#how harrow censors herself

[technicolorxsn]

once again thinking about gideon "if my heart had a dick you would kick it" nav

[gendervapor14]

treating myself to some old OP episodes to alleviate the horrors and i can’t resist the urge to ramble about bell-mère’s death a little bit.

so, i will start here, with this iconic moment:

manga readers may notice something right off the bat. “hey, arlong’s not aiming for her head!” yes, in the anime, seems they switched his aim for the heart. i actually prefer this. first of all, that flintlock is huge compared to her, so head or heart, it’s gonna kill her. not a fatality issue. i’m just a huge sap, and i think there’s something more symbolic about him shooting her in the heart for defending her love - her kids. (even tho all of this could have been avoided if she just lied, and then she’d actually be able to keep loving and supporting her kids, but, uh, i digress)

this moment really captured me when i was first watching, because for the first time, one piece truly felt dark. this wasn’t just an upsetting backstory. it had some element of gore here, which i’m not sure would be as effective if he went through with a headshot. they might have censored it a bit more.

more (slightly gruesome) photos and analysis beneath the cut 👀

look at what they got away with here!! this was early one piece mind you, so i feel like things were generally a little cushier? (or maybe that’s just my nostalgia talking XD) but the harsh black and white contrast, the utter silence during this scene, the speed in which this happened! (it was a pain to pause and scrub and get good screenshots, let me add). i will say i’m not up to date with current OP shenanigans, but to me, this seems like one of the most abrupt and brutal deaths in the series. (and this doesn’t even put into account the horrid beating she got beforehand)

there are some nice parallels here between her death and rosinante’s, (most notably her last words being “i love you” to nami and nojiko, and a flintlock as the weapon of choice), but even then, i think this is a bit nastier. seven little bullets in a 10ft tall man is painful, yes, but it wasn’t gruesome, and he managed to cling onto life for a little while afterwards. this was just. bang. done. heart – gone. leaves the viewer totally reeling.

in a way i feel like it’s almost an honor for bell-mère to get such a violent death? okay hear me out i know that sounds crazy. she sacrificed herself for her kids and went out kicking and screaming (or standing solemnly, towards the end). she brought forth such a refreshing take on women in one piece. i mean, let’s not forget this scene:

she was gonna blow his brains out!! zero hesitation!! how many characters in this series, let alone women, would go through something like this? i get that different characters have different honor codes and such, but it was sooo incredibly invigorating to see a woman get her hands dirty like this.

so by that logic, it’s kind of weirdly nice to see her not be treated like a little doll? this is highly speculative though, because i’ve noticed there’s this rather annoying trend where women are used as a moral compass for villains. “oh, look how deplorable arlong is, he did that to a young pretty woman!” we see the same thing with doflamingo, for instance, in his “fight” with viola. “oh how heinous, he threw her to the ground! how disrespectful! she’s just an innocent princess!” yeah, ugh. getting off tangent here

this whole scene set a standard for me, (and hopefully other viewers), who kind of saw the series as a fun lighthearted pirate adventure. yes, there was tragedy and sadness before this arc, before this backstory, but something about this moment in particular made my perception tremble. the bar was raised! a compelling character and backstory can have a truly harrowing ending!! a delightful revelation for me, for whatever reason XD

feel free to chime in if ya got any additional comments or takes on the matter. i don’t think bell-mère gets enough love. if you do wanna chime in, just um. be nice. i’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer, okay. and multiple interpretations of these scenes are valid! i’d love to hear ‘em! <3

[mayasaura]

the way john's friends' original names are censored even outside of his dream bubble when pyrrha talks to varun about G--, makes it seem to me like not only is john hiding the names from us, they have been erased from the tlt universe entirely. rendered unpronounceable, or unintelligible. i don't know how realistic this is but like. did john just fully delete his friends' old names, do you think?

Nah, not literally. He literally cannot do that. Or at least. Hm.

Erasing their memories was a trick of the brain matter; a much more elegant and permanent version of what Harrow brute forced on herself to forget Gideon. If he were going to make his Saints' names literally unspeakable, he would have to do remote brain surgery on every person in the Nine Houses, giving them microtargeted aphasia for a set of words most of them had never and would never hear.

But. When we heard Pyrrha say G—'s name, we were hearing from Nona's perspective. For the effect we saw, he wouldn't have to have made the names unknowable to everyone, just to Alecto.

I think narratively the reason the names never appear in print is like... It is because we're not allowed to know them. It's too private. Even after ten thousand years, the grief still runs too deep. But you might be right about John having erected a literal barrier to enforce that. Much to think about.

[semper-legens]

41. Beloved, by Toni Morrison

Owned: Yes   Page count: 324 My summary: Mid-1800s America. Slavery is over, but its effects still scar the people it touched. Sethe, an escaped ex-slave, lives quietly with her daughter Denver, haunted by a ghost from her past. But the past is not dead or buried, and when memories come knocking at the door, Sethe will have to face what she has done. My rating: 5/5 My commentary:

Here’s a very challenging book. I first read Beloved as part of my uni course many years ago, and the story has stuck with me ever since. It’s a harrowing read - a harsh and brutal look at the history of slavery in America, and the effects that it had on the regular people subject to it. It’s a very good book, drawing on the real life stories of people under slavery, but it’s also a lot to deal with.

Really, the whole book is an exploration of Sethe’s story - why she did the things that she did, and how the horror of her past affects her in the present. She’s trying to get on with her life, struggling always with the moment that destroyed her life - when her previous owners came to find her and, rather than have them taken back into slavery, she attempted to kill her children, succeeding in the case of her older daughter, referred to only as Beloved. Sethe is a tragic figure, haunted by her past and unable to move on. Her journey and struggles towards bettering her life while holding onto the very literal ghost of her daughter is heartbreaking, and the slow reveal of the details of her past creates a compelling narrative. Watching her devolve into codependency when Beloved shows up is also painful - you really just end up wanting the best for her, but knowing that at this time and in this place it is difficult.

Beloved appears early in the narrative - a strange, wild young woman who Sethe and her daughter immediately suspect is the baby ghost brought to life. Beloved, as the title will imply, is really the lynchpin of the entire story, triggering Sethe’s descent into helplessness and nostalgia, sacrificing her chances at making a new life for herself on the altar of her dead child. Beloved is a fascinating character, her erratic and volatile nature is incredibly compelling, and her motives strange and hard to pin down at times. Enjoyed is possibly the wrong word for a book of this type, but I got a lot out of seeing her relationships with Sethe, Denver, and Paul D develop.

One of the more striking things about this book is its use of magical realism.  Beloved’s presence is not explained, and many of the characters seem to take as read that she is in fact Sethe’s dead daughter returned from the grave. Even at the beginning, the presence of a baby ghost in the house is spoken of as an undisputed reality. Characters unconnected to Sethe’s family speculate a mundane explanation, but there is no rational reason that Beloved knows the song Sethe made up and sang to her children, or knows the specific details of Sethe’s life. Morrison wastes no time trying to explain such things, she just trusts that the reader will understand the meaning of Beloved’s existence, even before the exact details of Sethe’s history are described.

Make no mistake, this is a brutal book. The violence and terror of Sethe and Paul D’s lives under slavery and in prison are not censored, and a lot is said in very few words. For instance, what exactly happened to Sethe’s mother is not entirely clear, but the reader can easily pick up on the broad details from what is said. It never crosses over into being gratuitous or just there for shock value - certainly, it is shocking, but its purpose is to show the brutality done to black people in this time period, and never glamourised.

That’s all I have to say here, I think - it’s a very good novel, but certainly a difficult read, full of trauma and hardships. Next up, something a little different, with a book about grief.

[fortunatelylori]

GOT: That awkward moment when Daenerys Targareyen turned into Mount Vesuvius

Oh, rejoice all you Dany critics, all you Jonsas and all you Sansa stans! Our deliverance is here! From this day on we can finally shed the shackles of the anti-Dany tag, stop censoring the conqueror’s name and go wild in the Daenerys Targareyen tag! Dark Dany has arrived! 

Praise be! Praise be!

General impressions

This was, by far, my favorite episode of the season. Miguel Sapochnik really delivered on this one. It looked stunning, the fighting was interesting and realistic in that it showed the type of carnage that is handed down when an army attacks a highly populated city and the visual effects were incredibly impressive. 

This shot right here might just be one of my all time favorite GOT shots: 

It was also, frankly, a relief to finally have Dark Dany out in the open. The show has skirted around the issue of Dany’s turn to the dark side since season 2. If you were shocked by what happened in this episode and think it came out of nowhere, you have no one to blame but yourself. In this corner of the fandom we have been speculating Dany would end up burning King’s Landing for years. 

Also ...

