#du jour means friendship

[jennifermorris]

happy boygenius day everyone 🥲

[absolutebl]

BL Tropes Specific to a University Setting

@sagi-kari asked a question, and as usual Tumblr ate it, but here it is:

Hi ABL!, I was wondering: What do people mean when they say University BL tropes? Isn't that just romance tropes in general? But also there are things like freshy contest which is basically thailand's prom, I think. Which makes me think: Are there tropes specific to University BLs?

All Uni BL

They ARE roommates (forced proximity)

Hazing (bully)

Library assignation

Head in lap in a park/quad/bench

Friendship group teasing/trial/coming out (they usually already know)

Friendship group meals

Some kind of going out to a club

Supportive straight bestie

Thai Uni BL Specific

Gift of gear necklace

Pink milk

The college uniform (Thailand)

Freshie contest and/or games

Engineering smock = gay

Premed + engineers (blame 2 Moons)

These are just off the top of my head I am sure there are more. But some of the others, like rooftop, are also shared with High School.

More like this:

[into-september]

MAIN TAG: mlb meta

SHIP STUFF

Put your money on ladynoir, kids

On the merits of imperfection (why ladrien is my favourite side of the love square)

The innage tragedy of ladrien, and why I love it

So here’s the thing: (from the perspective of character growth, reversing the love square makes no sense)

To phrase this better than I did so late at night that it was technically morning: (lukanette is a masterclass in the crucial difference between showing and telling)

The NYC special might’ve sunk lukanette before it ever had the chance to happen

if we’re using “friendship is more important than a celebrity crush” to argue against the love square…

On shipping dynamics within the love square, mainly marichat vs. ladrien

ADRIEN AGRESTE MY BELOVED

Adrien Agreste and the limelight

Adrien Agreste and the question of unmasking

Some speculation about Gabriel’s possible ways out of being Hawkmoth and how they will affect Adrien

To cross your DNA with something reptile (on sentiadrien, because who needs narrative logic when you can have angst)

Being the topic du jour and all (the show has already shown that getting his amok can’t be a ~beautiful metaphor~ for sentiadrien’s freedom)

If sentiadrien is meant to be a commentary on child abuse then someone has no idea how stories work (spoiler: it’s not, because abuse is funny on this show)

SPOILER: I’M A CHLOÉ STAN I GUESS

Ending Chloé’s story as a villain would be a vaste of screentime and that’s why they shouldn’t

This be the verse (let’s just say I’m less than impressed with how early S4 handled the Bourgeois family drama)

Some more Zoé meta

Let’s talk narratological theory to explain why Chloé is an abused child in the text even if the creator insists she isn’t

WHY LUKA ISN’T MY FAVOURITE CHARACTER

Spoiler: Luka Isn’t A Great Character Yet (written in response to some people’s very low standards after “Truth” aired)

In fact he’s so poorly written that he’s pretty much an unintentional parody

Overthinking things (they don’t mean it like that but I saw some uncomfortable sexist themes to Luka’s akuma powers, both times)

Can we please stop blaming Marinette for Luka being a simp

MIXED BAG

Paper faces on parade (comparing and contrasting Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Gabriel Agreste)

On the feminist merits of MLB

The Scarf Came Back (on “Mr. Pigeon 72″ and the meaning of its many callbacks to early S1)

Related: S4 and “Gorizilla”

Jagged Stone is… (a spoiled manchild who’d be an awful parent if he’d stuck around and they were better off without him)

“Gang of Secrets” was underwhelming and that’s a problem

I finally realised where my entire problem with “Gang of Secrets” lies

Right now my main hope for S4 is that I’ll come out of it shipping alyanette like it’s going out of style (this show should’ve put more effort into Alya like three seasons ago)

MLB and the bad rich people

Some observations and a poor attempt at analysing the depiction of wealth in Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir

No, Marinette isn’t a Mary Sue (because I refuse to acknowledge linguistic drift and “Mary Sue” does not mean what you think it means)

Etymology ragepost, MLB edition

This show just can't up the stakes in battle

NOT REALLY META BUT STILL

Chloé should discover Cat Noir’s identity it’d be great

I also really want Felix to become a gentleman thief

What if all the heroes knew everyone’s identities except Cat Noir’s, wouldn’t that be super fun and not at all heartbreaking

My ideas for the Secret Sibling were way better than who it turned out to be tbh

Did you know that I have a tag devoted to Kagami being a fujoshi

Outline of the Hikaru no Go AU someone else should totally write

“Puppeteer 2″ was a microcosm of the Cat Noir-Ladybug-Nino-Alya mess of S4

Marinette is canonically bi in the Norwegian dub

GOING OFF ON OTHER PEOPLES’ POSTS

The Umbrella Scene Redux in the NYC special wasn’t about Adrien falling for Marinette but a foreshadowing of the importance of friendship going onward

Adrien’s pain lies not in unrequited love, but projecting his abandonement issues onto Ladybug

A small but heartfelt declaration to adrigami

When you have to make your characters repeatedly insist that someone is so totally in love, it’s not coming across as totally convincing to your audience

tl;dr I suspect that the reason marichat is so popular and ladrien is correspondingly disliked is about gender roles, actually

On marichat and ladrien and romance tropes

No really, ladrien is stupid and that’s why I love it

The Reveal is supremely unlikely to happen before the deciding battle against Gabriel and if it does, they won’t get together before it anyway

MLB’s got a bit of a genre problem and that’s why the plot cannot ever move

Chloé is the Loki of the MLB fandom and given how much attention the show proper gave her compared to the rest of the secondary cast, Thomas Astruc has no right to be surprised about it

Chloé can’t be Queen Bee again before she realises that she doesn’t need to be Queen Bee to do good things

More Chloé analysisin’: An irredeemable character wouldn’t need a three-episode storyline to explain her reluctant fall for the villain

Some people finding the sentiadrien narrative a healing parable about emotional abuse does not stop it from functionally annulling the actual emotional abuse the show depicted

[nousdoux]

Foot 2 Rue

[Plain text reading "Foot 2 Rue". END PT.]

[Transcription en français: Le générique de la série Foot 2 Rue. Les paroles sont: Entre 4 vestes, 2 haies de buissons déferle un flot de pression Chaque partie porte son lot de frissons Partage, fair play, foot 2 rue ! Tous parés pour la compétition, symbole d'une génération, C'qui nous lie, plaisir et passion Amitié, respect, foot 2 rue ! Entre 4 vestes, 2 haies de buissons déferle un flot de pression Chaque partie porte son lot de frissons Partage, fair play, foot 2 rue ! Tous parés pour la compétition, symbole d'une génération, C'qui nous lie, plaisir et passion Amitié, respect, foot 2 rue ! Partage, fair play, foot 2 rue ! Le générique a des tons bleus et jaune uniquement et tour à tour on nous introduit les personnages dans la ville de Port-Marie en train de jouer au foot: Tag, Gabriel, Tek et No, Eloïse, Pradet. Fin de la transcription]

[English transcription: Foot 2 rue's theme song. The lyrics go: Entre 4 vestes, 2 haies de buissons déferle un flot de pression Chaque partie porte son lot de frissons Partage, fair play, foot 2 rue ! Tous parés pour la compétition, symbole d'une génération, C'qui nous lie, plaisir et passion Amitié, respect, foot 2 rue ! Entre 4 vestes, 2 haies de buissons déferle un flot de pression Chaque partie porte son lot de frissons Partage, fair play, foot 2 rue ! Tous parés pour la compétition, symbole d'une génération, C'qui nous lie, plaisir et passion Amitié, respect, foot 2 rue ! Partage, fair play, foot 2 rue ! The theme has only yellow and blue tones and we see the characters in their town Port-Marie playing soccer: Tag, Gabriel, Tek and No, Eloïse, Pradet. End transcription]

↪ Available on / Disponible sur: Youtube, Canal +, France TV ↪ Status: Ongoing ↪ Seasons released / Saisons sorties: 4 seasons, 104 episodes ↪ Running time / Durée : 21 to 24 minutes ↪ Résumé : Tag et ses copains ne vivent que pour une chose : le Foot2Rue ! Ils se retrouvent chaque jour pour jouer dans la rue. Grâce à cette passion qui dépasse le cadre des terrains de sport, ils trouvent la force d’affronter leurs soucis du quotidien. Car le Foot2Rue, c’est Amitié, Respect, Solidarité ! ↪ Summary : Tag and his friends only live for one thing: Foot2Rue ! They meet up everyday to play in the streets. Thanks to this passion which goes beyond their playing field, they find the strength to tackle their everyday problems. Because Foot2Rue means Friendship, Respect, Solidarity !

