her kind, loving husband who’d never do anything to hurt her. Typically I’m very much in favor of forgiveness, but in this case I really don’t think Roger deserves it. In a way, this could be seen as illustrating the harms of amatonormativity, showing that Wilhelmina thinks staying with a blackmailer is preferable to having no husband, but it definitely comes across as her genuinely believing that Roger has done nothing wrong. It’s weird, but I love the way this shifts the noir trope of sexy-romance-gone-wrong to be about a couple who was married at the start and has no intention of getting divorced at the end, and involves a woman who bears zero resemblance to a typical femme fatale.

Like pretty much every other Shipwrecked project (besides Kissing in the Rain), The Case of the Gilded Lily is way more focused on platonic relationships than romantic or sexual ones. Even though the crime is related to Roger and Wilhelmina’s relationship, it’s solved mainly because of Fig’s friendship with Wilhelmina, Fig’s attempts to befriend Ford, and Ford’s friendship with Claudette. I didn’t know I was aroace when this came out, but I certainly appreciated all the non-romantic storylines. And I would argue that Gilded Lily does have at least one ace-coded character, although it’s not the one who reminds us of Jessica Rabbit: it’s Fig Wineshine. She wants to be friends with everyone but doesn’t show any signs of attraction to any of them. And she has this great line in Greater Gatsby when she’s describing how Cliff Calloway is a Hollywood heartthrob: “He didn't really do it for me. But then again he wasn't circular with crispy edges and a gooey middle.” She’s saying that her type is a literal cookie. There’s no allosexual explanation for that.

My main takeaway from The Case of the Gilded Lily back in 2017 was that Poe Party was not a fluke. I had truly stumbled upon an underappreciated group of talented, hardworking geniuses when I found Shipwrecked Comedy, and I was going to keep following and supporting their work from then on no matter what. And I have never regretted doing that for a second. Most of the projects they’ve made in the years since The Case of the Gilded Lily have been too short to count as movies, but they have all been incredibly delightful. I would highly recommend everything on their YouTube channel, in addition to the Greater Gatsby podcast they’re currently releasing, especially if you enjoy Old Hollywood; I am thoroughly enjoying all the references to actual movies and actors that I love by the fictional characters from the world of Fig and Ford that I also love. Shipwrecked keeps telling the exact stories I want to see and hear, and I cannot even begin to adequately express how much joy they have brought to my life. I truly hope everyone out there has found or will find a group of artists whose work means as much to them as Shipwrecked’s does to me.

Thank you for listening to me discuss another of my most frequently rewatched movies. Next week I will enter my top 5 with the oldest movie on this list, which I also watched 31 times. As always, I will leave you with a quote from that next movie: “Always remember that the truth has never hurt any man! …And anyway, if it does, I’ll go to the hospital with you.”

[grennseyelashes]

Oh and ANOTHER thing. Anyone else think it's funny that chick that keeps showing up (?) and speaking in riddles, telling Dany to go back, is called "Quaithe". Like. In a book with a talking raven. Quaithe.... Quoth. Of Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven fame. Quoth the Raven etc. Where the narrator is driven to madness asking when he will see his lost Lenore and receiving only the same answer over and over, "Nevermore."

Aka the poem that's referenced at Dany's absolute lowest moment (in Daenerys IX, AGOT) where, after already having committed to righting the wrong of Eroeh's enslavement and rape (because she's projecting onto her), she finds that the only power she currently has at her command (sex, as taught by Doreah) is utterly useless, and she is left, as the narrator of The Raven is, bargaining with futility:

"And when the bleak dawn broke over an empty horizon, Dany knew that he was truly lost to her. "When the sun rises in the west and sets in the east," she said sadly. "When the seas go dry and mountains blow in the wind like leaves. When my womb quickens again, and I bear a living child. Then you will return, my sun-and-stars, and not before."

Never, the darkness cried, never never never.

The musicality of the end of that second paragraph, ending on an "-ore" syllable, and the repetition of "never" bring to mind the word nevermore, and the darkness crying out also indicates this poem, as it's the darkness that speaks first in it, not the raven itself. And it's also accompanied by another literary reference from which we can infer that Dany's state of mind in this moment is similar to how the narrator of the poem ends up too

Inside the tent Dany found a cushion, soft silk stuffed with feathers. She clutched it to her breasts as she walked back out to Drogo, to her sun-and-stars. If I look back I am lost. It hurt even to walk, and she wanted to sleep, to sleep and not to dream.

This bolded section is a a reference to the "to be or not to be" soliloquy from Hamlet (specifically the line "to sleep, perchance to dream"), which is a mediation on suicide, where the speaker ultimately decides not to die for fear of "dreams" (here meaning his fear of hell). But funnily enough Dany is not religious. And shortly after this she walks into a fire.

It's safe to say that regardless of if Quaithe is ever real (at least after Quarth) the visions of her that Dany has are functioning as a reminder of this moment, at least to the reader, and of the true reason she did it. Not to save the world, but because there was no place in it for her as she was.

This "Never never never" phrase is used only one other time in the books too, for the other Very Magical child, all the way across the sea, who is also selected for a special "destiny" and who is not at any point in a position to reject it either:

"I am told you were quite the climber, Bran," the little man said at last. "Tell me, how is it you happened to fall that day?" "I never," Bran insisted. He never fell, never never never. "The child does not remember anything of the fall, or the climb that came before it," said Maester Luwin gently.

Wonder what would happen if Dany ever truly remembered how she got those dragons. Because just like Bran, before she flew, she fell.