That’s season freaking 2, you nincompoops!  

And they really weren’t stingy on the Mad King imagery now that the Her Darkness is here. Dany starts the episode looking like this: 

What is the most pressing thing on khaleesi’s mind? 

Girl! If you’re so worried about Jon’s lustrous, romantically jealous, always put together cousin, do yourself a favor, put a comb through that hair, slap some foundation and blush on and get a freaking grip! You need to be bringing your A game to this fight!

Luckily, Tyrion decides to give Dany the incentive she needs in order to tend to her person hygiene ... Getting ready for an execution, of course!

Dany is wearing a piece from the Targareyen nuclear winter collection. Very avangarde. 

Things don’t improve from here and, as we all know, she ends up Dacarys-ing her entire fandom: 

The city surrenders, the bells ring just as Tyrion had stressed through out the episode and Dany ponders ... She’s come to Westeros expecting to be embraced and loved. Being loved and accepted is very important to Dany. Without those two things, granted unconditionally and uncritically, she feels undervalued. King’s Landing ends up paying for that lapse in adoration: 

This episode, GOT decided to take a break from ripping off How to Train your Dragon and decided to rip off Pompeii (2014) instead: 

Pompeii:

GOT:

Pompeii:

GOT: 

Pompeii: 

GOT: 

So yeah, guys! Daenerys Targareyen is a cataclysmic event! Can I get a hallelujah? Cause this delulu, sexually frustrated, teenage soccer mom is having fun!

Apart from the sweet taste of vindication giving me LIFE, the reason why I enjoyed this episode so much is that it focused on the 3 characters who actually had an arc this season. Apart from Dany, those are: 

Arya Stark

I think the most important line Arya has uttered this entire season was this: 

Arya: I know death. It has many faces. I look forward to seeing this one. 

In true GOT fashion, be careful what you wish for. Arya is confronted with the most extreme versions of death imaginable, first in the specter of the Night King and his armies. And now, in the shape of Daenerys Targareyen and her dragon raining fire on a defenseless city. 

And while the White Walkers rattle Arya’s cage, they don’t manage to break through it. Her reaction to the destruction of King’s Landing is far more emotional than what she experienced during the Battle for the Dawn. 

I think that’s because the White Walkers were existential threats, catalysts of violence. They were not willfully cruel, they weren’t there to punish. They had a purpose and they served that purpose until the end. 

The destruction of King’s Landing, on the other hand, is a human act. Someone makes the decision to destroy this city, burn people alive, murder and rape them. Daenereys chooses to do this: 

The Stallion that Mounts the World serves Arya the most extreme lesson in revenge she could have ever gotten and the results finally break through Arya’s shell. 

Another top ten GOT shot: 

This is so visually striking! The blood framing her eyes just jumps at you. She looks like a rag doll on the verge of being tossed against a wall. This girl who has gone through such harrowing experiences, the brilliant assassin who ended the Night King is now in danger of being squashed as if she were an ant. 

It really drives home not just the immense power Dany is wielding but also that in being rendered powerless, Arya always manages to find strength in herself and her basic empathy: 

I’m really curious how her arc is concluded next episode. 

Jaime Lannister

I was never a Braime shipper so, while I get your dissapointment, guys, I definitely don’t share it. I absolutely love how Jaime’s arc was concluded. I do think there will be differences in the books (I still believe Jaime is the valonqar). However this: 

was foreshadowed back in season 1: 

Cersei: Jaime and I are more than brother and sister. We shared a womb. We came into this world together. We belong together. 

Jaime’s story started with Cersei, he dedicated more than 20 years of his life to this relationship, to the detriment of everything else in his life. It feels natural to me that his arc would end with hers, as well. 

I think, in a really sad way, Brienne was Jaime’s last stitch attempt at getting Cersei out of his system. That would explain his awkwardness during their sex scene. And it almost worked, because Brienne is someone Jaime cares about. However when faced with the possibility of Cersei dying, Jaime goes back to her because he can’t bare to let her go through that alone. 

I mean ... if you look up the definition of tragic couple, I half expect a picture of Cersei and Jaime to pop up. And I find it supremely ironic that the couple who shocked and disgusted everyone back in season 1, now gets a tearful reunion, the male character fighting a death duel to get back to the woman he loves and the woman who hardened herself against everything finally becomes human in the arms of the only person she truly wants.  

This, to me, is love ... 

Yes, I’m fucked up. Let’s not dwell on that! 

However, as much as I enjoyed watching these three characters make their way through this episode, there are still two things that managed to tarnish this episode for me. 

Let’s start with the obvious, shall we? 

Jon Snow

This used to be Jon Snow, back when he had a POV and a spine.

In this episode Jon Snow stands idly by while a man gets burned alive: 

Jon’s POV continues to be blocked and, at this point, I’m tired of trying to figure out what is going on behind the curtain. I’m just not willing to do it anymore, simply because Jon’s actions this episode speak louder than any supposed intention he might have in acting the way he does.

I want you to follow this conversation very carefully: 

Varys: We both know what she’s about to do. 

Jon: That’s her decision to make. She is our queen. 

Varys: Men decide where power resides, whether or not they know it. 

Jon: What do you want? 

Varys: All I’ve ever wanted. The right ruler on the Iron Throne. I still don’t know how her coin has landed but I’m quite certain about yours. 

Jon: I don’t want it. I never have. 

Varys: [...] You will rule wisely and well, while she ...

Jon: She is my queen. 

This discussion is crucial to the ultimate question of whether or not Jon Snow bares responsibility for what happens in King’s Landing. And I would say that based on this, the answer is a resounding yes. 

Varys starts plotting in episode 4, the moment he realizes that Dany is about to treat King’s Landing and all its inhabitants to some good ol’ fashion fire and blood. He tells Jon in this scene that they both know what she’s about to do. Jon doesn’t contradict him. He hankers down on the “whatever my queen wants” party line. 

Whether or not Jon is political or simply a idiotic coward, the fact remains he knows enough of Dany at this point to figure out there is a strong possibility that she will sack the city and many, many innocent people will die. Varys is trying to get him to act. He’s had chances to formulate some sort of resistance against Dany since episode 1. He has chosen not to. He’s chosen not to plot against her, he’s chosen to tell her the truth about his parentage instead of using it to his advantage, he’s chosen to abandon the dragon he could have used against her and to keep those closest to him in the dark about his motivations. 

He’s made his choices. If he’s done it out of love for Dany, than he’s an irresponsible and selfish fool. If he’s done it to protect the North and his family, he has done so at the expense of everyone else in Westeros. Either way, these are the consequences: 

This man, and I’m very sorry to say it, is not fit to be anyone’s king. In this episode he barely manages to keep his men from killing indiscriminately and raping women. He doesn’t even take charge of protecting civilians and trying to take them to safety, the way Arya does. 

Instead, Jon drags his men after him and runs from the city with his tail between his legs.... 

I just .....

My other point of contention with this episode doesn’t really have much to do with the episode itself but rather that the set-up for the pay-offs delivered here wasn’t done properly in past episodes. For example: 

Cersei’s downfall: We all knew it was coming and it was bittersweet and moving. However they’ve given Lena Heady barely anything to do all season. She’s had a total of 4 scenes so when the end eventually comes, it feels shortsighted and incomplete. 

Claganebowl: Another one that was telegraphed in advanced. The scene itself is brilliant however the set-up for it is so hamfisted. The Ds couldn’t think of another way these two could meet but for Sandor to just up and decide with no prior warning that he’s going to KL. Why now so damn particularly? In that vein, The Mountain is supposed to be a mindless zombie. How come he is now perfectly capable of disobeying orders from both Cersei and Qyburn? 

Arya’s story: As I mentioned, I absolutely loved Arya in this episode. However, I can’t help but wish they had put more work in her POV and in her revenge vs. humanity dilemma to truly make Sandor’s advice and her journey through the burning city as emotionally rewarding as it could have been. 

Tyrion: I get that I’m not allowed to understand what the hell is going on with Jon, but why has that extended to Tyrion all of a sudden? Tyrion starts off the episode betraying his only friend and condemning him to a fiery death and for the life of me I don’t understand why. He’s clearly terrified of Dany. Considering her state of mind when he informs her of Vary’s betrayal, she’s one step away from executing him as well. When he sets Jaime free, he seems resigned to being executed by her later on. So why not try to work with Varys to overthrow her? It certainly isn’t that he thinks she’ll make a good queen. He can’t possibly think that in this episode. Is it greed and desire for power? They haven’t done a good enough job for me to buy into that wholesale. So what is it? 

Favorite scenes: 

The “Are you unforgiven too?” scene: 

So close, no matter how far Couldn't be much more from the heart Forever trusting who we are And nothing else matters

All the while, the Lannister theme plays in the background .... PERFECTION!