[jerzwriter]

I feel you're one of the few people from this fandom that can hear an opinion and be like "oh ok cool good for you" and keep going with their life, everyone else take things super personally. Even when no one was talking to them in the first place.

Thank you. Your blog really feels like a safe space for conversations 🙏🏻

Nonny, thanks for this. Really.

I am sure some just see me as a trouble making pain in the ass, and that’s their prerogative, but that’s not my intent.

But, YOU ARE SO RIGHT! No matter what happens here, someone is offended. I mean, if people COMPLIMENT one another, people think it’s slighting someone else. Like WTF? No, sometimes people just want to be nice. Relax.

I have this radical notion that people are entitled to their own opinions… especially in a fandom called CHOICES. And my tolerance for bullies is nil. Some of the shit I have seen, be it anons or people proudly posting their hatred and ignorance for all to see is appalling. (Hey, I give the latter credit, at least show who you are so people know who to block…)

It boggles my mind that people hate others because they like, or don’t like, a particular LI. Like what? Who gives a shit? My bff from this crazy-land is a Bryce stan and Ethan, uhm, “disliker”. Lol We busted each other’s chops over it since OH was still in release. But I adore her and she seems to tolerate me. 😂 We would have missed out on an incredible friendship if we were dumb enough to let such a stupid thing get in the way.

I also am in a unique vantage point as I don’t fall into any camp 100%. I never have, and while that can be lonely and frustrating at times, I like it this way. Falling into a clique and seeing everyone else as an “other” is always a recipe for disaster.

I can see when there are fucked up people on both sides of most (not all) issues. That includes our OH fandom discourse du jour. Anyone who thinks it’s one sided is delusional. Because I have seen people on both sides attacked and bullied and, fuck, I have been attacked and bullied by both sides. So I am only stating facts here, sorry if some find the offensive, but I don’t do alternative facts.

I really think we have people who are here strictly for the drama. Like outside of drama, where is the contribution? Live and let live man, don’t like someone, good, move on and and don’t waste your time or energy on them. The twisted hatred and long-term vendettas here are absolutely disturbing.

And conversations, RESPECTFUL conversations, are always welcome here. We don’t have to agree on everything to get along, or at minimum to be courteous to one another.

Off the soap box now… but seriously. Thank you. I have been so fed up w this place lately, and it gets difficult, so this is appreciated. 🩷🩷

[kapanbenernya]

Super Cub -- Why I Like this Anime

Let's first get something out of the way: I'm not big on animes; I am more of a manga man. Settle down folks, and let me articulate my point for a few minutes.

First, I like that manga can be accessed leisurely. Meaning that I can just sit anywhere with a book or some scanlation and I can put it down and pick it back up anytime I want without allocating a special schedule in my day just to sit down and watch something.

Second, I think the voice acting in animes can be a bit much. With all due respect to the English or the original dub: it can be cringe. Yes I know it's a great moment in life when the protagonist du jour finally awakens the power of gangbang and unleashes this legendary super move that he made the fuck up just fuckin now, but for the love of God you don't have to scream like that.

And now that I have elaborated on those two points, it's time to seal it up in a bin, throw then out, and flush em away, because it is now time for me to gush about this 2021 anime that I adore: Super Cub.

So what's Super Cub about?

No it's not about a furry that awakens superpowers, it's about a girl in a small town named Koguma. As the show says verbatim she has no parents, no hobby, no friends, no money, and no goals in life. She essentially is nothing but a husk at this point just trudging through life. One day, she bought the titular "Super Cub", a Japanese low cc motor scooter. And suddenly she finds her life changing slowly but consistently.

Koguma, and her new whip

And then suddenly the scooter talks and transports her to the scooter isekai filled with motorbikes and adventure right?

Wrong. Nothing happens except "girl with bicycle" is now "girl with scooter". No magical powers, no talking scooters, no secret assassin, and no sudden tiddies. The anime is so mundane that the first episode actually ends with the protagonist being stranded at midnight because she ran out of gas. Apparently it didn't cross her mind that her bike that runs on combustion engine needed fuel to run, or that she needed to refill it. The second episode started with Koguma kind of wanting to brag to her classmates about her new bike, except she decided against it. And her decision was correct since when her classmates found out that all she owned was a manky old bike, she got nothing but jeers.

Goddammit Koguma, does anything nice ever happen to you? Ever?

And this is the point the protagonist snaps and the evil that's sealed inside the cursed bike helps her exact revenge! Mwahahahha...?

Also wrong. And I hope you'd stop interrupting me, little voice in my head.

One positive thing actually happened to her. One of her classmate named Reiko is actually super into manky old bikes. And that's when Koguma finally found her first friend. The friendship itself also doesn't feel forced or rushed, it started from small awkward talks up until the point Koguma stayed at Reiko's house and finally feels like they're comfortable with each other. They didn't just automatically become best friends and raise a gang of super cubbers together.

Nope, not in the anime. They could not afford the hair gel

That's it? This shit sounds like it fuckin sucks

Maybe if you compare it to high-octane production these days, but I believe this slow paced next-to-nothing-happens is exactly the stuff that made me fell in love with the anime. The closest comparison that I can make is Yuru Camp if it was even MORE slowly paced. And sometimes you don't want some fast-paced action, you want something comfy to wind down from the daily hustle and bustle of life. And to me, something like Super Cub is absolutely perfect.

The other thing I like about this anime is how real and sincere it feels. The super cub didn't change Koguma in any way shape or form, Koguma changed herself. It was her that decided to pick up the bike, it was her that decided to reciprocate Reiko's friendship, and it was her choice to improve upon her life. The bike simply enables her to do so.

In Brief

I'm just gonna say it straight: I like it. I like the beautiful still shots of the scenery, I love the occasional classical music they put in the quiet scenes, and I love how grounded and heartfelt the characters' motivation feels. I also love how the anime seems to have an implicit moral message that "Life can change". If you feel you are stuck with your life going nowhere, try to make a positive change; no matter how small, no matter the time, as long as it changes you for the good. I mean who knows, it might be the thing that will finally take you wherever you want.

With your Cub, you can go anywhere.

7/7/2023

[pvrrhadve]

whom else in this chili's tonight cannot even fathom feeling emotionally mature enough for a romantic relationship

[maddiesbookshelves]

Second queer manga recommendation of the month:

Blue Flag, by Kaito

Original title: Ao no Flag / 青のフラッグ

Genres: Comedy, Drama, Romance, School Life, Slice of Life

Themes: Friendship, School, Homosexuality, Love

Japanese volumes: 8 (Finished)

For some reason, Taichi Ichinose just can’t stand Futaba Kuze. But at the start of his third year in high school, he finds himself in the same homeroom as her, along with his childhood friend Toma Mita, a star athlete. But one day, Futaba opens up to Taichi and admits she has a crush on Toma. She then asks for his help in confessing to him! There’s just one problem—Toma seems to already have a secret crush on someone else.

I was floored when I learned that this was published in Shounen Jump+ because the Jump magazine is the biggest manga publisher in Japan (One Piece, Naruto, Bleach, Jujutsu Kaisen and a lot of others are/were published by Jump). So yeah, you can imagine my surprise when my friend introduced me to this story featuring a very masculine boy who's actually gay as a main character. Most of the main cast is queer and even the secondary characters have more depth than an MC in a straight movie (Mami, who's set up as the popular mean girl at the beginning, became an instant favorite once we got to know her).

