#form political opinions in a fictional game

[lleldey]

Love Is a Game: For Foolish Girls’ and Devils’ Plays

Chapter 2: Love Is a Game: For Political Enemies

Word Count: ~ 10.7k+

Description: They say love is a game for fools; but how can you win a game, you never wished to be a part of?

We were always friends – or rather, two neighbouring countries king’s children, who were forced to be friendly with one and other, to avoid further war between our lands.

But somewhere in the space of time and laughs, the line between friends and politics disappeared;

Warning for the chapter: mentions of war, jealousy, angst, verbal fights, this is a yandere story, please keep that in mind. If any is missed, please tell me, so I can add them!  

Warnings for the series: mentions of war, yandere themes, blackmail, verbal fights, 18+, smut, blood, more will be added with time

!In no way of shape and form do I think this is how Jungkook acts in real life, this is pure work of fiction, so if you choose to read it, please keep that in mind!

The life of a princess. Smile, wave, never express your opinions, and smile once more for good measure.

Three actions that perfectly describes your past weeks. Now, that you’re officially the future Queen, you expected to be given more tasks, responsibilities, but in turn you were given more headaches.

You look over the scenery, wild forest stretches for miles, and sweet birds chirp their lullabies, you breathe in the fresh air. Three and a half weeks on the road, travelling from country to country, you relinquish the small stop, having the ability to stretch your muscles after days in the carriage.

Footsteps quickly approach you, and you turn to see Anthony, your assistant, nervously shuffle from foot to foot and deeply bow. His behavior slowly distinguishes your bead of hope, but still you hold on to what’s left of it, and ask “Any letters?”

The words leave your mouth in a hurry, and you wince from the pain in your cheeks; smiling for weeks on end has its consequences, now it not only feels as if you’re eating glass shards whenever you smile, but the sharp pain has managed to creep in whenever you open your mouth to speak. Muscle overstimulation, doctor said, but unfortunately that doesn’t stop your duties.

You sigh as he shakes his head. Three and a half weeks, and not a single word from him, you guess you deserve it, but now, when you’re more confused than ever, you need his support. Anthony takes a step forwards, and pulls an envelope from his jacket pocket, “But, Your Grace, there is another letter from Prince Jeon”

You carefully assess the outstretched letter, as if it will bite you if you move any closer. After the eventful conversation with your father, the Grand Tour was brought forward, and you left the following day. It wasn’t your choice, father’s trusted advisor, Felix, announced the news, and somehow you didn’t find a single bone in your body to repel against it.

You left in a hurry, mind occupied with thousand what ifs, and didn’t find the time, or rather want, to properly farewell Jungkook. He managed to grab a hold of you, just as you were about to aboard the carriage.

You still remember his confused gaze, trying to grab a hold of your coat, as you shied away from his touch with the excuse everyone was waiting on you. He must be confused, but then again, so are you. And you might be petty, but as of right now, you can’t seem to find anyone else to blame but him.

You look up at Anthony, “How long ‘till we arrive at Southern Andevia?” Anthony clumsily looks at his watch, and mutters “If we travel steadily, we might arrive before the nightfall.”

You hum, that should be in around four hours. You take a look at the carriage, and already dread to go back into the claustrophobic space, but you soothe yourself with the idea, that in less than a week you’ll be back in your bed.

“All right then, we should head off, no point wasting time.” You announce and grab the letter from Anthony’s hands. You tap the carriages door, and within a minute, you take off. A look to the back window makes you chuckle, how every worker stumbles upon their feet to quickly get into the cars.

How lucky they are, what wouldn’t you do to relax against the leather seats, but instead you have to represent the crown. You must shine, and be noticeable, smile and represent the title, even if your muscles scream in pain.

You put Jungkooks letter next to the other ones, ten to be precise. It is a mystery how he manages to track you down; each letter reaches you, and somehow, he manages to even call you.

How that is possible you don’t have a clue, as the phones were present only in some of the destinations, but unbeknownst to that, he not only knew where to find you, but also when. Your schedule was all over the place, and still he knew when you’d be by the reach. You guess being the prince has its own advantages.

On the other hand, father has managed to evade every possibility of contacting you, you’ve sent out at least 7 letters, and called him at every stop possible. But somehow no letter has gotten back to you, and even more so handy, he has been out of the palace every time you tried to call him.

You understand his disappointment in you, he has the validation to be angry, but what are you supposed to do? He prohibited any kind of contact with Jeons, but now he expects you to visit their Kingdom. Now, when you’ve met the tip of the iceberg of what they’re planning. How are you supposed to handle that?

You shake your head with a sigh and grab another sheet of paper. He can try and ignore you, but it doesn’t mean that you’ll let him do so in peace.

You feel foolish writing the letter, you know that with each one you seem more and more desperate, but what other choice do you have? You write the same message over and over, trying your hardest to not mention Jungkook or the documents, as to not anger him more.

Pen lingers before the paper, as you try to devise how to end the letter. Apparently nice doesn’t work, so you might as well be direct.

 I understand Your hurt, but unless Your desired outspring is to see our Kingdom in ruins, You must guide me. There are three nightfall’s before I depart on my journey to Kingdom of Bellum Sanguini, and I am sure King Jeon will not hassle if You take my position.

 You ponder of adding more, but is there any point if there’s no guarantee he will answer this time? So, you quickly sign off, and remind yourself to give the letter to Anthony first chance you get.

Three nightfall’s before you’re met with Jungkook and his father. Three nightfall’s for you to figure out a plan of action. You tear open the latest letter, to check if Jungkook’s attitude has changed. You notice how each letter gradually got shorter.

The first letter was long, two pages to be precise, and now you’ve somehow stepped onto the dangerous road. You’re met with three words, no more and no less. See you soon, greets you, and you know he is mad.

Perhaps damaging the only stable relationship with Jeons was the worst-case scenario, but you’ve no clue how else you could’ve handled the situation. Father prohibited any sort of contact with him, but you must admit, even if he didn’t, you’d still have no clue how to act.

Confronting him would be a sign of aggression and lying simply wouldn’t work. He knows you, perhaps better than you do yourself, and if you’d spit out a lie, he’d bite through it faster than the speed of light.

It’s pointless, there’s no right answer. You sigh and pick up the list of things you must go over with Namjoon, you might as well do at least this one thing right. After a while, words start to blend together, and with the last conscious thought you close the curtains before allowing the mental exhaustion to lull you to mindless dreams.

You wake as the carriage slowly comes to a stop. You open the curtains and see Namjoon’s white mansion in front of you. It’s definitely not a castle, but then again, he’s not a King. The exterior walls are decorated with Baroque elements, and you see Namjoon walking down the stairs with a big smile.

You pat your hair down and try to wake yourself from the sleep. The carriages door opens, and you quickly gather the papers together, before you step outside.

Namjoon comes towards you with outstretched arms, and lightly bows; you breathe a sigh of relief, as he kisses your hand in greetings. You try to smile in return, but judging by his laughter, you’re sure that the face you managed to pull, must remind more of a grimace, than a smile.

“Let me guess, muscle overstimulation?” he asks with his never dying smile, and you only grumble in dissatisfaction. “Oh, those good old days, what wouldn’t I do to go back.” Namjoon guides you to the manor, but before you step in, you hand Anthony the letter, and watch how he steps into a car and drives off.

“Well, as of right now, I’d do close to anything to fall into my own bed.” Namjoon only shakes his head and leads you throughout the bright halls. It’s as if the house is always full of daylight, no matter if the sky has fallen dark, the lights and bright walls shimmer, as if rays of sunlight cherish it.

“Believe me when I say, worst is yet to come, so I’d suggest you cherish it.” You look at him with a disapproving gaze, “Afterwards, you’ll start to make decisions, and you’ll see how the smiles of your people slowly start to fade. So, yes, cherish it, as it won’t last.”

You hum lost in your thoughts, a sense of truth clouds his words, and perhaps all of the mess Jungkook threw you in, won’t last. You hope that the media sees you as a shiny, new jewel needed to dissect only for now, and perhaps that was father’s plan all along. To divert the media from both of you, till they follow the next new trend, and leave your name free from the drama.

You stop in front of a door, and Namjoon turns towards you, “If you’re anything like me, then exhaustion must cripple your nerves. Get some rest, tomorrow will surely be eventful.”

You’re thankful for his consideration and caress his arm in gratitude. No words are exchanged, as you step into your temporary room. The bed looks so inviting, and you don’t waste any time removing your clothes, and climbing in it.

Before you close your eyes, you notice the telephone on the bedside table. Mindlessly you grab it, and with bated breath wait for the line to go through. A soft-spoken woman answers, probably one of the maids, and you ask her to redirect you to your father.

But of course, the answer doesn’t differ, “Pardon me, Your Grace, but The King has retired for the night,” you close your eyes and sigh, of course he has, “Would you like me to awaken him-” you hear her voice shake, and quickly interrupt her,

“No, no, but please do tell him to call me first thing in the morning.” You hear her stutter some more, but at this point you can’t be bothered, and put the telephone down.

You feel tears well up in the corner of your eye; this is not how you expected everything to go. Suddenly father hates you, all that everyone associates you with is Jungkook, your only task is to smile and learn some pointless cards of what each leader likes, so there’s no awkward pauses, as well as political phrases you have to mention. Phrases that you’re too dumb to even fully understand.

But worst of all, you’ve no one to talk to.

You try to calm your breath and get yourself together. Sleep seems as the only escape you’ll be given any time soon, so with a shaking breath you close your eyes and imagine simpler times. It seems unfair how life manages to turn 180 and you’ve no control of it.

Jeon Jungkook, the root of your problems. But also, your friend. You desperately want to scream and curse him, yet at the same time hide in his embrace, and cry out all of your fears and hurt. How can you cherish someone with all of your heart yet blame them for burning the ground you walk on.

Quickly you realize that there’s no space for emotions or problems within your duties. You must get up and smile, as if the world spins in perfect circles. Millions of people depend on you, and if they sense that something is amiss, your problems quickly become their own.

The only problem lies in the fact, that your duties aren’t nine-to-five, rather, they never stop. The only time when you’re truly free, is when you’re alone. And the thought disturbs your mental peace further, because when you’re lost within you, sitting alone with your thoughts only pushes you further in.

So, fake it till you make it quickly becomes your moto. It’s not hard to greet the maids with a smile, when you convince yourself that everything is indeed all right. To a certain degree life seems simpler when you walk around with no care in the world.

Memorizing the dreadful phrases seems even fun, and you feel a sense of lightness as you step into the dining area, cheerfully greeting the owner of the manor himself.

“Someone’s woken up refreshed” Namjoon notes as he watches you over the newspaper. You step closer to the table, and notice newspapers spread all over the table. One piques your interest, as you recognize it to be your Kingdoms national ‘paper, and on the front your father visiting a local school. Apparently, he has enough time for that.

You move your attention to Namjoon, and sit in front of him, “Indeed, I thought over your words last night, and concluded that I might as well enjoy the time before everyone hates me”

Namjoon lightly tsks, and you stop a servant, before they start to plate your food. You select your breakfast dish and sit back, might as well rip the band aid off quickly, “Your country exports gas, if I’m not mistaken?”

He puts the newspaper down and hums in agreement before he digs in his own plate, “My Kingdom would like to draw an agreement to start importing it from your country.” Namjoon stops eating and looks at you with a complatating gaze, silence slowly overtakes the room, and you start eating, while awaiting his response.  

“Isn’t your supplier the Jeon Kingdom?” now is your turn to hum, if you’re completely honest, you’re not sure, but at this moment you guess, that he probably knows more, so you roll with it.

“Think of it as diversifying.” You point at him with your fork. The man picks at his food and continues, now in a lighter tone, “We do use natural gas, so it would be better for your country.”

You nod your head, trying to follow his words, “It would be great business, and in the end both of us would be winners,” Namjoon crosses his arms, as he munches on a pickle, “Have your representatives send us the contract, it will take time, but I don’t see any obstacles getting in the way.”

You sigh in relief, and mentally tick off one of the points. You raise your orange juice glass, and cinque it with Namjoon’s, and the conversation falls into mindless chats, as you enjoy your breakfast.

“What’s today’s agenda?”

“We’ll visit the center, and the Monument of Freedom. So, prepare yourself for couple of smiles and hand shaking.” You hum in acknowledgment, there will probably be quite a bit of paparazzies, and subconsciously you start massaging your cheeks. Thankfully the pain isn’t unbearable today.

A servant comes up to Namjoon, and whispers something in his ear, you watch in wonder how Namjoon straightens his back and professionally responded, “Of course, tell him I’ll join him in my office in five.”

Both of you watch how the servant sprinted out of the dining area, and Namjoon turns towards you with a smile, “Hope you don’t mind if we have additional company” you smile back and shake your head, wondering if Namjoons father decided to join you, you haven’t seen him in a while.

“Of course not, additional company is always welcomed” Namjoons winning smile and small tutt makes you respond with a raised eyebrow, “And here I was, hoping, that my company is all you needed”

You giggle at his words, his proud smirk only furthering your laughter. Namjoons presence gives you a sense of carefree safety, which God knows you missed out on during the last couple of weeks. You sit back and as you’re ready to respond, the door opens once more, but the awaited maid is replaced by a dark silhouette, one with whom you’re awfully familiar with.

