#come again yeat lyrics

[kvetchlandia]

Poet Delmore Schwartz, New York City Uncredited and Undated Photograph

O Delmore how I miss you. You inspired me to write. You were the greatest man I ever met. You could capture the deepest emotions in the simplest language. Your titles were more than enough to raise the muse of fire on my neck. You were a genius. Doomed.

The mad stories. O Delmore I was so young. I believed so much. We gathered around you as you read Finnegans Wake. So hilarious but impenetrable without you. You said there were few things better in life than to devote oneself to Joyce. You’d annotated every word in the novels you kept from the library. Every word.

And you said you were writing “The Pig’s Valise.” O Delmore no such thing. They looked, after your final delusion led you to a heart attack in the Hotel Dixie. Unclaimed for three days. You—one of the greatest writers of our era. No valise.

You wore the letter from T.S. Eliot next to your heart. His praise of In Dreams. Would that you could have stopped that wedding. No good will come of this!!! You were right. You begged us—Please don’t let them bury me next to my mother. Have a party to celebrate moving from this world hopefully to a better one. And you Lou—I swear—and you know if anyone could I could—you Lou must never write for money or I will haunt you.

I’d given him a short story. He gave me a B. I was so hurt and ashamed. Why haunt talentless me? I was the walker for “The Heavy Bear Who Goes With Me.” To literary cocktails. He hated them. And I was put in charge. Some drinks later—his shirt undone—one tail front right hanging—tie skewed, fly unzipped. O Delmore. You were so beautiful. Named for a silent movie star dancer Frank Delmore. O Delmore—the scar from dueling with Nietzsche.

Reading Yeats and the bell had rung but the poem was not over you hadn’t finished reading—liquid rivulets sprang from your nose but still you would not stop reading. I was transfixed. I cried—the love of the word—the heavy bear.

You told us to break into __’s estate where your wife was being held prisoner. Your wrists broken by those who were your enemies. The pills jumbling your fine mind.

I met you in the bar where you had just ordered five drinks. You said they were so slow that by the time you had the fifth you should have ordered again. Our scotch classes. Vermouth. The jukebox you hated—the lyrics so pathetic.

You called the White House one night to protest their actions against you. A scholarship to your wife to get her away from you and into the arms of whomever in Europe.

I heard the newsboy crying Europe Europe.

Give me enough hope and I’ll hang myself.

Hamlet came from an old upper class family.

Some thought him drunk but—really—he was a manic-depressive—which is like having brown hair.

You have to take your own shower—an existential act. You could slip in the shower and die alone.

Hamlet starting saying strange things. A woman is like a cantaloupe Horatio—once she’s open she goes rotten.

O Delmore where was the Vaudeville for a Princess. A gift to the princess from the stage star in the dressing room.

The duchess stuck her finger up the duke’s ass and the kingdom vanished.

No good will come of this. Stop this courtship!

Sir you must be quiet or I must eject you.

Delmore understood it all and could write it down impeccably.

Shenandoah Fish*. You were too good to survive. The insights got you. The fame expectations. So you taught.

And I saw you in the last round.

I loved your wit and massive knowledge.

You were and have always been the one.

You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him think.

I wanted to write. One line as good as yours. My mountain. My inspiration.

You wrote the greatest short story ever written. In Dreams

-- Lou Reed, "Oh Delmore How I Miss You" 2012

----

*Autobiographical Character in several Schwartz works

[lovemaiyo-main]

AND THE GRASS WHERE YOU LAY LEFT A BED IN YOUR WAKE

SUMMARY the artists / music they listen to

WITH all of the released genshin males WARNINGS none / THE IMAGES MIGHT LOAD WRONG!! if so, go to this link to read the post (the link is js this same post but on my tumblr ) 70GIN-M IM MAKING A BIGGER PIECE RN SO JUST TAKE THIS UNTIL + this is canon hoyoverse broke into my house just to tell me

mitski, lana del ray, mac demarco`

CHONGYUN favourite song : yes to heaven - lana del ray biggest lana del ray stan EVER & fights lana haters online KAZUHA favourite song : first love / late spring - mitski mitski is the main inspo for his haikus HEIZOU favourite song : my kind of woman - mac demarco

clairo, girl in red, MARINA

DILUC favourite song : we fell in love in october - girl in red THOMA favourite song : ancient dreams in a modern land - MARINA he buys headphones and blasts this while he works VENTI favourite song : pretty girl - clairo doesn't pay attention to the lyrics but loves how it sounds

taylor swift

ALBEDO favourite song : snow on the beach took a vacation from work when midnights came out just to listen to it on repeat for 92 hours BENNETT favourite song : you belong with me only listened to the old taylor songs because his ipad kept breaking before the new albums came out and is now SO broken it can't even function properly CHILDE favourite song : fifteen ITTO favourite song : midnight rain kuki has to listen to him do karaoke of midnight rain whenever she comes over for a sleepover XINGQIU favourite song : love story (taylors version) ZHONGLI favourite song : blank space hu tao told him taylor was popular w the kids so now hes a dedicated swiftie

steve lacy, eyedress, laufey

AYATO favourite song : something about you - eyedress also likes 'jealous' by eyedress. he loves the feelings eyedress conveys and how elegant they sound while doing so CYNO favourite song : static - steve lacy GOROU favourite song : let you break my heart again - laufey kokomi showed him this one and he thought it sounded SO pretty. whenever this plays his tail starts wagging help

sza, yeat, tyler the creator

ALHAITHAM favourite song : möney so big - yeat plays this song really loud whenever kaveh is talking 💀😨 FOUL LEGACY favourite song : big boy - SZA hii foul legacy childe (im single) KAEYA favourite song : out thë way - yeat SCARAMOUCHE favourite song : kill bill - SZA he might he might kill his ex TIGHNARI favourite song : see you again - tyler, the creator ft. kali uchis CAN I GET A KISS?? AND CAN YOU MAKE IT LAST FOREVER? XIAO favourite song : EARFQUAKE - tyler, the creator

[aeolianblues]

Honestly if one of the first things everyone knew about me was that I spent 35 years pining for one woman, and later said woman and her daughter because she married a long time ago, then forget the fact that she inspired a lot of my poetry, I would simply burn it all and bury myself from the burning embarrassment of being such a loser.

But such was the life of William Butler Yeats.

Every one of them had a Life eh? TS Eliot too— fascinating fear of decay and mortality. You see it in his work etc etc, but he also left his wife when she fell mentally ill, for a younger hot thing— some 20 y/o when he was in like his 40s or 60s. We see you running away from facing the inevitability, man, a profound line about death doesn’t change that.

So it’s fascinating to read their works with this background context available to you, it’s such an insight into the human psyche. You know I’ve talked about this a little before, on how we sort of look to our poets and songwriters for answers, to help make sense of all the madness, and without fail, they happen to be some of the most flawed human beings in history. Or in less intense cases, they don’t have the answers we seek from them. It reminds me again of that interview with Grian Chatten from Fontaines D.C., in the NME back in 2022. He’s a poet for the modern day, I’ll grant him that easily. He convinced me recently that lyrics can work quite well standing alone as poetry and not come off as naff or aloof, or can still feel quite prescient and not pretentious or removed from the live setting in which they will be performed, making eye contact with you in a sweaty theatre (slowly getting larger, pleased to see, with the U.K. and Dublin arena shows planned). They can still connect with the loud guitars and drums pounding behind them.

He said to the NME, in light of Dogrel and his painting of a Dublin life, presenting you with the characters, the contradictions, the scenarios lived in his Dublin, his portrayal led to people turning to him for answers, when I think what you and him would both know deep down is that you’re really looking to him for a depiction of your world in the words that hit the soul, in a way that romanticises the moments you want to remember, and can beautifully frame the injustices of the bad ones. Not answers. Just a painting.

He said, people are looking to me for answers. What the fuck do I know?

Same as it had always been, hasn’t it? He doesn’t have answers. Yeats didn’t have answers. TS Eliot didn’t have answers— despite his vivid depictions of loss and decay, he still couldn’t deal with the thought of it himself. But all it does do, is let you read a work through the lens of your own life, and then look at it again through the eyes of a complex human being, the poet. It’s an option that is available to you. Some people do subscribe to ‘death of the author’, but if you’d like to explore the mind of someone who isn’t you, if you aren’t afraid to feel uncomfortable, different, or in the skin of a very different person, it’ll open you up to new thoughts, which don’t have to be yours.

I guess what I’m trying to say here is, don’t be afraid to read something you don’t agree with. Bad thoughts aren’t contagious. You can approach someone else’s work knowing it’s a complex read, and that can be an intriguing and insightful read. However, I am absolutely not going to be putting this post in any poetry tags, because I don’t think most people on the poetry canon side of the internet will appreciate me calling one of the crown princes of 20th century Irish poetry and literature a loser. Lmao.

[monkey-network]

My GOATED Tier Albums

Music is awesome. It is a form of creation that people experiment with, creating melodies that can make you emotional beyond belief. Except Weezer. For the past year I listened to a ton of albums, mainly because I have a job that doesn't require much thinking. From this, I've recognized albums that above everything possess eternal sauce. I'm talking favorites that make you wanna sing 'em in the rain, love when you're in pain, imagine yourself getting head on a train. I naturally haven't listened to every artist and genre in existence, but these stuck with me for more than a simple good time. Let's get the obvious one out the way

To Pimp A Butterfly (Kendrick Lamar)

MVP Track: How Much a Dollar Cost

On its own, this album just fucks for nearly 80 minutes straight. Everyone knows this, a 16 track stream of unapologetic Blackness that dives into all of what Kendrick has seen in the black community outside of his music-making. You get funk, jazz, soul all into a comprehensive story of his life in Cali vs his time touring in South Africa. When paired with Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City though, you see a darker story that I say is like part 2 of Stephen King's IT. There's the remorse and turmoil exposed by an older Kendrick of the haunting experience from his adolescence, like TPAB is about how he was too lucky to survive that moment in M.A.A.D. City. This album is just strong beginning to end, like it's a given to say this.

Nonagon Infinity (King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard)

I've listened to plenty of King Gizzard before I could say this album is perfected adrenaline. The direction each song goes is always satisfying where it's like I can't pick a real favorite one without loving the rest of them. It's even better when there's no cuts between song while you can hear every one seamlessly play into each other like an interconnected nonagon and for it to loop back around is the cherry on top. I love how it's able to change course without ever losing the momentum like 'Mr. Beat' clashes so hard with the others but they fit it at the best point. Again, this album is the most fist pumping shit I've ever listened to.