Not everyone around Toma is accepting, but this is not a story about bullying, it's a heartfelt story about love and friendship: Taichi struggles to come to terms with the fact that Toma is gay but ultimately ends up getting over himself because he realizes their friendship is too important for him not to. The characters all make different choices and decide to live how they think is best for them and no one is shown as being wrong or right. They're just doing what they think is best for them.

The fact that Toma is probably one of my favorite characters ever is entirely unrelated to this post.

French version under the cut

Titre VF : Ao no Flag / 青のフラッグ

Genres : Comédie, Drame, Romance, School Life, Slice of Life

Thèmes : Amitié, Ecole, Homosexualité, Amour

Volumes VO : 8 (Terminé)

Pour une raison qu'il ignore, Taichi Ichinose ne supporte pas Futaba Kuze. Seulement, au début de sa dernière année de lycée, ils se retrouvent dans la même classe, ainsi qu'avec son ami d'enfance Toma Mita, athlète populaire. Un jour, Futaba se confie à Taichi et lui avoue qu'elle a un faible pour Toma. Elle lui demande même de l'aider à avouer ses sentiments à Toma ! Seul problème : il semblerait que Toma arbore secrètement des sentiments pour quelqu'un d'autre...

J'étais choquée quand j'ai appris que c'était publié dans le Shounen Jump+ parce que le Jump est le plus gros magazine de publication de manga au Japon (One Piece, Naruto, Bleach, Jujutsu Kaisen et beaucoup d'autres sont/étaient publiés dans le Jump). Du coup vous pouvez imaginer ma surprise quand un poto m'a fait découvrir cette série où un des personnages principaux est un garçon très masculin qui est en fait gay. La plupart des personnages principaux sont queer et même les personnages secondaires ont plus de personnalité qu'un protagoniste de film hétéro (Mami, qui est présentée dès le début comme la fille populaire et méchante, est rapidement devenue une de mes fav quand on en a su un peu plus sur elle).

Tout le monde dans l'entourage de Toma ne l'accepte pas forcément, mais ce n'est pas une histoire de harcèlement, c'est une histoire sincère sur l'amour et l'amitié : Taichi a du mal à accepter le fait que Toma soit gay mais finit par réaliser que leur amitié est trop importante à ses yeux pour ne pas l'accepter. Les personnages font tous les choix différents, ils décident de vivre leur vie de la manière qu'ils pensent être la mieux pour eux, et personne n'est désigné comme celui ou celle qui a raison ou tors. Ils font juste ce qu'ils pensent être le mieux pour eux.

Le fait que Toma soit probablement un des mes personnages préférés de tous les temps n'a rien à voir avec ce post.

[celticcrossanon]

BRF Reading - 11th of April 2022

This is speculation only

Cards drawn on the 8th of April 2022

Question: Does Meghan Markle want to return to the UK as a working royal?

Note: When I was shuffling the cards for this reading, I head a voice say "Ugh - no", and that energy flows through the entire reading.

Interpretation: Definitely not. She would view it as a betrayal.

Card One: The Three of Cups. This is usually a card of celebration, of friendship, of achieving success as a group and celebrating it. It can also indicate an over indulgence in partying/drugs/alcohol. The card shows a wedding, which is how Meghan achieved her position in the BRF and the only reason she would be allowed to return - her marriage to Harry.

The energy of this card is reversed. Meghan views going back to the UK as a working royal as a failure; a cause for despair, not celebration. It would require her to work with others when she is determined to work by herself. It would restrict her partying, and the mere thought of it is enough for her to throw herself into an orgy of drinks/drugs/overindulgence.

The energy of the card is of resistance. Meghan does not want to return and work as part of a group again. She is so resistant to the idea that she may even separate from Harry and live in her own establishment in the US rather than return to the UK (the wedding shown on the cards in reverse = broken wedding, no longer together). She does not want to return to the UK as a working royal, and she does not want this with every fibre of her being. Returning not as a working royal, i.e. coming back to a luxurious lifestyle funded by the BRF with no expectation of any royal work from her, is seen in an entirely different light. She would enjoy that. But as a working royal - ugh, no.

Card Two: The Ten of Swords. This is the card of despair, of betrayal, of hitting rock bottom, of being knifed in the back. This is how Meghan would view her return to the UK as a working royal. She would view it as a betrayal of herself, and she would feel justified in betraying each and every member of the BRF in return, knifing them in the back (metaphorically) in the cruellest manner possible. She would want to reduce them all to despair for the 'crime' of making her return to the UK as a working royal.

The biggest betrayal in her mind would be that the BRF did not and will not protect her. The picture on the card shows Orestes huddled on the ground, a line of swords separating him from the Furies, while the goddess Athena stops their approach with an uplifted hand. In Meghan's mind, she is Orestes, the victim of cruel circumstances, the Furies are anyone who points out her lies and/or the gaping holes in her narrative du jour, anyone who mocks her or makes fun of her in any way, anyone who does not respond to her with breathless admiration and near worship. In her mind, the BRF, represented by Athena, did not stop those people from publishing anything negative about her. The line of swords has spaces in it that the Furies can reach through - some negative stories got out. Meghan thinks that is a betrayal of her, that those stories should have been killed before they wee printed, the people on you tube should have instantly been taken down etc. The BRF did not do this and so, to her, they betrayed her and therefore they deserve any betrayal that she does to them.

Card Three: The Hermit. This card has two energies in this reading.

The minor energy is of Harry. The Hermit is the card of Virgo, the star sign of Harry. Meghan would regard her return to the UK as a working royal as a betrayal of her by Harry, and in her mind that would justify any and all cruelty that she inflicted upon him in retrun for his 'betrayal'.

The main energy is of retreat from the world, living in the shadows, having your light dimmed. Meghan would see her return to the UK as a working royal as an attempt to remove her from the world and to dim her light, and she would regard herself as justified in fighting against that by any means possible (multiple PR articles every day about her, demanding the best place in any event and pushing in if it was not offered to her, making any event she attended all about her, giving herself first billing in the press via money 'donations', spending money like water with no restraints at all, etc). She would have no qualms about grabbing the spotlight whenever and however she could, as in her mind the BRF deserve this behaviour for trying to 'dim her light' by 'pushing her into the shadows', i.e. making her take the place of the wife of the 6th in line to the throne instead of treating her better than the Queen.

Underlying Energy One: The King of Swords. This is the card of strategy, of professional advisers, of someone who can see to the heart of the matter and act accordingly, unaffected by emotion. here the card is coming across as strategy. The energy of the card is ice cold - when I pick the card up I half expect to see ice forming around it and on my fingers, it is that cold and sharp and driven. This is the energy of someone who is laser focused on what is best for her, what she wants, and how to make that happen. Other people do not even come into the picture, let alone being considered in any way.

Meghan will do whatever she can and use whatever and whoever she can to get what she wants. There is no compassion in this energy, so kindness, no softness, just an ice cold focus on the self and what the self wants. If Meghan returns to the BRF it will be with this mindset - to use them to achieve her own goals, and she is not going to make any pretence of going along with their customs or of considering any other family members. She will simply get what she wants from them in the shortest time possible and then she will leave. There is no commitment or desire for permanency in this energy. It is a come in, use everyone ruthlessly, and use the BRF to launch myself to better things energy.

This energy is completely ice cold and ruthless - I can not state that enough and I can not overstate how cold it is. If Meghan's behaviour caused distress to the Queen and hastened her death, Meghan would not care. If it caused her husband to have a breakdown, Meghan would not care. Her only focus is herself. None else is of any concern to her and she would enjoy breaking certain people such as the Cambridges. Before, as a working royal, she appeared to have some concern for appearances/how she appeared, but there is none of that in this energy.

If Meghan returned to the UK as a working royal it would be with the attitude of getting everything she can for herself, and absolutely no concern or worry about anyone else r anything else whatsoever. If getting what she wanted involved weakening the monarchy by her behaviour, she would do it. If it involved blabbing BRF secrets, she would do it. There is no honour, no gratitude, no compassion, nothing here but an ice cold energy of getting what she wants however possible.