[tothepointofinsanity]

Personal Log VI

Being raised under the wings of conservative religious parents and in two households of traditional Chinese relatives has taught me nothing but how to be a sponge for guilt. Everyone within my childhood has always made an effort to correct my "oddness" and open sensitivity. My sister pointed out to me only recently that she always thought I was a bit "off" when she was younger; an innate oddity I possessed on my persons attributed not only to the custom of dressing, but a highly reclusive nature that was perceived rebellious.

I don't think anyone in my family truly understands me. I say this not out of ill faith, but in the belief that no one has attempted to be sympathetic to my cause. They're not obligated to, certainly, and I have stopped trying altogether because I hate my father. My sister and I became close only a few years ago. On the phone, a distinct conversation I remember was when she told me the school counselor used play and art therapy in the room with her. And of these collection of toys, a striking posse of goldfish plush. She said that looking at these toys reminded her of myself. That seems to be all the hots of impressions about me these days by peers as well.

Rest in peace to everyone else in my psychology course for having me as their local madman. I'll never apologize for terrorising the class with my absurd fashion sense and blatant advocacy for homosexuality rights. (← Actually, I should do that more discreetly in the club instead because I might get arrested by the government!) I'm not over the fact that the schedule fucked me over and separated me from my two (2) friends in the entire course so I have to make new friends for the next semester. Thinking about socialising makes me sweat buckets, and I'm talking Johnny the Homicidal Maniac levels of neurosis here. Makes my teeth chatter a bit. Shiver me timbers. What's a man supposed to do if he hates how suffocating people can be? Something something Edgar Allan Poe was right. Sorry if it sounds like I'm "bouncing" here and there in my writing. I can never think straight and there's a lot of conversation generated in my brain right now. This sudden spike of jubilation (hypomania moment) was certainly unexpected, so I'll take advantage of it as much as I can to speak nonsense and garbage until I eventually sober up later.

[mstornadox]

Thoughts while watching Eurovision semifinal 2

Wish I could watch this live. Dadi Freyr is in the audience!

Denmark - why are the vocals so quiet?

Armenia - like the raked stage with the visuals. But. I want dancers.

Romania - liked him better in the vid peacock is actually showed the lyrics in romanian!?!?! Earlier, even French was captioned as “non English”

Estonia - another solo performer. Where are the groups? The backup dancers? That piano does not count. And ya lost points when you sat at the bench and pretended to play

Belgium - finally, a faster tempo. And the backup singers are good. Wish the drag queens in the visuals had been on stage. At least the vogue dancer appeared towards the end.

Thoughts so far:

not liking the lineup

Want more variety

Want more spectacle

No crazy zany or weird energy

Excuse me while I watch a video of Scooch’s performance from a while ago.

Cyprus - best love song so far :/ Maybe because it reminds me of a song by Imagine Dragons

Iceland - dramatic disco ballad. Best performance so far

Greece - really, what is up with sound mix

Poland - backup dancers! Finally! Who are wearing different outfits and colors! Song even has a dance break, so much energy.

Slovenia - omg a band and they are having fun. alt-disco vibe

Georgia - finally a solo performer starting the song loud and vibrant instead of quiet

San Marino - another band! But the singer is not good. Now I want to watch last year’s entry

Austria - oooh, a duo and they are bringing the weird. Fitting for a song about Edgar Allan Poe

Albania - yes.

Lithuania - good energy, the performance was all about the song

Australia - metal band; too much focus on the lead singer. Everyone else in the band was much more interesting

Other observations:

Tonight’s vid intros are showing lots of sports.

Most of the songs have had the same structure. As do the performances. Is this because there have been so many solo performances on the stage alone?

If Malta had been in this semifinal, they would have made it through to the finals. I’m retroactively adding them to my favorites from this year

The last 5 acts were the best sequence

Seriously, the sound mix is not good tonight

When they started singing the Carol of Bells, I really missed having a commentator

Hannah Waddington is awesome

Favorites today: Portugal and Croatia (even though they performed on Tuesday); Belgium; Slovenia; Georgia; Austria; Albania; Australia; and the drag queens medley

[spaceorphanssecondbreakfastclub]

SO's Bookclub : The Haunting

Title: The Haunting Author: Joan Lowery Nixon Genre: YA Mystery

Goodreads Summary :

The walls whisper. The ceilings shriek. No one can survive a night of terror inside Graymoss. The old plantation house has been in Lia’s family since the Civil War, but it’s been possessed for generations by a malicious spirit, and Lia’s family has always stayed far away. Now her parents have decided to move into Graymoss, and Lia must either change their minds or chase away the horror lurking inside the old house. Using clues from her great-great-grandmother’s diary and an old copy of Favorite Tales of Edgar Allan Poe, Lia must discover what—or who—the evil wants.

Review:

This is the first one of the four that I haven't read that I picked up a few months ago when I started doing this project. So, this is my first read through. And, you know, it's not that bad. I'd say it's on the upper end of these kinds of books, but ooff, still issues.

The plot revolves around Graymoss -- an old home in Louisiana belonging to protagonist Lia's family. Lia's mother wants to turn it into a foster care home for kids. But everyone else on the planet is like -- you crazy, place haunted.

On the one hand - meant to be a lot like Shirley Jackson's Haunting of Hill House. Having the story built on a creepy atmosphere and psychological terror instead of cheep jumps scares and gory slasher tactics. But... the novel spends so little time away from the house that it never really gets that spooky. Which is odd - because JLN is usually pretty good at setting a tense atmosphere.

A lot of her normal tropes are somewhat subverted. We're not in Texas because this was clearly inspired by something she discovered in Louisiana (the dedication points in this direction). Lia is fine as a protagonist and I really didn't feel like punching her at any point. The family is mostly decent -- except Grandma is a little weird, but not matriarchal. And, there is a guy who is involved but only for about two seconds, he's barely around to even be considered a love interest, and he's discarded just as quickly.