Your body feels frozen, and you watch in shock how Jungkook strikes in with the maid nervously following behind. Your eyes meet, and the light tilt of his head combined with his clenched jaw makes you slide deeper into the chair.

Namjoon rises sharply from the chair to greet him, but you can’t take your gaze away from him, feeling like a deer caught in headlights. Jungkook reluctantly looks at Namjoon and nods his head when he bows to him.

“Prince Jungkook, pleasure to see you” they shake hands, and Jungkook only hums before his gaze glides back to you. You take a deep breathe and stand up. Act normal, he’s your friend, everything is alright.

“Prince Jungkook” You smile (or rather grimace) and put out your hand for a handshake. He gazes at it with furrowed brows and takes it in his own. “Reagan” he firmly says and kisses your knuckles. Startled, you quickly take it back, and awkwardly cough and look at Namjoon.

He watches the interaction with clear confusion etched across his face. You feel Jungkooks eyes burning daggers in your head, as if mentally screaming and demanding you to look at him. The situation is saved by Namjoon, as he coughs and asks, “I expected to meet you in my office?”

You nod your head along his words, like your life depended on it, and hear Jungkook speak, “Pardon me, didn’t want to disturb your breakfast, so decided to join you.” You still feel his gaze on the side of your face.

You take this as your que and quickly interrupt before Namjoon manages to respond, “Perfect, we just finished, and I should go ahead and get ready for my busy day” you put pressure on the word, to make sure he doesn’t get any funny ideas.

You excuse yourself and mutter to Namjoon to meet you in an hour and quickly leave the room. You manage to breath a sigh of relief and walk towards your room. Jungkook completely caught you off-guard, you had been preparing yourself for the unavoidable meeting, but now that he’s here, your heart beats faster in nervousness.

Now his last letter makes sense, you only wish he would’ve explained just how soon you were to meet. The thought lays heavy in your head, and now you think over every possibility and option, cursing your past self, for ignoring him.

You’ll have to act as normal as possible, while at the same time keeping space from him. Is that even possible? You open your rooms door, only to be met with Anthony in the middle of it. Once he noted you, he stood tall and proudly bowed down to you.

You look at him with a questioning gaze, and ask, “Anthony, I don’t recall calling for you?” he only steps closer to you, and for a second you swear, you see his upper lip tremble along with his mustache. “Your Grace, I just wanted to say there’s not any letters from Kingdom of Otium Lepor.”

You sigh at the revelation, now even if he does suddenly change his mind, there’s no guarantee you’ll get the message in time. “Any calls?” you ask with the last reminding hope, only for it to distinguish when Anthony shakes his head.

You don’t wait for him to continue and raise your hand, “You’re dismissed.”

The maids helped you to get ready, while all you could think of is what to say to him. He would probably understand if you said that you were busy and tired, right? But then again, it sounds like bulshit even to you. Even more so, if he was at father’s palace when you started sending letters, it would look really bad.

The wintertime was coming, and you’re thankful for the wool dress that keeps your body warm. You wait for Namjoon at the entrance of the manor, and enjoy the mix of orange and red leaves, and the delicate sun rays, that caress your skin.

You hear muffled sounds behind you, and you turn, expecting to see Namjoon, only for him to be accompanied by the one you’re trying to avoid. “Oh, Reagan!” Namjoon hurries his steps towards you, “Prince Jungkook will accompany us today, as it would improve our nations relationship.”

You look at him lip tight and nod your head. Wonder whose idea might that be. “Alright then, you should head off first, I’ll follow closely behind.” Namjoon interrupts, “Follow?”

You look at him chin held high and confidence oozing from your body, “Yes, it would be improper for an unwed lady to arrive in the same carriage with two men”

Jungkook slowly shakes his head and his tongue rolls against his cheek, “Because we don’t act like children anymore, right?”

Now, what’s that supposed to mean?

You tilt your head with squinted eyes, and step aside so they could move past you. Perhaps he doesn’t say much, but still, it’s more than enough to leave the memo behind. You watch how their carriage drives off, and slowly step into your own.

If beforehand you comforted yourself with the idea that within a mere week everything would be over, now the glooming week seems like an eternity.

You look out the window, and wave to Namjoon’s people, who await you on the streets. You sigh a breath of relief, seeing how everyone smiles, and children jump up and down, trying to get a better sight of you.

The action calms you, somehow his country remind you of your own, previous weeks engraving how happy your own people are, singing songs, throwing flowers, and welcoming you with open arms.

Carriage stops and the door opens, you climb down and feel the wave of cheers embrace you. You find Namjoon and move towards him, all while smiling and waving to the crowd. Flowers are thrown from left to right and over your head, the occasional flashes of cameras paint your vision bright.

Your try to widen your smile once you’re in front of Namjoon, both of your turning to the crowd and waiving politely. Discreetly you try to find Jungkook, only for him to be as stoic and cold as possible couple of meters away from you.

You see him move closer to you, and unnoticeably move to the other side of Namjoon, so he would have no other choice but to walk next to him. Namjoon leans down to your ears, and instantly couple more flashes blind you, “We’ll walk to the monument, it’s not too far.”

You nod, all while continuously waiving. The streets even remind you of your home, the exterior, and warm colors making you feel safe and secure.

The crowd seemingly follows you, and you find yourself in front of the monument. It truly looks the same as the one in your Kingdom, the proud memorial was built decades ago, in most of the countries that suffered greatly from the war, symbolic reminder of the united pain and suffering, as well as what could’ve been. You look towards Anthony, and he brings you a bouquet of flowers which you rest near the monument.

A silence takes over the space, as you bow your head and think over the painful past. Even the crowd goes silent for the minute, only occasional flash going off. You feel Namjoon moving, and mindlessly follow him towards the microphone, and stay put by him, as he addresses the crowd,

“Today we welcome our allies and friends into our country,” you smile, as the crowd cheers, “and I am truly honored to guest Prince Jungkook and Princess Reagan and show them around our proud country.”

“It is the will of God, that now, decades later, we are able to stand by one another, and relish the strength that comes with union. Let’s welcome our friends, and build our future stronger, together.” Crowd claps profusely at his words, and you smile in regards, when you hear your name chanted.

The tree of your move closer for a picture, and the cameras goes off, when you’re in touching distance one to another. As you’re about to move further, you hear the crowd shouting more prominently, and you train your ears to listen in with a confused smile.

Soon the crowd chants in unison, and you shudder a breath, once you realize what they’re saying. Frozen you watch how Jungkook comes closer to you, to comply their wishes. Your smile is stretched on your face, and you hope they don’t pick up on how tense is your body.

You look towards Namjoon in search for help, but he steps away for Jungkook to come closer to you. Mentally you curse, this is the last thing you needed; you feel Jungkooks hand around your middle, and flashes overwhelm your vision.

You feel lightheaded, the force of the cameras and shouts hurting your brain. This must be why father denied any contact with Jungkook – that’s the only thing everyone can focus on, your mission, or your lone existence completely forgotten. Now it’s just ‘you and Jungkook’, and ‘we’. Banners which previously you didn’t mind, whereas now thread lightly against.

Father will receive the photos best case tomorrow morning; at this point you’re just waiting for him to disown you. He’s already ignoring you as it is, and now he’ll think you consciously go against his will.

His hand around your waist doesn’t comfort you as it once did, now it feels more like a stake driven into the ground. Even worse so, you know how improper his actions are, he’s not supposed to touch you, you’re in public, yet once again – rules don’t include him, right?

You detach yourself from him after a couple of seconds, and quickly go back to Namjoon, asking him to move forwards.

The whole day is spent like this, Jungkook trying to catch a hold of you, using publics demand as his motive, whereas you run around in circles, trying to distance yourself yet seem busy. Crowd is your biggest lifeboat, you cling to them, shake their hands, and accept flowers.

Meanwhile the people don’t seem like your saving grace no longer, almost all of the questions thrown at you center around the same thing, and you train your hearing to figure out if he receives the same attention.

But you’re soon perplexed, when you see him not interacting with the crowd, simply walking in the middle of the street, occasionally waiving. No smile, no pleasantries, just him in his usual public persona, walking, arms crossed over his back.

The streets are livelier than ever, autumns wind unnoticeable, as the sun paints the pathways golden. You wonder if your people would act the same, touring your own Kingdom, you didn’t manage to converse with them, only waiving from the carriage and talking with the city’s government.

So, when the carriage finally stops at the manor, you don’t even feel the hurt of your cheeks, the mental overstimulation left your body lifeless.

You hear the door open, but you can’t make your muscles moves, the dark of your closed eyes being more welcoming. Tomorrow you’ll be departing to his Kingdom, and if you’re being honest, at this point you’re truly scared. The looming threat overhead, father’s anger, everyone’s attention, and Jungkooks intrusive presence. Not even to mention that this is the first time anyone has been invited to travel to their Kingdom in decades.

The pressure is sizzling, and you open your eyes only when someone coughs at the door. The poor doorman probably thought that you were asleep. You exist all while apologizing and climb up the stairs. The hours of walking around in shoes now paying back, the heels of your feet aching with each step.

You walk in and move towards your room; you’re stopped by a shout of your name behind you. You turn and watch how Namjoon lightly jogs towards you, “Princess” he repeats one more time, as he stops next to you.

You smile at him expectantly, awaiting his next words, “I was wondering if you’d like to dine with me” you start to deny his offer, the day exhausted you, and the thought of lying in the bed seemed far more appealing.

Namjoon quickly shakes his head, and lightly taps his forehead, “Let me rephrase that,” he starts, “You seem exhausted, perhaps you’d like to share a cup of wine and relax?” The hopeful glaze in his eyes made it hard to refuse, and even more so, a glass of wine does sound appealing.

You pursue your lips, and try to keep your face as serious as possible, “Are you saying I look bad, Mr. Kim?”

In silent glee you watch the stressed look over his face, how he stutters and franticly moves his hands while trying to gather his thoughts.

You intertwine your hands and tiredly chuckle, extinguishing his doubt, “It would be a shame to refuse a cup of wine.”

The smile that blooms across Namjoons face makes you giggle, and you shove his arm, asking him to show you the direction. The whole way Namjoon keeps pouting about your antiques, apparently you almost gave the poor man a heart attack.

You walk to a more secluded part of his manor, the baroque elements on the walls slowly disappearing, but they are replaced with modern artworks. You carefully assess the artworks as you slowly pass by them, some of the artists you recognize.

Namjoon notices the drift in your attention, and bashfully rans his finger through his hair, “You could say that this is somewhat my personal space,” you simply hum in approval, not taking your gaze away from the paintings, until you’re forced to.

Namjoon guides you to left, and for a second you stand and take in the view. The room is sort of a veranda, glass walls overlooking the dark garden with candles lining against them. The space isn’t grandeur, but it makes it feel homey.

Dark wooden bookcases against the walls, and plush couches filled with pillows and blankets. You move towards them and notice the vine and plate of cheese and grapes on the coffee table. You take a set on the couch and sink into the velvety material; Namjoon sits next to you.

“I tend to come here after a stressful day, it’s secluded and gives time to relax and think.” You hum and take the glass Namjoon fills for you. “I can imagine, was the veranda here before you moved in?” you can’t envisage that; the interior so drastic from the rest of the house, wooden floors and ceilings, a sort of a room from a fairytale.

“No, no, I built it after father left the manor. The house seemed like another workspace.” That is indeed true, even for you your palace is overwhelming at times, and a safe space is vital, even if it’s your garden with chickens.

“How is it, walking in the footprints of your father? Does it not overwhelm you?” you turn towards him, the thought has occupied your mind for a while, finding yourself in similar positions. At the end of the day, his father was the president for years before Namjoon, like some sort of family title passed through generations.

“At first it was overwhelming, I didn’t know what to do, and felt like I was disappointing everyone, especially after my father” you hum, and subconsciously tuck your feet under the dress, relaxing against the couch, now fully facing him.

“But then I started to get the hang of it, it’s not too challenging, but you do have to be on your vits, and public’s opinion can’t influence your decision making too much.” You nod and think over how successful he has been at his role.

Kim family now is valued close to your equal, rulers think highly of them, and their two cents are always taken into consideration. A valuable alliance indeed.

“I hope you’re right; I have been at my duties only for couple of weeks, and already feel like I’m falling under every criteria possible.” You swirl the wine around in your glass and hear a distant hum from Namjoon.

“Is that why you’re stressed?” you move your head left to right, not sure which answer to commit to. “Partly, yes. Seems like every decision I make couldn’t possibly be worse.”

Namjoon opens his mouth lost in thought, as if thinking over his next words, “Today at the center,” he carefully starts, “I noted some tension between you and Prince Jeon.” He looks up at you, and you quickly move your gaze down, “Might that be one of the reasons why?”

You sigh. Guess it’s unavoidable that he noticed something, after all you did spend the whole day together.

“You could say so” is all you manage to mumble, the whole situation too hard to explain, even less so, when you know you shouldn’t enclose any details.

Namjoon runs his hand through his hair, and lightly chuckles, “I expected to be the third wheel as always, but today you were basically glued to my side the whole day.” You groan at how obvious your actions were and hide your face in your hands.

“Please don’t mention that” Namjoon continues to chuckle at your behavior, and pats your head to calm you, “No worries, I enjoyed the company.”

Comfortable silence takes over the space, and you munch on a piece of cheese while looking at the garden. His previous words swim in your mind, and you wonder if public noticed that as well.