Die Lit (Playboi Carti)

MVP Track: R.I.P. Fredo

I'll admit, back in grade school I treated trap, sound and mumble rap like I did Pepsi as a child. Disgusted and dismissive like "it's not real rap". Overtime, mainly thanks to Spongebob, I got over my prejudice and gave it more a chance. I'm not the biggest fan, but stuff like Pop Smoke, Yeat, Uzi, and Carti I got on my MP3 for the long mile. It was last month where I finally got Die Lit, and man the vibes of this are immaculate. This album just makes you wanna work out, do 10 sets on the weights to the rhythm. I'm more into lyrical strength when it comes to rap but this helped me that the beats and the hooks can be just as bumping. It honestly has everything I would've loved getting into trap music.

MM.. FOOD (MF DOOM)

MVP Track: Rapp Snitch Knishes

When I talk lyrical strength, I always think of MF DOOM may he continue to rest in peace. He wasn't just hot with wordplay, he knew how to bend the flows to his will. This, Madvillainy, and Mouse and the Mask are my top 3 DOOM albums, but MM FOOD takes the cake (hah) in being the perfect balance of the fun and power that goes into his music. I love that it isn't just a concept album about food, but a story told with the old Spider-Man and Fantastic Four cartoons. I grew to love the intermission where it's a sample soundbite bonanza; felt like Dumile was having the most fun here. I say you get the best of all the previous albums here, and to me it's the most replayable record.

IGOR (Tyler the Creator)

MVP Track: Are We Still Friends

This is where I enjoyed the album off the bat, but loved it more after hearing Tyler's entire library. I love that IGOR exists not only on its own from his typical rap work, but as his own character and not just a persona. Like TPAB and Nonagon Infinity, I can't pick a favorite track without every other carrying each other. This album is emotional sauce, exploring the ugliness and majesty of romance and heartbreak. A lot of these type of albums I feel are tonally the same passive aggressive, sugarcoated upbeat kind of stuff; that's why I can never get into Taylor Swift and the like. This hits different. I've heard nothing like I Think, New Magic Wand, I Don't Love You Anymore, all capped with still the greatest closing number I've ever heard. This is Tyler's magnum opus, hands down.

Making Mirrors (Gotye)

MVP Track: Save Me

Gotye was not a musician I expected to enjoy but Making Mirrors IS that good. It's a beautifully uplifting streak of tunes that reminds me of George Michael especially in the first half. This of course has the billion dollar single 'Somebody That I Used to Know', but this ain't even his best song. 'Eyes Wide Open', 'Save Me', 'Bronte', 'In Your Light' offer more euphoric sounds that literally ascends you. Almost every song feels like those scenes in movies where everyone's dancing in the church. It honestly sucks Gotye retired his solo career after this record when this felt like he found his footing. There's possibility of him returning after his time with his band The Basics, but I'm not complaining. Dude made a record I never thought would love as much as I did.

Scatman's World (Scatman John)

MVP Track: Only You

I got more to say about this album on a later date, so I'll keep it brief. This was the biggest eye-opener of music for me. You got a man that sings like a jazz enthusiast and have his best album be Eurodance and techno. It never feels like a gimmick too while his lyrics aren't an overall strong suit. It all just makes you happy, have a real pep in the step, with a great range of tone that makes it easy to go back to. And I will NEVER forgive the internet for warping my mind over the word "scatting".

Thick as a Brick (Jethro Tull)

MVP Track: Childhood Heroes

Best for last. This is the first album for me where you might as well say this is just two 20 minute songs. On a personal note, this helped lifted my spirit after 2017 basically destroyed me emotionally and mentally. The energy and flow felt unlimited like you could feel this was THE project for the band. Both parts ending with 'Childhood Heroes', all time favorite song of my life. They, by extension this album, is emblematic of old time childlike wonder. That gave me both the strive and relief to move forward, the song exhibits that energy every time I hear it. This album is a GOAT of personal expectations.

I've loved thinking about music this year. These albums mean a lot in how unreal they can feel listening, a streak of passion that are like the planets aligned when they dropped. These have also helped me branch out to other artists and albums to see if they can reach the strengths of this list.

But lesson of the day is always have your GOATs, cherish them to your life, and in conclusion...

[wehadwildflowerfever]

So it’s both “Mermaids” release day and the day I can finally unwrap my “Daffodil” tattoo.

I’m staying up until midnight to hear this last Dance Fever song, so I’ve spent a large part of today thinking about the whole album.

I’ve worked through a lot of it academically this year, but I haven’t really let myself sit down and think about what it means to me personally. I saw someone write that the build up of “Mermaids” feels like a scream waiting to be released (@veronicaofosea), and that’s so close to how Dance Fever as a whole feels to me. Listening to it has felt like letting out multiple screams that have been building up in my body since girlhood.

Florence isn’t close to the first artist to remind women that we don’t have to be good, seek approval, be desirable, and keep the peace. Within my own pantheon of favorite artists/musicians/poets, I have heard it so often. Mary Oliver has told us (“You do not have to be good / you do not have to walk on your knees / for a hundred miles through the desert repenting”). Tori Amos has told us again and again in more ways than I have room to write down (“She’s been everybody else’s girl/ Maybe one day she’ll be her own”). Each instance has felt like a small revelation to me. An idea I could intellectually know to be true, but couldn’t feel in my body when needing to go out into the world to assert myself. My voice is always quieter than I mean it to be. I apologize for myself when I don’t want to. I have a really hard time making eye contact. Dance Fever marked the first time that I could fully hear this truth. Right now. In my late thirties.

I don’t know what did it, exactly. I think part of it was lockdown and being on my own so much. Probably having the space to retreat into myself, being responsible only to myself and my partner. Having very few external expectations placed on us. And then coming out of that, Dance Fever was the first piece of art to shatter my grief-induced numbness.

“Oh bring your salt, bring your cigarette. Draw me a circle and I’ll protect…” The ferocity of the circle drawn in “Heaven is Here.” The dark magic and intentional monstrosity of it. How it made a protected space for our rage and mourning and reclamation of self.

The tender, funny anger of “Girls Against God.” (Which actually made me feel conflicted at first. Growing up going to an Orthodox Hebrew school, we didn’t write God’s name on anything that wasn’t sacred and meant to last, even in English. Writing down that title was literally the first time I spelled out “God” which was scary but also powerful.) The permission of being able to own our anger, even if it’s just us, in our pajamas, alone in our bedrooms.

And it took me a while to notice what was being sung during the “Dream Girl Evil” bridge, but once I figured out that it was a reversal of Yeats’ “The Second Coming,” I couldn’t stop thinking about it. What does it mean to look at our world on the verge of collapse and respond-- at least for a moment-- by essentially saying well fine, this wasn’t a world built for us. If it’s dependent on women being the world’s angels and dream girls, just let it all burn. “I am nobody’s moral center / it cannot hold.” Again, this intense permission to claim our rage and independence.

The part of the album that has probably made me cry the most is a lyric I still don’t fully understand. It’s toward the end of “Choreomania,” when the music slows down a little and Florence sings, “And do they speak to you? Because they speak to me, too. The pressure and the panic you push your body through.” I’m not sure who “they” are for her, but there is something so comforting in how the fourth wall breaks down here, how she sings “they speak to me, too.” The vulnerable confession that we all carry unwanted voices with us born of mental illness, or intergenerational trauma, or gendered social expectation, and the recognition of what those voices do to us and our bodies. The anxiety and the panic attacks.

This album feels like a release of those voices or an attempt to live with them in a way that allows us to fully reclaim ourselves.

Even just posting this feels like something I wouldn’t have done before. I would have checked with multiple people to make sure it wasn’t too much, or too pointless, or too intense, but I think of “Restraint” and post it anyway. “And have I learned restraint? Am I quiet enough for you yet?” Saying “yes, but I’m unlearning it” feels like a source of power.

[moon-meerkat]

dying horse

my only theory is i pushed him away each time i tried to pull him closer.

i set the phone down and push two fingers down my throat, til i think the stimulant pills came out. i won't have a panic attack so bad i feel i'm dying.

but i am, really. dying, that is. i lived for him. i'd never let him know but i counted down the days to see him every week. sometimes the hours, even.

i walk around the neighbourhood searching for somewhere to cry and scream til i feel like i could puke out the feeling. it takes a few tries. i settle on the side of a highway.

i am reminded of having heard this is what horses do when they know there's no coming back from an ailment. slipping away unnoticed, seeking a place desolate enough. a place to die.

i sit on the grass and try to scream my heart out of my chest. i sit there and wail and cry and sob and i think there's no coming back from this. i think, i'm like a dying horse.

my only theory is i pushed him away when i kept everything to myself trying not to scare him off.

it takes me some days to formulate this and say it to him. i pace my street for over two hours recording audio messages. the first version is eighteen minutes long. the final one is six. i say i don't expect him to reply that night; actually, i tell him not to. he does.

i beg him not to throw this out, and to believe me when i say there's an explanation as to why he felt things change, and to hear me out, but please, please don't let that be an ending.

we set a time and day.

unusually, i'm the one most busy. it's exam week.

in the last few days, i mull over a song lyric. "i'm here on your doorstep and i planned it out for weeks now but it's finally sinking in" -and it is, before that point arrives- "right now is the last time i can dream about what happens when you see my face again". i convince myself he'll see my point and agree. i fantasize he'll see me and he'll kiss me and he'll hold my hand and lead me to where we're going. like we've been doing for a couple months. like standard procedure. no, like fate. like nature. like what we were born to do.

i actually decide to believe this. there's no point in anticipating suffering, and i want a couple days with hope still attached to our memories together. besides, i decide no one gets to break my heart through the letters of their keyboard. anyone who decides to will have to see the tears on my face. they don't get the luxury of removing themselves, of staying comfortable on the beds and couches we used to keep warm together.

the day comes. i stand on his porch a little longer before informing him of my presence. "right now is the last time i can dream about what happens when i see your face again". i paint a picture of his hello kiss with my sighs.

he comes and greets me. no kiss. no hands on mine. i don't know what to do with my body when it's not an extension of his.

i sit and stare at him and chat and can't start my story before an hour has passed. he looks at me with pity. yeats once called it "the exultation of love". i didn't know the word. i'm still trying to understand that one.

as i finally tell him everything, and as he tells me he made us up in his head, he looks at me not only with pity, but dread. not for me. for the task. he's known for a while that he needed to do this. it's... unpleasant. he has the look of an experienced farmer who knows what he needs to do. kill the dying horse. it's pragmatic, and it's what he's supposed to do. but it's a grisly undertaking. it's a horrible affair, and to put it simply it is what must be done.

he holds me in his arms again.

he shoots the dying horse.

i plead like a dying woman.