Oh - and there was mention of cell phones. Which I found interesting for a book set in the late 90s. These books almost feel out of time when they start mentioning modern technology.

The book does have a pretty decent premise, and there were pieces of the mystery that were intriguing but it never really gets off the ground. Plus - we spend a lot of time (especially for a short book) talking to people who don't really matter, who don't really tell us anything, or don't move the plot forward. (There's an entire chapter where they spend time with kids at an orphanage just to remind you that they want to put little kids into foster care using the haunted house.)

This entire novel could have worked better as a short story - one that took place in a single night -- kind of like A Deadly Game of Magic did. The clues that are sprinkled throughout the novel kind of point in an obvious direction -- especially the use of the Edgar Allen Poe book (which really, if anyone had been thinking - the whole mystery would have been solved easily way back when).

Overall, it's fine. There's nothing egregiously wrong with it, nothing made me want to throw it against the wall. But, she just didn't make great use of a haunted house trope, and you can tell a lot of why this book was written was because she was inspired by different parts of Louisiana culture.

Rating: 3.25 Stars

[heartscrypt]

For the fandom questions, how about O, T, and X? Thank you!

O: Choose a song at random, what ship does it remind you of?

this song will always be ineffable husbands to me i cant explain why. i love good omens waiting for that s2 baby!!!!!

T: What are your favorite male/male ships or female/female ships?

well. glances at my entire account. you guys have seen how ill jamiazu makes me so there's one. i dont really have anything fr twst besides them. for ace attorney there is NO way im not gonna say wrightworth they are actually married at this point. faraskye is a close second they're so silly. for cfv lunam solos they're literally the girlfriends ever. ill bring up kaichi later but kairen is really funny as exes and renkyou is just funny in general

X: 3 OTPs from 3 different fandoms.

auuu this is so!!! um um uerrm. going with my overall favorites OF ALL TIME!!!

1) kaichi (toshiki kai x aichi sendou, cardfight vanguard). this one is at the top because theyre so fucking canon im gonna throw up THEY LITERALLY ARE EVERYTHING YOU COULD EVER WANT IN A TROPE.

2) klapollo (klavier gavin x apollo justice, ace attorney) i really like them an abnormal amount i love dynamics where its like (guy who is trying so hard to be normal) x (guy who is absolutely not normal)

3) ranpoe (ranpo edogawa x edgar allan poe, bungou stray dogs) this one was the og jamie ship if u followed me on my old account. i posted that shit REGULARLY . on the DAILY. it was worse on twitter

[sleepymarmot]

Jedi: Fallen Order liveblog

Warning: there are a lot of complaints here. A lot. Seriously, I’m a glass half empty person, and I wrote down everything that annoyed me. I’ve done the first objectives on Zeffo and Kashyyyk, and I have no problems with what little of the story I’ve experienced, but I’m not happy with the gameplay-story balance and many things about the gameplay itself.

Anti shout-out to whoever packaged the game because 1) installing it took 45 minutes with my CPU loaded to 98-100% 2) it tried to restart my PC after installation. What the fuck? I guess if you can’t buy a game legally you have to pay with bullshit instead...

Would it have killed them to accompany the tutorial level with a, you know, actual tutorial?! I kind of figured you jump with the spacebar because it’s common across games, but I had to open a walkthrough to find out, after about 5-10 minutes of walking around and dying repeatedly, that there’s a rope somewhere in the dark (foolish me following the game’s advice on brightness settings) and you also jump onto it with the spacebar. Dropping down from the grates didn’t work with the specified key either, I had to mash the whole keyboard in blind rage until something finally worked. And then the game froze on the “lock target” tutorial, twice.

Am I or, for that matter, the other characters really supposed to believe that a normal, non-force sensitive person can perform all these feats of acrobatics?

Ideologically it’s very funny you’re supposed to replenish the force meter by attacking enemies. Are you sure I’m a light-sider?

Alright, the droid is super cute.

I am continuously amazed at how well-animated and expressive Cal is. (I’m so spoiled by good mocap in newer games; if the next DA game won’t have it I’m going to be disappointed.)

Once again, a tutorial that doesn’t fucking tell you what to do...

At first I had flashbacks to a certain planet from KOTOR, but now I’m more reminded of Inquisition (especially due to the art style) and Andromeda (the Vault, huh). Nothing new in video games...

Why would there be a list of force-sensitive children if the Jedi take infants as soon as their force sensitivity is discovered?

Oh cool, I can customize my lightsaber already!

God I must have done the jump with two ropes about 20 times... The one time I got to the other side I got immediately overpowered by the enemies. The second successful attempt was many reloads later. At least there's a save point right before it... Oh god this was so fucking stressful. I made a series of successful jumps and then failed some and then I had to walk a pretty long way with literally zero health and healing items knowing I’d have to redo it all, possibly several times... I was so relieved to get to the meditation point at last.

Sick of getting killed by these stupid rams. I’m switching to story mode.

Finally! I was getting sick at looking at these pushable objects and being unable to push them.

And here we go to Kashyyyk again, hunting down memories encoded in mysterious orbs. It’s as if I never left KOTOR. Diversity win: an ancient sage interred in this sarcophagus used they/them pronouns.

I managed to lock myself in a fucking tomb?? After a few minutes of panicked running around the small chamber and slashing at the bars, I reloaded and redid the last step of the puzzle before that, then watched a walkthrough. Apparently, the chamber was supposed to lock, because it’s actually an elevator, but in my case it didn’t seem to activate. (This part of my gameplay was sponsored by the Buried and Edgar Allan Poe. Legitimately triggered my normally nonexistent claustrophobia...)