Underlying Energy Two: The Moon. This is a card of illusions, lies, deceit, and things not appearing as they seem. Coming after the King of Swords, this card tells us what Meghan will do to get what she wants. She will lie. Deceive. Gaslight. Emotionally manipulate. Drive people to breakdowns. Say black is white and try to get people to believe her. Nothing is off limits to her in her quest for what she wants. There will be nothing that she will not do, no manipulation or deceit that she will not try, to get what she desires.

Conclusion: Meghan does not want to return to the UK as a working royal. She is resisting this with every fibre of her being, and she will live apart from Harry rather than return as a working royal. If she is forced to do by circumstances, she will regard it as a betrayal of herself by Harry and the BRF, as an attempt to dim her light and stop her shining. She would return with an ice-cold attitude of getting everything she wants regardless of who and what it hurts, and she will use any lie/deceit/gaslight/betrayal possible to achieve this. If she is confronted with the pain she has caused a person, she will regard it as their just punishment for betraying her by forcing her to return to the UK as a working royal (this includes any staff as well as members of the BRF). She will definitely see Harry as a betrayer and will treat him accordingly.

[a-skirmish-of-wit-and-lit]

Book Review: The Wedding Crasher by Mia Sosa

What's not to like about a book that features wedding crashing, fake dating, friends with benefits, axe-throwing, and an extended Brazilian family with the added bonus of a sex party and simulated birth shenanigans? If you're anything like me, you'd say nothing. Then you'd probably aggressively clap your hands and levitate off your sofa with glee because what a romance trope du jour! Am I right...or am I right? Anyway, the story begins when Solange Pereira objects in the middle of a wedding ceremony because she'd overhead the bride declare her love earlier, only, to a man who happened not to be the groom. And she can't let that go without speaking up. Not in good conscience, that is. Not until the groom knows the truth! After all, what could be worse than marrying someone you don't love or who doesn't love you? To Solange's surprise, Dean - the jilted groom - doesn't seem bothered by the fact that his bride is enamored with someone else. In fact, it turns out their wedding wasn't about love at all. It was a plan. Part of an itemized checklist. It was nothing more than a marriage of convenience that was supposed to help him get ahead in his life and career. Solange doesn't know what to make of that. They talk for a bit, flirt, then part ways. When things start to implode for him at the office after that, with his floundering mess of a personal life now threatening his chance at acquiring a coveted promotion, Dean enlists Solange's help: begging her be his fake girlfriend for a few work events. She, still feeling guilty about imploding his nuptials like a wrecking ball, of course, agrees. So what starts out as a stranger-ruined wedding soon becomes a fake relationship which then spirals into something a little more than "just" friendly... Solange and Dean are fun, engaging characters. Cute as far as book couples go. They have an interesting dynamic because they start off as strangers as well as opposites: with Dean being the kind of guy who's stringent, focused, and skeptical of love, but who has his whole life mapped out multiple choice style; and with Solange being the type of woman who is spontaneous, extroverted, and free-spirited, yet staunch in her convictions, which means she refuses to invest in a man or a relationship unless both parties are all in. (Three cheers for a girl who knows her worth! Woot woot!) The two have different wants when it comes to love and romance so that's the major obstacle sitting between them from the outset. However, the lovely thing about that is they're able to build a friendship that's built on genuine like, comfort, and communication FIRST before they even think about acting on their mutual attraction to one another. I have a preference for slowburn, so their dawdling romantic progress worked well for me. Overall I thought this was cute and entertaining, if a bit flat in places. I loved the multicultural feel of the story with the tias and the Brazilian dishes and the Portuguese. I've been teaching myself the language since the pandemic began so the dialogue between Solange and her family members added a little something extra for me. This one's perfect for spring wedding season! Or simply for those of you who are in need of a big slice of fluff in your reading life. Thank you to NetGalley and Avon Harper and Voyager for the ARC in exchange for my review.

3.5/5 stars

**Follow me on Goodreads

[arsenicpanda]

002 Betty

This is an oooooold ask game question, but let's jam!

|002 Betty Cooper

How I feel about this character: She is my future-PI, ends-justify-the-means darling and I love her. Betty believes in capital-j Justice and will pursue someone she perceives as a perpetrator to the ends of the earth, using (almost?) any means necessary. This makes her an extra terrible cop but a great PI and a fascinating character. Betty is the girl next door cracked open to reveal all the insecurities and pressures that being the Good Girl Next Door would create, and instead of some “oh, she’s under pressure but otherwise normal” we got “nah, she’s ruthless and dark and smart as fuck but also yearning to be loved” and then we let her be loved, not some Strong Independent Woman or a perpetual second choice, but someone’s first choice, how fucking rare is that? That a woman with darkness in her gets to be loved without the condition that she hide or “fix” that darkness? It’s a breath of fresh air. Betty goes from being unsure of herself and struggling with her ~darkness~ to be certain and confident and decisive and comfortable with her chosen level of ~darkness~ in 4x16. I mean, then things go to shit and she seems to be overconfident, even cocky, and unaware of just how dark she’s gotten (Betty gets the line of how dark she gets to be of "maybe don't be a vigilante killer", which is a normal line for all protagonists and therefore doesn't bother me), but I assume she’ll come back to her normal state of being equal steps from being a hero and being a villain, rather than her current state of being much closer to being a villain than being a hero. I’m excited to see it, and I hope to god they don’t fuck it up.

All the people I ship romantically with this character: Jughead, mainly. Donna is good for hatesex but nothing long term, and Veronica is good in the comics. Toni is good too, and I’m itching to see her one-on-one dynamic with Tabitha because I already like it in theory and can’t wait to see it in practice. Also, my two OT3s are Betty/Jughead/Toni (bugoni) and Betty/Jughead/Tabitha (bugabitha), but especially bugabitha because omg investigative power throuple that covers the full spectrum between Mulder and Scully, give it to me now, please. If Riverdale would just open its third eye, it would have bugabitha + varchiereggie endgame, let me tell you.

My non-romantic OTP for this character: Oh god, Betty has terrible and underdeveloped friendships. Uh...Charles? I love her interactions with him, the way he’s like “Betty, you’re so great at catching serial killers, I love you, please love me” and she’s like “But you’re a serial killer”, like that’s peak comedy and I want more of it, please.

My unpopular opinion about this character: idk if this is unpopular, but I think, while she’s been (for the most part) a great girlfriend, she’s been a shitty friend to, well, all of her friends. She’s so focused on her mystery, her mission du jour, and her family that she kind of just lets her friendships fall to the side, especially her friendship with Veronica, like holy shit. Like, the bad friendship goes both ways with Archie and Kevin, but Veronica has been a very supportive and helpful friend to Betty, and the show rarely shows Betty doing the same, which is a huge bummer. It’s very much a case of the writers choosing to mainly write Betty’s mysteries, but as a result of that choice, she just looks like a bad friend, which is unfortunate. I wish it wasn’t true, but alas.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I wish she had been a PI and former FBI agent post time skip instead of an FBI trainee. It would have made everything she did in 5a fun instead of deeply uncomfortable at best.

my OTP: Jughead, obviously. Even with everything that canon has done to try and injure this ship, it stands pretty damn tall. Like, they just line up, there’s no disputing that. Interests, priorities, attitudes, beliefs, they all just fit. I’ve never seen two characters who are so clearly soulmates before; there’s just no denying it.

my cross over ship: Uhh...none? Maybe she’d be cute with Tsubaki because they’re both big on Justice? But then Tsubaki also very much follows the rules, so that might not work.

a headcanon fact: The reason Betty is only a trainee is because she took the time to get a Masters in Psychology after college and therefore only joined the FBI recently. She never visits Charles, but she sometimes gets letters from him that she immediately throws in the trash.

[heroicadventurists]

Robin 80 ***spoilers***

Robin 80 was a wonderful celebration of the first sidekick... the Boy Wonder... Robin. This issue consisted of 10 stories focusing on the different iterations of Robin. While Carrie Kelley received a pinup in the issue, she did not receive her own story. Robin 80 focused on the five canon Robins. While some are upset that Duke was not included in this lineup, he was never an official Robin to Batman. If we count Duke, we have to count all of the "We Are Robin" crew. When given the choice by Batman, Duke chose to pave his own path as his own hero, which is commendable. Dick received 4 out of the 10 stories in this issue, which was fitting considering it is also his 80 year anniversay. My favorite thing about this issue was the acknowledgement that Bruce adopted the male Robins. Below I rank the stories in Robin 80 from my least favorite to my favorite.