[teenyweenynightghost]

Dream Date

Thomas x fem reader

Thomas had been crushing on Y/n for god knows how long

They sat up all night and talked online about every little thing in the world; passions, dreams, futures, meanings…

After a bit of wine and endless encouragement from the band, he finally decided to ask her out.

“Um, y/n, I had a question…” his voice trembled slightly, watching her wash some dishes before patting her hands dry and turning to face him

“Of course, amore. What is it?”

“I was wondering If you wanted to go on a date with me tonight?” He asked, looking at her with fear and anticipation.

He only grew more worried as the girl remained silent, shock written all over her face.

“Are you kidding? I would love to!” She chuckled, approaching Thomas and hugging him tightly

He let out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding, and basked in the sensation of being so close to her. Y/n’s soft, luscious hair slightly tickled his cheek and filled his nose with the pleasant scent of flowers and spring

Thomas was standing in front of the mirror, fumbling nervously with his tie. He had picked a light gray suit with a pink shirt.

“Thomas!! Aren’t you gonna come pick up your princess?” Damiano teased from downstairs, earning a frustrated groan from the blond.

He came up in a second and watched Thomas try and knot his tie, laughing to himself before helping him out.

“Are you nervous?”

“Guess, stronzo.”

Damiano snorted before patting him on the back and pushing him downstairs

“You are incredibly handsome Thomas, she’ll be more than enamored”

“Shut up.”

He got in the car and drove all the way to Y/n’s house, where he noticed she was already waiting on the porch.

She was gorgeous, to say the least. Her curly hair was pulled back with a few pins, light peach eyeshadow on her eye lids and a soft pink lipstick.

He hadn’t realizes she was in front if him, until Y/n spoke.

“Where are we going?”

“Oh um, beautiful- I mean, you, you are beautiful.”

They both blushed, Thomas more out of embarrassment, and he opened the door for her to get in the car.

“What made you decide to finally ask me on a date?” Her soft, honey-like voice broke the silence.

“I am always excited when I’m with you, or when I talk to you. It’s something I don’t really feel with other people.”

“I honestly thought you’d say that you would willingly wake up for me.”

They both started laughing, as they passed the illuminated streets of Rome.

“That’s a given.”

Eventually, the car slowed to a stop, and they both got out.

“Where are we?”

“Remember that place I told you about a few nights ago? I used to come to this meadow every day when I was younger. It was like a safe haven for me.” His voice faded out, looking around and taking in the all-too familiar plants and trees he knew so well.

“Why did you bring me here, then?”

“I wanted you to see it. Maybe it could become our haven.”

Y/n sighed, and picked up a flower from the ground, smelling it.

Meanwhile, the boy opened the trunk of the car and pulled out a blanket and a basket, laying them both down and taking a seat.

The soft glow of the moon softly illuminated the patch of grass they were sitting on, creating a surreal and whimsical feeling.

“To be fair, If you wouldn’t have asked me out one of these days, I would have.” Y/n snorted, opening the basket and gasping.

“CHOCOLATE COVERED STRAWBERRIES??” Y/n’s eyes were comically wide, as she looked between the treats and Thomas

“Well, you know, I did plan for this date to be the cheesiest thing possible.”

“They’re over used for a reason. They rock!”

“We rock.” He added smoothly, feeling himself relax more and more.

“We sure do.”

Taking out another plate out of the basket, Thomas grinned as he remembered one of his favorite childhood movies.

A big smile appeared on Y/n’s face as she saw the giant portion of pasta in front of her, and hurried to find some forks in the basket.

“I suppose we’re eating out of the same plate, correct?”

Thomas nodded and didn’t hesitate to start devouring the food.

They mainly listened to the soft tuned of the car radio while eating in silence, the occasional chirp of a bird catching their attention, until Y/n started giggling.

Thomas looked down, and saw that they both have the same noodle in their mouth, one end in her mouth, on in his.

Thomas smiled sheepishly, as he continued advancing towards Y/n, her actions replicating his.

They were mere centimeters away from each other, Y/n’s hot breath sending shivers through Thomas, her eyes lit up, as If a fire glowed with in them.

She made the final step and closed the distance between them, kissing Thomas tenderly, for so long that they both forgot what breathing felt like.

Eventually pulling apart, they kept staring into each other’s eyes, trying to calm down, despite their hearts being aflame with desire and affection.

“We should film a live-action version of Lady and the Tramp.”

Thomas chuckled and shifted so that he was closer to her, nuzzling his head into the crook of Y/n’s neck.

She picked up the box of strawberries and started shoving them down her throat, eating with a speed that got Thomas worried.

“Woah, woah, woah, slow down! I want some too!”

“You can’t bring me strawberries covered in chocolate and expect me not to eat them!!”

He snorted and leaned over to the basket, pulling out a book.

“What’s that?”

“Poems”

Y/n gasped and lowered herself so that she would align herself with his face.

“Wow! You’re gonna bring me food, read me poetry and show me your hiding spot? I feel like I’m in a romantic movie.” She joked, pressing a chaste kiss to his cheek.

“Well, I am trying to romance you.”

“There are literally so many words for it and you choose romance me?”

“I knew you’d say that.” He scoffed, faking a pout and opening the book. He flipped through a few pages until he ended up at a heavily marked one, a coffee stain on the corner.

“I’m guessing this is your favorite?”

“For one specific reason. Can you guess it?”

Y/n hummed, thinking for a few moments before answering him.

“Is it about sleep?”

“Oh come on! No. It reminded me of you.” He grinned, fluttering the book under her nose.

“Oh god, it’s gonna be a prayer to the devil, won’t it?”

The blond squinted his eyes, seemingly freezing, before starting to flip hurriedly through the pages once more.

“Shit, you’re right.”

“THOMAS!” Y/n elbowed him, scoffing, bursting into laughter along with him.

“Fine, fine, alright. Here it is;

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,

And nodding by the fire, take down this book,

And slowly read, and dream of the soft look

Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,

And loved your beauty with love false or true,

But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,

And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,

Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled

And paced upon the mountains overhead

And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

Y/n’s eyes were brimmed with tears, slightly smudging her eye makeup, as she took a deep breath, taking in all that Thomas recited

“What’s it called?”

“When you are old, by William Butler Yeats.”

Y/n let out a silent oh, and looked closer at the sketches around the writing.

There was a small sketch of her, relaxing on the balcony under the stars, and Thomas, looking up at her as if she were his moon.

Her heart was filled with affection for the boy who held it in his hands, who unfortunately didn’t realize how much he meant to her.

“Let’s dance.” She beckoned him, walking towards the car and turning up the volume. A terrible love song erupted from the speakers, making Thomas cringe at the harmonies and lyrics, but he took Y/n’s hand regardless and pulled her closer.

They swung from side to side, looking deeply into each other’s eyes and memorizing every single aspect of the night

“This night is amazing, but this song really fucking sucks.” Thomas eventually spoke, not being able to hold in his commentary any longer.

“Well, not everyone can make music as well as you.”

“Oh you little flirt.” Thomas blushed, brushing a strand of hair out of Y/n’s face and spinning her around, over and over again.

She was giggling as she turned, her flowery dress flowing around, making her look like even more of an angle in Thomas’s eyes.

“I wanna spin you too!”

“I’m taller. You can’t!”

“Bet?”

Y/n pushed Thomas around, but he got stuck while he was with his back to her.

“Ow, Y/n, my arm can’t bend like that!”

He muttered a few curses, instinctively stapling backwards, thus making Y/n fall along with him.

A loud thud was all that he heard before an uncontrollable mess of giggles started wiggling under him.

“YOU’RE CRUSHING ME!”

“No, I’m crushing on you.” He spoke calmly, not getting off of her small body.

“Stronzo!!”

They were both laughing as Thomas got up, pulling Y/n with him, and pressing a passionate kiss to her lips.

They both sat back down on the blanket and nuzzled into each other’s embrace, their breath matching up.

“I never want this night to end.” Y/n whispered against his neck, squeezing his hand.

“It’s the only way it will remain special.”

She smiled contently, before looking up at the stars and letting the faint crickets and rustles of the forrest drive them to sleep.

A/n: I had plenty of inspiration for this🥴 @cantaraiilmionome 😉 for you, amore

Taglist: @fuckim-so-gay @ginny-lily @messyhairday-me @cheese-toastie-11 @wannabemarlenabutiscoraline @simp-per-ethan @maneskinrollercoaster @juststalking @superchrystaldrug @immrbrightsideeee @shehaddreamstoo @tiaamberxx @victoriadeangeliswifey @bidet-and-legolas @makapaka11 @electra-phoebe

[dylanlila]

trying to compile all the Amy lyrics in Pretty.Odd....dangerously close to a post.....so far I've got:

Nine In The Afternoon - "Into a place where thoughts can bloom, into a room where it's nine in the afternoon" - Amy's room with the crack being a separate pocket of the universe than the rest of the house, timeless and chaotic

She's A Handsome - The nonsensical imagery is reminiscent of Amy's fairytale madness theme but I can't think of any specific parallels

Do You Know What I'm Seeing - "I know it's mad but if I go to hell, will you come with me, or just leave?" - "You'll be there to the end of me"......or possible the idea that amy following rory to the 50's is comparable to going to hell.....(it's also very 12clara + Orpheus and Eurydice)

That Green Gentleman - "So it seems I'm someone I've never met" Amy changing herself / denying her own wants and needs to fit what people expect of her, "I never said I missed her when everybody kissed her"....that deleted dialogue that suggested 11 didn't want Amy to get married without him ever actually saying it.....