The “Love Thy Brother” scene: 

I know I criticized the set-up but the scene itself is spectacular. The visuals alone are breathtaking. The fighting is brutal and absolutely horrendous. And the two of them falling into a bottomless pit of flames, feels particularly chilling and sad considering the Hound’s fear of fire. 

My favorite part of the scene, though, is the cutting back and forth between Sandor and Arya. Coupled with their conversation that convinces Arya to give up her list, this creates a wonderful parallel between the two characters and a nice bookend to their twisted but, surprisingly, poignant relationship. 

The “In the queen’s ashes” scene: 

Maisie Williams has been a real champ this season. And this episode, in particular, was her coup d’grace. I absolutely loved her acting in this scene. On top of that, the imagery of the destruction around her, the eerie quiet after the chaos that had come before and ultimately the discovery of the charred bodies of the woman and child she had tried to rescue, with echos of the Stark theme in the background, make this a truly outstanding scene.

It becomes even more poignant when you think that this is the city that started Arya’s tragedy when her father was executed and her book wish that King’s Landing would burn to the ground. When faced with the reality of it, Arya finds empathy, not satisfaction.

In the BTS, the Ds compare Arya to Virgil taking her journey through hell and it truly feels that way. Up until she jumps on that horse and fades into the fiery landscape.

Beautiful!

Episode MVPs:

Lord “It’s been an honor, sir!” Varys

I’m going to nominate only one MVP for this episode because this man truly is in a league of his own.

He is the true hero of this episode and the fantasy show equivalent of a martyr. He is the only one ... THE ONLY ONE ... that actually tried to stop Dany from committing genocide. And as thanks for his bravery and commitment to saving innocent lives, he was betrayed by his best friend and burned alive.

[sulevinblade]

For DWC - “ you’re beautiful ”? Characters of your choice.

Hi!! Thank you so much for the prompt!! I feel like I should apologize because this is a very self-indulgent fill but it was (one of) the first thing(s) I thought of when I saw this. Hopefully you enjoy it even so!! Astoria and Nikhael Trevelyan, G rating, ~1700 words. Nikh used with permission from @gremlinquisitor, which is also why nobody else has names. For @dadrunkwriting!

She’d watched them approach from one of the tower’s higher windows. It wouldn’t do to be overly eager; she wanted to keep herself as level as possible through the visit if she could, though the news in her sister’s letters made it difficult. Astoria waited until the last possible second before turning away and trotting down the stairs. They should just be leaving the carriage now. The templars will see to the horses. Past the statue, through the courtyard, and–

“Astoria Trevelyan. Your guests have arrived.“ 

Ser Engels held one side of the massive double doors that kept them separate from the outside world open as she reached the landing, gesturing for her to accompany him through. He wasn’t bad, as templars went. Older, something of a fixture in the Circle, but always distant and formal. Astoria inclined her head to him as she passed, waiting for the sound of the door settling back into place before proceeding.

Being a member of the nobility didn’t afford her many privileges in the Circle and Astoria preferred it that way. There were enough artificial structures here to drive them apart, why encourage more? This single thing was the only privilege she actively utilized, and even then not very often. The Circle was a long way from her family’s home and as she’d gotten older and more independent, it became less essential to her family to check on her wellbeing or allow her time with her sister. When she did get to see them, however, it was always in private. A modest but still comfortable room on the outside of the tower had been modified to allow both the templars and the occasional mage somewhere to receive visitors in privacy, and this room was now Astoria’s destination.

She was nearly vibrating when Ser Engels pushed the door open. Her sister and her brother-in-law both looked up but didn’t speak right away, though her sister smiled. She looked worn out, a little pale, but that was perhaps to be expected. Astoria brushed past the templar into the room and moved to kiss her sister on the cheek. A hug would have to wait until she passed the bundle she carried off to her husband.

Then again, the bundle was the entire reason they’d come. For nearly a year Astoria had smiled at every letter as her sister’s excitement grew, but there was an unspoken apprehension as well. Her husband’s family hadn’t produced a mage in generations but there was no denying the increase in the number of mages being born in the Free Marches recently. It was enough to make any family nervous, and if Astoria was nothing else she was evidence that magic yet existed in the Trevelyan bloodline.

Concern about that had been placed on the back burner, however, when the midwife forced the expectant mother into bed for the latter half of her pregnancy. Astoria’s mail started arriving multiple times a week, usually just short missives about how dull being stuck in bed was, how her sister felt fine, then later how the baby was moving, how dull the baby must also be finding bed rest, how uncomfortable she felt, how much she resembled a bronto. Nothing in there even worth censoring if the lack of templar editing was any indication. Then there was a break, but the next letter more than made up for it: it contained a copy of the baby’s official birth announcement. That was two months ago and while Astoria had been able to celebrate quietly with a few friends, it was nothing like being able to congratulate her sister in person or, perhap more importantly, to greet the guest of honor himself.

After receiving a welcome hug from her brother-in-law–a good man who took his wife’s words to heart and held no fear of Astoria, though she was careful to never ask what he thought of mages in general and he likewise took care to never bring it up–Astoria turned her attention to the miniature person in her sister’s arms. “I’ve been practicing with sacks of flour and the occasional turkey, I should be fine,” she quipped as she slipped her arms around him, grinning at her sister as she lifted the baby’s head and peered down at his face. Her sister and her husband moved to sit and Astoria did as well. This would be easier without having to worry about keeping her legs under her.

“He’s beautiful.”

“Boys aren’t beautiful, Tori. Call him handsome or elegant.”

Astoria laughed softly and shook her head. “I haven’t known many of them but I don’t think anything about a baby is elegant.” Her attempt at humor felt hollow, though, and after she finished speaking the room fell into a heavy silence.

As soon as she’d gathered her nephew up, the feeling in the room had changed. Astoria wanted to hold onto the peaceful joy of a new life as long as she could, but she also knew her sister needed to know. It meant planning this little boy’s entire life, which seemed like too much to ask of someone so small. This was also, Astoria knew, as close as she would ever come to holding a child of her own. A monthly ritual for most of the young mages here capable of bearing a child: lining up every morning for a week to receive a spoonful of seeds, green and bitter, washed down with a mouthful of wine for the taste, even for the youngest. Not every mage chose it but those who didn’t knew the potential consequences and they weren’t ones Astoria was prepared to face.

That was just another part of life here, but her willingness to go along quietly was part of what allowed Astoria to have the family moment she was having now. Family. Her blood family, or at least the part of it that still cared about including her in these moments. It was a little bigger now, expanded by a boy with his father’s eyes and his mother’s nose and forehead. He would be so handsome. She could only hope that she realized it in intervals rather than as a slow process, but there was only one way to be sure.

“Hello, Nikhael.” She stroked a finger over his cheek, careful to turn it so the worst of her staff calluses wouldn’t touch him. “I’m your aunt Astoria, and you’re beautiful. Nobody tells boys that when they’re older but I’m gonna tell you now. You’re a beautiful young man.”

As soon as she touched his skin, she could feel it. The same resonance she felt when she took the hand of a child to lead them away from the doors and their parents and their life, or when a young man laid his head on her shoulder and wept in fear as she combed his fingers through his hair to comfort him. The same resonance that was absent a week later, replaced with a brand on his forehead and a vacancy in his eyes.

Magic.

It was part of why they’d made the trip. There was no certain way to know if a child was a mage until they came into magic of their own, but mages knew their own. Of course, with no mages living outside the Circle, or at least none who would be willing to come forward to determine the fate of a noble child, the options for finding out when a baby was still young were limited. Most families simply had to wait, but the Trevelyans had Astoria. She’d resisted at first, telling her sister that riding all the way to the Circle while pregnant wouldn’t benefit anyone since she’d never heard tell of anyone being able to feel anything that early, but she knew if she wanted to see her nephew at all that it would be an inevitability. And now they all had their answer.

The thought of keeping it a secret crossed her mind but as soon as it did, she realized she’d already given herself away. A fat drop of water rolled down her cheek, a warm trail over skin that had gone cold as soon as she’d touched his face. She heard her sister gasp, saw her husband moving out of the corner of her eye, but she never took her attention away from Nikhael. His parents had one reality to face now but it was one Astoria was already living and had lived for fifteen years. She couldn’t do anything to change his future but she could, she would, do everything in her power to protect him from the worst of it. She would be his shield.  

His face grew blurry as more tears welled up, but Astoria left the sobbing to his mother, instead just letting the tears spill over of their own volition. Nikhael Trevelyan, a beautiful and beloved son and nephew. All the questions could be answered later, delayed as long as possible even if it was just a matter of time. There was no point talking about training or schools now, no value in explaining the process of a Harrowing to a devastated mother. Everything Astoria had to offer now was for him anyway. There was nothing she could say to heal her sister’s heart.