I LOVE it when I try to wall run and instead I smash into the wall and am thrown into the abyss.

I had to read the walkthrough and backtrack from the crash. Why give me access to an area if I can’t explore it?

This planet took FOREVER. There’s way too much stuff and almost no plot. And after that hell, it’s very immersion-breaking to see Cal swagger onto the ship and casually chat with Cere. He should be falling onto the nearest surface and sleeping for 8 hours! Also, aren’t you all on the run from the empire, why aren’t you rushing to buckle up and escape into hyperspace?

I do not understand what the fuck I’m supposed to do. 

Oh hi Saw Gerrera! I just saw you in a movie yesterday!

I see, it’s a “fuck the arachnophobes” planet.

The lack of the current quest objective on the HUD or at least somewhere in the menu hurts sometimes. Coming back to the game in the morning, I couldn’t remember what I was supposed to do next, and had to look it up in a walkthrough.

Fuck these double ropes and whoever designed them! After about 20 tries, several deaths and two videos I finally figured out that you need so swing not only forward but also backwards to achieve enough momentum, and even after that I needed several tries to actually execute it. Sometimes I couldn’t even grab onto the rope properly: jumping onto it didn’t work, and instead I jumped straight up and fell to my death. I couldn’t figure out by myself the puzzle with the propeller you need to activate either.

Had to go revenge-kill a security droid for the XP and then got to the roof for the surprisingly huge fight and had to take another one of those again -_- As usual, enemies that specialize in CC are infuriating. How dare you hold me in the air by the neck, you stupid Vader wannabe?!

My Inquisitor from DAI, now in third person! I had to listen to this random NPC’s voice for a few seconds before I figured out who it belonged to.

There’s another tomb? Another area of the same size on that godforsaken planet?

Omg, this cute critter is now mine? :O

The game wanted me to go onto the ice slide. I did it flawlessly on the first try. Then I walked in a dark corner, it turned out to be an elevator, and it brought me... back to where I started. I thought “well it’s an elevator, I’ll just get back down on it” but it didn’t work. I had to slide on the ice through spinning turbines again, and this time I fucked it up several times. Then I fell off a wall. Then I got killed by a ram. Rinse, repeat, get killed by the same ram again. Then I gave up on the XP and decided to get to the objective a different way. I tried to trek around the entire area I’ve already seen just to get to a place I’d already visited but couldn’t do shit because it became accessible before it became plot relevant. Then I realized that the way I got to the crash site seemed to be blocked now, wandered around for a long time looking to a way back, then discovered with the help of a video walkthrough that the only way out was to go forward through a ton of environmental obstacles like the damn pulverizers and the double ropes I complained about earlier, and make a giant loop... ending in the same place in the ice caves with the turbines, the elevator and the ram. So, lots of time wasted for nothing. Great game design, folks!

---

Alright, I reached the quest area and I'm going to pause there. It’ll be a few days until I can play again, so here are some of the impressions outside of what I wrote about in the liveblog:

Exploration: Way too much work for almost no reward. The more I play, the more frustrating the collectibles and echoes become. If 99% of unlocks are cosmetics, couldn’t you make them varied and interesting instead of recolors and tiny pieces of lightsaber decor you never see anyway? Echoes are so flavorless and empty it feels like the writers are afraid to step on the canon’s toes. As for the level design, see the numerous complaints above. I do like that the items and pathways are color-coded to indicate whether you can interact with them right now or not. I also like that, at least so far, there’s no pressing emergency “save the world”-type narrative that would conflict with the incentive to explore.

Mechanics: There is way too much parkour and, unlike combat, you can’t turn down the difficulty. Well, maybe “difficulty” is not the right word, because my real problem is how unreliable and unresponsive it often is. The difference between failure and success can be a split second or a camera angle, and you get no indication of what you did wrong. In combat, I keep attacking air even after turning the auto-targeting on. The skill tree doesn’t have much to be excited about. Unlike many other games, I don’t look forward to coming back to the game just so I could use a favorite combat skill of mine. Fus-ro-dah-ing enemies off of ledges is fun, but I can also do that in Skyrim or Mass Effect. I do enjoy that we can use the same skills on both in combat and on the environment. It’s good that the enemies aren’t health sponges, and that difficulty settings are about something other than HP numbers. I appreciate that respawning doesn’t undo your progress, but the lack of inability to make multiple manual saves makes me nervous: what if I get stuck, or what if my only save gets corrupted?

Story, progression and immersion: The story is hard to judge at this point because there’s been so little of it. At the beginning I was excited, but turns out, it was just an intro, and the main part of the game is 95% gameplay (which I’m not a fan of). I’m glad the PC isn’t immediately overpowered, but it’s immersion-breaking how he can dispatch trained anti-jedi troopers but has problems with wild animals, and especially how he takes so much time to remember and relearn the basic things he learned years ago. Seriously, it’s been so many hours and I still can’t pull things with the force! The writers also didn’t make even the slightest attempt to justify the respawn mechanic in-universe. The planets look more like playgrounds than real places; at some points stormtroopers yell something like “how did this guy get in here” and honestly I sympathize, but also, how do you get places, did you hang up all of this parkour equipment for yourself? At least for the first tomb they gave the excuse that it was something like a training ground. Another shadow hanging over everything is that during the OT there aren’t supposed to be any Jedi except Luke, so should I not get attached because all of these people are going to be dead within 15 years? 