10. Dick Grayson, Nightwing in Aftershocks

Writer: Chuck Dixon

Starting off my list is Aftershocks.  This story follows Dick after he has quit being Robin, and has assumed his new identity, Nightwing.  This story highlights perfectly how Dick operates as a solo hero.  He is brave, quick on his feet, witty, and of course, he saves the day.  This was a good one-shot but it didn’t have the impact that some of the other stories in this issue had.  However, it did serve it’s purpose of showing Dick coming into his own.

9. Nightwing and The Titans in Team Building

Writer: Devin Grayson

Like Aftershocks, this story serves to show how Dick operates as a team leader. He was smart, strategic, capable and decisive.  He was everything you want in a team lead.  As before, this was a good one-shot, but it also lacked the emotional impact that other stories on this list had. 

8. Dick Grayson, Agent 37 in The Lesson Plan

Writers: Tim Seely and Tom King

Like Aftershocks and Team Building, this story follows Dick as Agent 37.  In this story he is a mentor to a young recruit named Paris.  He gives her lessons throughout the story that contradict every lesson Batman ever taught him.  When he gets to the final lesson, he tells her the one thing that he agreed with Batman on “Ignore Your Mentor.  Do What You Do Best”.  One thing I really appreciate about the stories focusing on Dick is that each story is a progression in his vigilante career.  He has an actual arc in Robin 80.

7. The Supersons in My Best Friend

Writer: Peter J Tomasi

This was an adorable story about how Jon views his friendship with Damian.  Damian is a lot more vulnerable when he is with Jon, and honestly, he acts like the kid that he is.  This was a lighthearted and sweet story that shows a different side to our current Robin.

6. Tim Drake, Robin III in Extra Credit

Writer: Adam Beechen

This was a wonderful piece that highlighted how awesome Tim is.  For so many, Tim is their Robin, and it was nice to see him getting recognition in this comic. 

5. Stephanie Brown, Robin IV in Fitting In

Writer: Amy Wolfram

Out of all of the stories in this issue, Stephanie’s story made me think the most.  There was a very deep meaning behind this story once you get past the surface level.  So let’s breakdown this story.  The story begins with Stephanie showing up late to a training session.  She suits up in one of Tim’s old costumes.  Of course there are issues with this and Stephanie is busting out of the seams (not because she’s overweight but because she has breast, butt and thighs to contend with).  She complains about her hand-me-down costume while Bruce focuses on training.  Even with her top busted, Bruce is still training.  He even has the nerve to tell Stephanie she is distracted. Alfred shows up with Dick’s old costume as a replacement, and Steph asks for something “without a cup”.  Bruce FINALLY makes Stephanie a suit fit for a young lady, but when she puts on her new costume, Bruce tells her “no more excuses”.   Let that sink in.  He saw her complaints about wearing a male costume as an excuse not to train.  Let’s carry on.  They go to Western Town to take on Firefly.  The villain du jour does not take Stephanie seriously and calls her “Cosplay Girl”.  Stephanie is rash during the fight and does not follow Batman’s orders, resulting in her capture by Firefly.  She is able to avert disaster (barely) and saves the day, but Batman still chides her. 

Batman: “Tim would have waited outside”

Robin (Stephanie): “I’m not Tim!”

Batman: “I know”

Stephanie tells Bruce that she wants to be her own Robin and to stop trying to make her into something she’s not.  Bruce hears her and makes her a special closet in the batcave with her own costumes. This seems like a step in the right direction but we know how her Robin story ends.

At no point in this story did I feel like Stephanie was being sexualized.  it was more awkward and embarrassing than anything else. Neither Bruce nor Alfred said anything inappropriate to Steph, and no skin or nipples were shown thru her shirt.  She was just in a predicament where her costume was too tight because Bruce was making her wear Tim’s old costume.  And that was the point of the story (at least for me).  Bruce wasn’t trying to find a replacement Robin, he was trying to find a replacement Tim, and eventually get Tim back.

Bruce has a bad habit of trying to replace people in his life.  He did this with Jason and he did it with Stephanie, and the results where dang near the same.  Bruce replaced Dick with a direct copy, down to the hair color, race and costume.  Bruce was trying to do the same with Stephanie, however it was unsuccessful for obvious reasons.    This story really made me think about all the extra pressure Bruce put on Steph and Jason by trying to have them live up to Tim and Dick respectively.  Instead of playing up their strengths and letting them define what type of Robin they wanted to be, he wanted them to be replicas of their predecessors.    Both results turned out in disaster with Jason dying and Stephanie nearly being killed after she was fired. To me this story highlights how badly Bruce tried to use Stephanie to get to Tim.  It makes absolutely no sense that he wouldn’t make her a costume to fit her body.  But is it surprising b/c he did the same thing to Jason.  To me this story was a lot deeper than Stephanie busting out of her top.  It was about 1.  Bruce’s need to get Tim back 2.  Bruce’s lack of respect for Stephanie and 3.  Stephanie’s disastrous run as Robin.  Say what you will but she held the mantle for less than 3 months and almost died trying to prove herself to Bruce.  Stephanie never got a fair shake at being Robin, and this story highlights that perfectly.  She was literally setup to fail. Maybe I have overthought this story, but those are the points I got from it, and they are important points to be made, which is why it takes the # 5 spot.

4. Dick Grayson, Robin in A Little Nudge

Writer: Marv Wolfman

This is a story about a boy becoming a man and setting off on his own journey. In this story, we see Batman and Robin clashing on patrol, as Batman wants Robin to fall in line and Robin wants to make his own decisions. The issue ends with Dick thanking Bruce for everything he has done for him but leaving the nest to become his own hero. Bruce knew this day was coming, and instead of talking to Dick, he purposely picked small fights with him so he could make that step on his own.

3. Damian Wayne, Robin: Son of Batman in Bat and Mouse

Writer Robbie Thompson

This story lands in my #3 spot This story focuses on the fundamental differences between Damian and Bruce. Bruce knows that something is going on with Damian, he just can't figure out what it is. He wants to fix it but he doesn't know how. He can't rely on Alfred, as this story takes place after his death. On Damian's part, he is blaming everything on Bruce instead of taking responsibility for his own actions. While some see Damian's current storyline as a regression, I see a lost kid with no guidance. Alfred is dead, Dick is Ric and Bruce is emotionally inept. Jason tried to step-up, but that relationship soured quickly. Damian has no one to guide him, and is making bad decisions as a result. This story sets up the eventual showdown in the upcoming Teen Titans annual.

2. Jason Todd, Red Hood in More Time

Writer: Judd Winick

I was not expecting Jason to have the most heartfelt story in this issue. This story was beautiful and now I want Judd Winick to write another Red Hood miniseries or ongoing. This story highlighted the complicated relationship between Jason and Bruce in the most purest way I've ever seen. Even the artwork had an innocence to it. The story goes back and forth between a young Jason, who loves Bruce wholeheartedly, and an older Jason, whose relationship with Bruce is way more complicated and strained. This story highlights why Jason will always be a part of the Batfamily, because even with their complicated relationship, they love each other. This story just adds to the wonderful stories featuring Jason in 2020.

1. Tim Drake, Red Robin in Boy Wonders

Writer: James Tynion IV

The brotherly bonding in this story is what landed it in the # 1 spot. This story takes place prior to Detective Comics # 934. In this story, Tim cannot decide if he wants to attend college or join Bruce in forming the Gotham Knights. He seeks advice from Dick, Jason and Damian, with each one telling him something different. Dick tells Tim that he's a hero that the next generation can look up to. Jason essentially tells Tim that Bruce is stuck in his ways and he has the opportunity to be better than Bruce. The best advice however came from the little Gremlin in Tim's life. After some well placed insults, Damian tells Tim that he has accomplished everything he has set out to do, and has been successful in his endeavors. At the end of the day "You do anything you damn well please". The confirmations Tim received from his brothers was much needed for him and helped him make the decision to form the Gotham Knights with Bruce. I loved getting a "behind the scenes" look at how The Gotham Knights protocol was formed. Because of these factors, Boy Wonders has my #1 spot.