I Have Friends In Holy Spaces - "You remind me of a former love" the people at the wedding reception reminding amy of 11, also the song's sun and moon imagery.....

NORTHERN DOWNPOUR (my dearly beloved) - "diamonds to appear to be, just like broken glass to me" the wedding ring....the hesitation....."the ink is running toward the page, it's chasing off the days" clinging to the past by immortalising it in written word, whether it's healthy or not...also, the song being partly about missing a lover that you're not currently with....I can't not wait for you.....

Pas de Cheval - not very Amy but it's got 11 on an ego trip vibes....

The Piano Knows... - "It grows like fancy flowers, but it grows nowhere" her house and wedding dress, "I can't prove this makes any sense but I sure hope that it does, perhaps I was born with curiosity" not being able to communicate effectively is very amy, also being born with curiosity is very amy+pandora stuff

BEHIND THE SEA (I love you behind the sea) - "a daydream spills from my corked head" the universe spilling into your head....the dream and the dreamer..."we're all too small / smart to talk to God" Amy calling the dr the voice of god in an act of rejection.... "sprouting suns and ageless daughters" my earlier note about Amy's bedroom being almost timeless + sprouting sun feels very 11. Another note about this song is that the imagery is very reminiscent of Rimbaud and Yeats (specifically The Stolen Child, with it's water imagery)

Folkin' Around (probably my underrated pick, not sure what it is about it) - "allow me to exaggerate a memory or two ... but in time, we all forgot and we all grew" calls to mind a lot of stuff about Amy's 12yrs, her memory of the dr and then her rejection of that memory...I grew up...."your melody sounds as sweet as the first time it was sung" 11 remarking that the people of Starship UK will sing songs about them (about Amy, really) "you've never been more divine in accepting your defeat, and I've never been more scared to be alone" the graveyard scene in TATM...Amy resolute in her decision, but still scared and in pain, 11 begging her not to leave.......

SHE HAD THE WORLD (so so so much stuff, it's THE Amy Pond song) - "she held the world upon a string ... spun the stars on her fingernails ... when I look in her eyes, I just see the sky ... the sun was always in her eyes ... that girl had so much love ... she won the world at a carnival" all of these are SO 11 describing Amy / Amy describing 11, the idea that both of them believes that the other can't have them for various reasons, "I don't love you, I'm just passing the time" I don't love you, I just need people to think I'm normal again, I don't love you, but you love me and that's enough, I don't love you, but I'm sick of waiting for the person I do....Amy/Rory core....."who could love me, I am out of my mind, throwing a line out to sea, to see if I can catch a dream" AMY!!!! Also, I like to read the two vocal sections of this song as a conversation, the verse being someone describing a dreamer that's "fallen in love" with them, and lamenting the tragedy of it, the chorus being the dreamer's response, sort of "she couldn't ever hold me" "I don't love you, I'm just passing the time"

From A Mountain... - Pond Divorce, nuff said, "a storm with the car keys" "wound relentlessly around the words we used to sling"

Mad As Rabbits (kissing the song on the forehead) - Not very Amy, I relate it more to 11, but the Rimbaud ref in the outro, we must reinvent love, feel like Amy would subscribe to that belief

ALL OF THIS!!!!! (more under the cut because I have trouble posting this otherwise *challenges tumblr to a duel*)

I love the idea of Amy’s room being timeless because it’s so true! She can never make peace with anything (Two parts of space and time that should never have touched, pressed together right here in the wall of your bedroom) not only because she grew up in a pocket universe, but because she is the embodiment of a pocket universe… if you place entire realities within her bedroom, the crack in the wall and the bedroom itself function as the inflationary universe and Amy plays the role of the time pocket it produces. But then s5 reverses that by the end and Amy is the inflationary universe... her mind builds realities, 11 becomes a pocket universe she created … to Amy the past, the present and the future aren’t rigidly separated (her curious "can you run away from that?" when 11 mentions running away from the future, in his case River, and says something along the lines of "time is not the boss of me"... imagine how that must sound like to Amy) they exist simultaneously. She is in the eye of the storm and she is the eye of the storm. There’s this omniscient feel to it, you’re there, but you’re not really there… Also how the room doesn’t significantly change in appearance over the course of time, but the significant detail that keeps expending is Amy’s art because she keeps making it, even in a Doctor free universe.

And your eyes are the size of the moon has that specific surrealism vibe that is so Amy… expression of the unconscious world… celestial imagery. Amy!!!!

She's a Handsome Woman is PEAK Rimbaud; mind the literal reference dhrjrjrj (all of it, the entire album is literally parade sauvage) Film the world before it happens can be taken out of context (especially with this album) and assigned to Amy, I feel? Loosely reminiscent of the Weeping Angels and how intertwined Amy's story is with them. Hmph Thoughts Are Being Cooked And Ironed . + the nature of it in that line, the general allusions to the end of the world in this album -> s5 finale, the Silence...

GAHHHHH with Do You Know What I'm Seeing, I also read that as Twelve/Clara initially, but with TATM in mind... sick.

Little deaths in musical beds/song of your sadness :(

I HAVE FRIENDS IN HOLY SPACES!!!!! Literally in my top three... Ok (slightly?) unrelated, but I have Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by the Beatles on vinyl (Pretty. Odd. reminds me of that album in sound in general) and this song especially makes me feel the way that record does because it's a second-hand record and there's that thing where the vintage aspect of something doesn't make you feel disconnected at all, but does the exact opposite. Radio my beloved <3 (oh this logic goes for classic lit too, you learn you relate, what cool union)

NORTHERN DOWNPOUR!!!! This album is Amy Pond immortalised... I love the placement of this song because it's such a rich album in an instrumental sense (stereo effect <3) and this one is... so powerful and more acoustic... unraveled words like moths upon old scarves I have a whole thing about Amy's scarf... Eleven and Amy and their signature clothes. I'm dizzy. <3

ELEVEN ON AN EGO TRIP DJDJDJDJDKKDKDKDKKDKDKDKD Legitimately though, Pas de Cheval is his favourite song, I know it because he told me. 🥰 (that emoji's got murder in its features, just to be clear)

I was born with curiosity  Peak Amy Lyric (also yeah... communication issues...) Amy Pond Is Relatable Hours 😔

SHE HAD THE WORLD MY BELOVED (DESTROYER) The sun was always in her eyes, she didn't even see me -> I'm just a madman in a box.... just made her more interesting, I'm sure I didn't ruin her... The song really works best as a  conversation, but I think we need a separate post for that alone sbdjdjdjjdd + the medivial/troubadour sentiment in the music alone... Amy Pond/Joan of Arc thoughts resurfacing once again

spark you heels up against the picket fence i built 👀

Mad as Rabbits is SO Eleven (COME SAVE ME FROM WALKING OFF A WINDOWSILL), but I have so many thoughts on Amy and reinvention of common concepts (hellooooooo Rimbaud) because that's HER. And how she loves everything that provides her with a narrative [her "anybody need me? anybody?" in 5x04 :((((((], but also feels ashamed of feeling that way in the first place. The Big Who could love me, I am out of my mind? vs Wants/Needs vs Doing Things For The Sake Of A Good Story (TM) Amy Conflict...

[thekillerssluts]

Will Butler: "I think of the record as a complex and satisfying stew"

"I'm at the crime scene," Will Butler conveys. "I don't know that I am – I didn't murder anyone," he elaborates, "but I am at a crime scene. I'm there, and the evidence is all around us. So what do I do?" This setting is the backdrop to Will Butler's new album, 'Generations'. It's a setting that seems to resonate through society as a whole. We're in the throes of a global pandemic. There's a worldwide cry of pain and of outrage in the wake of the murder of George Floyd that needs to be heard. Meanwhile, Trump is campaigning for a second term as US president. The evidence, as the musician describes, is all around us.

"The general shittiness and desperation of the last four years, three-and-a-half years, is the swamp from which a lot of these emotions took their shape," Will portrays of the record. "I was trying to show some dimensions of that." Drawing from his life, the New York neighbourhood he calls home, and their place in the world at large, these songs might not have been written in the current climate, but their dissatisfaction with the state of the world around them is an emotion that feels unshakably prevalent.

In the five years since the release of his debut album 'Policy', Will Butler has toured, released a live record, toured some more, released a record with Arcade Fire, toured again, and somehow found the time to earn a mid-career masters degree in public administration. It seems safe to say that a lot has changed since then. "The first [album] was kind of like trying to make a market fresh meal," he portrays. For this new record, he wanted to do things differently, diverting from the "fast and furious" pace of his debut to take the time to let the songs grow. "This was a bit more like, okay, what do we do if we're making a world class stew?" he poses, laughing.

Born out of a process he describes as "boiling the bones and the onions and the carrots and everything," with 'Generations' Will Butler explores the history – specifically his family history – that brought him to where he is today, and wrestles with a keenly-felt desperation for something better in the future. "There's a nostalgia, but for a different present," he portrays. "It's not 'I wish we were back here,' it's 'I wish now we had made another choice back then.' It's a nostalgia for an alternate future." It's an energy that prevails far beyond the context of this album. "Right now's like, 'I wish it was 2019, except 2019 was just utter shit, so I want it to be 2025, but only if in 2025 we've actually fixed a couple of things,'" he offers with a grim chuckle. "It's this whole mess of emotions."

This is the energy that flows through 'Generations', a record that balances between the realism of the moment and hopefulness for the future. "It's been a batshit crazy world the last four or five years," Will expresses. Speaking from his home in Brooklyn, New York, he might crack jokes about dreading a second Great Depression (if you can't laugh… etc.) but the musician is in high spirits. "There's something about hope, about being hopeful, about being oriented towards something – like being oriented towards a better future," he enthuses, "while keeping your eye out and seeing all the shit that's going to destroy you before you make it to your goal…"

"I think the head and the heart are in different places," he distils. "You've got to know those things, but you've got to point your soul in that direction." He pauses, thinking his words over. "You don't have to," he amends, "it's just hopeful to point your soul in that direction." That's exactly what 'Generations' strives to do, shining a light to illuminate the shitshow of a situation we find ourselves in while offering hope for whatever comes next. "It's a fine place to begin by acknowledging your power or lack of power and your position within the world," Will conveys, "and then move forward from there." As he sings on 'Bethlehem', "how does it feel to know the torch is in your hand?"