Instead she kissed his forehead, tickled at his chin, freed one arm from his blanket so he could put one impossibly tiny, soft hand around her finger. He’d hold a staff soon enough but for now Nikhael should be allowed to hold whatever he wanted. If only he could remember this later, that there was someone waiting here who loved him and would give him everything she could. He wouldn’t, though, and chances were neither would his parents. This would be a shadow over all his childhood, the knowledge that eventually he’d end up here. Astoria would remember enough for all of them, but not right now. She’d have a lifetime to create that. For now she wanted to hold him in her mind like this as long as she could, memorize him being small and perfect and free.

[ucflibrary]

It’s August already and the summer is almost over. Time really does fly by. June and July were tiny blips on the calendar. It feels like just last week that spring classes were ending and summer classes beginning.

School will be starting up again in a few short weeks. We’ll have a full cohort of students back on campus. The lines for coffee will be never ending and a free parking space will be nowhere to be found. Life will definitely get more exciting.

UCF Libraries faculty and staff suggested a stack of books to help you get back in the mindset for learning. They range from academic subjects to fun fiction to college success tips. Welcome to the 2018-19 academic year!

Click on the link below to see the full list, descriptions, and catalog links for the featured Back-so-School titles suggested by UCF Library employees. These 20 books plus many more are also on display on the 2nd (main) floor of the John C. Hitt Library next to the bank of two elevators.

 A Separate Peace by John Knowles Set at a boys' boarding school in New England during the early years of World War II, A Separate Peace is a harrowing and luminous parable of the dark side of adolescence. Gene is a lonely, introverted intellectual. Phineas is a handsome, taunting, daredevil athlete. What happens between the two friends one summer, like the war itself, banishes the innocence of these boys and their world. Suggested by Larry Cooperman, Research & Information Services, and Meg Scharf, Administration

College Success Guide: top 12 secrets to student success by Karine Blackett and Patricia Weiss College Success Guide is designed to walk college students through steps that are proven to make them successful in college and life. The authors have compiled statistics from both campus and online students, along with student feedback throughout the past three years of college instruction. From that data, they have found "12 keys" make students successful. College is very expensive; these 12 secrets will help college students be better prepared for college and protect their investment. Not only will it help achieve better grades, but it will also teach them valuable skills for life and their career. Suggested by Sandy Avila, Research & Information Services

Dumplin' by Julie Murphy Dubbed “Dumplin’” by her former beauty queen mom, Willowdean has always been at home in her own skin. Her thoughts on having the ultimate bikini body? Put a bikini on your body. With her all-American-beauty best friend, Ellen, by her side, things have always worked . . . until Will takes a job at Harpy’s, the local fast-food joint. There she meets Private School Bo, a hot former jock. Will isn’t surprised to find herself attracted to Bo. But she is surprised when he seems to like her back.  Instead of finding new heights of self-assurance in her relationship with Bo, Will starts to doubt herself. So she sets out to take back her confidence by doing the most horrifying thing she can imagine: entering the Miss Teen Blue Bonnet Pageant—along with several other unlikely candidates—to show the world that she deserves to be up there as much as any twiggy girl does.Along the way, she’ll shock the hell out of Clover City—and maybe herself most of all. Suggested by Megan Haught, Teaching & Engagement/Research & Information Services

Everything All at Once: how to unleash your inner nerd, tap into radical curiosity, and solve any problem by Bill Nye Everyone has an inner nerd just waiting to be awakened by the right passion. In Everything All at Once, Bill Nye will help you find yours. With his call to arms, he wants you to examine every detail of the most difficult problems that look unsolvable—that is, until you find the solution. Bill shows you how to develop critical thinking skills and create change, using his “everything all at once” approach that leaves no stone unturned.  Suggested by Cindy Dancel, Research & Information Services

Everything Belongs to Us by Yoojin Grace Wuertz             This debut novel takes place at the elite Seoul National University in 1970s South Korea during the final years of a repressive regime. The novel follows the fates of two women--Jisun, the daughter of a powerful tycoon, who eschews her privilege to become an underground labor activist in Seoul; and Namin, her best friend from childhood, a brilliant, tireless girl who has grown up with nothing, and whose singular goal is to launch herself and her family out of poverty. Drawn to both of these women is Sunam, a seeming social-climber who is at heart a lost boy struggling to find his place in a cutthroat world. And at the edges of their friendship is Junho, whose ambitions have taken him to new heights in the university's most prestigious social club, called "the circle," and yet who guards a dangerous secret that is tied to his status. Wuertz explores the relationships that bind these students to each other, as well as the private anxieties and desires that drive them to succeed. Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisitions & Collections

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell Being consummate fans of the Simon Snow series helped Cath and her twin sister, Wren, cope as little girls whose mother left them, but now, as they start college but not as roommates, Cath fears she is unready to live without Wren holding her hand--and without her passion for Snow. Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisitions & Collections, and Emma Gisclair, Curriculum Materials Center

Free Speech on Campus by Erwin Chemerinsky and Howard Gillman Hardly a week goes by without another controversy over free speech on college campuses. On one side, there are increased demands to censor hateful, disrespectful, and bullying expression and to ensure an inclusive and nondiscriminatory learning environment. On the other side are traditional free speech advocates who charge that recent demands for censorship coddle students and threaten free inquiry. In this clear and carefully reasoned book, a university chancellor and a law school dean—both constitutional scholars who teach a course in free speech to undergraduates—argue that campuses must provide supportive learning environments for an increasingly diverse student body but can never restrict the expression of ideas. This book provides the background necessary to understanding the importance of free speech on campus and offers clear prescriptions for what colleges can and can’t do when dealing with free speech controversies. Suggested by Richard Harrison, Research & Information Services

How to Survive Without Your Parents' Money: making it from college to the real world by Geoff Martz Offers sound advice to both students and graduates, including tips on resumes, cover letters, and interviews; using job placement centers; alternative job options; and more. Suggested by Sandy Avila, Research & Information Services

Originals: How Non-conformists Move the World by Adam Grant How can we originate new ideas, policies, and practices without risking it all? Using surprising studies and stories spanning business, politics, sports, and entertainment, Grant explores how to recognize a good idea, speak up without getting silenced, build a coalition of allies, choose the right time to act, and manage fear and doubt; how parents and teachers can nurture originality in children; and how leaders can fight groupthink to build cultures that welcome dissent. Suggested by Tina Buck, Acquisitions & Collections

Seven Ways We Lie by Riley Redgate In Seven Ways We Lie, a chance encounter tangles the lives of seven high school students, each resisting the allure of one of the seven deadly sins, and each telling their story from their seven distinct points of view. Riley Redgate’s twisty YA debut effortlessly weaves humor, heartbreak, and redemption into a drama that fans of Jenny Han and Stephanie Perkins will adore. Suggested by Megan Haught, Teaching & Engagement/Research & Information Services

Stephen Florida by Gabe Habash Foxcatcher meets The Art of Fielding, Stephen Florida follows a college wrestler in his senior season, when every practice, every match, is a step closer to greatness and a step further from sanity. Profane, manic, and tipping into the uncanny, it's a story of loneliness, obsession, and the drive to leave a mark. Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisitions & Collections

The Case for Contention: Teaching Controversial Subjects in American Schools by Jonathan Zimmerman and Emily Robertson From the fights about the teaching of evolution to the details of sex education, it may seem like American schools are hotbeds of controversy. But as Jonathan Zimmerman and Emily Robertson show in this insightful book, it is precisely because such topics are so inflammatory outside school walls that they are so commonly avoided within them. And this, they argue, is a tremendous disservice to our students. Armed with a detailed history of the development of American educational policy and norms and a clear philosophical analysis of the value of contention in public discourse, they show that one of the best things American schools should do is face controversial topics dead on, right in their classrooms. Suggested by Richard Harrison, Research & Information Services

 The Gift of Fear: survival signals that protect us from violence by Gavin de Becker Covering all the dangerous situations people typically face -- street crime, domestic abuse, violence in the workplace -- de Becker provides real-life examples and offers specific advice on restraining orders, self-defense, and more. But the key to self-protection, he demonstrates, is learning how to trust -- and act on -- our own intuitions. Suggested by Megan Haught, Teaching & Engagement/Research & Information Services

The Heart Aroused: poetry and the preservation of the soul in corporate America by David Whyte In The Heart Aroused, David Whyte brings his unique perspective as poet and consultant to the workplace, showing readers how fulfilling work can be when they face their fears and follow their dreams. Going beneath the surface concerns about products and profits, organization and order, Whyte addresses the needs of the heart and soul, and the fears and desires that many workers keep hidden. Suggested by Rebecca Hawk, Circulation