What is your favorite story from Robin 80?

[absolutebl]

“I have loved you since before i knew what it was to want.” 

BL trope du jour 

Childhood Crush

Lovely Writer (Thai)

History 4: Close to You (Taiwan)

We Best Love (Taiwan)

Where Your Eyes Linger (Korea)?

Love Stage! (Japan)

Irresistible Love (China) 

Word of Honor (China) 

Minato’s Laundromat (Japan) 

Dear Doctor, I’m Coming For Your Soul - sort of, it’s paranormal and complicated (Thailand)

Mr Cinderella (Vietnam) 

Together with Me (Thailand) 

Cutie Pie (Thailand) 

DNA Says Love You (Taiwan) 

Cherry Blossoms After Winter (Korea) 

Enchante (Thailand) 

Kimi no Koto Dake Mite Itai (Japan)

Minato’s Laundromat (Japan)

With the possible exception of Where Your Eyes Linger (which I watched a long time ago and can’t really remember) all of the ones I screen capped actually depicted the younger selves on screen (with one or both protags recast with child actors). Characters that started pining in high school or university not included (like Star in My Mind, Bad Buddy, or Plus & Minus). 

This is a contentious one (it touches on taboo for a lot of people) and I think the source is not BL. It is in yaoi but mainly coupled to the stepbrother trope, and even there it’s not all that common. So I hesitate to call this a yaoi trope. 

Early live action “seed” yaoi adaptations out of Japan sometimes had this trope but didn’t actually depict the childhood, only referenced it (Takumi-kun & Forbidden Love come to mind). Thailand still does this, but often for side dishes like TulHin in A Chance at Love. 

This is one we occasionally see in western het historical romances from the 1980s and earlier, sometimes coupled with an arranged marriage. But usually the two child characters are depicted hating each other, not actually falling in love (or starting to). 

It is a Thing in het Asian romance dramas too. I think it has a lot to do with a prevailing culture concept that to know someone first means not only to know them best (or better than others), but to have a greater right to their affection and attention. 

The "I liked him first = I have a prior claim" idea. To have known a lover in childhood gives priority and preference to the nature of your affection (something cherished over time and having weathered the slings and arrows of puberty and adulthood). 

We love a piner. The longer the better. Who has had the crush the longest carries a ton of weight in a crushers right to the crushie - so far as the narrative is concerned.

We can actually see a form of this in fandom and fan behavior. The idea that somehow having discovered a band, or having liked that one Kpop group, longer than some other fan (or before they became famous) somehow makes you a better/superior fan, just because of longevity.

Back to childhood crushes in Asian dramas.

The burden of affection conferring obligation on the one who's being adored is also quite a common. In other words, "I like you, therefore my feelings for you are now your responsibility."

I have theories this has to do with the importance of filial love in collectivist cultures conferring higher value on longer term affections. But also that affection carries with it an obligation of physical care of the kind that adults might give children (from wound tending, to feeding, to sponge baths and beyond). Romantic intimacy is tied to what we (the west) would often think of more as expressions of parental affection. Therefore to tie romantic interest into childhood, in the form of a childhood friendship or crush, meshes extremely well if your concept of “what is romantic, or what comprises romantic gestures” is also somewhat... parental.

In BL we see this manifest as the seme often being the one with the long cherished (and acted upon) crush. The seme will also be handed the lion's share of the parental gestures of affection and care.

But it's not actually that uncommon in the western world either. There is this idea amongst friendship groups that "I liked him first, therefore you can't like him" - calling dibs. This is particularly common in early romantic relationships and younger friendship groups.

To have done a thing first carries tremendous weight of importance in the human psyche. We see "first by virtue of time" (as opposed to first by virtue of ability) cross culturally. It's like birth order. It's a status that anthropologists would call ascribed status (rather than achieved). I hope you can see how it might be particularly important in Asian cultures where to be older is to hold higher status no matter what, see linguistic honorifics.

To have loved longer, under these circumstances, is to hold higher status as a lover.

I have seen one drama face up to and challenge this notion: Thumping Spike. It's a noona romance and the guy who wins the girl is NOT the one who has had the childhood crush. He challenges the one who does have it, by saying something like, "if we valued love by who loved the longest, I should be married to the local grocery lady."

All of which is to say, it's so common a trope it's been called out for its own tropeiness.

Updated Sept 2022, not responsible for childhood pining after that date. 

(source)

[oneweekoneband]

her Nebraska (1982)

In July I flew to Massachusetts with a plague on, and I felt that it was wrong, but my mother had begged and I’d been out of work for months. Mornings there I ran in long, uneven ovals on the same roads I’d memorized in high school. There’s no sidewalks, but the few feet of dirt between the craggy pavement and the open mouths of the fields serve all right for a single body in motion. When a truck comes up close from behind, the ground shakes, and I step away bouncingly from the street toward thigh-high yellow weeds and grass, and keep going. I was slowly picking my way back in that dirt, sweat-slick from only a plodding couple of miles in peak summer heat, and sucking the wet cotton of my mask in between my teeth on every inhale, when Taylor Swift announced she was releasing a surprise album produced by the guy from The National. Not the guy from The National, like, the voice, but the guy from The National whose photo was circulated on Twitter earlier this year as some kind of antifa super soldier, which isn’t the case, but would’ve been rad. First, I stopped dead to send some outraged, misspelled text messages, and then I ran home faster than I’d moved in years.

Tall, blonde, patrician pop star Taylor Swift is to me something like a cross-between a wife and a boogeyman. Bound we’ve been since we were really children. Time and its changes haven’t rid me of her, and what’s worse is I have never quite been able to wish they would, though I claim as much all the time. Countless hours of my one wild and precious life have been spent on endlessly analyzing the minutiae of Taylor Swift’s music, the mind that made it, the real world events which influenced it. And though all the while I have known she is only a person, and that people, while each strange and lovely in their own ways, are, in the end, mostly dull, needful in just the regular manner, the fantasy is better, the sick dream of a megalomaniac songstress, curious, thrilling, probably evil, and I choose that. I don’t know Taylor Alison Swift, born to this world in, I presume, the usual way. But my Taylor Swift? I’m a renowned expert. I’ve always eaten up stories—movies, music, celebrity news, the one my grandfather tells about falling off his bike once in Ireland as a boy and his face “cracking open like an egg”—like a starved dog. I’m obsessive about my interests, but not inclined to intense fandom, and certainly not fandom in the mode of the stan. For one, I’m too self-absorbed. But caring intensely for a famous person is falling in love with a ghost, and that’s all right—I mean, what the hell? We’re here together just dying... Let’s enjoy—but is an affair best undertaken with the knowledge that everyone alive has their own complex interiority, as unruly as your own, and that you, a stranger, are not in any real way connected to the lawless, blurry middle of that celebrity, and will never be. It’s freeing and fun to know this. I mean, these people are basically in your employ. Glamorous dollhouse dwellers. Acknowledging that uncrossable distance allows for a different, healthier closeness of pure imagination. My feelings, then, can comfortably be at once both fiercely intense and entirely silly. I am a foremost scholar in the art of the Taylor Swift who exists in my head. The real person raised in Pennsylvania I don’t know at all. I have some conjectures on the matter, and, as with all my conjectures, every hackneyed theory, each picky little opinion, I’m sure they’re perfect, brilliant, just absolutely right, but that’s still all they are. Taylor Swift, figure of the cultural imagination, is the Jodie Comer to my Sandra Oh in Killing Eve, annoying and pretty in frills, taunting me endlessly and holding us trapped together in a dance of most enchanting death. But the real Taylor Swift has favorite bed sheets and a social security number and a British boyfriend, none of which I have any desire to know about, and if I saw her at a restaurant I’d politely avert my eyes before, yes, dive-bombing the group text. There’s nobody on Earth I’d stand in line to speak to, but then I’ve been speaking to a certain figment of Taylor Swift for nearly half my life.