“Reagan,” Namjoon starts, and you turn your head in surprise. Both of you stare at each other with widened eyes, until Namjoon clears his throat, “I didn’t mean to overstep any boundaries-” Now it’s your turn to cut him off, “I don’t mind, just a bit unexpected is all.” You smile and watch how his face lights up as well.

Not many people called you by your birth name, to be fair you can think of only three – parents and Jungkook. But then again, it was a long time coming, you and Namjoon have been friends since childhood.

You smile as he repeats your name once more, the word sounds nice rolling from his tongue, “I wanted to apologize for inviting Jungkook with us, I didn’t fully know the situation, but I could’ve gathered just by the morning alone.”

You shake your head, it wasn’t his fault, he didn’t know and even more so – he’s a ruler, and that should be his priority, establishing good relationship with the threatening countries should be his priority.

But you have to admit, it feels nice for someone to be so thoughtful.

“On that note, I thought he was supposed to visit you in a month...?” your statement is more like a question, you quite visibly remember how he spoke of that at your celebration.

Namjoon simply shrugs his shoulders, the same question lingering in his eyes, “Not sure myself, we received the letter only previous night, so it wasn’t preplanned.” That reminds you how Jungkook always knew your schedule even as children, and a lingering thought enters your mind – did he do so to specifically meet you?

“I do have to admit though,” Namjoon fills both of your cups once more, “Secretly, I’m glad you’re here with me. I almost had a heart attack when I was left with him alone.” Laugh escapes you as you imagine the scene, Namjoon clumsily trying to stutter a sentence, while Jungkook stares him down with utter disinterest. Wouldn’t be the first time.

“Oh, I believe that. He can be very intimidating when he wishes to.” You giggle and sip your wine, “I guess being the scary princes only friend isn’t an easy job” Namjoon murmurs and you’re close to rolling your eyes.

“If you only knew,” you look at him and the agonizing month almost spills from your lips. The atmosphere, him, everything seems so cozy and safe; and the heavy burden on your shoulders suddenly seems overpowering.

Perhaps he’d understand, not as your political alliance, but as your friend. A friend, something you’ve missed most of all. And the truth slowly spills, “We didn’t necessarily fight,” Namjoon leans in closer, certainly interested “I received some information, of what he’s been doing behind my back, and-”

You hear the door open behind you, and you watch how the name of the hour walks in. He stops by the door, and takes the scene in. With a raised eyebrow he walks closer to you, and his gaze drifts towards the table, the open wine bottle and snacks staring daggers right back at him.

You feel his gaze on you, and you don’t have a heart to look back. Uncomfortable, you change your position, and sit straight, quickly finding your shoes on the floor. “Maids said I could find you here. Am I disrupting something?” he asks Namjoon, yet you can’t stop the feeling he’s addressing you.

The heavy burden seeps back under your skin, and you understand how wrong the situation at hand may look. You wince at the thought, he has never liked Namjoon, and here he’s caught you both in space that may as well look romantic – oblivious to the fact that most of the conversation centered around him.

You feel ashamed, and you’re not even sure why, perhaps it’s his gaze, that feels threatening and accusing, or perhaps you’re projecting your own feelings. You and Jungkook are platonic, both of you agreed on that, and yet, something feels drastically different.

Namjoon shifts besides you, and you steal a glance at him, lost of any words. He seems to understand the situation well as he meets you gaze with a faux smile, “Not at all, we were just discussing some future plans and alliances.”

He’s trying to safe the predicament, and you’re thankful, but Jungkooks darkening tone screams that he doesn’t believe a word coming out of Namjoon’s mouth.

“Like?” only one word, but the emotion behind it so powerful. You’re not sure if Namjoon notices, but you sure do; you naturally notice the changes in his mood, something you’ve picked up on during all these years.

But nonetheless, Namjoon responds positively, “Well, we’re planning on starting to import gas from my country, a great opportunity for both of us!” He smiles at you, and you try to grin back. But deep down you prepare for Jungkooks berating questions, Namjoon truly tried, but somehow, he manages to make the situation worse.

You sense the doom coming over and feel as its now the best time to leave. You get up, only to be blocked by Jungkooks body, him standing right in front of you, preventing the only possibility of exit.

“Why would you do that? You’ve Jeon energy. If you need more, that’s of no problem” his energy feels heavy, and you cough, trying to signal for him to move. But he doesn’t do so, and you look at him slightly irritated. He sure does know how to tickle your nerves.

The irritation swells, as you look directly in his eyes, and say your previously practiced answer, “Diversifying” but his challenging gaze spurs a sense of defiance in you; why exactly is he challenging you? Both today at the center and now, making sure you can’t escape his presence no matter how hard you try.

“Even more so, every contract has it’s end, so there shouldn’t be any problem with that” you can’t help but bite back, give him the option, and he’ll fine how to get under your nerves. Even now, he doesn’t say anything, but his lone presence ticks you.

The clenched jaw and scrunched eyes just waiting for what you’ve to say, and he knows he manages to irk you, you even think he enjoys it, as his eyes glaze with a sense of mocking delight.

You push past him, and move towards the door, only stopping when he speaks over his shoulders, “Then let me recommend you take another look at the agreement”

Your eyebrow ticks, and you slowly move around to assess his words, his tone doesn’t feel threatening, nothing about him seems dangerous, but could it be possible that his humorous tone hides more menace?

Two can play this game, if he wants to ridicule you, you’ll make sure his delight doesn’t last long; he’s not the only one who knows how to get under one’s skin.

So, you put on the best smile you can gather, and walk towards them, close enough for your dress to graze his skin before you move towards Namjoon, who, bare his soul, looks extremely concerned and alarmed.

“Namjoon,” you sweetly sing along his name, “it was truly a pleasure to spend so much time together,” you pat his shoulder, and smile, “thank you for organizing this beautiful getaway, we most certainly should repeat it first thing I return from Jeon Kingdom.”

You hum once Namjoon takes your hand in his and lightly caresses, “Reagan” is all he manages to mutter in silent agreement. You train your ears to hear Jungkook behind you, but he doesn’t move a single muscle, only calculates your words and movements.

You detach your hands and turn around, and with high ignorance look at Jungkook, and enjoy how his face has contoured into a blank space. “Prince Jungkook” mockingly you incline your head, resembling the smallest bit of a bow, and stride right past him towards the door.

You don’t stop to hear what they’re saying, just stride as fast as you can to your room, praying to God you won’t get lost in these halls. The momentum of pride has extinguished, and now you hurry your steps and mentally hit your head against the wall.

Truthfully this is the last thing you needed, you promised to be civil, to try and act clueless of the documents father gave you, Jungkooks letters and the night you shared. But here you are, acting like a child. You’ll have to spend days with him, with no way of refusal. Yet still you manage to make everything worse.

Once you see the door to your bedroom, a sigh of relief escapes you, and with your one last braincell, you stop and look at the guard by your door, “Do not let anyone in, I don’t want to be disturbed till the morning.”

He doesn’t respond just bows his head, and you quickly shut the door. You move to the vanity to get ready for the night and drag your hands over your face. This is a mess, why did your father let you do this all on your own.

You swear Jungkook brings out the worst in you, how he manages to make you feel like the most loved girl one second, and the next bring your blood to boil, is out of your hands. You can’t figure it out, and now you stare in the mirror and swear, usually you don’t act like this. You don’t let your emotions get the best of you, but then why can’t you manage to do anything but let your emotions guide you?

You look tired, and are those small wrinkles decorating your forehead? Honestly, you wouldn’t be surprised, you’ve frowned more during the past weeks than you’ve in your whole life.

You massage a cream on your face and mourn the next couple of days; you’ll be forced to be in the same space as Jungkook for days on end, and on top of all – you’ll have to be at your best behavior.

If there’s one thing that father made you know, is that this visit is crucial, and no mistakes will be forgiven. The nightgown falls on your shoulders, and you’re ready to climb in the bed, till you hear commotion outside of the door.

It’s him, you distinctly hear Jungkooks voice, and by the sounds of it, the guard is blocking him from barging into your room. You thank yourself for asking the guard to not let anyone in and try to move as silently as possible towards the bed, making sure to overstep any creaking board.

You throw the blanket over yourself, it certainly has been longer than a minute, and yet you still hear Jungkooks voice loud and clear. You close your eyes and hope that the guard doesn’t fall under the pressure, you know how pursuing Jungkook can be when he wishes to.

Jungkook curses and you hear a bang against the door. You close your eyes trying to forget about everything, and silence falls over the space. Your knuckles grow stiff over the blanket, and you’re not sure if the silence unnerves you even more.

The night passes swiftly, you feel as if you haven’t slept more than 30 minutes before maids come to wake you up. You’re lost in your thoughts as they braid your hair and help to dress you. It will be a long road and the knowledge calms you, hopefully by then you’ll manage to get yourself together and figure out a strategy.

You walk down the hall and feel another body accompanying you. You turn your head to see Jungkook walking next to you, and sigh, first thing in the morning, but you still don’t have any peace from him.

“Jungkook” curtly you acknowledge him without stopping. His hand grabs yours and pulls you to a stop, annoyed you look up at him. His face isn’t colored in anger like it was yesterday, but you wait for him to start the same song all over again.

But it doesn’t come, rather he looks at you confused, and with uncertainty asks, “Reagan, what is going on?” Sincerity clouds his words, and for a second you feel a sense of pity, yesterdays threatening tone is gone, but it doesn’t change his previous motives.

“You tell me,” You mutter with a hard gaze, “What was that yesterday? Storming in and threatening around? Almost barging into my room like a mad man?” you try to keep your voice down, and discreetly look around if no one hears you, but still, you can’t help but bite each word out, yesterday’s anger still present.

He looks at you and ticks his head, “What else was I supposed to do? You completely shut me out and out of a sudden you’re on romantic engagements with Kim” he pauses and searches your eyes for an answer.

He opens his mouth to continue, but you cut him off, “What did you expect me to do? If I wanted to speak with you, I would’ve answered. But that of course doesn’t suit you, as ‘no’ doesn’t exist in your books, right?” you quote your fingers with a humorless laugh, and watch how his blank expression slowly turns red.

“So, suddenly it’s my fault? You decide to ignore me, might I add without a reason, and I’m at-”, you don’t let him finish the sentence, “You know I have my reasons, stop acting clueless, it doesn’t work with me.”

“Like what?” you manage to bite your tongue before you spill the conversation with father, and massage your temples, “Exactly, nothing. And here you are, putting blame on me for reaching out.”

“Reaching out?” astonished you look at him, “Since when reaching out is banging at my door and following me?” he starts to speak, but you can’t find a reason to listen, “So, that is the problem? Me wanting to figure out why you can’t do as much as look at me?”

“You don’t listen. I can, but I don’t want to” you feel your heartbeat in your ears, and your hands shake from the excessive emotions pouring out. “But you do want to look in Kims eyes, hm?” you see a vein popping out on his forehead.

“Don’t involve him in this” Jungkooks antics tickle your nerves, and call it what you want, but you won’t let him slander Namjoon. “Such a defender. I thought I made it clear to not mingle with white noise.”

“He’s my friend” you bite back, only for Jungkook to smirk back, “Is he now? Couple of weeks ago you couldn’t take your eyes off of me, even when he chased after your attention” he presses his fingers on your jaw, and you shake off his touch.

“Don’t bring that up” defensively you respond, and the dark shadows dance further across his face, “So, the night you oh, so passionately spent entangled in my arms is suddenly reduced to ‘that’?”

You cut him off with fire behind your words, “The night where we were drunk and acted childish” Jungkook only laughs at your rebuttal, “Childish? What do you call this then?” you gasp and shove his shoulders, but he’s not finished, and you feel your ears burn “’Cause I know very well you enjoyed every second of it.”

“Childish is you running around and enjoying watching me suffer because of your actions” you point your finger at him and feel your shoulders aggressively moving up and down. No longer you care if you’re shouting, too immersed in the conversation.

“Suffer? Enlighten me, how exactly do you suffer because of me? All that I’ve ever done is help-” you flail your hand around, “You never help anyone. All that you think about is yourself-”

“Myself?” Jungkook raises his voice, “Yes! Admit it, you’re delighted that all anyone associates me with is you”

“You’re reaching. Perhaps stop pointing the finger at anything else than truth. We slept together, both of us enjoyed it. Why so suddenly it became a problem?”

Too immersed in the shouting, and cutting one another off, you didn’t realize presence besides you. Only when the said person awkwardly coughs, both of you jerk your heads to the culprit.

Anthony stands very uncomfortable before you, and before he manages to utter a word, Jungkook harshly says, “Leave.” He turns back to you, and you feel your body physically shake from all the rage inside of you, “Don’t speak to him like that” you shove your finger in his chest.

“Oh, I’ll speak however I wish to” you huff and turn your gaze back to Anthony, who scrambles to quickly bow and stutter out, “Princess, an unexpected visit from palace has arrived”

You turn your body towards him, and rush closer while rapidly asking, “Did father come?” You don’t await the answer and rush down the hall, internally jumping in relief that father finally listened to your pleas.

You made up your mind, if it comes to it, you’ll beg father to take your place. You don’t want to take a step into Jungkooks Kingdom, especially after the last 10 minutes. Your steps falter, and silently you curse that you didn’t await Anthony to finish his sentence.