 The Idiot by Elif Batuman A portrait of the artist as a young woman. A novel about not just discovering but inventing oneself. The Idiot is a heroic yet self-effacing reckoning with the terror and joy of becoming a person in a world that is as intoxicating as it is disquieting. Batuman's fiction is unguarded against both life's affronts and its beauty--and has at its command the complete range of thinking and feeling which they entail. Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisitions & Collections

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch with Jeffrey Zaslow    When Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, was asked to give such a lecture, he didn't have to imagine it as his last, since he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. But the lecture he gave--"Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams"--wasn't about dying. It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment (because "time is all you have...and you may find one day that you have less than you think"). It was a summation of everything Randy had come to believe. It was about living. Suggested by Renee Montgomery, Teaching & Engagement

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is Spark’s masterpiece, a novel that offers one of twentieth-century English literature’s most iconic and complex characters—a woman at once admirable and sinister, benevolent and conniving. Suggested by Meg Scharf, Administration

Verbal Judo: words for street survival by George J. Thompson This book will help police officers and other contact professionals develop verbal strategies that can transform potentially explosive encounters into positive resolutions. It addresses the most difficult problems of the street encounter where quick thinking and spontaneous verbal response often make the difference between life and death. The author explores all kinds of confrontation rhetoric and offers both a theoretical and practical account of how to handle street situations. The principles and techniques described can be used in practically every verbal encounter. Each chapter includes case studies that give readers practice in developing rhetorical strategies for handling street encounters and dealing with the public. Suggested by Rebecca Hawk, Circulation

We Demand: the university and student protests by Roderick A. Ferguson In We Demand, Roderick A. Ferguson demonstrates that less than fifty years since this pivotal shift in the academy, the university is moving away from “the people” in all their diversity. Today the university is refortifying its commitment to the defense of the status quo off campus and the regulation of students, faculty, and staff on campus. The progressive forms of knowledge that the student-led movements demanded and helped to produce are being attacked on every front. Not only is this a reactionary move against the social advances since the ’60s and ’70s—it is part of the larger threat of anti-intellectualism in the United States.  Suggested by Richard Harrison, Research & Information Services

What the Best College Teachers Do by Ken Bain What makes a great teacher great? Who are the professors students remember long after graduation? The short answer is--it's not what teachers do, it's what they understand. Lesson plans and lecture notes matter less than the special way teachers comprehend the subject and value human learning. Whether historians or physicists, in El Paso or St. Paul, the best teachers know their subjects inside and out--but they also know how to engage and challenge students and to provoke impassioned responses. Most of all, they believe two things fervently: that teaching matters and that students can learn. Suggested by Renee Montgomery, Teaching & Engagement

[theninthmember]

3 chapters into HtN. Thoughts:

1. I was at first super confused as to why Ortus was listed as one of the lyctors in the beginning (in all caps, no less) but it’s become pretty clear that Harrow’s doing some intense Trauma Memory Blocking and is censoring out Gideon’s name with Ortus’s........... which MEANS. the actual list item must be the gideon from the note in the key room!!

2. oh harrow you poor little drowned rat.... I wonder if the sword is actually blistering her hands and making her throw up, or if it’s just part of her trauma response. I’m guessing the second but it’d be wild if it was cursed or possessed or some shit.

3. fucked up that the emperor didn’t give her any face paint... dude that’s YOUR cultist,, that’s literally how she worships YOU.....

4. curious to see if the second person is just a stylistic thing, or if it’s Harrow trying to create distance from herself, or if it’s actually an outside narrator talking to her (gideon my love???). bc whenever we go into her memories (2.0 revised addition) it switches back to third.... intriguing..

5. did Harrow legitimately not complete the lyctor process and fully absorb gideon’s soul, or is this just more of her trauma shit??!! did she fully absorb it but can’t process the fact since she’s memory blocking?? is she actually unable to fully absorb it due to her memory blocking??? i have no clue she’s so fucking unreliable. i love it.

[childofthelotus]

Ryuuta was among the oldest children upon the Zariman who survived the Void Jump accident.

She heard about Rell getting cast out by the other kids because of his difference and got angry with how they were treating him.

She snuck him primarily food but also got him whatever he needed within reason.

Chains of Harrow was NOT a good time for her.

She believed what Rell said about a Man in the Wall despite Lotus saying that it’s just a side effect of the Void. Though she never voices her opinion on the matter.

She was crying by the end of it, and she wished that she did more to help him. A part of her believes that if she stood up for Rell that he might have gotten into the Second Dream and maybe he would still be here.

By being among the older Tenno, Ryuuta was among the first introduced to the Warframes. The results... horrible.

She had somatics installed on her back and arms in an attempt to help her channel her void powers. However, the somatics didn’t aid much at all, instead, leaving her upper body covered in Void burns from the somatics.

Another side effect of the research involves Transference with her Warframes.

Unlike many other Tenno, Ryuuta feels near the full force of the pain her Warframe feels. So when she blows herself up with the Lenz by accident, she feels that pain herself.

The amount of pain she feels after The War Within is less than before because she doesn’t rely on the Somatic Link. However, due to the long time she spent using the link she lost the ability to censor the pain out.

Fortunately for her, she’s got an incredibly high pain tolerance now.

Unlike other Tenno who can handle having a Transference surge four times before they have to extract, Ryuuta can only handle two before she has to extract. 

Though she has no limits on how many times a fellow Tenno can re-energize her Warframe because it is easier on her compared to a surge.

[vileart]

Places Dramaturgy: Romy Nordlinger @ Edfringe 2017

** ROMY NORDLINGER’S PLACES – THE STORY OF THE MOST FAMOUS BROADWAY AND SILENT FILM STAR YOU’VE PROBABLY NEVER HEARD OF - ALLA NAZIMOVA - TO HAVE ITS WORLD PREMIERE AT 59E59 THEATERS as part of EAST OF EDINBURGH BEFORE TRAVELING TO EDINBURGH FRINGE **

NEW YORK, NY (June 13, 2017)

Yonder Window Theatre Company and

Parity Productions are thrilled to announce that writer/performer Romy Nordlinger’s Places is among the selected performances for this year’s East to Edinburgh at 59E59 Theaters. 

At the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Places is playing at the New Town Theatre (Venue 7).

The performance dates are August 3rd -14th and 16th -27th at 5 pm. 

Places will play 6 performances in July before traveling to Edinburgh, Scotland for the 2017 Fringe Festival where it will have 25 performances over the month of August (4th - 27th). 

Places, a tour-de-force one-actor multimedia show, tells the story of Alla Nazimova, the rule-breaking lesbian Broadway and Hollywood legend. From a Jewish immigrant fleeing Tsarist Russia to Hollywood’s first female director and producer, Nazimova was a trailblazer who wouldn’t be silenced. 

What was the inspiration for this performance?

I was performing a short piece that I wrote about Alla Nazimova in a collection of pieces about great actresses from our past who might otherwise be forgotten. I was absolutely awestruck by Nazimova, her character, her harrowing and triumphant story and her amazing accomplishments. 

 She was at one time the highest paid actress in Hollywood’s silent movies and had a Broadway theatre named after her. She was also the first female writer, director and producer in Hollywood.

 A trailblazer who was incredibly outspoken and openly bisexual, her mansion on Sunset Boulevard coined ‘The Garden Of Allah” became the watering hole for the great luminaries of literature and the performing arts such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Greta Garbo and a haven for intellectual liberty and freedom. It also was the setting in which the term the ‘Sewing Circle’ was born; an acronym for her all women’s lesbian gatherings. Where did her story go? 

Why was she virtually erased from the history books and how could we forget such a giant? In writing my solo show about Nazimova, I was determined to set the record straight and to tell her magnificent story. We are all the stories we tell and an artist is only dead when the last person to remember them dies.

Is performance still a good space for the public discussion of ideas? 

To me theatre will always be the most powerful of all medias. The immediacy of being together in one room at one time and sharing our humanness, our stories, is a transformative experience. I’m not saying theatre is always good, but the very act of assembling together and telling our stories live is cathartic. 

Abstract ideas and news are very important of course, but in theatre one is able to feel, to empathize, and most importantly to share the human condition out loud and together. In our increasingly polarizing society, theatre is more important than ever – telling our stories out loud and live.

How did you become interested in making performance?

I am interested in the human condition. I feel less alone when I can express my feelings, and hear other’s feelings expressed. I feel most alive when I write, when I act. This propels me to make performances – the sharing part of it.

Is there any particular approach to the making of the show?

I read everything about Nazimova that I possibly could. Watched her movies, read her journals, looked at her pictures. I isolated quotes that she’d said that particularly struck me, moved me, and made me feel that I understood her.