I went to a Taylor Swift concert the night before I moved into college in 2009. My father’s work friend, firefighter by day, near professional gambler by night, got comped tickets to the Fearless Tour stop taking place at the nearby casino, and he let me have them as a reward, mainly, for happening to be seventeen. Live in-person and performed acoustically, “Fifteen” made me cry. A few years after that, in the thick, sticky part of my first post-college summer, I wrote approximately twenty-three million words about her in these very pages.  (”Pages”) At that point, Taylor’s most recent release was 2012’s Red, and the work I produced that long ago July about Taylor and her career, writing I was fairly pleased with at the time, feels now, besides just being extremely clearly written by a twenty-one year old, strange to me for the way it favors the sweet over the sour almost uniformly. There is a wholesome kind of ardor in that writing which maybe I’ve outgrown the ability to hold. Or maybe Taylor just proceeded to spend the next half a decade plus releasing one bad single after another, and it was taste—and trespasses against taste—and not some shift in my nature which altered the tenor of our bond. I have real love for my particular image, gleaned from public statements and published art, of smart, bizarre famous woman Taylor Swift, and I admire the bulk of her output very much. I’m just no longer so inclined to fawn. This is not to say I am here to offer a Taylor Swift hate screed. I couldn’t swing it, and, anyway, I’m not a pop feminist-for-hire circa 2010. But we’re older now. Things are different. At twenty-eight, twenty-nine this month—Taylor will, also this December, turn thirty-one—I regard Taylor Swift warily, like an ex with whom you have a tentative friendship, perpetually on the brink of falling one way or the other into hatred or delight, only to wobble back the opposite direction again at the slightest provocation, but still, despite best efforts, even, I regard her all the time. 

folklore was released at midnight on July 24th 2020, but I was at a cabin in rural Vermont without Internet or cell service. I drank Bud Light seltzers with my mother while watching the eerie pandemic return of Major League Baseball, and when I got into a strange bed there I stewed, knowing there were people out in the world all over who were hearing Taylor Swift songs I never had, and that this was a fundamental wrong, a disruption in the balance of the universe. I listened to it the next morning in a Dunkin’ Donuts parking lot. 

And folklore is great. That’s the terrible thing. Slightly less great, maybe, than some people have insisted, tricked, I think, by just the pronounced shift in sound. But it’s great. A little gift I asked for a thousand times and was still surprised to get, like a wife who didn’t expect her henpecked husband to ever follow through and buy the paraffin wax hand bath as-see-on-TV. For years, I’ve been halfheartedly insisting that Taylor had a great album in her. I’d say it even, perhaps especially, while she stubbornly fed me gruel. Or worse, gruel with the occasional whiff of something better. With a ripe, little raspberry dropped into the slop. The bright, villainous thrill of “Getaway Car” made me believe Taylor, my Taylor, was in there somewhere under the lacquer of sequins and synth, which, while not objectionable by default, seemed a costume, and an ill-fitting one. The lived-in world of “Cornelia Street” made those old scars sting. That gay “Delicate” video. When she did “Call It What You Want” on SNL and played guitar while wearing an ugly sweater. If the abominable “ME!”, lead single off Lover, was the stick, 1989’s “Clean” was the carrot. I was Charlie Brown, and Taylor my Lucy, yanking the football back again and again. Over drinks I still yelled that Taylor Swift’s next album would be, “her Nebraska”, referring to my favorite Bruce Springsteen record, and learned to live with that egg on my face for good. I suppose I even came to like it. There was something inherently funny in taking up, like, “blind faith in the as of yet untapped greater artistic potential of massively wealthy and popular singer Taylor Swift” as my totally inane personal cause du jour, and eventually it was a bit, a gag I performed to be obstinate and didactic, but way down somewhere awful near my kidneys I meant it the whole while. And then she did it. A pandemic befell the world and amid a sea of human suffering Taylor Swift remembered she can write. She wrote, and with a massive, crucial assist from Aaron Dessner, whose music on this record is sometimes so beautiful it actually angers me, as the last thing I needed in already perilous times was to be made to try and marry my uniquely perverse emotional responses to beloved divorced dad band The National and fucking Taylor Swift,  she made an album which, if not her Nebraska, per se (I’ve come to realize that a major part of believing Taylor Swift will one day make an album I find as quietly devastating and gorgeous as Nebraska is knowing that no album will ever actually be Her Nebraska... That each will, rather, to me, be more and more evidence that it’s coming still, more proof that the limit is untouched, on and on ad infinitum, or at least until the seas take us into a place of salty peace.) is a shocking credit to all my hard-fought and deluded confidence. folklore is great. This fact has made me feel almost equally as disoriented from my understanding of the world as the time-melting COVID-19 lockdowns have, and it turned my Spotify year in review annual collective AI humiliation kink thing into a glaring indictment of my mental state, but still, I mean... It’s great.

In talking about folklore a bit this week, there are a number of specific topics I intend to cover—what a thrill it is to hear Taylor say “fuck”; Taylor’s terrifying birth chart; the astoundingly perfect bridge of “the last great american dynasty”; “because my ass is located at the back of my body”; the bit in last year’s “Lover” where deranged WASP Taylor Swift implies that to “leave the Christmas lights up til January” is some signifier of being a love-struck bohemian, when actually everyone who doesn’t employ domestic staff to take their lights down does this; how reputation is the best of the Taylor Swift records released in the latter half of the 2010s, actually, and the people who can’t see that are cowards—but intend mostly to let the muse move me where she will. Against the advice of my better angels, she—that tie-in marketing eldritch terror—always does.

[justforbooks]

André Robert Breton was born on February 18, 1896. He was a French writer and poet. He is known best as the co-founder, leader, principal theorist and chief apologist of surrealism. His writings include the first Surrealist Manifesto (Manifeste du surréalisme) of 1924, in which he defined surrealism as "pure psychic automatism".

Along with his role as leader of the surrealist movement he is the author of celebrated books such as Nadja and L'Amour fou. Those activities combined with his critical and theoretical work for writing and the plastic arts, made André Breton a major figure in twentieth-century French art and literature.

Breton was an avid collector of art, ethnographic material, and unusual trinkets. He was particularly interested in materials from the northwest coast of North America. During a financial crisis he experienced in 1931, most of his collection (along with that of his friend Paul Éluard) was auctioned. He subsequently rebuilt the collection in his studio and home at 42 rue Fontaine. The collection grew to over 5,300 items: modern paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs, books, art catalogs, journals, manuscripts, and works of popular and Oceanic art.

French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, in an interview in 1971, spoke about Breton's skill in determining the authenticity of objects. Strauss even described their friendship while the two were living in New York: "We lived in New York between 1941 and 1945 in a great friendship, running museums and antiquarians together. I owe him a lot about the knowledge and appreciation of objects. I've never seen him [Breton] doing a mistake on exotic and unusual objects. When I say a mistake, I mean about its authenticity but also its quality. He [Breton] had a sense, almost of divination."

After Breton's death on 28 September 1966, his third wife, Elisa, and his daughter, Aube, allowed students and researchers access to his archive and collection. After thirty-six years, when attempts to establish a surrealist foundation to protect the collection were opposed, the collection was auctioned by Calmels Cohen at Drouot-Richelieu. A wall of the apartment is preserved at the Centre Georges Pompidou.

Nine previously unpublished manuscripts, including the Manifeste du surréalisme, were auctioned by Sotheby's in May 2008.