You’ve no clue where to go, and distinctly you hear steps somewhere behind you, but as you turn no one is there. You train your ears, and follow the sounds from somewhere else, rushing as quick as you can till you see servants gathering around in the hall.

But your relief is short-lived. The person before you isn’t father, and your shoulders sink once you realize who it is. Felix, father’s advisor. Also, the person who can’t look you in the eye without a scoff to his face.

You clear your voice and straighten your back, trying to forget the disappointment of your father not being here. You paint a smile on your face and move closer to him.

The man has always disliked you for reasons unbeknownst to you, even now it’s obvious. The second you’re in his vision, the pleasant smile on his face wears off, and a frown overtakes his aged facial features.

“Mr. Lancaster. Pleasure of you to join us.” You smile to your best ability and note how he curtly bows his head. You turn to acknowledge Namjoon, who by the looks of it welcomed the sudden visitor.

“Princess, might we talk in private?” Felix’s gruff voice addresses you, and you curtly nod, and step aside to follow his steps. Before you manage to exit the hall, you find Jungkook and Anthony in front of you.

Curiously you watch how Felix’s face sours even further, if you thought you had a problem with displaying your emotions, then you were welcomed by an awakening. You watch how both men assess one another, both looking equally surprised by others presence.

“Prince” is all that Felix mutters and with the same curt bow moves right pass them. Your gaze meets Jungkooks for a second, and you think he notices how uneasy you feel, as his eyes soften a tiny bit.

But you have no time to overthink him, as you move fast to catch up with Felix. The man makes you feel like you’re under inspection, the way he grumbles to himself with every step, and shakes his head only makes you feel more uneasy.

Your skin prickles with goosebumps, the air around you tense, filled with the occasional thud of his cane and grumbles. The bright hallway seems suffocating, as you ponder over the silence that has fallen between you.  

You try to remember that between you two, you’re in command, and he’s just one of your subjects. But his history in politics and close relations with your father makes you feel severely outranked.

“How was your journey, Mr. Lancaster? Did father send you?” you try to break the ice, but no intelligible response awaits you, he simply continues to grumble to himself.

You try to swallow down the light disrespect, but you already wish for the conversation to be over with before it has even started. Felix turns into one of the rooms, and you follow him. It’s some kind of a small library, the room no bigger than a storage, and yet the walls filled with books.

You turn to Felix and watch how he starts to speak but stops himself; he walks back to the door, and yanks it open, looking from side to side. Confusion doesn’t fully reach how you feel, is he checking if someone’s listening in?

Satisfied he closes the door and doesn’t wait a second before he starts berating you, “You foolish girl”, taken aback you stare at him as he throws venom in your face, “you not only compromise the safety of our Kingdom, but are careless enough to sit in your offence” his tone shakes you, and for a second you wonder who’s the ruler here.

“Such recklessness I have never before experienced!” he continues to reprimand you, and you feel defensive, how can he talk to you like that? He’s not your father, and for the matter of fact you’re his superior.

“I’m careless?” you close to shout while pointing at yourself, “I am not the one who sticks their head in ground because they’re offended!” the man in front of you lets out the most disgusting laugh, cackling as he loses his breath.

“Is that the case princess? Because if it were true, I wouldn’t be here.” He grumbles and you wonder if a person is capable of scrunching their face more than this man. “You’re a child, who’s playing with fire, thinking they’re God.”

You shake your head in disbelief, where all of this is coming from, you’re clueless. He has insulted you more than anyone beforehand, and you feel the previous spark of anger delight you once more.

“Says the man, who can’t see when to step down. Prime minister for 20 years, yet unelected three times in a row. Hanging on a loose threat by my father’s side, who’s too kind to let you run back on the streets.” You watch how he’s taken aback, and for a second feel triumphal, finally the crude man takes a second to overthink his next words.

“Just like I said,” he points his cane at you, “clueless child who’s fully unequipped for the role.”

You stare him down and mutter, “I would be very careful of your next words, sir.” He shakes his head, and you clench your jaw, “Would you disagree? Is this a way a princess presents herself?”

“If I’m so unprepared why didn’t father take my place?” Felix shakes his head, as if the man’s too stunned at your stupidity to respond, “If you took your time to answer one of the letters, then perhaps he would be here indeed.”

You stare in shock before a loud unhumorous laugh escapes you, “I wrote him letters almost every day, not to mention calling. You cannot punish me for his ignorance.”

“What?” he turns to you with an agape mouth, “You’ve sent him letters?” you curtly nod, “Almost every day, and might I say, without a response.”

You watch how Felix falls under panic, and you stand back unsure of what to do, “We have a snitch,” he walks around while shaking his head, “You said you called?” slowly you nod, unsure of what to do.

“They must be in the castle” he grumbles under breath, and carefully ask, “Perhaps it would be better if father takes my place?” to which Felix dismisses you with his hand, “That’s what they want. For both lawful rulers to abandon their Kingdom. To attack at the weakest link.”

“Well, what do I do?” now feeding off of his own panic, you quickly ask, “We do” Felix points at himself, “You follow my command, you don’t speak first, only assess your opponent. Not a single excessive movement, and not a word out of what’s planned.”

“And most importantly, your relations with Prince Jeon must be ideal. As of now, he’s our only option.” You stare at him confused, couple of weeks ago they said you can’t be anywhere near the man, and now you have to play the perfect friend?

“He may be the reason we’re in this situation, but he holds the power over the troops. Play the part, but don’t fall under devils’ cards.” You tick your head overthinking previous events, perhaps he’s a bit too late with that suggestion.

“That may be impossible” you mutter, but Felix cuts you off, “Make it possible.”

Right about now you question all of your decisions in life, just 10 minutes ago you were busy screaming your head off one at another, and now, you have to be the perfect friend. Is that even possible? You can’t (even more so don’t want to) walk up to him and act as if nothing happened, neither of you will let it fly.

Both of you are too stubborn and petty. But as petty as he is, he’s not dumb. And unfortunately, you can’t take back what you said, you meant every word. But now you have to find a way to make the past disappear, if you might add, a task that’s way over your head.

And the possibility of someone masking themselves as your shadow makes the back of the hair on your neck stand; you push your fingers through your hair and mentally cry, what are you supposed to do now? “Well, what is our plan of action, how are we to discover who’s the traitor?” you let the words silently fall past your lips.

Felix only shakes his head, and looks at his watch, “As of now, we’re to return to the carriage, and act clueless. We’ve run out of time. You are the face of the crown. When you step out of this room, you’re a monarch, and not an inept child.”

You shake your head at his words, “I’m sure King Jeon will overlook if we’re couple of minutes late. This is crucial.” The memory of all the letters you sent creeps over your mind, and although you don’t remember word for word what you’ve written, you truly hope that whatever it was, was as vague as possible.

“Jeons don’t forget things; they keep it as secret to use it later on.” He taps his watch one more time, “and you must be brilliant. Neither ordinary, nor extraordinary. Blend in, but don’t fade out.”

You nod your head, and silently follow Felix to the main hall. Your maids stand there already prepared for the journey. You nod your head once they start to bow and move down the stairs towards the carriage.

You guess you’ll be stuck with Felix for the next 8 hours, but perhaps that’s good, you can think of a strategy, right? That is, if you don’t scratch his eyes out.

The walk down the stone staircase is puzzling, the afterthought of someone spying on you leaves your senses on guard; every noise seems doubled and every action ambiguous. You look over the workers that stand in a neat line at the bottom and think, could they be hiding in plain sight?

You move closer to Felix, questions storming in your mind, but you’re crestfallen, as he puts up his hand and murmurs “not here”, and silently follow his actions, like a child abiding an order.

But you try to look up the sky, and convince yourself, that your pounding heart is not due to fear and uncertainty, but rather due to the bloodline you carry with each of your breath. For a second you pretend to be back in the ballroom, remember the power you carried and the heads that bowed down to you.

The power you felt surging, like a revival of the truth. You repeat it long enough, to believe it yourself, and the confident woman sears through your bones, and the cracks in your armor shine through only when they crack you open.

You near the carriage, and smile as Namjoon ever so gentlemanly opens the door for you. Felix stops a couple of steps behind you, and you’re thankful for the opportunity to properly farewell your friend.

“It was a pleasure to see you, Reagan” Namjoon smiles, and you grab his reached-out palm, and softly whisper, so the stray ears don’t hear, “Likewise”

“But don’t get too comfortable without me here, if I remember correctly, the wine bottle did remain unfinished.” You point out with a light chuckle, soon accompanied by Namjoons own.

“Rest assured that it will patiently await you.” Peaceful moment is broken when you hear a cough behind you, reminding of the shortage in time. Namjoon understands as well, and backs away, his smile still present.

With one last look you’re ready to climb in the carriage, but a silhouette quickly entangles in your vision. You watch how Jungkook climbs down the stairs, and how the servants’ part their way, with their heads lowered to the ground.

For some incomprehensible reason, you feel your gut wrenching in anger, and a sad afterthought comes to you, that you never felt this way about him. Whereas now your body expresses its disdain, even if you try to fool your mind of everything that transcribed.

You let your eyes follow his movements, till he stops at the carriage next to your own. He turns his head, and your eyes meet. His gaze is vacant, blank of any emotions except the ever so tamed sparkle in them.

But he doesn’t give you the time of day, and swiftly climbs into the carriage. You chew on your lip and replicate his movement; you find yourself once again trapped in the vehicle, and don’t know if you should be happy or annoyed, when Felix sits in front of you.

No words are exchanged as the carriage starts moving, you wave your last goodbye to Namjoon, and mourn how the golden streets become blander.

You rest your head against the window and try and concentrate on Felix’s words. But all you manage to do is watch how life turns grey the closer you’re to the Jeons Kingdom.

You promise yourself that everything will be alright. And prepare yourself for the next chapter of this insidious game; you won’t be a pawn in no ones game.

~

Hi! This chapter is split in half, so more action will be seen in the next one, although I do have to say, that gleaming lights and soft caresses are more or less done...

But I wanted to get this out before university piles up, as I know how frustrating the wait for a next chapter can be

Now, what’s the deal with Jungkooks Kingdom? Why rulers stray clear from it? Baby JK did say that he doesn’t want OC to see it, but what has changed now? And who might be the informant, or is there even one?

Loads of questions, but I guess you’ll have to stick around to find out...

Thank you for reading!

[mask131]

You know, there is one thing that annoys me - and I know that is goes against the current, where everybody praises the "death of the author" concept - but it truly does annoy me how fans sometimes decide on their own they have more authority on a fictional work than this work's author (given I am into liteature, we'll take books as an example).

I am not talking about situations such as "The author forgot that they wrote that in the first book, and wrote something contradicting it in the third, and the fans pointed it out and deemed it bad writing" - no I am not talking about this kind of situation.

I am rather talking about situations such as for example: an author's work gets adapted. The author loves very much the adaptation and finds it faithful or at least that it works well on its own. Some fans dislike it and declare it unfaithful and a bad adaptation. And if the author's liking of the adaptation is brought up, the fans will over-rid it as the author's opnion being wrong, and theirs being right.

The first situation (the one I do not talk about) was about facts, textual facts, internal logic, writing problems - and this is all part of the fan's domain. Because the fan, the reader, is all about accumulating the information given, piecing together the elements created, the fan reflects the author's work in that regard, and thus it is the fan's natural right and duty to point out things such as incoherences, bad writing, plot problems and the like. But the second situation (the one I do talk about) is about opinion, and this changes everything.

We live in an era (well mostly Internet era since it all happens over the Internet nowadays) where, as I said before, the "death of the author" becomes a rule and is encouraged. And the death of the author itself is not a bad thing - in fact, it is the "natural state" of reading a work. When you discover a new author, a new book, a new series, you don't know who made it, what this person is about or for. You just read a story, judge it, and make your opinion out of it. We also live in an era where fan-content (fan-art, fan-fiction, fanzines, fan-games) are even more visible, encouraged and thriving than ever before. They are even reused by the industry (for marketing purpose) and by creators themselves (to share the love and appreciate between them and their audience). But somehow, with such a mass-valorization, with such an effort to make it all common and mundane, something changed, and fans started to think themselves equals, rivals or even superiors to the creators.

We live in an era where fans believe their headcanons and theories can be used as rightful demands, as words of command, as orders over creators of content. We live in an era where fans are somehow so mad at authors they actually insult them for not following their fanfction ideas and for not doing what the fan wanted. This is a new form of tyranny where fans that get invested too much in something mistake their "fan-creator" rank for "co-creator" and believe in some sort of delusion that the work they are a fan of belongs to them and that they can dictate how it goes, as if it was their story and not one someone else created and placed their blood, sweat and tears into.

I do wonder if this bizarre switch of thought on the Internet wasn't partally due to the "Potter-trauma", when J.K. Rowling's political comments completely destroyed and ruined the perfectly "united, happy and peaceful" Potterdom, this entire subculture that had grown over the Harry Potter books and dominated a few generations. This faced the people of the Internet (but especially Americans, who didn't had centuries of literary wars behind them) with the dilema of "What do I do when I love a work, but I hate the person that makes it?". And one of the many answers, one of the many "solutions" to this problem, that was widely accepted, was "Well, make the work yours. You have centered your life around it, you love it, you study it and know it better than the author herself. Just ignore her, ignore her words, cut her off and make the books yours." An answer that was logical and reasonable at the time, in front of the given situation - it is the very simple "Consider the work, not the person behind it" logic behind fiction that is however still hotly debated today.