 In the end, her story is an amalgam of herself and myself. As she was not here to interview, her story is told through the lens of my perspective.

Does the show fit with your usual productions?

I’ve primarily been an actress in my life and in the past six years began writing plays. The productions of the plays I’ve had are vastly different. This story is unique as it is a solo voice and it is multimedia. The characters I am writing about dictate the landscape of the play.

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

I hope the audience feels hope. I hope they feel less alone knowing that others long before them have triumphed over adversity, have spoken their truths, and have found strength even when they’ve been beaten down. I hope they feel jazzed to be alive knowing that every day is a chance to begin anew.

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?

I wanted the audience to see this not as a ‘museum’ piece but a piece that was very relevant today. Nazimova was fighting the things in the 19th century and early 20th century that we are still fighting today, but alone and without a twitter account: sexism, racism, homophobia, ageism. I made sure to juxtapose her life through the lens of her being an all seeing ghost who is able to peer into the life of the 21st century and reflect on the past and present simultaneously.

 As Nazimova says, “By opening our eyes to the past, we are better able to see our present.” I also wanted to include the cinematic look of her life with the multimedia elements of the play. As she was a film star and director and so much of her life was on screen, it was vital to use the same mediums to tell her story – the story and visions that were brushed under the rug because they were so ahead of her time.

Nordlinger’s solo performance reimagines one of the most daring and censored artists of the 20th century who tells it like it was… and still is.

Long before innovative and outspoken performers such as Madonna and Lady Gaga, the world was enamored of Nazimova. 

“Telling Alla Nazimova’s story is relevant now more than ever as we face a new age of civil liberties being under attack, a backlash against women, against the LGBTQ community, and against immigrants. If Nazimova could have faced those kinds of obstacles and still flourished, then it gives me faith that we can do the same,” says director and co-developer Katie McHugh adds, “If we could call the voices of our past to come back and speak to us, Nazimova would be on the top of the list. What is happening now in our world is an opportunity to listen to the predecessors who paved the way for us as we strive for equality. ”

Nazimova was born Adelaide Yakovlevna Leventon, the daughter of an abusive father. Facing persecution for her Jewish heritage and having lived in foster homes, she finally found her true home with the Moscow Art Theatre and Stanislavsky. She adopted the name Alla Nazimova and became a major star in Moscow and Europe before fleeing to America in 1905. Her Broadway premiere in November 1906 was in the title role of Hedda Gabler. Nazimova became a major success and box office draw, helping to launch the careers of Ibsen, Strindberg, and Chekhov as well as inspire the careers of others including Tennessee Williams.

Nazimova was open about her sexual preference, often to the chagrin of the New York entertainment establishment. She ultimately fled to Hollywood where, by 1917, she wielded considerable power and became the highest paid actress there. Not to be beaten by the ‘boys club,’ she formed her own production company—Nazimova Productions—to become the first female producer, director, and writer in Hollywood. Her production of ‘Salome,’ helmed by an all-gay cast, ushered in the birth of art cinema. But the homosexual themes and experimental filmmaking proved too forward for the 1920s, leading her to a reputation as box office poison and to her artistic demise.

At Nazzy’s mansion on 8080 Sunset Boulevard - dubbed the “Garden of Allah” - she hosted parties frequented by such luminaries as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Marlene Dietrich, Dorothy Parker, and Tennessee Williams. There she created her all women’s “sewing circle,” a term she coined to describe her infamous meetings of lesbian and bisexual actresses in Hollywood. Eventually, with the public and studios turning against her, Nazimova had no choice but to turn her Garden Of Allah into hotels and was eventually forced into obscurity. Her contributions to the film industry have since been recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Places is a co-production between Yonder Window Theatre Company and Parity Productions and is made possible in part by the support of Jack Sharkey.

RomyNordlinger (Actor/Playwright) Selected credits: “Edna Hoffman” (VO role) in Florence Foster Jenkins dir. Stephen Frears, WOMG and The Ruthless Spectator (Web Series), Lancelot by Steven Fechter (The Woodsman) of which she is also in pre-production for the feature film & “A Separation”. Co & Guest starring roles on Law & Order CI (Officer Talbor), All My Children, Gotham, One Life To Live, plus numerous indie films. Selected theatre: "Rose"/ Shakespeare's Slave @ Clurman with Resonance Ensemble; Between Here and There @ New Perspectives; The Woman On The Bridge workshop dir. Ludovica Villar-Hauser; January dir Lorca Peress/Multi Stages, R Culture by Cecilia Copeland @ IRT, Stage Struck helmed by Mari Lyn Henry and The Society For The Preservation Of Theatrical History @ Snapple Theatre, The Players Club, Metropolitan Playhouse. Regional credits include Actors Theatre of Louisville, Wilma, Fleetwood Stage, Emelin. Playwriting credits include Liptshick @ FringeNYC , The Feeling Part with LoNyLa & The Playwriting Collective, Broadville @ Manhattan Theatre Source & her solo show Sex and Sealing Wax @ MITF. Romy is also an audiobook narrator and voice-over artist with over 200 titles to her credit as well as numerous international voice-over spots. Romy has also been a theatre-teaching artist for the past 15 years working with underserved communities in every borough of New York City. Member of The League Of Professional Theatre Women. Member of NY Madness, Resonance Theatre Ensemble, Flux Sundays and The Playwrights Gallery. B.F.A University Of Arts. 

Katie McHugh (Director) is a New York-based director, teacher and producer of theatre with an MFA in Directing from The New School for Drama. She is the Founding Director of the Southeastern Teen Shakespeare Company, Co-Founder of the Teen Shakespeare Conservatory at the Actors Movement Studio, and Artistic Director of Yonder Window Theatre Company. Katie is an award-winning director who specializes in devised and experimental theatre. Selected New York directing credits: Euripides’ Medea at the New School for Drama’s New Visions Festival, and The List by Jennifer Tremblay in the New York International Fringe Festival 2012 (Winner of Overall Excellence in a Solo Performance). The List was chosen to perform internationally in the first Mexican Fringe Festival of San Miguel de Allende. After directing her second production in Mexico in February of 2015, Waiting for Goddreau preceded by Shut up Kathleen, Katie was named an Artistic Ambassador of the Mexican Fringe Festival San Miguel. She spent two months last winter in Mexico working on the third annual Fringe Festival as well as co-producing Enemy, an adaptation of Ibsen’s Enemy of the People directed by Emmy award winner, Dorothy Lyman at the San Miguel Playhouse Theatre. Her new theatre company, Yonder Window, made its maiden voyage this year with a multidisciplinary, multi-cultural, bi-lingual international production called The Dream Project, premiering at Muv arte, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Katie is a five-time director for the Writopia World Wide Plays Festival sponsored by David Letterman, as well as a regular guest director with the NYU dramatic writing program. She also runs a program for young actors focused on auditioning for college called the Audition Prep Intensive and is a member of the League of Professional Theatre Women. http://ift.tt/2suSmD6

On Places, Adam Burns is the creative force behind the graphic and video elements. Nick T. Moore is the sound designer and composer. Places is production managed by Tamara Geisler and assistant directed by Jason Beckmann.

Yonder Window Theatre Company is a New York-based theater company focused on platforms for cultural conversations and exchange. Committed to connecting with artists around the world, each production is inspired by a specific culture. Stories are explored through workshops and laboratories, where artists can begin to experiment with their talents and ideas. Upcoming productions:  The House on Poe Street by Fengar Gael, 14th Street Y, October 2017 and The Dream Project, Mexico 2018.

Parity Productions is the theatre company with a dual mission to create new work while ensuring that all its productions are comprised of at least 50% women and transgender directors, designers, and playwrights. The company has several lauded advocacy platforms specifically aimed at creating more opportunities for women and transgender artists. Upcoming productions: Teresa Lotz's She Calls Me Firefly and Gregory Murphy’s Household Words.

The Drama Desk Award-winning 59E59 is dedicated to bringing the best new work from around the country and across the world to premiere in New York. Their annual East to Edinburgh highlights North American companies and productions before they make the journey across the pond in the closest thing to Festival Fringe this side of the Atlantic.

Civil Disobedience is an international producing team and the on-the-ground producers of Places in Edinburgh. With a passion for ensuring that world-class acts find their place in the UK market and internationally, Civil Disobedience brings the finest talent from around the world to global stages, arts festivals, and events.