Overall, the game manages to remind me of half the games I’ve ever played even though I have not played anything from the genres it belongs to according to the internet. It feels more like Generic Video Game than like Star Wars, at least so far. When I think Star Wars, I don’t think “parkour and grinding for collectibles”, you know? I have problems with pretty much every aspect of game design; the older I get, the less patience I have with the games that fundamentally don’t respect the player’s time. When I looked up the playtime for this game, I assumed it would be much, much tighter. I don’t know how much time I’ve spent on it so far, but I doubt my playthrough is going to fit within the 17-30 hours that the internet described. People have called it “story-driven”! If 90% gameplay/10% story is story-driven then what counts as not story-driven, irl Lego?!

Still, I am not frustrated enough to quit. I look forward to exploring the next areas and experiencing the story by myself instead of relying on random youtubers. I’ve seen too many spoilers already, and I hope to encounter them in the actual game sooner than later.

[noeffingbody]

we started watching fall of the house of usher yesterday. we’ve only gotten through two episodes but I have a lot of thoughts.

My husband finds it so annoying that Mike flanagan works with the same cast over and over again. Personally, I really enjoy having that familiarity with the actors and it’s really astonishing how they manage to make me forget their previous roles because of how immersive their performances are but there are also little things that are callbacks to specific flanagan dynamics (the scene with perry and napoleon where he’s giving his little brother advice are giving midnight club and hill house). it just adds to this idea that his work is its own little world. I enjoy that kinda thing, stories being in constant conversation with each other

speaking of family dynamics: I LOVEEEE. It’s really just new dynamics, new complexities, new politics, but with the same backdrop of dysfunctional family huddled together. Hill house is my favorite of his work so seeing him get back to that large family ensemble type story is so exciting.

there is so much freaking nudity already damn. like I have no issues but it’s definitely a notable feature the amount of sexual content there is in this. it’s definitely a lot more graphic in terms of death and gore, which is standard for a lot of horror, but again—notable. reminds me of classical religious art actually. or Dante’s inferno

we have already touched on some core flanagan obsessions: harmful religious fervor, obscuring timelines, the haunting power of memory, the intersection of mental health and supernatural phenomena. But we also got some new ones: greed and technological advancement, power and corporate exploitation, legitimate vs. illegitimate children and their perceived roles and rights within the family…I’m here for it.

mostly his past work has been very contemplative and slow burning. this by contrast feels very biting and angry in tone. there has already been a scene about algorithms writing like people, with a direct reference to Edgar Allan Poe’s poem, which felt very very pointed in the wake of the strike and flanagan’s own personal issues with netflix (this will be his last show on the platform)

it’s just a lot more expansive than his usual work. for one, it’s not contained to a single house or location. there are a ton of characters and each of them have such a dynamic presence on the show that they could each easily have their own spinoff universe. It’s just not as claustrophobic as his other shows. The setting is not a character unto itself….yet. Could be good or bad?

you can see modern influences here. there is a bit of succession, a bit of glass onion, a little of “get out” style social commentary. Curious to see where he goes with it.

really excited about Mary McDonnell’s character. President Roslin doesn’t get enough credit

I don’t find the character of the detective as consistent…the two actors playing the younger/older version of him seem to be playing different characters idk. Maybe that’s the point but so far…no interest in him

[afor-abyss]

During the holidays I read "Morella" by Edgar Allan Poe and I can't stop thinking about it. I have some thoughts to vomit into the hellsite.

"Morella" is a short story about a man that muses about a woman he befriended. She was bright, well-read and hauntingly intriguing, and he liked her well enough so they wed. They would discuss hours and hours about various themes and about philosophical theories. The themes Morella liked the most were about identity and immortality. At some point, the narrator begins to loathe his wife for the same reasons he once liked her, and she is aware! Morella becomes sick and withers away, and the narrator - maybe out of sympathy, maybe out of pure hate - wishes for her death to come soon.

A fateful day Morella calls him to her deathbed and proclaims she will die today. However, she shall live in the skin of another and the love he didn't have for her, he will acquire after her departure. As she dies, Morella gives birth to a daughter.

And it's here that I want to start my crazy rambles! While I know the original purpose of the story is to ponder about what happens to the soul after death and that by the end the reader realizes the daughter is Morella reborn... I want to touch a few things that spoke to me. Because when Morella dies, the last words are almost a curse. She tells the man : " “It is a day of days,” (...) “a day of all days either to live or die. It is a fair day for the sons of earth and life- ah, more fair for the daughters of heaven and death!” (..) “I am dying, yet shall I live.” "

The daughters of heaven and death, as if women are more spiritual, women are out of this world and Morella gained knowledge during her life to know that she will live on in spirit. Her personhood, or womanhood I supposed, will not be lost in death. And the narrator can not understand (“Morella! how knowest thou this?”) because he's a son of earth and life. He simply can not understand.

But in death, she shall have her revenge: " “I repeat I am dying. But within me is a pledge of that affection- ah, how little!- which thou didst feel for me, Morella. And when my spirit departs shall the child live- thy child and mine, Morella’s. (...)". The man hated his wife and wished upon her death because he thought he would put an end to their connection. However, as she dies, Morella gives birth to a daughter, a reminiscence of the mother and someone he will love. He will love her so much but she'll also be a source of pain. Because the daughter is the extension of Morella and therefore his reckoning.

He began hating his wife because the themes she liked frightened him, her striking macabre nature was too daunting... and so she gave him a daughter. A daughter who he could not hate but she would daunt him all the same.

And it just... I know it was not the point of the tale but it reminded me of men doing/speaking/thinking the most despicable things of women during their youth. Then they marry one and they think they love! But old habits die hard, and it's not easy to let go of generational build up of hatred. A daughter then comes into the world and they know other men, because they know themselves.