But ever since, it seems that people have taken this logic to its most extreme ways, and turned into some sort of mania. A mania where people will claim to know better what the author truly wanted to say than what the author themselves say ; a mania where people will contradict what the author says about their book in interviews, promotions, and the like, and clearly consider that the author's words have no weight outside of their own book ; a mania where people will see whatever they want in a story, and completely ignore things such as the context or the intentions behind the release of the book.

I know things are not all simple or black and white. My example about the author's opinion on an adaptation of their work is one that works generally well - because who is on the better position, and on the first-line, to judge a book's adaptation? The author of the book of course! However, to very example there is a counter-example, and I have one right there. Stephen King hated Kubrick's adaptation of The Shining, despite Kubrick's movie being one of the greatest horror movies ever made in America, and King's book being quite flawed (great book, but there's definitively big flaws typical of early King in there). This is a counter-example where myself include I recognize the author can be wrong about such matters of opinion, due to the author's own biases, own personal involvment and vision of their work. In The Shining's case, it is because there is the very nuanced situation of a movie that is objectively great on its own, but is actually a bad adaptation of a book (it does happen sometimes that you have good adaptations that are bad works on their own, and bad adaptations that are great works).

But here's the catch and the result of this discourse: doesn't matter that the author is right or wrong, the importance is that an author's opinion MATTERS and should be taken into account when it comes to their own work. Because they are the FRIGGIN CREATORS and MAKERS of this work - you are not. It is their work, that came out of their mind and hands, it belongs to them, they can change it and decide its fate until their disappearance from the surface of the human world [not accounting for the editors ex machina], and you can do nothing about it. Because it isn't "your" work". If you dedicate your entire life making excellent fan-content of a book, it won't make it "your book". All the fan-content will be yours, for certain, but the original material will stay "not yours".

Yes an author can leave things open-ended, leave questions unanswered, encourage theories and head-canon, and people coming up with their own answers. But it doesn't mean that when the author eventually decides one day to solve their own mystery or resolve their own riddle, you get to insult them and harass them because it isn't the one you imagined! Of course you can criticize an author for coming up with a bad solution - because as a fan you will note for example how unsatisfying such a resolution is, how anti-climactic it feels, or how a story worked better with an open-ending. But only some spoiled bratty child (or child-minded person) would come up to an author and say "I don't like your idea, because it isn't mine, and it doesn't fit this drawing I made of your character - which by the way is mine now". I said it before and I will say it again - we live in the "Misery" era. Stephen King's Misery, where Annie is walking everywhere down every streets, and where all popular authors are at fear of being locked in a bedroom with their feet broken by some lunatic wanting them to write an "official fanfic" with their OCs and personal planned "happy ending AU".

You can argue one thing against this entire speech: But, aren't critics, and literature historians, constatly imagining new meanings and new messages inside literary works? Aren't university teachers and literary students constantly reappropriating works in new ways the author never intended to? Aren't they all just placing their own ideas and biases and interpretations inside books, and then proclaiming it the "good way" to read it? Aren't they the one who decided that a curtain isn't just blue? And to that I will say yes and no. Yes because, indeed, it is their job, as researchers, as studiers of literature, as investigators of the life and works of authors, as theorizers of the book industry, to constantly bring new things in old stuff, and to unravel ad dig up things the author themselves did not plan to have in their work. So "yes". But also "no", no because such a caricatural view only comes from a simplistic overview of literary criticism and literary studies, and even from some anti-intellectualist ideas.

Because this entire world of literature teachers, and profesionnal critics, and scholars of authors, has something that (at least in French) is called the "fairness of the researcher". These people can say the wildest, craziest theories, interpretations and readings of a work, as long as they recognize that A) it is their words, their puzzle, their solution to a mystery they sometimes make up themselves B) there is a context, a life behind the work and things such as publication constraints that were involved in the shaping of a book and C) they have proof, evident and obvious proof of what they advance, and that encourages such a reading.

People who just waltz in with their own personal theories about why "X author wrote a subtle criticism of the sausage industry throughout their three main novels" need to have something to back it up, else they will be mercilessly mocked, ignored and have the door slammed in their face. This is why literature high-studies is such a competitive and "harsh" world, because people constantly look at each other in a rivalry designed to keep in check those that would go a bit "insane" and make everybody doubt their words and recheck their papers to make sure they are not imagining things. On the bad side, it also explains why university-critics and book studies are so slow to change and evolve over time, because due to this need to take into account every influence and context, and to bring solid proof to back up one's reading or theory, it can sometimes take a century or so to realize what is obvious from the beginning if you know where to look.

But even then - even in this context of encouraged, widespread and even accepted interpretations of text, people still do NOT believe the works of these authors somehow belongs to them! This is the true aberration that is festering on the Internet today, and the apex of the "bad fan" behavior. You own your fan-made content, you own your physical copy of the book, you own your hand-written copy of the novel you took five years writing with an ostrich feather - but you do not actually own the book until you bought its rights from whoever has it! And even beyond a mere question of "owernship" - because we all know how big corporations just buy over the rights to everything and fuck them over massively due to not understanding a single thing about what makes them great - it is a question of the author's symbiosis with their work, something that cannot be questioned and that only truly stops when they die, because the author can't create more of the work or express any more opinion or control over it. But before this death, people seem to have forgotten that authors are creators - that they made the work, that without them the work would not exist, and that they made this work with a certain goal, a certain plan, certain intentions more or less subtle. And that the fate of a work usually should rely within the hands of this author, not within the hands of the fans, who are only here to support, love, criticize, hate or judge a work, not act as some sort of board in a big company!

Authors are not your pals that can do you a favor if you offer them a drink (well... scratch that, there's a lot of authors who would do a lot of things to you if you gave them a drink). Rather - authors are not your employees. Yes, authors will work for you technically because they will write for their audience and for their fans - but authors also write primarily for themselves. They are selfish beings who write because they want to tell the stories they have in their head, and they want to do the work they always intended to, and they only want to use their character with their tory, their world, their plot. If you want to tell your story, become an author, but fans should honestly stop pretending they have just as much authority and owernship of a work as their creator just because they spent too much time daydreaming about it.

[beardedmrbean]

Oh sorry didn’t know you have a special tag for me now. Of course ac mirage is glorified and gaming form of Baghdad. But what the gaming does as while we play in a golden age, the character we plays as those we fight for suffering from the corruption and wickedness of the time as no era is perfect.

Well you lived through it, but I think a lot of modern historian have guilt over the reactions towards Arabs after the Iraq invasion and 9/11. So they double down hard on Muslim “achievements” to show they are not savages

But it lead to them infantilizing brown people and demonizing the west.

Which we got women king because black activists hatred towards white people. I wonder how many native Africans are going to treat black Americans like me like a plague after that movie?

But why I pointed out mirage is that, audiences want non white civilizations to be shown as PEOPLE not the equivalent of fictional young adult novels noble savages take on them. Show the good, show the bad, show the humanity

Also I think the main issues with Islam stuff is because the left will call out Christians crimes against people. While forcing a Hindu to be side by side with a Muslim. Obviously varies, but I learn about the Kashmir Hindu genocide that happened on January 19th, 1990

It disturbing that such a religious genocide happened only about 10 years before my birth.

You gave yourself that tag, sort of at least, called yourself that and it made me laugh so I decided to run with it.

Well you lived through it, but I think a lot of modern historian have guilt over the reactions towards Arabs after the Iraq invasion and 9/11. So they double down hard on Muslim “achievements” to show they are not savages

Bush 1's Iraq war didn't really do much in the way with public opinion, up till 9/11 the Muslim community was a pretty solid republican bloc

Then they moved left, political party wise culturally they're still pretty solid red they just know the DNC will bend over and take it from them in the name of diversity points.

Case in point, imagine what would have happened if the city council that banned all but government flags on government buildings had been made up of white Christians.

They're be riots, and you will be hard pressed convince me otherwise.

Which we got women king because black activists hatred towards white people. I wonder how many native Africans are going to treat black Americans like me like a plague after that movie?

Can't find the video but at one point there was a gifset of it on here where the person was asking black Africans, probably in South Africa, if they taught about American slavery in their schools.

Their answer was a good one and the response on here to the gifs was exactly what you would expect from the perpetually offended, self absorbed, and self important people who would comment on this kind of thing.

'The whole world isn't America' they have their own history to teach and SA wasn't involved in the transatlantic slave trade anyhow, not that I'm aware of at least.

The response on here can be summed up in a single reaction image.

I'm seeing stuff with a bunch of African countries acknowledging their role and apologizing including Benin which contains the territory of the former Dahomey empire.

Not shockingly at all they're also still unironically seeking reparations, which I'm sorry no refunds on the merchandise you sold us (to put it crassly)

Depictions we're likely going to have to deal with, which I'm ok with that to a point, it's a romanticized picture of the people, time, and place.

We imagine knights on horseback charging into battle full armor on then going to do battle on foot when their loyal steed is killed.

We don't think about the fact that they couldn't take that stuff off to go to the bathroom so they just shit their armor and did battle with poopy feet, among many other nasty gross things.

So to A point I think fictionalizing things for entertainment isn't so bad, just so long as they don't go too far with it, people have different lines for that kind of thing too.

As for that last bit, posted this a couple days back.

Here's a highlight for you

Some took notice when this centuries-old religious conflict flared in 1989, as Sudan's jihad slaughtered 2.5 million Christians and enslaved perhaps 200,000 more. It ended only in 2005, when the U.S. helped broker a peace deal; in 2011.

I haven't verified those numbers, but it's Newsweek I feel like someone probably did.

Also these guys,

made the mistake of kidnapping a bunch of girls, if they'd just kept kidnapping boys to brainwash into becoming child soldiers nobody would have cared,

example

but wait no they're talking about the boys right there!!!!!!!

Yes well

10+ times as many boys per year and now they're mentioning finally

Sorry this took a while, I had a bunch of other stuff going while I was putting it together.

[girls-are-weird]

Wilmon 44 & 45

44. What do they love about each other the most?

i think wille loves how simon understands him, or at least is open to understanding him, to the point that he's pretty much the only person around whom he can be himself, without simon judging him or expecting him to be "better" than he is (simon thinks he's more than good enough as he is). he loves simon's voice and musical talent, of course, and how he gives all of himself to help the people he loves, even to his own detriment. he loves how confident simon is, and how he doesn't take shit from anyone.

simon loves how earnest wille is. he loves that wille is the only person who will take care of him when he's running himself ragged trying to take care of everyone else. he loves how supportive wille is, whether over a choir solo or his political views. he loves that wille trusts his opinion even on situations outside his expertise, and trusts him to make his own decisions. he loves that he's the first person wille comes to for advice and comfort, even on matters unrelated to him, even though given his position in the social hierarchy, he doesn't need to involve simon at all-- but he still wants to.

("everything." that's the real answer to this question.)

45. How do they comfort each other when they are helpless to do anything about the situation?

so. let me get my nerd glasses on for a second. 8)

the concept of "love languages" is a very romantic notion but not really scientific at all. people are too complex and their personalities too plastic to reduce them to one or two ways of showing affection, and the research on this is pretty much inconclusive.

that said, fictional characters, especially ones with such limited canon as wille and simon have, are a bit easier to fit into a simple classification, and it can be fun to play with it. so i 10000% subscribe to the idea that wille's go-to (but not only!) form of showing affection is physical touch, and i think for simon it's an even combination of acts of service and words of affirmation. but they also have come to know the other, or at least the other's personality if not their life details, very well in the few months since they met in canon. so i think they have also come to know how to adapt to the other's needs regarding those love languages.

so basically, simon knows to give wille a hug or a caress when he needs support, on top of reassuring him with words. and wille knows to ask what simon needs, how he can help, and to show his support with actions on top of just offering physical comfort. it really is rather remarkable how we can already see this even in just the twelve episodes we've had in canon so far. and while the love languages might not be truly testable, reproducible, or falsifiable, it's fun to make such observations about fictional characters, in a "jane goodall studying chimpanzees in the wild" kind of way. ;)

(sorry this got so long. ask me about astrology next-- we'll be here for hours.)

50 OTP questions game | send me a question!

[idkhowtopickausername]

Are you still doing the unpopular opinions meme? 🔥 Naruto leftist discourse (and a precision: since Naruto Tumblr is the home of Naruto fans criticizing the Shinobi System and the narrative and so a huge chunk of the critique of the show on here is centered on those aspects, do you think people sometimes go too far and take it too seriously or don't take it seriously enough, etc.)

Hi! Yeah I’m still doing the ask game!

Yeah I do think there are times I see people taking it too seriously and people not taking it seriously enough. I think it’s good and important to be able to see how the stuff the show frames positively re: the shinobi system is really fucked up and to be able to see that Sasuke’s perspective is fundamentally correct despite him being vilified, and to be able to see that the ideas of morality that are being presented are very hypocritical and at times pretty awful. And when people who are actively engaged in Naruto discourse on here choose to dismiss or make fun of that analysis it does bother me, because I know they’ve had it explained to them and still refuse to see it.