Places will run at 59E59 Theater (59 East 59th Street, between Park and Madison Avenues) on Friday, July 21st at 8:30 pm; Saturday, July 22nd at 6:30 pm; Sunday, July 23rd at 4:30 pm; Friday, July 28th at 8:30 pm; Saturday, July 29th at 8:30 pm; and Sunday, July 30th at 4:30 pm. 

from the vileblog http://ift.tt/2rZW9oB

[newstwitter-blog]

New Post has been published on News Twitter

New Post has been published on http://www.news-twitter.com/2017/03/16/la-times-books-not-boys-director-bill-condon-on-updating-beauty-and-the-beast-and-the-whole-princessprisoner-deal-3/

La Times: 'Books, not boys': Director Bill Condon on updating 'Beauty and the Beast' and the whole princess/prisoner deal

One of the most cherished musical numbers in a Disney movie centers on a young woman ostracized from her community because she likes to read.

“Look there she goes, that girl is strange no question. Dazed and distracted, can’t you tell?”

This is how we meet one of Disney’s most progressive princesses: Belle, the girl who dared to read. She’s the nonconformist, the outsider, the nerd.

“Never part of any crowd. ’Cause her head’s up on some cloud. No denying she’s a funny girl, that Belle!”

Life in Belle’s poor provincial town, as described in the classic song by the late lyricist Howard Ashman and composer Alan Menken, sounds quite cruel for the bookish heroine.

Not only is Belle labeled a “funny girl,” her inability to fit in is called a “sin.” But despite societal pressure, she reads on. And that passion for education was one of the emotional cornerstones director Bill Condon used to build new plot points and broaden the characters inside the retelling of Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” as a live-action film.

“[Reading] defined Belle in the original movie,” Condon says the day after the film’s Hollywood premiere.

Still energized from the positive audience response at the El Capitan Theatre, the director breaks down how he turned animated fantasy into live action reality.

“Books, not boys. And everything that books represent,” he says. “It’s a double thing for her. There’s an escape into the adventure of books, but it’s also just feeding her imagination, and the zeal for knowledge. That’s something that, I think, is important to a lot of us.”

While the animated film’s townsfolk chided Belle’s interest in education as foolish, the new movie (opening in theaters Thursday) goes one step further — they punish her for it. One particularly harrowing scene shows the locals outraged at the sight of Belle (played by Emma Watson) teaching another girl how to read. They are so enraged by this act that they destroy Belle’s clever clothes washing contraption (in this movie, her father, Maurice, isn’t the only inventor).

“What I’m proud of in our movie is that [Belle’s] also become an activist 25 years later,” Condon says. “That she not only has a private interest in [reading], but she wants to share it and figure out how to help other little girls discover books too.”

No longer does Belle sit solitarily reading to disinterested sheep — “Oh isn’t this amazing” — she’s actively trying to get young women involved.

The ramifications of reading are threaded throughout Condon’s feature. The heavily stocked bookshop that the original Belle frequented in her cartoon town has been swapped out for a more realistic representation of the times. New Belle picks from a minuscule collection of reading material housed in the local church.

“There weren’t bookstores in 1740,” Condon says. “It’s as simple as that. The church would have been the center for learning, and she’s found one priest who connects to her. Everyone else thinks it’s just an absolutely crazy thing that a woman would be interested.” This makes the eventual reveal of the Beast’s expansive castle library even more impressive.

Even LeFou, the lackey to the villainous Gaston, gets an illiteracy gag in his climactic solo during the rowdy tavern performance of “Gaston.” It’s a moment not lost on Josh Gad, the actor behind the joke and father of two little girls.

“Right now, my daughter is learning how to read,” Gad says. “To have this character whose superpower is essentially that she devours books and is an inventor is a great thing to hold up and share with them. She is the hero of the movie. I think that now more than ever we need amazing female role models like that, and I’m thrilled to be a part of a movie that has one at its core.”

“Beauty and the Beast” isn’t Condon’s first musical movie adaptation — he spearheaded the two-time Oscar-winning “Dreamgirls” in 2006. Nor is this his first brush with a devout fan base. He put the “Twilight” saga to bed in “Breaking Dawn” Parts 1 and 2. However, this is the first movie that combines massive fandom with an internationally adored songbook. The director is aware he’s playing with a powerful brand of nostalgia.

Full Coverage ‘Beauty and the Beast’ news, interviews, videos, reviews »

Still, Belle’s rebellious reading wasn’t the only part of Disney’s tale as old as time that was due for a little dusting. With a running time 45 minutes longer than the original, Condon hoped that his “Beauty and the Beast” expansion would answer questions fans may have been carrying with them for years. Some new investigations are arguably easier to answer than others, thanks to a little movie magic.

For example, how were the townsfolk seemingly unaware of the existence of a multistory, magical castle in the woods that (presumably) used to house their governing system? Simple: a magical memory wiping incantation directly tied to the Beast’s curse.

Granted, the larger questions Condon attempts to answer (how did Belle and her father wind up living in a village where they’re complete outsiders, and what happened to Belle’s mother?) are clearly more complicated and will forever change the back story to this Disney staple. But most pressing, according to the director, was expanding the relationship between Belle and the Beast (played by Dan Stevens).

“You’re asking an audience to believe that Emma Watson is falling in love with this big hunk of fur,” Condon says. “So you want to make it absolutely recognizable in human terms.”

That also meant addressing the Stockholm syndrome issues with the classic story’s prisoner/princess relationship. When questioned about the problematic nature of the duo’s courtship, the director immediately lists his leading lady as a champion for this change.

“That’s where having Emma Watson as a partner, as a collaborator, was so crucial,” Condon says. “Because she’ll always know more than I do about this, because she’s leading the life of a strong role model for women in the 21st century.”

In fact, both Stevens and Watson worked with Condon on their dialogue in hopes of refining and reshaping their complicated affair in an attempt to steer it away from victim and kidnapper.

“To me, the crucial line is when they finally connect, and [Beast] says, ‘Could you ever be happy here?’ [Belle] thinks about it and says, ‘Could anybody be happy when they’re not free?’ ”

“She’s not falling in love with him. She understands the terms of what he’s done, she reminds him of it, and he feels ashamed of it,” Condon says. “She very clearly sets up those boundaries. And it’s only when he actually does free her, and long after that, that she kind of lets herself open up to her feelings for him. That scene, which probably has only 10 lines, it’s sort of like haiku. We kept refining, word by word, to make sure that moment, that line, packed a real punch.”

Whether the evolution of Belle and the Beast will alleviate modern minds troubled by the questionable romance remains to be seen, but one thing that took most by surprise was the outing and subsequent backlash at the sexuality of the aforementioned LeFou. After it was announced that LeFou would be Disney’s first gay character, a Henagar, Ala., drive-in theater said it wouldn’t screen the film — specifically citing LeFou’s sexual orientation. Overseas, Disney has decided to pull its Malaysian distribution of the film rather than censor the few minutes of content the country’s film censorship board regarded as unsuitable.

Condon spoke vaguely about the reaction at a press conference in Beverly Hills last week, noting that this too is another expansion of a character for the modern age, “What has this story always been about for 300 years?” he asked. “It’s about looking closer, going deeper, accepting people for who they really are. And in a very Disney way, we are including everybody. I think this movie is for everybody, and on the screen you’ll see everybody. That was important to me, I think, to all of us.”

The backlash has already received plenty of backlash from the rest of the cast. Ian McKellen (who plays Cogsworth) labeled the controversy “rubbish” in an interview with CNN at the New York premiere. And Ewan McGregor (Lumière), at first joking that “there is a lot of gay sex in this cartoon” on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” turned serious when he told Colbert, “He’s a gay character. It’s 2017, for … sake.”

It’s only too perfect that one of the many themes in this timeless fairy tale that doesn’t need updating is the proverbial sentiment: “Don’t judge a book by its cover.”

Condon encourages his audience to look beyond Beast’s intimidating horns or the beautiful filigree of the castle’s magical inhabitants and take in the big picture.

Only then will you realize in the live action opening number that the only children marching into the school are the boys, while the girls are stuck doing the laundry.

More about “Beauty and the Beast” . . .

What happens when you put ‘Beauty and the Beast’ stars at a piano with composer Alan Menken? Disney magic

Review: ‘Beauty and the Beast’ remake is a gilded monument to the more-is-more principle

‘Beauty and the Beast’ won’t be shown in Malaysia after Disney refuses to cut gay scene

Why ‘Beauty and the Beast’ will be the biggest box-office hit of the year so far

From the archives: A ‘Beast’ With Heart — Kenneth Turan’s review of the 1991 animated ‘Beauty and the Beast’

‘Beauty and the Beast’s‘ Alan Menken takes pride in carrying the vision of his songwriting partner Howard Ashman

See the most-read stories in Entertainment this hour »

meredith.woerner@latimes.com

Twitter: @MdellW

ALSO:

Alabama theater will not show ‘Beauty and the Beast’ because of gay story line

Emma Watson tracks her looks from ‘Beauty and the Beast’ press tour using Instagram

Disney, HSN collaborate on ‘Beauty and the Beast’ collection

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La Times: 'Books, not boys': Director Bill Condon on updating 'Beauty and the Beast' and the whole princess/prisoner deal

One of the most cherished musical numbers in a Disney movie centers on a young woman ostracized from her community because she likes to read.