"Dark," he offers in response to his own question, referencing events like the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017 as an explanation as to why. "It's embarrassing and shitty and terrifying, and you are probably doing something horrible." He pauses and clarifies, "the 'you' is me in this." The lyric – and song – in question is inspired by the (misquoted) poetry of William Butler Yeats. As he talks Will searches for one poem in particular – 'In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz' – and pauses to read the last stanza aloud: "The innocent and the beautiful have no enemy but time; Arise and bid me strike a match and strike another till time catch."

"There's something in that moment, this desire to burn it all down, and then this idea of striking the match and blowing it out," he expresses. "Are we going to burn this shit down? Are we going to blow out the torch?" he asks. "It's that moment now." There are no answers. No one knows what the future holds. Instead, with 'Generations' Will Butler explores where he's come from and where he hopes we'll go from here. "I keep saying, it's a weird moment we're living in right now," he conveys. "It's a powerful moment, but deeply bizarre."

When he isn't looking forwards on 'Generations' he's looking back, delving into the history that brought him to where he is today. "My great grandfather was the last son of a pioneer, a homesteader in Utah," he describes. "He made his children be in a band. They'd drive across the desert – before there were roads in the desert – and play music in churches. Those kids grew up to be musicians in a jazz vocal group. My mom grew up in that musical family, playing music and playing shows." Performing in Arcade Fire with his brother, Win, and now readying to release his second solo record, it seems that music is in Will Butler's blood.

This sense of tradition is most keenly felt on album closing track, 'Fine'. "In some ways, it's trying to be like a Kanye West folk song or something," he laughs, quickly explaining that it isn't hip-hop but rather "talking about important things in a crass way." "There's a genre of hip-hop where it's like 'I got rich selling drugs'," he describes. "I'm like, 'I got rich because my grandfather ran a small business'," he laughs. "I got rich because generations of American policy have been oriented towards providing white men with a high standard of living that would be better than the generation before them," he declares with a mock flourish. "How do you like me now?"

More than just reckoning with his family history, 'Generations' sees the musician trying to find his place in it in the now. "I'm kind of the oldest millennial," he states. "I'm born in 1982: I'm not 40, but I feel like an old man. People that are six years younger than me, I see them through a glass darkly," he laughs. "Something about being a millennial who remembers the Soviet Union," he chuckles. "It neither has the standing to be an 'OK, boomer' person, nor the standing to be like, 'I've got my shit together, I'm a youth'." Exploring the tension of bloodlines and identity – and where that goes from here – is the river that runs through 'Generations'.

"I think of [the record] as a complex and satisfying stew," Will describes, in another culinary-inspired metaphor that gets more difficult to follow the longer he continues, "based off of some old family recipe that you did every goddamn step to make it into this very nourishing, very layered, uh, goulash." He abandons that train of thought with a laugh. "My brain is so broken these days." As for where Will Butler will go from here, your guess is as good as his [we mentioned there are no answers, right? – ed].

"Even before the pandemic I was like, 'I'm putting out a record this fall, I'm going to play shows in America a month before the election, I'm going to go around the world, meet people and figure out what's going on and provide some release'," he enthuses, plans which are currently just not possible at the moment. He has hopes for being creative with ways of sharing the record ("I'm curious to see if I get better at it, living on the internet") and for making a new Arcade Fire record ("God willing, pandemic permitting"). The rest is open to possibility. "For people that care about music, music feels very important right now," he asserts. "Music is so nourishing and comforting by its nature that it feels good to be engaged in that, as weird as it is."

Taken from the October issue of Dork. Will Butler's album 'Generations' is out now.

[perennialessays]

Modern Literary Movements

MODERN LITERARY MOVEMENTS 2018-19

Lectures: Friday: 3-4pm

Seminar: Friday: 4-6pm

WEEK 1

WEEK ONE Transition to Modernism                                                                                                  Chris Baldick

Seminar: Franz Kafka, ‘Metamorphosis’, James Joyce, ‘Calypso’.

Virginia Woolf

, ‘Modern Fiction’, ‘Mr Bennett and Mrs Brown’

Week 2

Memory and Bergsonism                                                                                                                    Chris Baldick

Seminar: Marcel Proust, The Way by Swann’s; James Joyce, ‘Penelope’

Henri Bergson, excerpt from Time and Free Will * Walter Benjamin, ‘On the image of Proust’*

Seminar Questions

W

e will focus on reading Proust Joyce via Bergson

whose notion of

durée

or duration allows a simultaneous layering of consciousness which Proust says allows the revelation ‘

the secret language of things’

and the ‘

inextinguishable substance

’ of things (254); time regained by the application of the intellect or voluntary memory;

INTUITION

allowing permeation of conscious states.

Wyndham Lewis said  Bergson ‘

more than any other figure … was responsible for the main intellectual characteristics of the world we live in, and the immensity of debt of almost all contemporary philosophy to him is immense’

(

Time and Western Man

, 166)

Genette in

Narrative Discourse

(1972)  notes

‘f

or Proust, lost time is not, as is widely but mistakenly believed, ‘past’ time, but time in its pure state, which is really to say, through the fusion of a present moment and a past moment, the contrary of passing time: the extra-temporal, eternity”’( 40 n. 4; 226, n. 7).

‘If he rejects’ so-called realistic “art, the ‘literature of description,’ which ‘contents itself with 'describing things,' with giving of them merely a miserable abstract of lines and surfaces’ it is because, for him, this kind of literature ignores true reality, which is to be found in essences ...´(Genette, 39; 203).

How does time in Proust compare to Joyce's time in 'Penelope'.

Week 3

Post-Nietzschean Fiction                                                                                                                  Frank Krause

Seminar: Andre Gide, The Immoralist; Thomas Mann, Death in Venice

Friedrich Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy

Seminar Questions

In  The Birth of Tragedy 1872) Nietzsche suggests that the metaphysical will operates through both Apollonian drive, which seeks  finite form and the  Dionysian drive which dissolves form. What are the implications of this insight for literature?

Is modern literature attracted to the transgressive dissolution of the self?

Nietzsche writes, 'Art is not an imitation of nature but its metaphorical  supplement' (142). How does this resonate  with what we were discussing last week regarding the differences and similarities between realism and modernism?

Nietzsche suggest that a loss of myth and myth-making (mythopoesis) in a culture leads to a  loss of vitalism and creativity? is this true?

What does N. mean when he talks of 'metaphysical consolation' of art (41)

Week 4

Epic Theatre                                                                                                                                       Frank Krause

Seminar: Bertolt Brecht, St Joan of the Stockyards.

Walter Benjamin, ‘What is Epic Theatre?’; ‘Theses on Philosophy of History’

In addition to the text of the play, we will discuss Brecht's 'Short Organum for the Theatre' (see below)  as well as Walter Benjamin's  'What is Epic Theatre?' and 'Theses on the Philosophy of History' .

things to consider

1. what does B's concept  the 'estrangement effect' mean for our discussions of realism in art? why do readers/ audiences need to be estranged ?

2. what is Brecht doing with history in his plays? think about Benjamin here. Is this still relevant for art today ?

3. think about Nietzsche again here --the consolatory aspect of art, the role of the Greek chorus and gestus.

4. Think about the historical contexts in which Brecht politicised theatre.

Week 5

Prophetic Voice in Modern Poetry                                                                                                                                                                Chris Baldick        

              Seminar: T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land

              W.B. Yeats, ‘The Second Coming’; ‘Sailing to Byzantium’; ‘Leda & the Swan’; ‘Among          

              School Children’ *; W.H. Auden, ‘O What is that Sound?’ ; ‘A Summer Night’ (‘Out on

              the lawn I lie in bed’); ‘September 1. 1939’; ‘The Fall of Rome.’*

   T.S. Eliot, ‘Ulysses, Order and Myth’* Tradition and The Individual Talent’* (VLE)

WEEK 6 READING WEEK

Week 7

Modernist Narrative                                                                                                                                                                             Lucia Boldrini

Seminar: William Faulkner, The Sound & The Fury; James Joyce, ‘Nausicaa’, ‘Sirens’, ‘Circe’.

Jean-Paul Sartre, ‘On The Sound and the Fury: Time in the Work of Faulkner’, *

Please read the seminar question for  this  week (in doc below): we will try to make links between Joyce, Faulkner, Bergson, Nietzsche, Eliot  and Proust in terms of temporality and narrative:

‘To see existence in 1929 as a presence of fragments often moving to no particular end or recognisable rationale, required of course no special originality of thought. It was becoming clear, through the work of Conrad, Joyce, Woolf, Eliot, as well as the “process” philosophy of Bergson, that the unbroken continuity of most eighteenth and nineteenth century literature—its leisurely Aristotelian movement thought paraphrasable plot pointedly marked with beginning, middle, and end, to a completed or controlling mythos; or the ordered motion of its lyrics, private and dramatic—must be replaced by the broken verse of The Waste Land and the shifting narrators and shattered time sequence of Nostromo’ (Donald Kartiganer, 1970) p. 614.

Week 8

Existentialism and the Absurd                                                                                                       Carole Sweeney

Seminar: Albert Camus, The Outsider, Jean Paul Sartre, Nausea.

Jean-Paul Sartre, ''Why Write?', from What is Literature

What is Literature?File

Adorno 'Commitment'File

Existentialism notesFile

The Myth of Sisyphus (extract)File

Week 9

Modern to Postmodern                                                                                                         Derval Tubridy

Seminar: Samuel Beckett, The Trilogy: Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable (we will focus on the last section in the seminar but you are encouraged to read the whole trilogy)

Beckett bibliographyFile

Barnett Newman paintingURL

The Trilogy-seminar notesFile

Week 10

Post-Holocaust Writing                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Rick Crownshaw

Seminar: Primo Levi, If This is a Man, W.G. Sebald, The Emigrants, we will focus on ‘Max Ferber’.

Marianne Hirsch, ‘Surviving Images: Holocaust Photography and the Work of Postmemory’, The Yale Journal of Criticism 12.1 (Spring 2001), 5-38. (VLE)

Postmemory articleFile

reading of If This is a manURL

Holocaust writing lecture notes PPFile

Week 11

Postmodern Fiction                                                                                                                                Tim Parnell

     Seminar: Italo Calvino, If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller

     Jacques Derrida,  Structure, Sign and Play’*;

Roland Barthes, ‘The Death of the Author’ *

Roland Barthes- The Death of the AuthorFile

'Structure, Sign and Play'File

useful article on John BarthFile

'The Literature of Replenishment', John BarthFile

Calvino PP lecture notesFile

[colour-outside-the-liness]

Hi Colour! This is going to be a long one, so buckle up!

