#i live in abject squalor

[femmeboyhooters]

Why does life ALWAYS have to be shit

[ebongawk]

40! 🫡

40. “One of us is clearly smarter than the other.”

"What are you doing?"

Eddie was crouched down next to the cabinet under the kitchen sink. The Walkman in his ears was blasting delicious guitar licks – thank you so much Kirk Hammett for being a fucking god on the strings – and it was loud enough that he hadn't heard the front door open.

But Chrissy's cheerleader screech was enough to interrupt the beautiful guitar solo in Battery.

Chrissy was standing in the doorway of the kitchen, her eyes wide and terrified as she looked down at the bottles in his hands.

Fuck. She wasn't supposed to be home yet! She ruined her own fucking surprise!

Like, okay. So he and Chrissy had been dating for all of, like, two months when her mother found out. And living in the Cunningham home post-major freakout had been a soul-sucking ordeal for his tiny, badass little girlfriend. When it became clear that, no matter what that walking hemorrhoid of a woman had to say, Laura Cunningham could not convince Chrissy to break up with Eddie, she'd kicked her out.

She'd literally kicked her own daughter out for her dating life.

What an absolute cunt. (And Eddie did not use that term lightly.)

Of course she was gonna move into the trailer. Neither Eddie nor Wayne would have allowed her to get put up somewhere that wasn't gonna take care of her. They weren't insane.

The only problem being that their beautiful Forest Hills home had been housing two half-feral bachelors for the past twelve years. It wasn't, as realtors might say, move-in ready.

Too fucking bad that Eddie didn't realize the actual state of their unintentional and overlooked squalor until beautiful, squeaky clean and shiny Chrissy was sitting in the '70s-style bungalow living room.

Okay. Okay. Benefit of the doubt, he and Wayne were tidy. Like, whatever, there were a few stray food wrappers littering the floor and the trash was about three days overdue for a haul to the dumpster and maybe his bedroom was more beer cans and cigarette butts than it was fresh linens. But, whatever. It looked clean.

And then Eddie really looked. He really saw the rust and mildew stains in the tub and stains on the carpet that gave it kind of a grimy feel and the walls he and Wayne had kind of dyed yellow due to indoor cigarette smoke.

So, after waiting three weeks for Chrissy to actually make all-day plans with someone that wasn't him, Eddie decided to take advantage of the empty house and fucking clean.

Based purely on hazy memories of what to use from when his mother was alive, of course.

However, Chrissy's abject terror and screamed exclamation at his actions had him second-guessing his existence for a second there.

"Uh," he said, using one rubber glove-clad hand to yank the headphones from his ears. "Cleaning?"

Chrissy blinked. "Cleaning?" The pure disbelief in her tone stung a little. Like. Okay. So he wasn't the most kempt boy in town. No need to be fucking rude about it, sunshine.

"Yeah?" He looked down at the plastic bucket he'd unearthed from under a pile of Wayne's Nam blues. Who fucking knew how long it'd been hiding back there. "That alright with you?"

"You're gonna clean with that?" she verified, pointing at the open bottle in his hand. The one he was about to dump intoaforementioned bucket.

"Yeah?"

"Eddie. Is there something already in the bucket?"

Clear liquid winked up at him, little specs of dust floating around in it. Because he'd rinsed the bucket, of-fucking-course, but, like, not all that well.

"I don't see what that has to do with the conversation," he replied after a second, feeling somehow like a kid who'd been caught about to stick a fork in a live socket.

"Eddie."

"Chrissy."

"Is there bleach in that bucket?"

She looked pointedly down at the already opened gallon of bleach next to the bucket.

"Mmmmaybe?" he squeaked, looking down beneath his knees. "I was going to clean the floors. I thought it'd be okay to put bleach on the tile since, y'know, I have no idea what color they're supposed to be, anyway."

Chrissy hummed. "And, um, were you going to mix that in with the bleach?" She gestured again to the bottle in his hand. Eddie looked down at it, still taken aback.

"I mean." He shrugged. "I, uh, remember my mom using vinegar a lot when she cleaned."

At that, her eyes softened. She let out a little huff of laughter before crouching down next to him, gently easing the vinegar from his grasp. He let it go willingly, still so, so confused.

"Eddie," she sighed, tangling their fingers together and bringing his knuckles up to brush her lips against. "What do you get when you mix bleach and vinegar?"

"A very powerful cleaning ingredient." Though his confidence was definitely waning at this point.

She let out an adorable little giggle.

"Chlorine, Eddie. You get chlorine."

Oh.

Well. That would've been objectively hilarious, actually.

"So I'm right," he verified, eyebrows raised. "It's a very powerful cleaning ingredient."

"Oh my God."

"Y'know," he continued, gesturing between them with his occupied hand. “One of us is clearly smarter than the other.” He winked, pointing at himself and mouthing 'me' at her.

She laughed, rolling her eyes and standing. Pulling him to his feet by their clasped hands, she took in his ratty old t-shirt and sweatpants with interest.

"What's with the sudden cleaning bug, anyway?"

Bashful, Eddie gave another little shrug, half-turning away under the guise of surveying the trailer around them.