She is an extent of all the women they did dirty but now they can not hold hate towards her. And so, they suffer, they resent and they can do nothing but watch the world taking the daughter apart. Until they revert back into the mother and die. AND IT'S SO UGH

[kurakusia]

Reviewing Some of Edgar Allan Poe’s Short Stories

DISCLAIMER: I am not an English major or anything like that so don’t expect an actual detailed review, I just picked up a collection of his short stories one day because BSD has me in a chokehold. Also, my recollection of the stories may be inaccurate as I’m going mostly off of memory.

Manuscript Found in a Bottle - 4/10

- Basically the story is written as if the reader found a bottle in the ocean full of, you guessed it, manuscripts (letters)

- The letters themselves are meant to be written by a guy who decided to journey out to sea and writes about all the strange events that happen while he’s out sailing

- Now this would probably be an interesting story, but Poe stuffed so many technical ship terms like ‘beam-ends’ and ‘ballast’ that I spent more time trying to figure out what he was describing rather than understanding the plot itself

- Because of this, all I really managed to grasp of the story is that there was a strange storm and then all the crew members started acting weird before some weird phenomenon happened in the ocean that killed everyone

- It wasn’t a bad story but I really couldn’t keep up with all the technical lingo (did people back then just casually know these terms?) which reduced my enjoyment a lot, but I liked the concept of the story being a series of letters left behind by someone at sea

Ligeia - 8/10

- Now I actually really liked this one, the story is told through the words of a man who is reminiscing about his deceased wife, Ligeia

- About 1/3 of this story is the narrator describing how absolutely infatuated he was with his wife and how pretty and smart she was, which introduced me to some of my favourite quotes of all time, such as:

‘They became to me twin stars of Leda, and I to them devoutest of astrologers.’ (in relation to describing Ligeia’s eyes)

‘In beauty of face no maiden ever equalled her. It was the radiance of an opium-dream - an airy and spirit-lifting vision more wildly divine than the phantasies which hovered about the slumbering souls of the daughters of Delos.’

- Yeah I wasn’t kidding when I said this guy was INFATUATED with her. After he finishes gushing about her, he starts to talk about her falling ill and that she recited some cryptic poem about God and death shortly before she died

- After Ligeia’s death, the narrator falls into a form of depression, moves out into a mansion in England and marries a woman named Rowena, who he doesn’t like nearly as much as Ligeia

- He then continues to describe his entire mansion in painful detail (like he describes EVERYTHING about this mansion, good god) and talks about how his new wife, Rowena, also eventually fell ill

- THIS IS WHERE IT GETS INTERESTING, Rowena becomes so severely ill that she eventually dies and gets wrapped up in bandages or something of the sort to preserve her body before her body can be collected to be buried 

- At night, the narrator goes into Rowena’s room and sits by her corpse while smoking opium (poor guy is really going through it at this point). As he sits there, he notices that Rowena’s body starts to breathe and move as if its alive, with some occasional sounds coming from her mouth. When this happens, the narrator is reminded of Ligeia and this whole fiasco continues for a while until eventually, the corpse gains enough life(?) to stand up by itself, at which point the bandages fall from its face and reveals the face of Ligeia *audience gasps*

- Yeah so this story had all the good stuff, beautiful descriptions (if not a bit excessive at times), an engaging storyline, and a nice creepy ending. Genuinely, I read this one very late at night and that whole part with the corpse coming back to life actually left me a bit antsy, in my opinion it was written quite well.

The Man that was Used Up - 6/10

- So uh, this entire story felt like a fever dream. So many sections of this story repeat over and over again that it makes you feel like you’re going mad. I think this was intended to be a mystery but it kind of read a bit more like a comedy because of that. Also Poe uses so many random French words and phrases in this one. I think it was like ‘fashionable’ to use random French in your conversation back then, and this one is written through the point of view of a guy who lives among upper class society (I think).

- Basically, the narrator is talking to his friend who mentions a guy called ‘Brevet Brigadier-General John A. B. C. Smith’ (he was referred using his full title like this throughout the entire story and it drove me up the wall). This John Smith guy apparently was very ‘heroic’ and killed some Native Americans in something called the ‘Bugaboo and Kickapoo Campaign’. Yeah nowadays I think he would be considered scum of the Earth, but seemingly back then this was a thing that people were praised for.

- In any case, the narrator hears of this ‘heroic’ act and thinks nothing too much of it until his friend mentions that there was something very strange about Smith’s appearance. The narrator then grows obsessed with finding out what this secret is and it becomes the entire plot of the story. He goes round to multiple people asking them to describe Smith but they somehow get interrupted every. single. time.

- Eventually, the narrator ends up going directly to Smith’s house to see for himself what the big secret is. He is greeted by Smith’s valet, who takes him to Smith’s room. The narrator hears Smith’s voice coming from a clump of clothes(?) on the floor, and slowly the valet starts to assemble Smith using various prosthetics. The narrator begins to realise what Smith’s secret is: he is the man that was used up.

- Now while the ending is quite cool and the general idea behind the plot is interesting, the entire build-up to this ending was a headache. Having to read the narrator go on a wild goose chase to figure out this secret while every other paragraph was repeated word for word made me feel like I was reading something straight out of Alice in Wonderland. Kind of interesting but a painful process to get to the good part, which only lasts for a paragraph or so once you get to it.

The Tell-Tale Heart - 9/10

- This is personally my favourite short story from Poe’s collection. I first read it in secondary school and have loved it ever since. It’s written in a way that is easier to understand than a lot of Poe’s other stories, and it’s not too descriptive either.