Oh wow, that's so precious! You've definitely earned the "real life Dani" nickname haha I wish I could find something meaningful like that to do with my life. I'm actually autistic and have ADHD so hearing you do this kind of work makes me really happy! Keep up the good work Ms. Clayton! 😁 Haha

You sound like a lot of fun to hang out with at pubs! Haha I'm glad you identify with that bit of info on your star placements. I had a lot of fun doing it too!

The thing about Hozier is that some of his lyrics are incredibly sapphic to me for some reason, I'm still trying to figure it out. NFWMB is one of the songs that feels like that to me. Don't know if you've heard it before but give it a try if you haven't. If you close your eyes it sounds like you're in an epic romantic story and there are swords, pretty gowns, and rooms lit by torches. Haha

The beginning of this song was inspired by a poem written by W.B Yeats called "The Second Coming" in 1920, and it talks about an apocalypse of sorts, alluding to all of the horrors men inflicted upon the world which ends up awakening this beast that goes to Jesus's place of birth in the Bible (Bethlehem) to be born. The last lines being:

"And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?"

So the song starts with:

"When I first saw you

The end was soon

To Bethlehem it slouched

And then, it must've caught a good look at you"

And oh boy do I think of Dani when I hear that. Especially bc of that scene where Viola accepts Dani's invitation to live inside her. And nobody knows why she accepts it (but I do!).

And yeah at first glance you might not think much of Dani. in the beginning she's just a tiny frail small-town girl with a lot of anxiety, running away from her past traumas. But she proves us wrong again and again and again. She moves to a country she's never been before entirely by herself, sees an opportunity, and doesn't let go of it even when it looks like it went wrong. Then is very loving and tender with these children who have gone through so much and are still going through so much. Tries to fight (with a fire poker!!) the threatening man that keeps harassing her, the children, and her friends. THEN manages to soften the angry, grumpy lesbian who's given up on people after A LOT of trauma (too much in my opinion) and doesn't give up on her when she rejects her either. Freaking exorcises her ex and makes him stop haunting her so she can be with the love of her life. And then finally as if all of that didn't make her the bravest hero in this story, she literally stops an apocalypse from happening and saves everyone from this beast by sacrificing herself without even thinking twice. Saves everyone that came before her and then the ones who'll come after for the rest of eternity. I mean the P-O-W-E-R this girl has. 💪 so hell yeah the lady in the lake wanted to take her.

When Hozier says:

"Ain't it a gentle sound, the rollin' in the graves?

Ain't it like thunder under earth, the sound it makes?

Ain't it exciting you, the rumble where you lay?

Ain't you my baby? ain't you my baby?"

I can only think of Dani at the bottom of the lake laying on top of all the bones of the people Viola killed and how she's at peace living forever in a dark place like that. That's kinda hardcore y'know?

After the first verses, Hozier goes on to talk abt his lover, someone so utterly terrifying even the beast of the end of the world can't stand to look at them. But this song is also about being proud to be this person's lover bc nothing can fuck with them, not bc you are there to protect them and wouldn't let anyone harm them, but bc they're more than capable of protecting themselves and you too. So in my head, this song is Jamie's declaration of love to Dani.

And then I think of Jamie's devotion to Dani when she said "If you can't feel anything, then I'll feel everything for the both of us." shown in this verse:

"If I was born as a blackthorn tree

I'd wanna be felled by you

Held by you

Fuel the pyre of your enemies"

And the fact that she took what she could get just to be with Dani. She knew she'd have to suffer for/bc of her at some point, but chose to be with her anyway. I have no doubts in my mind she'd want to be anything for her as long as they could be together in any way, shape, or form. In all the lives they happened to meet one another too.

Wouldn't it be cool to see them in an AU where Dani is like a medieval princess who's supposed to marry Edmund to form an alliance between kingdoms or something and Jamie is an assassin who is hired to kill the princess so she has to pretend to be Dani's personal guard or wtever but they fall in love and run away together and Jamie teaches her how to fight so Dani becomes this warrior but turns out Dani is naturally good at it and then she becomes a legend? Hahaha I can see her riding a horse in the winter with paint on her face and her blonde hair falling over this fur-lined cloak, fierce look on her face, and Jamie riding next to her (always). Then they come across Viola who's a witch and puts a curse on Dani and then Dani and Jamie have to travel to all sorts of places and fight all sorts of people and go on this whole adventure to rid Dani of this curse. Maybe Dani has to go back to her kingdom bc her father dies and there are other people trying to take her kingdom so there's a lot of angst and suffering but then they win at the end after a lot of sweat and tears and they live happily ever after! 😎Hahaha

Anyway, I hope you're having a great week so far and hope you had fun with your niece today! (I know if I was her and you had us make fudge and paint I'd worship you haha) I'm sorry for the very (very) long ask, but I've been obsessing over this idea for months and I just had to share it with someone! ✌️✨

(And you can call me Libby or wtever since I'm not anon anymore 🤗)

Awwh thank you so much for saying I have earned my 'real life Dani' title is means a lot to me that you guys see that in me!! I am sure you do so many meaningful things in life without even realising it!! I honestly just want to make a difference and I love helping people so going into a career like this just seemed so natural to me and I really do love what I do!! Thank you so much I really hope I can keep up the good work!! I hope I'm a lot of fun- I know I have helped win a few pub quizzes and there's been a few times I've won games of trivial pursuit as well so that really did make so much sense to me and learning about all the placements of my chart was so much fun and was so interesting so thank you very much!! I have heard some of Hozier's lyrics are quite sapphic and I always mean to look into more of his songs and then just never do but I will definitely look in to NFWMB because the lyrics you have sent me here are incredible and definitely give of Dani x Jamie vibes I definitely agree with you in everything you have said about why Viola accepted Dani's invitation- Dani and Viola are similar in some ways and this was something I was explaining to my niece when she watched it with me. I explained to her that both Viola and Dani are strong willed, and stubborn, and would do anything to fiercely protect the people they care about. We saw that time and time again with Dani, how within days of knowing Miles and Flora she was out with a fire poker trying to protect them from a strange man that she kept seeing around the manor. And how Viola would've done anything to protect her daughter. One major difference between them though is that Viola seemed to have a slight selfish streak where as Dani is entirely selfless, she was selfless for the longest time in even agreeing to marry Eddie so she wouldn't hurt him, she was selfless in protecting Miles and Flora, and even more selfless in saving Flora's life and freeing all the trapped spirits of Bly Manor and then she is selfless in the fact that she won't drag anyone down and won't hurt anyone else at Bly ever again. The one thing she did for herself was being with Jamie- and she was able to make Jamie open up and trust people in way she probably hadn't for the longest time. Dani is a truly strong person as was Viola and I can see why she would accept Dani's invitation. I will have to listen to this song to see it from a Jamie perspective which I will definitely do tomorrow but from the lyrics you have sent me I can definitely see it being a love declaration to Dani from Jamie. Jamie knew in the end she would suffer because she knew she wouldn't be able to keep Dani forever, and knew that one day she would have to leave her- but she knew loving Dani for as long as she was allowed to would be worth that pain in the end and Jamie is a truly strong person as well for knowing this and staying by Dani's side anyway when that must have been such a hard thing for Jamie to ever have to accept. Jamie would've been anything for Dani and would've one anything for her as Dani would've for Jamie and that's why I love them so much. They loved each other so purely and without conditions and so wholeheartedly and it really was such a lovely thing to watch play out in front of us (even if it did hurt us all at the end). I think it would be so cool to see an AU like that I think medieval stuff is always so fun and so interesting and a good enemies to lovers start never fails either because there's so much tension there between them. And Jamie being undercover as someone to get close to Dani and them slowly falling in love with each other would just be a great thing to see!! And I am all for warrior Dani and Jamie (women with weapons is a little bit of a weakness of mine)!! This whole AU just sounds incredible I love a good curse in fantasy stories and the curse slowly taking over and you thinking they're going to run out of time but everything works out in the end!! Dani going back to her kingdom because of her sick Dad dying would be great for angst because it would look

like she would have to marry someone to create an alliance and that she would have to take over a kingdom (perhaps something she never wanted to do in the first place)!! I think this could be a very angsty one shot and could be so interesting and fun and the happy ending would definitely make all the angst worth it in the end!! I am having a good week so far thank you and I had so much fun with my niece today, making fudge went great and she was happy that I was able to show her how to do it because she'd never made it before so now that's something she knows how to do (I think she thinks I'm way cooler than I actually am haha thank you for saying you'd worship me though if you were my niece haha 😂) but tomorrow she is teaching me how to do something because I taught her how to make fudge today... she's gonna teach me how to draw in an anime style- which is something she is really into and even though I'm not she loves drawing so I've asked if she can teach me since I taught her something today!! There's no need to apologise I loved this long angst and I loved this idea I think it's really great and interesting and that song just seems amazing and I am definitely gonna listen to it tomorrow when I get chance!! Thank you for sharing this idea with me I loved it!! ☺️ Haha oki doki then as long as that's alright with you Libby is what I'll call you!! Like I said you can seriously call me anything!! ☺️

[littlespoonevan]

they say you can tell a lot about a person by their favourite lyrics or their favourite quotes. what are yours? 💛

oh my god anon this might be my favourite question ever??????? sajkdhs how much time do you have lmao okay this won’t even come close to all my favourite quotes/lyrics but here’s an unfinished list:

“But, dear me, let us be elegant or die.” - Little Women, Louisa May Alcott

“I have been frightened half out of my foolish wits, but I have somehow earned this joy; I have been waiting for it for so long.” - The Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson

“Must be the time of year for shooting stars. Looking for each other, like everything is.” - Days Without End, Sebastian Barry

“In the end, it is my belief, words are the only thing that can construct a world that makes sense.” - Behind the Scenes at the Museum, Kate Atkinson

“There is no hard truth, only truth on a given day by a given person. It is people who are hard or soft.” - It’s Not Yet Dark, Simon Fitzmaurice