That being said when it comes to the fandom on Tumblr it matters much more to me that people understand the problems with the show’s messaging than that they like the same characters/ships as me, and while there’s some characters that I don’t really see the appeal of and somewhat distrust the opinions of most of their fans, and vice versa characters I love and distrust the opinions of people who dislike them, I care more that people generally understand why the show’s messaging around genocide and its condemnation of the use of violence to resist a violent system are bad. I think getting super vitriolic towards people based on their subjective feelings about characters or ships is a bit embarrassing to witness. And similarly getting really vitriolic over people like not taking things seriously enough because they ship [x] or whatever or have some minorly flawed take, and claiming that they’re inherently selfish and morally depraved or something because of that is like kind of absurd to me lol, like it’s genuinely not that deep.

Also when people compare in-universe events to actual real-life atrocities it’s taking it a bit too far imo. I also think that while there are definitely connections between people’s opinions on fiction and their politics, and fiction is inherently political, you can’t reliably extrapolate people’s irl politics from their opinions about Naruto like I know people who are definitely leftists who I think have mundanely bad naruto opinions bc they’ve just never thought that deeply about it until I talked to them, and I’ve run into a couple of people on here who were Sasuke stans but turned out to be politically conservative, like there’s no clear line you can draw and it’s a bit weird to think that way imo. Also when people like to claim that Sasuke stans are like using Naruto discourse as a substitute for political engagement it’s hilarious lol like why don’t you think people can have hobbies like talking about fiction they like and also be politically engaged irl, they’re not mutually exclusive.

I think the reason leftists are drawn to analyze Naruto this way is partly because it illustrates really well the hypocrisy of systems that are inherently violent but treat resistance towards the status quo as the only real form of violence, and also illustrates how a militarized profit-based system affects lots of characters in different ways on a personal level. And I think Sasuke does develop a (flawed but still powerful) revolutionary ideology over the course of the story, and he has a big pivotal role in the story, and that resonates with a lot of people, myself included. He’s also a really complex and sympathetic character imo who manages to both feel very real and human and grow and change in meaningful ways (e.g. not just be the mouthpiece for a certain political viewpoint) and also opposes the dominant system at the same time.

[permian-tropos]

I love that theory of aspity being a resurrected burakh mom, because it goes well with the Clara is a resurrected dead girl that the saburovs performed a ritual on theory!

I always half wondered what Clara could have been if she was the body of a person who existed and died before the start of the game but I hadn't heard that one!

Reasons I like Aspity as resurrected Artemy mom

absent dead mom trope changing into narratively present and very proactive undead mom

despite having been born outside of the Kin, she was always deeply invested in liberating them from oppression. IMO it is interesting when characters have strong political opinions beyond what would be normal to want as a representative of their identity group

she's accepted as a being of the Steppe with Earthen wisdom in her resurrected form

a protagonist of any work of fiction having a gnc/nonbinary coded mom. I just think that rules and you never see it

Isidor being especially tormented by her appearing as the shabnak of the First Outbreak

the reason the Kin treat Artemy as half-Townie would then be more to do with how his father raised him and him having been sent away to university than his genetic lineage

[grandhotelabyss]

What's your opinion on MFA writing programs? Not a very favorable one, I suspect. I'm not living in the States now, but it seems to me the Iowa Writers' Workshop doesn't enjoy quite the same reputation it did when luminaries like Cheever and Salter taught there. Am I right?

The network it makes available is still the only way into the husk that remains of literary publishing. (Note how all the tributes and elegies to Louise Glück are from her former students or colleagues; I may be the only "common reader," and I am just a common reader when it comes to poetry, who has written anything about her.) But as literary publishing has lost prestige, so has the program. I didn't get an MFA, so I can't comment on the quality of the pedagogy. I'm sure everyone is trying their best. Obviously, however, the whole idea seems misconceived from the start, and not only because of the CIA seed money.

In reducing art either to craft or to psychology, the MFA has made fiction into a set of routinized procedures (show don't tell) and a form of group therapy (find your voice). You do have to learn techniques, but techniques alone cannot create great art, and the very greatest art has often been careless of technique. And individuation is part of the writerly vocation, but you're not finding your voice per se; you're finding a much larger, much more agonized and conflicted thing, which is the whole of your sensibility. If you want to write more than one book, this had better contain a veritable pandemonium of voices.

Such an education keeps you, almost as if it were calculated to do so, from the only true literary education: an encounter with the best literary works of the past, with the main line of the tradition. (There are non-literary educations that will also shape you as a writer, both in life and in school, everything from what you learn as a person in the world to what you learn as a student in physics class or history class, but those aren't my concern here.) The purpose of this encounter is not to make you slavishly worship literary tradition, but to enable you to transform it, even to escape it, intelligently; if you don't know your tradition, you are the one who will only be repeating it. But no, we have taken Hemingway's canny modernist streamlining of a vast corpus he had tenderly internalized—he did this for a good reason: a chivalric kitsch version of the canon had been used as propaganda to lead a whole generation of young men to their slaughter—and we have made an idol and a fetish of it, so that educated people today can no longer appreciate, perhaps can no longer even comprehend, a complex periodic sentence. I hold the MFA partly responsible for this decline in the general intelligence.

Meanwhile, the academic setting of the MFA turns the literary enterprise into a game of social oneupmanship, the pettiest form of competition. In the same way that runners and swimmers say you'll only make your best time if you race the clock rather than your competitors, you should be writing with and against Shakespeare, Austen, Woolf, and Faulkner, not some random matriculates on either side of you, themselves as stupid as you are, in a cramped and sweaty seminar room. Such environments—small groups full of young people either trying to be nice to one another or, more likely, trying to be cruel to one another in subliminal and deniable ways—also encourage the ideological herding we've seen in recent years. This helps to account for the vaguely "Soviet" feel of contemporary mainstream fiction: its endless promotion in book after book of the same collectivist ideological pieties, its implicit disparagement of strong imagination, unless this take the form of tediously allegorical fantasy.

In general, MFA fiction feels both overworked and underthought, the product of much tinkering but little experience (personal or mental), a filigreed little balsa wood figurine, and nowadays moreover inevitably carved into the shape of our age's political idols. To quote the old headline the malicious LRB editors slapped onto Elif Batuman's 13-year-old essay, whose arguments I have rehearsed above: "Get a real degree."

[bthump]

I wouldnt read berserk in public and i wouldnt watch game of thrones in public on full volume its just about being appropriate not necessarily that there is any issue with violence/sex. I think people are too comfortable viewing art that caters to them. Ultimately art is used to speak on certain truths without necessarily being pleasant. The violent and dark nature of humanity is often not depicted enough and i think the lack of viewership leads to people being less whole in their personality. For example ignoring or denying ones dark nature can lead to more outbursts/repressed emotions causing damage. I dont like or condone the rape, violence or brutality of berserk but i see its value. I like how it portrays reality. People are monsters as well we have serial killers, rapists, and beheadings in our modern world. These are all real things that people deal with and im not sure why that cant be depicted in our media. Some people will not understand this and thats ok but it will be something that you have to deal with if you enjoy dark media. What do you think?

All right I'll answer you once because you went to the trouble of rephrasing this according to my suggestions and I do appreciate that you've been polite about it.

I like a lot of dark fiction, and I like a lot of the darkness of Berserk. Part of the reason I'm a Berserk fan is because it's a dark story with a lot of violence and trauma. I think the rape of women in particular is, however, poorly depicted in Berserk, for a myriad of reasons that I've discussed extensively. Here are some links to things I've previously written on the subject.

I think it's perfectly reasonable to enjoy dark fiction while criticizing it, because it's always reasonable to criticize writing. Sometimes writing(/art) is bad and/or offensive, regardless of what the subject is or whether it happens irl. Depicting the darkness of humanity isn't a get out of jail free card for bad writing. A story can depict something that happens in real life, and it can still be poorly done because of how it's framed by the narrative and the storytelling tools available to the creator, which is how I feel about a lot of the sexual violence in Berserk. And honestly, I personally am actually pretty lenient when it comes to depictions of rape, imo. I certainly don't think it's automatically offensive (and I don't think many people do), and I even think it can be done well in casual, comedic, sexualized, aggressor/bystander-centric, etc contexts (though I def understand why that can be a contentious opinion). But I don't think Miura does it well, most of the time.

It's also reasonable to enjoy some dark things and not others. I understand why someone might enjoy Berserk's sword swinging violence but not its sexual violence, and that's fine. Not everyone should have to "deal with" every form of dark media if they like some forms of it, and I think that phrasing is very dismissive of very real reasons someone might not be willing to read a story featuring a ton of rape, or reasons they might take issue with the particular depiction of rape in that story.

Finally, these things obviously can be depicted in our media, we're discussing a professionally published manga, and your other reference was to one of the most popular tv shows of all time. Some people not enjoying fictional rape or other violence, or criticizing it, isn't a threat to these stories existing. I'm sure there will be plenty of rapey fiction for as long as fiction continues to exist.

And just as a heads up, I'm not interested in having a discussion about this. I'm guessing that we're probably not going to see eye-to-eye on whether Berserk's portrayal of rape is worth criticizing or not, and I'm not interested in convincing anyone of my perspective, so I'm fine with agreeing to disagree on this topic.

[bastellator]

Violence and the Revolution

"The revolution made progress, not by its immediate tragicomic achievements but by the creation of a powerful, united counter-revolution, an opponent in combat with whom the party of overthrow ripened into a really revolutionary party."

-Marx, The Class Struggle in France (1850)

The question of whether the Revolution (here meant as any meaningful overthrowing of the present state of things, whatever its form) will be violent or peaceful, through the medium of liberal democracy or outside it, used to be interesting to me, but since reading this quote it no longer is. It doesn't matter whether the actual toppling of the world order comes violently or peacefully, it is what happens afterwards. Will the bourgeois let capital be exorcised from its host, or will they fight back. In the video game Disco Elysium by ZA/UM, with dialogue predominantly written by science-fiction author Robert Kurvitz, an old man, a veteran of a failed revolution, talks about capitalism's "mask of humanity". In times of peace, capitalism parades as liberal democracy, hamburgers and endless TV-channels, but when faced with a crisis, this mask begins to slip. In the global north, we very rarely see this slip, because we need to think that everything is alright and that we live in a democracy, but of course our society is built as much on violence as any authoritarian state, we just outsource out violence to the global south. When a political candidate challenges Capital here, Capital does not need to use violence, at least not here --- consider Jeremy Corbyn being subjected to a smear campaign as bombs drop on Palestine. Capitalism cannot simply do away with him, because that might actually shock people out of despondency --- liberal democracy, the human mask of Capital, stays on. Optics in Chilean politics do not matter to Capital, only the flow of resources. If copper stops flowing, they might try some non-violent sabotaging of the economy to turn public opinion against the socialist president, but when that fails (the people who elected him were largely poor to start with, so they might not have perceived the change as much as hoped for), the mask will slip off. But this wasn't just about copper, the important thing was always to enforce capitalist realism (a concept created by Mark Fisher to describe that feeling of anything but capitalism being possible). If Chile had shown the world that, not only was socialism possible, but it was possible through peaceful means, through conventional liberal democracy, other countries would follow suit. If the proletariat of Chile could do it, so could others. So, the CIA backed a coup by the general Augusto Pinochet to "reinstate democracy". Many conservatives in Chile truly believed that this would happen, that the communists would be thrown out and that order would prevail. They were surprised when the junta refused to relinquish power and reinstate democracy. And the global north did nothing to about this. Instead, they sent Milton Friedman's goons to run their experiments on the country. They sent Margaret Thatcher to have tea with Pinochet (a recent example of a similar thing is how Venezuela and Cuba were refused entry to an OAS event, while Biden had a joint press conference with permanently constipated and corona-infected fascist moron Jair Bolsonaro). And of course, this is because liberal "democracy" is simply the human mask, the PR-trick of Capital and capitalism.

So where am I getting with this? To return to the quote that opened this post, I want to leave you with this: however the revolution happens, the counter-revolution will be swift and brutal, and we must be ready for that. They will first try to nip it in the bud, as they did with Corbyn and Sanders. Then they will try to choke the country, to show that the system does not work, like they are doing to Cuba. Failing that, they will do what they did to Allende, what they did to Patrice Lumumba --- they will swiftly and brutally put an end to the revolution. The choice is not ours whether violence will happen before we can come out on the other side --- it is inevitable --- and we must always be ready for it.

[kiatheinsomniac]

𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐏𝐒 | 𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐏 𝐑𝐔𝐋𝐄𝐒

Thank you so much for accepting my Castlevania ship request! I’m bi/pan and use she/her pronouns. I’m pretty short (about 5’1”/154 cm), with short (like, pixie cut) dark brown hair, green eyes, and freckles. I’ve been told I have a nice smile, a nice voice, and a good sense of (casual, feminine) style. On first impressions I generally come across as polite, responsible, and “sweet,” a bit of a goody-two-shoes type. That’s not a front, exactly, but around people I feel fully comfortable with I’m a lot more spontaneous and playful, and even kind of a tease - always for fun, though, never to the point of being actually cruel. I’m also very stubborn, opinionated, and ambitious, which tends to surprise some people because of my soft demeanour. My best qualities as a partner are adventurousness and thoughtfulness. I’m good at noticing little things my partner likes or needs and really shine at planning dates and giving sentimental but useful gifts. Some negative qualities are that I can get lost in my head sometimes, especially when I’m stressed (or really interested in a new project or study topic), and since I’m both very headstrong and VERY conflict averse, I can be quite passive aggressive when we have conflicts or disagreements. Qualities I find attractive in a partner are sincerity, drive, and sense of humour. I really, really don’t do well with a partner who’s overly jealous or controlling. To me it signifies a lack of trust - and if they don’t trust me, why are we even together, you know? Some of my likes/hobbies are surprises and new experiences, games, reading (mostly horror, science fiction, science history, and nonfiction books about travel and nature), drawing, camping/hiking, and animals. I dislike hot weather, feeling confined (physically or emotionally), impatience/being rushed, and sweet foods (more of a salty/sour kind of girl).