- This story essentially follows the narrator’s descent into madness as he grows obsessed with the idea of killing an elderly man who lives with him. He eventually manages to kill the man and hides the body under the floorboards. However, due to the noise he made, the police are alerted and come over to his house to see what’s going on.

- The narrator, satisfied with the murder he just carried out successfully, gets cocky and invites the policemen into his home. However, as the policemen sit and chat amongst themselves, the narrator grows increasingly more and more paranoid that the policemen actually know that he murdered the man, and that they are just toying with him. Throughout this whole ordeal, the narrator becomes more and more convinced that he can hear the dead man’s heart beating from under the floorboards, and he becomes convinced that the police can hear this too, despite them not showing any signs of doing so.

- Eventually, in a fit of panic and desperation, the narrator flings open the floorboards and reveals to the policemen the corpse of the elderly man, as well as his ‘hideous heart’.

- The way Poe has written the narrator’s descent into madness is so believable. When the narrator grows paranoid believing he can hear the corpse’s beating heart, it felt so convincing that I felt as if I could relate to the narrator’s emotions myself. At one point, I was on the edge of my seat, wanting the narrator to be able to carry out the murder undetected just as much as the narrator wanted to. This will always remain my favourite work of Poe’s, unless I find a better one.

[eldweena]

Suburban Monsters by Christopher Hawkins (Review based on arc from NetGalley.) I always go into anthologies with high hopes and end up feeling disappointed. This book helped me to realize why. It's because they're usually collections of stories by different authors, and some of those authors I enjoy, and some I don't really care for. But this collection is written by one author, on one specific theme, and I loved it. The writing was fantastic, easy to read but amazingly creative. And after just a couple stories, I knew I was going to love them all. Every story in this book was unique. There was a lot of variety to the theme of "Suburban Monsters," but the stories always stayed on-topic. Monsters don't have to be things that go bump in the night; they can be your boss, your coworker, your employee, your parent, your own spouse, or even yourself, as this anthology reveals. I enjoyed how each story was told from a different perspective and in a different voice and tone. You might read a story from a psychopath's point of view in one story, but another from a child's perspective in the next. Some of the stories are supernatural, and some leave you wondering if the narrator is being haunted by a supernatural entity or if they've gone mad or even if they're on drugs. Several of them reminded me of Edgar Allan Poe's works, so I think if you're a Poe fan, you'll enjoy these stories a lot, too!

[mangodestroyer]

I was listening to a reading of Edgar Allan Poe, and out of nowhere, I suddenly remembered that one of my teachers recommended a poet to me, and as a result, I was given a book of their poetry to keep. I don't know how or why. The details of this are pretty rusty at this point. This happened eleven years ago.

All I know is that I apparently "reminded them of this poet." At the time, I really didn't understand this at all. I was twelve. At this point, I was only writing short, simple stories and the most complicated thing I'd ever read was Harry Potter and whatever was assigned in class. I wouldn't exactly say the the things I was writing in English class were "brilliant." Especially since the teacher was really pushing us with frequent writing assignments that had, what felt like at the time, intimidating word count requirements. I found it tough at the time to come up with ideas that actually kept me interested in the assignments. And this is coming from someone who always loved to write.

And I certainly wasn't a gifted student either. To the contrary. I had to get extra help with my reading outside of class because my ability to read as a child was poor. I was often picked on for being "stupid" and I had a feeling that my mother wasn't very fond of me because I was not gifted in any way like my siblings were. No one told me I was intelligent and so I grew up thinking I was stupid because that's all that was ever said or implied. Probably would have thought I had an 80 IQ. So even when I did start putting an actual effort in school, started finding the materials super easy, caught up and even far exceeded my peers, and started taking advanced classes, I thought that anyone could do what I did very easily because I was an idiot. The only thing that finally snapped me out of this mindset was when I saw for myself that there were students who tried very, very hard to get a passing grade in AP Physics and Pre-calc, but couldn't do it no matter what. Meanwhile, I was getting A's in said classes with very little effort. Yes, I was even getting easy A's in my AP English classes as well. At this point, I was far above the reading level of my peers.

I know, going from being a dumb kid to a high schooler taking college level courses. Normally this is not an outcome people expect from children who do poorly in school, but I think my own experience goes to show you that there are problems with the education system and how we evaluate intelligence in children. Especially neurodivergent children.

Anyway, I'm getting off topic. The point is, when I was twelve, I was sort of at a turning point. I was going from being a "dumb" kid to an "average" kid. But there was nothing about me that stood out. I was never made to feel like I was good at anything. Not even in high school. And so I don't see how anyone would be able to relate me to a talented poet.

And I certainly wasn't a fan of poetry at the time because I didn't understand it. So I didn't read the book. I hardly acknowledged it at all when I brought it home. I had no idea what the teacher was going on about because I wasn't a poet myself. In fact, I sadly thought poetry was stupid, boring, and pointless. Perhaps I would have considered poets pretentious, if I'd known what the word meant.

Now I wish I had read the book. Or at the very least, I wish I hadn't lost the book to the abyss of my unorganized house. I wished I had remembered the name of the poet. Because now I'm curious to see what the Hell my teacher was talking about. I want to see if these poems were actually brilliant. Because of they are, I'd find that pretty hilarious. Even if they just think we have a similar vibe or whatever.

[aurumjank]

The second episode of Wednesday is finished. What can I say. Purr-fect 😸

⚠️ Warning for spoilers if you still haven't watched the show ⚠️

Things I personally liked about episode:

Edgar Allan Poe. I love the guy as much as Stephen King - they're gods of horror, dark fantasy and suspense (in my humble opinion).