“He is half my soul, as the poets say.” - The Song of Achilles, Madeleine Miller

“I have hated words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right.” - The Book Thief, Markus Zusak

“It’s a lot easier, she realised, to be on the verge of something than to actually be it.” - The Book Thief, Markus Zusak

“The only thing worse than a boy who hates you: a boy who loves you.” - The Book Thief, Markus Zusak

“Hope was a dangerous, disquieting thing but he thought perhaps he liked it.” - The Foxhole Court, Nora Sakavic

“I suppose...she makes me quiet. Like Henrietta.” - The Raven King, Maggie Stiefvater

“Whatever souls are made of his and mine are the same.” - Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte

“What will survive of us is love.” - “An Arundal Tomb”, Philip Larkin

“The end of art is peace.” - “The Harvest Bow”, Seamus Heaney

“It should be enough. To make something beautiful should be enough. It isn’t. It should be.” -  Landscape with a Blur of Conquerors, Richard Siken

“Oh must we dream our dreams and have them too?” - “Questions of Travel”, Elizabeth Bishop

“Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, Whispering 'it will be happier'.”- Alfred Lord Tennyson

“When is a monster not a monster? Oh, when you love it.” - Caitlyn Siehl

“A mermaid found a swimming lad, Picked him for her own, Pressed her body to his body, Laughed: and plunging down Forgot in cruel happiness That even lovers drown.” - “The Mermaid”, WB Yeats

“There is no answer. But Eleanor is the answer.” - Chidi Anagonye, The Good Place

“People aren’t thinking about you the way you’re thinking about you.” - Alexis Rose, Schitt’s Creek

“I'd be the last shred of truth In the lost myth of true love

[...] Before he feels alone One final time And marries the sea Imagine being loved by me” - Talk, Hozier

“But you’re not what you thought you were,” - Liability (Reprise), Lorde

“Catch us in the mirror and it looks a lot like love Then you stop me talking as you kiss me from above” - Another Place, Bastille

“What a feeling to be right here beside you now Holding you in my arms When the air ran out and we both started running wild The sky fell down But you've got stars, they're in your eyes And I've got something missing tonight What a feeling to be a king beside you, somehow I wish I could be there now” - What a Feeling, One Direction

“Everybody's looking for love to start a riot But every time I look in your eyes The world gets quiet” - Silence, Before You Exit

“I can see you starin', honey Like he's just your understudy Like you'd get your knuckles bloody for me” - Exile, Taylor Swift & Bon Iver

“How the faces of love have changed turning The pages And I have changed oh, but you, you remain Ageless” - Crystal, Stevie Nicks

“Her fight and fury is fiery Oh but she loves Like sleep to the freezing” - Cherry Wine, Hozier

“And if I ever see you again my love All I m ever gonna do is send shivers down That spine of yours” - Lover, Where Do You Live?, highasakite

“Would it really kill you if we kissed?” - Drive, Halsey

“Some love was made for the lights Some kiss your cheek and goodnight” - Slow It Down, The Lumineers

“This morning, with her, drinking coffee” – Johnny Cash about June Carter when asked his description of paradise.

“There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in.” - Leonard Cohen,

[foyal]

andante anon here again — i was looking at the lyrics on the genius website, and someone said that the lyric “tread lightly on my ground” might come from a yeats poem where he writes

I have spread my dreams beneath your feet

Tread softly because you tread on my dreams

which reminded me of multiple scenes in mark time, all the scenes where zuko has dreams about sokka throughout mark time and some others, specifically

“Feeling almost sick with affection, Zuko leans forward and presses the softest of kisses to Sokka's cheekbone. His eyelashes flutter minutely. Zuko wonders if he's dreaming.”

“‘Just a dream,’ [Zuko says.] ‘Go back to sleep.’

Sokka yawns. He rolls over, taking most of the bedding with him.

Instead of tugging it back, Zuko scoots in and folds one arm around Sokka's waist, their heads on the same pillow. ‘I wonder,’ he hears himself say, words slurring with sleep, "if I always knew you were going to change me." Then he lets his eyes drift shut and pulls Sokka against him, close enough that he hears Sokka return, in a clear whisper, ‘You changed me the first day I saw you.’”

“As Sokka drives him home, he stares out the window, marking the pale light of sunrise as it bleeds into the horizon. It's a brand new day, he thinks. And if Sokka's still there when he wakes up, maybe Zuko can be a little less afraid of where it takes him.”

and most prominently

“Zuko slips in on the other side of the gigantic king size mattress, large enough that they don't touch despite the way Sokka sprawls across the centerline, and dreams of a wedding they never had. [. . .] Calla lilies everywhere, smooth-white and pure. Sokka kisses the back of Zuko's hands before they link them for vows, and Zuko tells him, meaning every word from the bottom of his damaged heart, that he is never safer, stronger, or kinder than he is in Sokka's arms.”

(tangentially related — i absolutely loved the reappearance of calla lilies later in the fic at a specific chapter ending. those little details are one of the many things that make your fics so incredible to read, both for the first time and many times again)

*

Oh my god, Andante Anon--Anonte!!--this is such a kind analysis of something that I’m not proud of, which is all the fade-to-black sleeping and dreaming they do in the fic. I really, really appreciate your attention to detail and the way you’ve so generously interpreted that aspect--I never would’ve made the Yeats connection without you, and I’m in love with that relationship now. Thank you for sharing your insights, and for rereading with such awareness that you catch things during your rereads. <33 I hope you’re having a beautiful day. You definitely brightened mine.

[hauntedfalcon]

fic titles meme

Tagged by @iwritesometimes!

Look at the most recent 20 (or however many!) fanwork titles on your AO3 account and answer the questions below. Acts of Service A Tolerance for Pain Bajur Adding Shadows Words of Affirmation a pillar I am, upright Twice the Thunder Housed By Your Warmth Work for Idle Hands Rite of Movement Woven Walls Shun the Light Early Retirement It Looks Ugly, But It’s Clean Tread Softly Rum On the Fire if I was born as a blackthorn tree Absent with Leave Unconventional Methods If You Can Find It  You, Too

1. How many are you happy with? Nominally, all of them. 

2. How many are…not great?

I wish I’d come up with a better theme for the titles of the three spinoff stories from “Acts of Service”. But individually I still think they fit their respective stories. 

3. How many did you scramble for at the last minute? lololol so many. “Woven Walls” came out of the end of the story; I was sure I’d just use a Hozier line until then. 

4. How many did you know before you started writing/creating, or near the beginning? Acts of Service, Words of Affirmation, Twice the Thunder (thanks to @bisexualwinry), Shun the Light, Tread Softly, Rum on the Fire, Absent with Leave, You, Too. 

5. How many are quotes from songs or poems? LOLOLOL the question my friends is how many are from Hozier songs? the answer is EIGHT. Four others are sourced from non-Hozier songs. and “Tread Softly” is from Yeats.

6. How many are other quotes? “You, Too” is a play on the “You either” line in Pacific Rim: Uprising that heralded the blessed polyamorous moment that inspired the fic, but I don’t know that that counts. 

7. Which best reflects the plot of the story/content of the fanwork? how long do we have here 

honestly on review, I often do the thing where the snippet of lyric I quote is meant to invoke the context of the line, which is more directly tied to the story, hence “Adding Shadows" (to the walls of the cave) for an action scene set in a cave, or (it’s a wonderful life) “If You Can Find It” for a Hansen-Pentecost blended family trying to scrape by on a planet that’s trying to kill them. I am not subtle. 

out of the handful that aren’t quotes, “Acts of Service” is like... the whole fic. Right there. Again, I am not subtle. 

8. Which best reflects the theme of the story?

I mean, “Acts of Service” again. tbh I try to match these to a mood when I can’t match the theme per se. “Woven Walls” has the lyricism I was going for and the suggestion of people putting up whatever flimsy barriers they can to protect themselves from vulnerability. “Unconventional Methods” for a bunch of misfit benders trying to train Avatar Chirrut to take down the Fire Lord when nothing they’ve learned is really applicable. “Tread Softly” for Hawke and Fenris tenderly nurturing a future for each other, oh no I’m crying about it again 9. Which best reflects the character voice of the story/pov of the fanwork?

basically all the Cara stories. particularly “A Tolerance for Pain,” “Work for Idle Hands,” and “Housed By Your Warmth”. and “It Looks Ugly, But It’s Clean” features a very bitter, grim, and goal-oriented Hawke.  10. Which is your favourite title?

I thought this would be really difficult, but I just love “Woven Walls” so fucking much 

TAGGING @confabulatrix @mienuxbleu @mayqueen517 @aban-asaara @thelcstcolony @oriyala @spectroscopes @bisexualwinry @thelionshoarde  and anyone else reading this! 

[caltropspress]

FEEDBACK LOOP #1: Armand Hammer’s “Flavor Flav”

What are the Black purposes of space travel?

—Amiri Baraka, “Technology & Ethos”

Black futurism is a temporally troubled matrix Black futurism is a temporally troubled matrix that thrives on opposites and oppositions, flowing lines and nonlinearity, conflict resolution and asymmetrical warfare. It prefers the mad dash on shifting sands while in pursuit of higher ground and safe havens.

—Greg Tate, “Kalahari Hopscotch, or Notes Toward a 20 Volume History of Black Science and Afrofuturism”

Welcome aboard our spaceship, it’s so nice to have you here. —Newcleus, “Space is the Place”

Who, constructing the house of himself or herself, not for a day but      for all times, sees races, eras, dates, generations, The past, the future, dwelling there, like space, inseparable together. —Walt Whitman

I’m so tired of being forced to promote the myth of white supremacy by performing works by old white men like Whitman who said blacks...didn’t have a place in the future of America. —Timothy McNair

Today is the shadow of tomorrow, today is the future present of yesterday, yesterday is the shadow of today. —Sun Ra, “Secrets of the Sun”

This highly allusive track from billy woods and ELUCID toys with itself—that is, allusions are a figurative means of collapsing time in and of themselves. Past and present history & culture don’t contend so much as support one another. A set of stilts to do the Dance of Death on, if you will. “Start downhill running.” The Seventh Seal hilltop silhouette danse macabre steez, though. The whooshing, metal-creaking beat—with all its haunted psithurism charm—is the backdrop for this sleeper Shrines track.