I ship you with Striga! 

Striga likes how you’ve got two sides to you! It makes her feel really special and like she’s doing a good job as your girlfriend to be able to see the side of you that’s more teasing and playful. She quite likes when you tease her about things because it serves as a reminder to her that she’s made you feel comfortable enough to come out of your shell around her like this. Striga’s a warrior, a protector - she wants to always make you feel safe and seeing you show this other side of yourself that she’s come to notice you only show around people that you’re comfortable with makes her feel like she’s doing a good job of making sure you feel safe. 

Striga also likes how much shorter you are than her! I’d put Striga as being 6'-6'3 so the fact that you’re 5’1 means that she towers over you. She thinks you’re really cute! She likes to lean down and kiss the top of your head while the tips of her fingers run through your pixie cut. She also likes giving you head pats as a form of affection. You’re so much shorter than her that it’s easy so it just comes naturally to her. She really likes that you enjoy things like reading and drawing! It makes her happy to see you learning things because she finds intelligence really attractive in a partner! She also really likes how you avoid conflict – as a warrior and the head of Styria’s army, conflict is something she sees far too often in her life. She wants to keep that away from her relationship with you and she’s happy that the two of you will only ever really just bicker and then talk out your differences until things are resolved. 

♡ When Striga first sees this other side to you, she’s really intrigued! She thought she knew you already but now she gets to see this whole other side of you! She loves it! She’ll always let you think that you’ve got the upper hand when you’re teasing her just so that she can keep on seeing this playful side of you. It feels so personal and she feels quite honoured to know that you’ve chosen her as one of the people that gets to see this more private side of you. 

♡ She likes camping with you! Sometimes life as one of the four Queens of Styria can become draining so her ideal way of recharging with you is just by going out into the woods and camping together. I suppose your dislike of hot weather will be very handy here as camping in Styria always involves a lot of snow. She’ll hike through the night with you, telling you all about the land she rules over with her sisters. She’ll set up a tent and the two of you will spend the day sleeping and cuddling up in each other's arms against the cold. If you’re human, Striga will pay extra attention to your body temperature and will bundle you up in warm clothes, blankets and sleeping bags. 

♡ Striga thinks that you really bring out a more feminine side to her. She’s not exactly built all delicately as the world expects women to be and she’s quite hardened from war too. But it’s the little things you do with her that make her feel like you’re really bringing out her femininity: braiding her hair for her, lending her bits of your makeup, painting her nails for her, doing skincare before bed. Just soft, simple, feminine things that she’s grown used to overlooking as there is never time for them in war which she spends much of her time participating in. 

♡ Striga likes spending time with you, no matter what the two of you are doing. One of her favourite, simplest things to do with you is to have your head resting in her lap while you’re reading and she’s going over battle plans that are laid out beside her. With one hand, she’ll be scribbling out numbers, necessary supply quantities and how the local terrain will influence the battle while with her other hand she’s combing her fingers gently through your short hair. 

♡ Striga never tries to control you. She finds your independent streak to be very attractive. She likes feeling as though she’s your protector, yes, but she’ll tone it down a little if you ever ask you to. She really enjoys watching you do your own things, your own capability is something that she really admires in you. You’re observant and intelligent in her eyes and it always makes her heart flutter when you plan something for her or gift something to her that she only mentioned in passing and thought you wouldn’t pick up on. She really loves you with her immortal life. 

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[maaruin]

Hot Take: The Harry Potter books probably helped, not hindered, trans rights

While we are on the topic of Harry Potter, let me share my thoughts on a particular observation.

The observation: very very few of the people who grew up with Harry Potter followed J.K.Rowlings into TERFdom. Instead, when JKR became hostile to trans people, they either dropped the books or simply didn’t care about her opinions.

Why is that? Well, support for trans rights is normally packaged with support for other marginalized groups and other socially progressive causes. And there does seem to be a correlation there. (There was a study that showed that Harry Potter fans are more likely to oppose Trump even after controlling for things like Gender and Education.)

Now look at this, when reading Harry Potter, who is more memorable: Voldemort or Rita Skeeter? Voldemort of cause, he is the main villain, Rita is a secondary antagonist, mostly limited to a single book. Voldemort is pretty obviously similar to Hitler, while Rita is maybe supposed to be a trans woman but the hints are so subtle they go over most people’s head. The parts of a story that stick in mind are the things that are important in the book, and fighting against a Nazi analogy is one of these things. This is a message about who is good and who is evil that the reader is supposed to apply to the real world.

With me so far? Okay, here is how this connects to social progressivism: In a socially progressive worldview the Nazis are the ultimate evil and other ideologies are generally judged in their evilness by how close they seem to be to Nazi ideology. And the core of what makes Nazis evil is their violence against minorities. (Conservatives also view Nazis as evil, but there is a different emphasis: They tend to put Nazis and communists on the same level and view totalitarian government as the core of the Nazis’ evil.) So, in the progressive worldview, Nazis are the big evil because they committed genocide against minorities, conservatives are a smaller evil because they discriminate against minorities.

And now you have a generation of people who read in their favorite book that Nazis are the worst evil, and their history class in school may also teach them that the Nazis are the worst evil. And then they encounter a movement that calls them to political action against the things the Nazis stood for: racism, but also sexism, homophobia, etc. So people adopt that worldview and that includes support for trans rights and at some point they go somewhere where JKR doesn’t want to go.

I wonder if she knows this? I wonder if she is frustrated by this?

(A suspicion I have in this context is that people who grew up playing shooters in which the central conflict was Americans vs Islamist Terrorists ended up on average more right wing than other people their age. I do think if the central conflict of the fiction most important to us when our beliefs are still forming is close to the self-image of a common worldview in the real world, we are more open to adopting that worldview. And the idea that the central conflict was USA vs Islam was both present in popular games of the 2000s and the news media of the 2000s.)

Anyways, this was my case that over the course of her life JKR has helped trans rights more than she hurt them, even though that was never her goal. (But that doesn’t necessarily mean her books should be read now.)

[gascon-en-exil]

I was reading a political article and it was describing a term called the "exhaustive majority" i.e the group of people who are tired of the polarization going on in the US, and I think "exhaustive majority" is a good term to describe a decent chunk of the FE fandom especially in the aftermath of 3H; they're tried of the constant mudslinging and harassment for having opinions on fiction and ships, they're tired of the overexposure, they're tired of people pushing the idea that opinions on fiction = opinions on real life, they're just tired. And honestly that's probably why some people see Engage as a breath of fresh air and a sorta return to form.

I'm not sure if those are quite equivalent. While I've never kept up with that sort of thing I'd wager that that term is being used to describe people who aren't interested in politics to begin with and see any sort of political discourse or action as distracting them from whatever it is that they care about. This is hardly a new thing, or unique to any particular country or culture. I'd consider the fandom equivalent to be those people who consume media but then don't go online and talk about it or otherwise get involved in any sort of community surrounding that media.

Judging by how general gamer YouTube channels talk about Three Houses when they're recommending games or ranking them or whatever, it would seem that the majority of players are unaware of (or simply don't care about) how controversial the game has been in online circles and how it's led to so much combative fandom drama. Those praising Engage for being more straightforward and lending itself to less emotionally-charged subjects for argument - gameplay min-maxing, character tier lists, pointing out the odd choices made by the localization etc. - are those who've lived through the years of discourse and are probably tired of them not because they didn't care but because it dominated the conversation surrounding FE16 and crowded out almost everything else for over three years. If you spend any length of time in online fandom you'll know that arguing over things that ultimately don't matter is one of the foundational pillars of the internet, so I read it as more exhaustion over the same tired wank being reheated over and over with nothing new being added (except when Three Hopes came out, but that only prolonged the same discourse) but with all parties becoming ever more aggressive and the fandom becoming even more sharply divided over opinions that we'd all basically formed back in 2019.

I've actively participated in discourse myself, both criticism and analysis of the games themselves and fending off trolls and other bad faith actors from multiple corners, but after about a year of that I grew bored of the same topics being rehashed over and over again and basically only joined in when prompted. It's been great to finally have something new to talk about, even if I still prefer Three Houses to Engage overall.

[waywardfeathered]

KNOWING YOUR PARTNER WELL CAN POTENTIALLY MAKE WRITING TOGETHER A LOT EASIER. REPOST.

name. Havu.

pronouns. they/them

preference  of  communication. Discord. My handle is in my rules! Tumblr IM box is difficult for me, but if you prefer that, I will also communicate there.

name  of  muse. Castiel, or in non-canon human verses, Castiel "Cas" Krushnic.

rp  experience  /  how  long. On tumblr since 2013, before that mostly one-on-one in private since around 2006.

best  experience. No one best experience, but in general muses connecting. Like when you end up building dynamics and storylines that take on life of their own, when there is something coherent between muses no matter the nature of it, when you connect enough ooc that you mutually appreciate each other even if it's just in the form of liking each other's dash game posts or whatnot.

rp  pet  peeves  /  dealbreakers. Harrassing people for fictional content no matter how problematic you believe it to be, posting/sharing callouts over fictional content (honestly this counts as harrassment and bullying), policing what fictional themes other people are "allowed" to write of any kind (a polite "don't follow me if you write gore/smut/coffee shop aus/abuse/anything" is fine and not harrassment or policing), individual urls on DNI lists, bigoted beliefs/behaviour.

fluff,  angst,  or  smut. angst, smut, and fluff, in that order. I will write pretty much any genre, but I do tend to love writing angst or angst-adjacent themes more than something entirely happy even though I will gladly do the latter as well. I like writing smut, and am open to writing it without us needing to be friends or close ooc; I only am not comfortable writing smut with muns under 21.

plots  or  memes. Both! Let's say that I am more likely to do better with at least some vague plotting, something to write towards or based on, even if it's a one-line simple idea. However. I will happily wing things as well.

long  or  short  replies.  I prefer 2-4 paragraphs per response. Longer tends to get hard for me. Shorter tends to get too short to say enough. But, I am happy to do single para or novella. I firmly believe that matching length is bullshit and that it's natural for reply length to fluctuate, exposition and such might naturally make a reply novella while action or muses having a conversation where they keep responding to each other works better with just a couple of paragraphs if not less, because I find it awkward to kind of... interject in between, with a reply, and it starts to easily feel like I'm writing three threads in one go with longer form dialogue/reaction heavy threads.

best  time  to  write. No specific time. I do best if I have a sleep schedule, but other than that, I'm on disability and not restricted to time tables through a job or anything that sort.

are  you  like  your  muse. Not very. I relate to a lot of Cas's experiences in how I've been controlled and abused, and I share many quirks with him (he's very autistic coded and I'm autistic), but in general we're super different people. He's much more self-sacrificing and emotion driven, where I'm a lot more self-preserving and analytical; he views life through his heart and I look at everything analytically and don't tend to feel very deeply emotionally. He has strong moral convictions; I of course have my opinions of right/wrong, but I tend to juggle multiple points of view at once and have no issue going against my own morals on a lot of things. He has a very intuitive way of his opinions, feelings, and the universe and such, like of course he contemplates such things a lot, and he has a lot of self-doubt, but it's very different from the way I operate from a set of a logical framework that I am constantly adjusting with new factual information and where he wishes to be steady-footed on his beliefs and sense of self etc I am naturally always in flux and analysing and comparing and going down rabbit-holes of what ifs. He is good at being practical and taking action, I am really passive and impractical.

tagged by: @collidingxworlds, thank you! tagging: @solheimisms, @righteouslysin, @normaltothemax, @detectiveconnor, @lovepurposed & anyone who wants to!

[reflections-in-a-critical-eye]

Not BTS related.

You said you read i don’t know what kind of book you enjoy reading. I also enjoy reading w lot (im broke buying books). Something that bothers me is how people treats problematic books. I don’t know if you have heard of All for the game trilogy/captive prince trilogy(both touches really really hard topics). But i can’t understand why people says the books shouldn’t exist? That the authors are problematics for writhing about such topic? And your in the wrong if you voice your liking to them/recommend them? And i started feeling bad for liking/enjoying them. Why does writing about thing like violence/ the r word thing and others bad? Im trying to understand people point of view and i don’t wanna feel bad for enjoying someone that people says is bad. Does that make me a bad person? I think im struggling

Reading is fun to me but i feel bad for enjoying some books. You totally don’t have to answer that.

I never heard of that trilogy, but I did look it up to see what it's about. But since I didn't read the books, I'm not going to form an opinion on it, so I will use my reading experience and the authors that I read to try and explain my point of view on this debate.