“Look there she goes, that girl is strange no question. Dazed and distracted, can’t you tell?”

This is how we meet one of Disney’s most progressive princesses: Belle, the girl who dared to read. She’s the nonconformist, the outsider, the nerd.

“Never part of any crowd. ’Cause her head’s up on some cloud. No denying she’s a funny girl, that Belle!”

Life in Belle’s poor provincial town, as described in the classic song by the late lyricist Howard Ashman and composer Alan Menken, sounds quite cruel for the bookish heroine.

Not only is Belle labeled a “funny girl,” her inability to fit in is called a “sin.” But despite societal pressure, she reads on. And that passion for education was one of the emotional cornerstones director Bill Condon used to build new plot points and broaden the characters inside the retelling of Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” as a live-action film.

“[Reading] defined Belle in the original movie,” Condon says the day after the film’s Hollywood premiere.

Still energized from the positive audience response at the El Capitan Theatre, the director breaks down how he turned animated fantasy into live action reality.

“Books, not boys. And everything that books represent,” he says. “It’s a double thing for her. There’s an escape into the adventure of books, but it’s also just feeding her imagination, and the zeal for knowledge. That’s something that, I think, is important to a lot of us.”

While the animated film’s townsfolk chided Belle’s interest in education as foolish, the new movie (opening in theaters Thursday) goes one step further — they punish her for it. One particularly harrowing scene shows the locals outraged at the sight of Belle (played by Emma Watson) teaching another girl how to read. They are so enraged by this act that they destroy Belle’s clever clothes washing contraption (in this movie, her father, Maurice, isn’t the only inventor).

“What I’m proud of in our movie is that [Belle’s] also become an activist 25 years later,” Condon says. “That she not only has a private interest in [reading], but she wants to share it and figure out how to help other little girls discover books too.”

No longer does Belle sit solitarily reading to disinterested sheep — “Oh isn’t this amazing” — she’s actively trying to get young women involved.

The ramifications of reading are threaded throughout Condon’s feature. The heavily stocked bookshop that the original Belle frequented in her cartoon town has been swapped out for a more realistic representation of the times. New Belle picks from a minuscule collection of reading material housed in the local church.

“There weren’t bookstores in 1740,” Condon says. “It’s as simple as that. The church would have been the center for learning, and she’s found one priest who connects to her. Everyone else thinks it’s just an absolutely crazy thing that a woman would be interested.” This makes the eventual reveal of the Beast’s expansive castle library even more impressive.

Even LeFou, the lackey to the villainous Gaston, gets an illiteracy gag in his climactic solo during the rowdy tavern performance of “Gaston.” It’s a moment not lost on Josh Gad, the actor behind the joke and father of two little girls.

“Right now, my daughter is learning how to read,” Gad says. “To have this character whose superpower is essentially that she devours books and is an inventor is a great thing to hold up and share with them. She is the hero of the movie. I think that now more than ever we need amazing female role models like that, and I’m thrilled to be a part of a movie that has one at its core.”

“Beauty and the Beast” isn’t Condon’s first musical movie adaptation — he spearheaded the two-time Oscar-winning “Dreamgirls” in 2006. Nor is this his first brush with a devout fan base. He put the “Twilight” saga to bed in “Breaking Dawn” Parts 1 and 2. However, this is the first movie that combines massive fandom with an internationally adored songbook. The director is aware he’s playing with a powerful brand of nostalgia.

Full Coverage ‘Beauty and the Beast’ news, interviews, videos, reviews »

Still, Belle’s rebellious reading wasn’t the only part of Disney’s tale as old as time that was due for a little dusting. With a running time 45 minutes longer than the original, Condon hoped that his “Beauty and the Beast” expansion would answer questions fans may have been carrying with them for years. Some new investigations are arguably easier to answer than others, thanks to a little movie magic.

For example, how were the townsfolk seemingly unaware of the existence of a multistory, magical castle in the woods that (presumably) used to house their governing system? Simple: a magical memory wiping incantation directly tied to the Beast’s curse.

Granted, the larger questions Condon attempts to answer (how did Belle and her father wind up living in a village where they’re complete outsiders, and what happened to Belle’s mother?) are clearly more complicated and will forever change the back story to this Disney staple. But most pressing, according to the director, was expanding the relationship between Belle and the Beast (played by Dan Stevens).

“You’re asking an audience to believe that Emma Watson is falling in love with this big hunk of fur,” Condon says. “So you want to make it absolutely recognizable in human terms.”

That also meant addressing the Stockholm syndrome issues with the classic story’s prisoner/princess relationship. When questioned about the problematic nature of the duo’s courtship, the director immediately lists his leading lady as a champion for this change.

“That’s where having Emma Watson as a partner, as a collaborator, was so crucial,” Condon says. “Because she’ll always know more than I do about this, because she’s leading the life of a strong role model for women in the 21st century.”

In fact, both Stevens and Watson worked with Condon on their dialogue in hopes of refining and reshaping their complicated affair in an attempt to steer it away from victim and kidnapper.

“To me, the crucial line is when they finally connect, and [Beast] says, ‘Could you ever be happy here?’ [Belle] thinks about it and says, ‘Could anybody be happy when they’re not free?’ ”

“She’s not falling in love with him. She understands the terms of what he’s done, she reminds him of it, and he feels ashamed of it,” Condon says. “She very clearly sets up those boundaries. And it’s only when he actually does free her, and long after that, that she kind of lets herself open up to her feelings for him. That scene, which probably has only 10 lines, it’s sort of like haiku. We kept refining, word by word, to make sure that moment, that line, packed a real punch.”

Whether the evolution of Belle and the Beast will alleviate modern minds troubled by the questionable romance remains to be seen, but one thing that took most by surprise was the outing and subsequent backlash at the sexuality of the aforementioned LeFou. After it was announced that LeFou would be Disney’s first gay character, a Henagar, Ala., drive-in theater said it wouldn’t screen the film — specifically citing LeFou’s sexual orientation. Overseas, Disney has decided to pull its Malaysian distribution of the film rather than censor the few minutes of content the country’s film censorship board regarded as unsuitable.

Condon spoke vaguely about the reaction at a press conference in Beverly Hills last week, noting that this too is another expansion of a character for the modern age, “What has this story always been about for 300 years?” he asked. “It’s about looking closer, going deeper, accepting people for who they really are. And in a very Disney way, we are including everybody. I think this movie is for everybody, and on the screen you’ll see everybody. That was important to me, I think, to all of us.”

The backlash has already received plenty of backlash from the rest of the cast. Ian McKellen (who plays Cogsworth) labeled the controversy “rubbish” in an interview with CNN at the New York premiere. And Ewan McGregor (Lumière), at first joking that “there is a lot of gay sex in this cartoon” on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” turned serious when he told Colbert, “He’s a gay character. It’s 2017, for … sake.”

It’s only too perfect that one of the many themes in this timeless fairy tale that doesn’t need updating is the proverbial sentiment: “Don’t judge a book by its cover.”

Condon encourages his audience to look beyond Beast’s intimidating horns or the beautiful filigree of the castle’s magical inhabitants and take in the big picture.

Only then will you realize in the live action opening number that the only children marching into the school are the boys, while the girls are stuck doing the laundry.

More about “Beauty and the Beast” . . .

What happens when you put ‘Beauty and the Beast’ stars at a piano with composer Alan Menken? Disney magic

Review: ‘Beauty and the Beast’ remake is a gilded monument to the more-is-more principle

‘Beauty and the Beast’ won’t be shown in Malaysia after Disney refuses to cut gay scene

Why ‘Beauty and the Beast’ will be the biggest box-office hit of the year so far

From the archives: A ‘Beast’ With Heart — Kenneth Turan’s review of the 1991 animated ‘Beauty and the Beast’

‘Beauty and the Beast’s‘ Alan Menken takes pride in carrying the vision of his songwriting partner Howard Ashman

See the most-read stories in Entertainment this hour »

meredith.woerner@latimes.com

Twitter: @MdellW

ALSO:

Alabama theater will not show ‘Beauty and the Beast’ because of gay story line

Emma Watson tracks her looks from ‘Beauty and the Beast’ press tour using Instagram

Disney, HSN collaborate on ‘Beauty and the Beast’ collection

This post has been harvested from the source link, and News-Twitter has no responsibility on its content. Source link