The name “Flavor Flav” is used metonymically here to mean time. This isn’t a braggadocio, low-key threat in the spirit of OC’s “Time’s Up.” This isn’t a Grandmaster Flashian “You Know What Time It Is” (though the hands on the clock tower do spin clockwise and counter-). Neither is this a Kool Moe Dee-esque rhetorical “Do You Know What Time It Is?” Armand Hammer are frustrated by time, by the “ideals and dreams that don’t work.” woods laments his “time machine [that] don’t go backwards.” This no-good lemon of a H.G. Wells contraption he’s steering. This isn’t some Christopher Lloyd-cum-El-Producto Delorean. There’s no Great Scotting going on, just stubbornness.

Progress isn’t made. Time stagnates. Like the “list of ill-fated quick licks under ’frigerator magnets.” And that “school trip permission slip”—likely a bus ride to a museum: a carefully curated collection of artifacts, most notable for its colonial muscling. The question remains: What is left out? What is excluded? What is ignored, discarded, or co-opted so as to not withstand the test of time? woods’ short-i assonance speeds the delivery up only to slow it down:

list | ill | quick | licks | ’frig | nets | trip | mis | slip | lick | split | skin | spliff

billy woods, son of a revolutionary, redefines Afrofuturism (re-re-re-defines—its brilliance is in how it remakes itself unconditionally). Afrofuturism becomes about birthing the next generation of Black revolutionaries, so he subverts the line and expectations when “big hand captured” refers to the clock, but “little man [not hand] chasin’” refers to a youngin. (Try to keep up.) Put the faith in the youth when our “ideals and dreams” stall out—when the days, months, years are fleeting and forceful (“It do tick faster / The hour coming rough”). The spliff that’s “[skinned] like an onion” turns the cypher into Perrault fairy tale “pumpkin,” Cinderella style.

“Don’t come ’round with that ‘Go slow’” is in conversation with Nina Simone’s “Mississippi Goddam,” of course. It’s Nina who said “[she] can’t stand the pressure much longer,” who objected to those who “keep on saying ‘Go slow,” who had her band ironically chanting Do it slow. billy woods, like Nina Simone, decries reformism, incrementalism. Don’t do things gradually. We’re at the point where Nina stands up from her piano bench and shouts That’s it!

Forego the telephoto lenses, he insists, this is the “Battle of Algiers with the GoPro.” Urban guerrilla warfare uploaded and disseminated via YouTube. Again, time collapses. The struggle to decolonize continues. Watch for the This video is no longer available dead-end.

billy woods’ Nietzschean “loathing and fear” reverses the hallucinogenic time-warp of Thompson’s (and, in filmic relation, Gilliam’s) Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. “History is hard to know,” Thompson writes, “because of all the hired bullshit, but even without being sure of ‘history’ it seems entirely reasonable to think that every now and then the energy of a whole generation comes to a head in a long fine flash.” That flash will reappear in ELUCID’s verse.

If “all roads lead to Rome,” we’re settling into the inevitability of our moves. It’s a fatalistic shrug, but homophonically, all roads lead to roam—that is, the journey is prolonged interminably. It’s nomadic. Much static. So, naturally, you’re going to “[shake] the hourglass like a snowglobe,” distort time, and splurge on the “JC Penny Timex,” which is appropriately “flooded with rhinestones.” Flooded, because no more water: the fire next time. Don’t “lose track” and don’t “get trapped in the future.”

The chorus quotes the Rolling Stones’ “Time is On My Side,” but it ain’t that simple, no. The history is as messy as we’ve come to expect amerikan music to be. “Time is On My Side” was originally penned by Norman Meade (Jerry Ragovoy), and trombonist Kai Winding first recorded it. Jimmy Norman, a Black songwriter, fleshed out the lyrics significantly, and Irma Thomas recorded that version in the same year as the Stones. The song followed a path similar to that of “Strange Fruit”—a composition written by a white Jewish man under a pseudonym (Abel Meeropol as Lewis Allan) but popularized by a Black female jazz singer (Billie Holiday). As author Jess Row has said about jazz—hip-hop applies, too—it is “by its very nature multi-racial, intermingled, and collaborative across color lines.” But this cognizance must always be contextualized with views of Black artists like that of Art Blakey: “the only way the Caucasian musician can swing is from a rope.” Hip-hop has always had its Paul Cs and Rick Rubins, but the racial heterogeneity of a genre, or even a single recording, can’t cloak the power dynamics still in play. The Stones’ version of “Time is On My Side”—undoubtedly the most popular version—is a rip-off of Irma Thomas’ version. Mick Jagger even jacks Thomas’ ad-libs, which is to say, her rawness and spontaneity. Even the band’s shadowed faces on the cover of 12 x 5, the album on which the track appears, suggest the racial problematics, the minstrelsy heist. Armand Hammer mock the British Invasion blues filchers by adding “they” to the chorus line: “They said time is on my side.” They being white institutions (especially within music publishing, production, and recording industries) who promised enough airtime for everyone. They who urged patience. (Go slow!) But, as history shows, the profits only lined certain pockets.

ELUCID begins at the “golden hour,” which is both the photogenic beauty of the sky after sunrise and before sunset—a beauty too good to behold. It’s the sun glare shining in your face on the winter commute from work. It’s your high-speed accident and then the golden hour is the paramedics and doctors trying to salvage your corporeal existence. ELUCID’s verse is a hypnagogic jerk, gasping for breath as he takes a “portal to Orangeburg, ’68.” It’s a reference to the campus shooting of young people in protest—South Carolina State University. Unlike Kent State, which came afterwards, Orangeburg didn’t get the attention keening white women in Pulitzer Prize-winning photographs do, despite “live ammunition,” three dead, 28 injured, and “nine acquitted assassins.” Unnoticed. Black invisibility. Not that H.G. Wells type of invisibility—the Ralph Ellison kind.

We’re told what this is: it’s the aggregate stress (“the load of the allostatic”) of Black life. It’s one’s personal Extinction Agenda, the “post-traumatic” of the gunfire “flashes” that double as flashbacks. The pain, stress, the brain that can’t rest, the pressure on the chest.

“The center won’t hold” lets us know this isn’t all PTSD reverie—it’s a rebel poem: surely some revolution is at hand. ELUCID channels Achebe channeling Yeats. Things might fall apart but not without struggle. The “Flavor Flav clock spins centrifugal,” as a gyre, as an apocalyptic (91…) voice. Turning and returning. The words have an air of insurrection, proclamation.

He misses “watching how a flat circle fold”—it won’t budge, won’t wrinkle. We’ve been here before: on “Hunter,” on Paraffin, when billy woods was on that “time is a flat circle” shit. That Nietzsche eternal recurrence shit:

What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: “This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain…will return to you. […] The eternal hourglass of existence is turned upside down again and again, and you with it, speck of dust!

“Can you find the level of difficulty in this?” suggests game playing, arcades. Calls to mind more Walter Benjamin’s Arcades, though. billy woods and ELUCID are gleaners and magpies of cultural cadavers in Benjamin’s way. Their bars are play and critique both. We’re left with a modicum of optimism at the song’s end. Even “only [moving] the pen six inches” is something, is struggle. The “pale faces beyond the fire” are ever-present, though. The “flinching, panic, [and] confusion” are committed to continue.

Is it the fool or the insurgent who thinks time is on their side? We want the life we live to be “more brilliant than a sunbeam.” That’s to say, we don’t want to wait for the golden hour or the golden years. We want what they say we can’t have. We want what they say we shouldn’t imagine. But Armand Hammer helps us take solace in the “drum skin stretched”—the rhythm, the rebel. The oft-quoted Douglass gem, If there is no struggle, there is no progress, is played out for a reason. The reason is because it needs to be played again, and again. Like a mantra, like a song.

Images:

Sun Ra’s Space is the Place (screenshot) | Flavor Flav (detail), courtesy of archivist Sean Stewart | Grandmaster Flash “You Know What Time It Is” music video (screenshot) | Kool Moe Dee “Do You Know What Time It Is?” single cover | Nina Simone live at Antibes Juan-les-Pins Jazz Festival 1965 (screenshot) | The Battle of Algiers (screenshot) | The Rolling Stones 12 x 5 album cover | Flavor Flav, courtesy of Stewart

[mikkeneko]

As per my coplayer’s request, the soundtrack for my D&D character (plus captions.)

Isavela’s Lament on Spotify

The songs aren't in strict chronological order, and a few of them are grouped together as they're essentially the same thing. Also some of them were chosen more for the sound than for the meaning.

'Tokuyama Lullaby' and 'Lyrical Short Piece' Izzy plays a variety of instruments, but her trusty flute is always close to hand.

'Lucky' and 'A Lifetime' When Isavela was young and foolish she fell in love. Her family disapproved of a match between an elf and a non-elf, but she defied them and eloped with her lover. Twenty years later, the reason for her family's caution was driven home as her husband breathed his last in her arms.

'Cathedrals' and 'Little Earthquakes' As time takes away more and more of her loved ones, Isavela begins to seek solace in religion. Gods and their temples offer a continuity that no other place or person can, and she eventually drifts into service to the Raven Queen.

'Eli, the Barrow Boy' With her connection to the shadow and long practice in death, it was only natural that she would take an interest in unquiet spirits and seek to soothe them.

'Heavy In Your Arms' and 'Breaking Down' Izzy goes through periods of melancholy -- a heavy weight that is nigh on incapacitating.

'Big Houses' Enter Cal, who offers her the chance to start over again with a new family. Isavela never thought she would love again, but she finds it in her to try.

'Spanish Doll' Izzy's new life in the Song Hills is threatened by stories of strange porcelein warriors.

'Stay Alive' and 'What Sarah Said' Love is watching someone die.

'Hollow Years' Sometimes a marriage is just broken, and no matter how many years of your life you've poured into it, there's nothing left to do but walk away.

'The Tower' and 'It Doesn't Matter' As Isavela's career as a Gravesinger begins to take off, she buries her grief in her work.

'Yeats' Grave' and 'Don't Fear the Reaper' As time goes by, Isavela becomes increasingly obsessed with death.

'My Body Is A Cage' With her family, her first husband and her son all preceeding her in death, Izzy comes to see herself as trapped by duty on the wrong side of the veil.

'If You Were Here' Of all the voices of the dead that speak to her, there is one in specific that she listens for but never hears.