There are many aspects to be taken into consideration, but I will try and keep this brief because I'm not a literary critic and this blog is not really the place for it. First, what we have to aknowledge is that there is a difference between the author and the narrator, even when it's a first person pov. Opinions expressed in the text do not automatically mean that they belong to the author. This is fiction we're talking about. Nabokov wasn't sexually attracted to 12 year olds just because he wrote Lolita. That's one thing. A second would be that even in the case of ''problematic'' authors, a word that I wish wouldn't be used at all, as readers we are able to get informed and understand that some of their views that do transpire in their texts regarding their racism, misogyny, classism, elitism and so on can be analyzed through a historical lens. We are all products of our times and some people are ahead of their time, but not the majority. We live in a world now in which being politically correct is a given, or ''woke'' and we think that this is how it's supposed to be, but perhaps in 50-100 years later, society's views could be completely different, perhaps more evolved than now, or will take a different shape. What I'm trying to say is that we shouldn't completely dismiss such authors, but instead, knowing their background will help us in having a broader perspective. Should we all stop reading Virginia Woolf because of her antisemitic views and completely disregard her literayr style that has had such a big influence on the 20th century literature? My own opinions on books and authors are mostly formed around two theories: Barthes with the author is dead line of thinking and historical criticism when the case requires it.

Now, I believe that so called problematic aspects can be divided into two categories. One would be made out of issues that I talked above, and the other one involves mature categories, such as violence, abuse, heavy sexual themes that are seen as toxic, anything that in fanfiction terms would end up tagged as dead dove don't eat, etc. To me, this is slightly ridiculous and I'm putting this mildly. Just because I read books that deal with that, it doesn't automatically mean that I condone it.or maybe I do like that in fiction, so what? Characters and stories should not be pillars of morality, especially given that morality as well is quite a subjective thing, influenced by religion, culture and the specific time we're living in. Should I feel bad that I read Marquis de Sade, Michel Houllebecq, some Murakami? Am I a bad person for liking John Fowles's The Collector because it's about a guy who kidnaps a woman because he's obsessed?

I think that reading and specifically talking about books should always be a nuanced discussion. We shouldn't just put some authors in a pile and say we don't need them anymore because of reasons. How would we learn anything if we think like this? And what's the point of fiction if people aren't allowed to explore even darker themes and not be judged by it? I think this is the effect of the ''problematic'' labels that are used nowadays, YA books that are slowly being cricitised through a moralistic lens and the influence of the tagging system in fanfiction which is used for helping people navigate triggering topics. I am personally against that because never in my life when I bought a book by an author that I was interested in, have I felt the need to know if it has a happy ending, if someone is violently tortured or the sex scenes are humiliating for a character. Good stories make us think, challenges us and stand out due to their literary style. Those are the criteria that I usually have in mind.

My advice to you is to do a little research on this topic, see what's the current debate from all sides and then try and see if your current opinions are challenged by that in any way.

[oasis-nadrama]

Terra Ignota - Complete review (Books 1-4)

Oasis Nadrama, 27/12/2021

[Official Terra Ignota Tor Books cover - artist unknown - 4K version by k4080 ]

In a future world where borders and territories are reduced to distant memories, where religion is a strictly intimate matter, where masculine and feminine are no longer expressed publicly, scandal roams free when a forbidden document is revealed in the media. Our antihero, Mycroft Canner, will investigate, and in the same move, he will be caught in the apocalyptic storm of a world secretly festering with underlying evil... Terra Ignota explodes like fireworks, an unique work of art, truly one of a kind. I said previously, and will repeat in the future, that it is a new Dune: an universe-book using archaic models in order to better depict a far, innovative future, an extremely stimulating tableau of technology, philosophy, ethics and politics. But this series goes even further than Dune, and if one could call Dune a heavy piece - or even a pompous one, in its detractors' opinion -, then Terra Ignota is akin to Element 118, the heaviest element in the world, it compresses more ideas in a single page than some novels do for their entire duration. Such is its great flaw and its great quality: a constant generosity in hypotheses and proposals, even more so when, in an unlikely feat given the luxuriance, the authoress does justice to this richness, catering to a myriad of seedlings in order to allow a thousand flowers to bloom, developing a jungle of permaculture whose fabric of branches and roots allows even more gemmations and, astoundingly, births. For after the flora of ideas, the fauna of creatures launches into the wild, a gallery of unique and unforgettable characters, deep, violent, skinned-alive characters, wayward and raging animals relentlessly pushing the envelope of the story. Such is the future unfolding before our astonished eyes. Rhythm is part of the journey at well, an extraordinary fast-paced structure, a succession of twists and events with its own cadence, endlessly piling up timeskips, fast-forwards, freeze frames and slow-motion. This architecture gives the books their main strength as a page-turner, bringing us further and further, driving us to devour the sequences without even noticing it, while delighting us with endless surprises. The science-fiction inventivity is at maximum speed as well. The Mukta concept by itself - extra-fast, automatized cars roaming the sky and evacuating from human culture the very notion of distance - could be the pitch for some blockbuster. But there's more, so much more... Sensayers, vocateurs, the servicer system, the darkframe, and so many things, both revolutionary and logical extensions of our technological realities (often it's a "simple" re-conceptualisation). The most impressive idea, the star of the show, is the HIVE SYSTEM: decentralized communities, akin to non-territorial nations, which keeping its own set of laws, traditions, clothes, as well as a specific language. Every citizen can join the Hive they want (or no Hive at all) as they see fit, which allows a political background without war or dictatorship, where human beings can choose their form of government freely. The implications and repercussions of the Hive system are explored in great detail during the quadrilogy. Literary experimentation is not forgotten during this journey, with a complex game of antagonism between the reader and the narrator, multiple imaginary readers mingling in the relationship as well, creating a turmoil where identity itself ought to be questioned. Finally, the emphatic, passionate, hopeful style sublimates the complete narration, illuminates each second, solidifies characters and atmospheres, finalizes the creation. Terra Ignota is not devoid of problems, of course. Most of its qualities could be seen as flaws as well; the density and ardor of the work will not please everyone. But such is the destiny of a text with such a strong approach. More preoccupying is the fact the work is not always able to keep up with the values it strives for. Palmer aims to offer us a world of diversity where various cultures mix and intertwine, a planet where Africa, Asia, Oceania, South America are taken into account, where Inuit people, Maori people are respected and possess a significant political weight. Despite this objective, the main characters of Terra Ignota are generally named Mycroft, Carlyle, Martin, Julia... Before adding some names unknown to good old Europe, the authoress will favour functions (Bridger, Sniper) and references to Greek mythology (Achilles, Apollo, Ganymède). The non-Western denominations are only gifted to secondary characters, overshadowed characters (Kosala) or as rarely used first/middle/last names (Ojiro). (One could criticize the focus on Western philosophy as well, but it would be a bad faith argument: Palmer's explicit goal was to reignite Renaissance/les Lumières discourse. Significant development of other philosophies would be out-of-topic here.) The anti-speciesism approach is flawed as well: terrestrial non-human intelligences are frequently mentioned - octopuses, elephants and orangutans, the last species having even a representative in world governement - but they stay away from the exchanges and actions, none of these non-human intelligences is a real agent in the narration. (Even AIs are not.) There are some shortcomings in the queer facet of the story. Yes, we are introduced to a post-gender world; furthermore, the narration makes clear gender is a complex thing, gender identity is to be determined by the individual themselves and traditional gender roles can be a poison... But the unreliable narrator (we'll get to him below) is part of a sect of gender fetishists, and we have to endure his own vision, his raging obsession dividing humanity in a binary fashion, arbitrarily assigning masculine or feminine identities to each character. His categorization criteria are often insulting when not pornographic, and they sadly bring back to the all-too-frequent experience of misgendering by LGBTQIA+/queer people. It is a bit of a mixed bag here, despite the authoress' thoughtful and positive approach. And finally, for a book preoccupied with power, politics, decision-making processes, Terra Ignota can be strangely reverential towards hierarchies and institutions. The endgame political proposal (even taking into account the distorted vision imposed by the servile, idolatrous narrator) seems to be some kind of absolute xenomonarchy. Dictatorship becomes an ideal, a dream, a hope, and this package is sold, preposterously, as a "transitory phase" (haha, good one, this one will never get old). Luckily, all of these flaws are mostly redeemed and smoothed by the last ingredient, although said ingredient is itself the very opposite of smoothness, and downright revolting: MYCROFT CANNER. The narrator. Mycroft will be the salvation or damnation of Terra Ignota for most of the readership. By himself he is a challenge to the entire world; completely embodying all contradictions in both this future universe and the authoress's positions, Mycroft never stops surprising us, deceiving us, insulting us, flattering us, lauding us, betraying us, he is the unreliable narrator INCARNATE. Mycroft will be loved or hated, or loved and hated, we love to hate him, we hate to love him, he's more reactionary than one can bear, a total bootlicker, eternally submissive to power and deity, living in the past, ragingly tying himself to his unambiguous masculity, wallowing in -toxic- masculinity, misgendering the rest of the world without a single pause... Mycroft is a monster, an antique, and he is not afraid to admit it. He's constantly lying to us, he's hiding a lot, in constant dishonesty, and tries to seduce us in order to better backstab us. Mycroft is both used as an excuse for the narration (we must rely on his gaze) and as a motivation for constant re-examination, inviting us to take some perspective and to question every information we receive, to criticize it, to take part in the conflict. Mycroft's main message, against his better judgment, is to NOT trust him, to try to see further, to build our own values. In the end humanism cannot do without critical thinking. So, is Terra Ignota a success? What is a success even? It is not a story everyone will appreciate, that much is certain. It is an entirely reflexive, atypical, ultraviolent, extremely dirty (to unfathomable lengths in the last book, whose considerations reach new depths of existential horror), inspirational and ambitious work, which never tries to satisfy the entire world. A lot of things will have a lasting impact on the reader's mind. The various inventions, the Mukta, sensayers, darkframe, Hives, the Utopists' creatures. Some of the great figures: Bridger, Sniper, Dominique, Ockham, Saladin, 9A, Andô, MASON, Kosala, Cato, and for better and worse, the dreadful J.E.D.D. Mason. Fantastical scenes: the "monster" awakening in Ganymède's palace, the chases, the crucial fight accompanied by a child's sobs, or the Olympic Flame. A number of marvels, delights, disappointments and betrayals will be carved together in the lasting panorama of science-fiction stories. It is not a perfect work. It does not aim to be. For human and society cannot be perfect. It is a risky, extremely purposeful, specific work of art. An intense, stimulating experience. Ada Palmer's main (and stated) goal was to revive an in-depth conversation about human nature, life, death, the social contract, power, beauty, divinity. To open a dialogue and ways to question existence. And within this framework, her book series is an accomplishment.

[grandhotelabyss]

ok but as per last anon what ARE your hot takes of the aesthetic judgment variety

I don't have that many, at least as far as anything "classic" goes. The test of time is real test, so if something's lasted I try to understand why, and I usually succeed. Still, I have my tastes, as anyone does, so here are some "strong opinions":

—While I buy Frye's argument in The Anatomy of Criticism that satire is literature's first line of defense against philosophical, religious, and political encroachment on its autonomy, I still think it's a low art form always tempting the writer toward arrogant cheap shots. Accordingly, I don't much care for Voltaire, for Twain, for Vonnegut; I don't like a lot of dystopian fiction for the same reason and dis-esteem Brave New World and The Handmaid's Tale in particular as the worst offenders. The exceptions prove the rule: Swift is a genius because you can tell he includes himself in his satire; Never Let Me Go is the greatest dystopian novel because it's really about our own everyday lives here and now, wherever here and now happen to be.

—Now I will violate my own rule in the last post about avoiding stageist and stadial cultural historiography (sometimes I contradict myself just to see if anyone is paying attention): novels written before people figured out how to write novels without just blathering on in episodic prose aren't very pleasurable to read as a whole, despite the brilliance of their parts, and this includes figures I otherwise allow to be writers of genius, whether Cervantes or Defoe or Fielding or Richardson or Scott.

—I'm missing whatever gene allows people to take pleasure in the whole nonsense wing of the avant-garde, your Gertrude Steins, your John Ashberys, many of your Dada and Surrealist and L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poets, the Anne Carson books I don't enjoy (as opposed to the ones I do), and the like. Poetry should be beautiful and symbolic, novels beautiful and dramatic. "Alas a doubt in case of more go to say what it is cress. What is it. Mean. Potato. Loaves." Get out of here with this shit, lady. Literature is the eye with which the universe beholds itself and knows itself divine, not whatever that is supposed to be.

—In homage to the master of Strong Opinions himself, modern literature's veritable chessmaster, I will say that Bloom's judgment on Updike is every bit as true of Nabokov: "a minor writer with a major style."

—This kind of game always revolves around negative contrarian judgments, but on the positive side, and in defiance of what I'm sure some see as my elitism: popular, middlebrow, and/or genre novels that have stood the aforementioned test of time are almost always actually good, whether we're talking about Uncle Tom's Cabin or Dracula or The Grapes of Wrath or Dune or The Godfather or The World According to Garp or The Secret History. (One exception for me: Tolkien. The three movies—perhaps the three longest movies ever made—and a couple of pages of that put me off for life.) The gay aesthete wing of the new right over on Twitter has been making an apologia for Ayn Rand recently, to much controversy across the political spectrum, but I can believe it. I never read Rand for two reasons: one, I heard she was bad, and two, given my own libertarian streak, I was worried I would decide she wasn't.

I'll avoid comment on my contemporaries. I have plenty of hot takes there, limited only by my tendency not to finish reading what I don't like and my belief that you can't really judge a book you haven't finished, but I can't be trusted to evaluate direct rivals can I?