Works

1919: Mont de Piété – [Literally: Pawn Shop]

1920: S'il Vous Plaît – Published in English as: If You Please

1920: Les Champs magnétiques (with Philippe Soupault) – Published in English as: The Magnetic Fields

1923: Clair de terre – Published in English as: Earthlight

1924: Les Pas perdus – Published in English as: The Lost Steps

1924: Manifeste du surréalisme – Published in English as: Surrealist Manifesto

1924: Poisson soluble – [Literally: Soluble Fish]

1924: Un Cadavre – [Literally: A Corpse]

1926: Légitime défense – [Literally: Legitimate Defense]

1928: Le Surréalisme et la peinture – Published in English as: Surrealism and Painting

1928: Nadja – Published in English as: Nadja

1930: Ralentir travaux (with René Char and Paul Éluard) – [Literally: Slow Down, Men at Work]

1930: Deuxième Manifeste du surréalisme – Published in English as: The Second Manifesto of Surrealism

1930: L'Immaculée Conception (with Paul Éluard) – Published in English as: Immaculate Conception

1931: L'Union libre – [Literally: Free Union]

1932: Misère de la poésie – [Literally: Poetry's Misery]

1932: Le Revolver à cheveux blancs – [Literally: The White-Haired Revolver]

1932: Les Vases communicants – Published in English as: Communicating Vessels

1933: Le Message automatique – Published in English as: The Automatic Message

1934: Qu'est-ce que le Surréalisme? – Published in English as: What Is Surrealism?

1934: Point du Jour – Published in English as: Break of Day

1934: L'Air de l'eau – [Literally: The Air of the Water]

1935: Position politique du surréalisme – [Literally: Political Position of Surrealism]

1936: Au Lavoir noir – [Literally: At the black Washtub]

1936: Notes sur la poésie (with Paul Éluard) – [Literally: Notes on Poetry]

1937: Le Château étoilé – [Literally: The Starry Castle]

1937: L'Amour fou – Published in English as: Mad Love

1938: Trajectoire du rêve – [Literally: Trajectory of Dream]

1938: Dictionnaire abrégé du surréalisme (with Paul Éluard) – [Literally: Abridged Dictionary of Surrealism]

1938: Pour un art révolutionnaire indépendant (with Diego Rivera) – [Literally: For an Independent Revolutionary Art]

1940: Anthologie de l'humour noir – Published in English as: Anthology of Black Humor

1941: "Fata Morgana" – [A long poem included in subsequent anthologies]

1943: Pleine Marge – [Literally: Full Margin]

1944: Arcane 17 – Published in English as: Arcanum 17

1945: Le Surréalisme et la peinture – Published in English as: Surrealism and Painting

1945: Situation du surréalisme entre les deux guerres – [Literally: Situation of Surrealism between the two wars]

1946: Yves Tanguy

1946: Les Manifestes du surréalisme – Published in English as: Manifestoes of Surrealism

1946: Young Cherry Trees Secured against Hares – Jeunes cerisiers garantis contre les lièvres [Bilingual edition of poems translated by Edouard Roditi]

1947: Ode à Charles Fourier – Published in English as: Ode To Charles Fourier

1948: Martinique, charmeuse de serpents – Published in English as: Martinique: Snake Charmer

1948: La Lampe dans l'horloge – [Literally: The Lamp in the Clock]

1948: Poèmes 1919–48 – [Literally: Poems 1919–48]

1949: Flagrant délit – [Literally: Red-handed]

1952 Entretiens – – Published in English as: Conversations: The Autobiography of Surrealism

1953: La Clé des Champs – Published in English as: Free Rein

1954: Farouche à quatre feuilles (with Lise Deharme, Julien Gracq, Jean Tardieu) – [Literally: Four-Leaf Feral]

1955: Les Vases communicants [Expanded edition] – Published in English as: Communicating Vessels

1955: Les Manifestes du surréalisme [Expanded edition] – Published in English as: Manifestoes of Surrealism

1957: L'Art magique – Published in English as: Magical Art

1959: Constellations (with Joan Miró) – Published in English as: Constellations

1961: Le la – [Literally: The A]

1962: Les Manifestes du surréalisme [Expanded edition] – Published in English as: Manifestoes of Surrealism

1963: Nadja [Expanded edition] – Published in English as: Nadja

1965: Le Surréalisme et la peinture [Expanded edition] – Published in English as: Surrealism and Painting

1966: Anthologie de l'humour noir [Expanded edition] – Published in English as: Anthology of Black Humor

1966: Clair de terre – (Anthology of poems 1919-1936). Published in English as: Earthlight

1968: Signe ascendant – (Anthology of poems 1935-1961). [Literally: Ascendant Sign]

1970: Perspective cavalière – [Literally: Cavalier Perspective]

1988: Breton : Oeuvres complètes, tome 1 – [Literally: Breton: The Complete Works, tome 1]

1992: Breton : Oeuvres complètes, tome 2 – [Literally: Breton: The Complete Works, tome 2]

1999: Breton : Oeuvres complètes, tome 3 – [Literally: Breton: The Complete Works, tome 3]

André Breton died at the age of 70 in 1966, and was buried in the Cimetière des Batignolles in Paris.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

[afrenchcinephile]

LÉON MORIN, PRÊTRE

Quelle réussite ! 

De tous les Melville, celui-ci restera de loin mon préféré. 

Contrairement à toutes ses autres oeuvres, Léon Morin, prêtre est à part entière ; le réalisateur ayant su se détacher du superflu, du tape à l’oeil. Il nous offre donc dans ce film, une mise en scène beaucoup plus sobre que toutes celles qu’il ait pu mettre en oeuvre autrefois. L’extravagance de Melville, dont nous avions l’habitude de voir, a donc disparu ; mais ce film n’en a aucunement besoin, il se suffit à lui seul.

Une femme, athéiste, dans la quête de réveiller le semblant d’amusement qui sommeillait en elle, entre un jour dans le confessionnal d’une église, elle a pour but de raconter une farce de mauvais gout à un prêtre. Celui-ci ayant compris que la pécheresse n’étant en réalité qu’une femme troublée par la guerre, mais aussi par l’existence de dieu et les dogmes, il l’éclaira et l’incita à revenir vers lui. C’est comme ça que naquît une histoire d’amitié, de complicité, il lui prêcha la religion, le sens de la vie et sa valeur... Mais ce n’est que quelques temps après qu’elle se rendit compte de son attirance pour lui. Elle finira par lui avouer les passions qui la rongeaient, et ce dernier l’incita à venir se confesser. 

Ce film est un bijou, drôle, morne, gai, Melville a su retransmettre toute l’énergie du livre en l’adaptant plus que parfaitement pour le 7eme art, un chef-d’oeuvre.

Les acteurs jouent bien, plus particulièrement Belmondo, doté d’un charisme indéniable (des prêtres comme ça on en voit pas tous les jours) et les dialogues sont extraordinaires ! Pas un seul moment de répit pour le spectateur, le film est entrainant, captivant, et d’une beauté inégalable. On y ressent l’angoisse de la guerre, la détresse d’une femme en mal d’amour, et de tendresse. C’est aussi cette solidarité humaine qui ne cesse de briller, qui est montré primaire pour l’Homme, est si touchante, émouvante, poétique... Bravo ! 

LEON MORIN, PRIEST

What a success!

Of all the Melvilles, this one will remain by far my favorite.

Contrary to all his other works, Léon Morin, prêtre is in its own right; the director knew how to detach himself from the superfluous, the flashy. He offers us in this film, a much more sober staging than all those he could have implemented before. Melville's extravagance, which we used to see, has disappeared; but this film does not need it at all, it is enough on its own.

A woman, an atheist, in search of awakening the semblance of fun that was slumbering in her, enters one day in the confessional of a church, her purpose is to tell a joke of bad taste to a priest. The priest understood that the sinner was in reality a woman troubled by the war, but also by the existence of God and dogmas, he enlightened her and encouraged her to return to him. That's how a story of friendship was born, of complicity, he preached religion to her, the meaning of life and its value... But it is only some time later that she realized her attraction for him. She ends up confessing to him the passions that were eating her up, and he encourages her to come and confess.

This film is a jewel, funny, dull, cheerful, Melville knew how to retransmit all the energy of the book by adapting it more than perfectly for the 7th art, a masterpiece.

The actors play well, especially Belmondo, with an undeniable charisma (priests like that are not seen every day) and the dialogues are extraordinary! Not a single moment of respite for the spectator, the film is exciting, captivating, and of an unequalled beauty. It is also this human solidarity that never ceases to shine, which is shown primary for the Man is so touching, moving, poetic ... Bravo !