Cats. I love them. And especially black ones (I don't know why people think they bring misfortune - I know they bring luck 🐈‍⬛💜) So yeah, Wednesday on a "cat" team? Amazing. And some additional points for cat puns - I have a soft spot furr them 😹

Enid. She's such a puppy! I mean, all those hugs, and "You'll do this for me?", "We're friends!" - I can almost see her wiggling her tail, and "WWWD?" for me sounded a little like "I did a good job, didn't I? I'm a good girl! Praise me!" She reminds me of my little brother - I call him "my kitten", but he actually acts a lot like a puppy 🐶

The fact that sheriff agreed to listen to Wednesday. That was a really nice surprise. Because I'm used to seeing in the shows where adults think that if it's a kid, then they're stupid. Like "What can you possibly know - you're just a kid!", "Stay out of here, little one", etc.

Things I didn't really like (they didn't ruin anything for me, but they are still exist):

The bee guy - a little secondhand embarrassment, but overall...ugh, okay. I guess, let him be.

The principal. I don't know, maybe she thinks she knows what's good for Wednesday and tries her best to help. But the way she kind of forces her to socialize? I don't like it. I also don't like the fact that she pretended to be Rowan, so that the case was closed (at least I think it was her and that was the reason). I mean, some kind of beast is running around in the woods and killing people - including her students - and she decided that there's no need for investigation? And she made everyone think that Wednesday is a liar. That's probably even worse. We all know Wednesday will more likely just say what she thinks right in your face or at least won't say anything at all.

Sheriff. As sheriff he's kind of good - he goes to investigate Rowan's murder even after he saw the boy alive, he knows that the school of supernatural is the most logical place for the beast to hide (after forest, of course, but they had a search party there and didn't find either body or beast, so...), he agrees to listen to Wednesday (as I mentioned before). But! He's clearly a shitty dad. And a person. It's my personal opinion, of course.

I also have three suspects for the role of beast.

Enid.

I mean, the beast looked like a werewolf-y thing, she could not know that she actually can turn into this and the beast protected Wednesday, so it's a possibility. Right?

Ms. Thornhill (a.k.a. "dorm mom").

Okay, maybe she's not a beast, but she's kind of shady... She seems nice, but I have this strange vibes from her, this feeling that something is off. Is she even a "Normie" or is she just really good at hiding?

Tyler.

Okay, yeah. This sounds CRAZY! Believe me, I know. At first it was just a ridiculous suggestion (to myself, I'm watching aaaall alone, that's why you - Tumblr people - have to struggle with my thoughts and theories). I laughed and then thought about it a little more and...

He lives in town near the woods where the murders are happening. Everyone thinks he's "Normie" so no one would suspect him, which makes it easier to kill.

His father is a sheriff, so he knows things about investigation and can do something. He also, probably, knows how to hide a body...

He definitely knows how to throw dogs off the trail (isn't it exactly what he did with the coffee beans?). He could've done something, so the dogs didn't find a body.

He was there when Wednesday ran after Rowan. As a sheriff's son (and a nice person) it wouldn't be surprising if he ran after her. If he's the beast, then it's understandable why he killed Rowan but didn't touch Wednesday - he was protecting her.

He said he believes Wednesday. Meaning he believes that Rowan is dead. If he's the one who killed him, then of course he believes her!

Of course, I might just be going crazy. Maybe all this detective TV shows and books I'm fond of are messing with my head. Or maybe I'm actually onto something? We'll see 🤷🏼‍♀️

[thesublimeblog]

The Wonders of Poems and Poetries

Poetry is probably something I can never get away from. I see poetry in every Taylor Swift song, in every swipe of my finger on my Facebook newsfeed, or in every book I've read. I see poetry as a part of my life. There's something about it that just makes me cringe as I put into words everything that comes to mind but there's also that satisfaction when the words come out right and you feel so proud you just want to shout it out to the world. When a poem sounds pleasing, seems exquisite, feels warming and tastes like freedom, it gives me the proudest moments in my life because only when I feel it in the depths of my soul, people may appreciate the art that was created. Poems may be confusing for some, but for me, it creates a whole new universe in your mind.

When I was first starting to write poetries, I couldn't understand any of it. The first 2 years of my high school life, I hated poems for how they needed to be solved like riddles. How there's different meanings and point of views in each line. I haven't told you what's the difference between poetries and poems have I? Anyway, in my simplest explanation, Poetry is your choice of words while Poem is the piece you have created. Going back, poetries created back then were really hard to comprehend with the authors' use of language. Either William Shakespeare or Edgar Allan Poe and other English poets made me struggle a lot in understanding their piece. I used to have this impression that "a poem must be poetic" or that "it should be more sad" in order to evoke feelings and emotions. Yet I guess having those thoughts made me think that maybe I was really looking at the wrong place? Maybe that isn't what I was supposed to look at and that I was missing what was truly important. But I was sure there was something there. I felt it.

         Most of the time, the words used in poems are the same as those used elsewhere. Poetry's energy mostly comes from the repetition of familiar words. Poetry seemed to be more than just focusing on what a poem was saying; rather, it seemed to be about evoking a different kind of mood, mental space, or manner of thinking. Poems allow language to be as transitional, ambiguous, and thoughtless as it naturally is. It gives freedom in how it feels, looks, and sounds in the mouth, to invoke meaning. Poems also serve as a reminder of another thing we always take for granted the language's wonderful yet flimsy capacity to relate us to one another and our surroundings.

One of my favorite poems is The Bashful One by Jose Garcia Villa. If you haven't seen it yet, you better do it because it will definitely change your life. It explains to me how poetries speaks void, it transcends mystery. The empty spaces of the page, the absence of language, that subconscious message, it gives you nothing but everything. Now, are you ready to create poetry with me?