"I just, uh. Just–– y'know, wanted you to, like, want to be here and shit. And if getting my hands a little dirty to make you feel more comfortable is what it takes, then––"

"Did I do something that made you think I don't want to be here?" she asked, her voice soft and timid all of the sudden. Taking on that expression that meant she was about three-point-seven seconds away from a thought spiral.

"No, sweetness, no," Eddie assured her, taking her free hand in his and pulling her close. "I just wanted to, like, do something nice. Make this place feel more like a home and not, uh. A tobacco-infused pig sty."

Chrissy relaxed against him, her ear at the perfect height to hear the gentle thumping of his heart in his chest.

The one that beat just for her.

"You don't have to do that for me."

"I want to," he stressed, maneuvering her until he could press his lips to her forehead. "And I was waiting for you to be gone to do it."

"Nancy and Robin are outside. I just forgot my wallet."

"Skedaddle then!" He let go of her hands, grabbing her wallet off the counter and shoving it into her arms. She let out a bewildered squeak as he shuffled her toward the door. "Out with ye! I've got a witch's brew to make! A solvent to make the walls shine!"

"Don't––" She gasped in delight when he swooped down for another goodbye kiss. Then another. And a third as he struggled to unlatch the door. "Don't mix bleach and vinegar!"

Door opened, a quick wave to Robin and Nancy as he said, "No promises!"

"Eddie!"

"Love you, sweetness! Have fun!"

"If I come home and you're dead I'm gonna kill you!"

ask meme

[blood-starved-beast]

hi hello just came here to say that i *really* enjoyed your musings on lady maria, you just analyse her in such a realistic scrupulous way it's very delectable♡

Thanks! I'll admit my interpretations are a bit atypical to what the fandom usually sees of her ( I mean, I have discussions on other platforms about this). But I just, as someone who has worked in Research involving animals that ultimately have to be put down for science, how the narrative presents Maria is very damning.

We first learn of Maria from the patients at the Research Hall, not having known of her beforehand other than vaguely alluded to via the Doll and the Hunter's Bone. The patients who are medically/scientifically tortured, dissected/vivisected, are living in abject squalor, are being turned into giant heads and are literally losing their minds, and their bodies dumped to rot as fertilizer in the gardens (for the flowers Maria loves I might add) once they no longer serve their purpose. And yet, they love her. These people tortured and denied any form of humanity cling to her like she were a Saint, like the Virgin Mary even, despite her not actually doing anything to improve or prevent the situation.

That is a very powerful first impression - that Maria cared enough about these subjects to give them kindness enough that they automatically cling to her yet lacks the absolute empathy to actually, you know, not experiment on them. That mentality is necessary when working with research animals, but these are people. And that initial impression is not something I can easily overlook regardless of what her actual aim was with the laboratory. This impression is heighten if you take the popular fan interpretation that Maria had some affection for Saint Adeline. Like, oh boy.

What that leaves me to interpret then, is that Maria at best someone of compromised morals, at worst someone who is somewhat two-faced. To assail her failing morals, her kindness is meant to be more self-gratifying, to "prove" to herself that she is a better person than she actually is. It is, in part, a performance cause at the very least it is not reality. There is delusion there but unlike some male Bloodborne simps on reddit it's cause she's deluding herself at the very least, or at most she is doing enough to give the impression she is helping somewhat. You know, like those rich fucks who hand out water bottles during a crisis and then go "that's enough philanthropy for one day :)" while being in a position of power to do actual meaningful change and doing nothing. Or that even if she is an awful person, there are people who are worst than her out there. And maybe that's enough.

I do think she gets to a point that she realizes it though. How fucked up she is/what she's done. That in part of is ultimately what kills her, that and the ultimate futility of her actions, how she slowly chipped and chipped away whatever person she was when she started to ultimately become the monster of her own creation. No better than the Vileblood family she rejected at first (if not worse than them in some respects). But instead of doing anything more meaningful about that Heel Realization she kills herself, dooming herself to being constantly minded that amongst all the Living Failures, she herself reigns Supreme.

[eustochium]

whenever i am at my bf’s apartment i am like a 50s housewife on amphetamines cooking elaborate dinners relentlessly cleaning etc so he finds it baffling that in my own home i live in abject wretched squalor. and i’m like. You Truly Do Not Understand

[dirt-grub]

Can’t wait for my parents to one day find my stash of empty pill bottles and think I’m an opioid addict like my mom when really they’re very useful for carrying small amounts of metal rings or beads around for small projects

[eusuchia]

one of many things that bothers me about the average understanding of 20th century china is that people seem to find it impossible to conceive of the idea that the revolution happened for any real reason. this romantic idea of ~traditional china~ as a land of riches and scholarship and high culture only existed for a handful of people (not a phenomenon unique to china though, obviously). the vast majority of people in china were rural peasants (even now, rural pop is ~45%) living in absolutely intolerable poverty in a cruel, misogynistic, exploitative society and most being bled to death by extortionist landlords, some literally selling family to get by.

the idea that tens of millions of people living in, at the time, some of the worst poverty in the world would a) represent an actual society-changing force, if organized, and b) get on board with a complete overhaul of society just doesn't seem to register. funny how that happens!

I think more often than not stuff like the cultural revolution and great leap forward are talked about as though it was all cruelty for cruelty's sake and not as though it was the continuation of a long project through which people felt that they had a lot to gain. and they DID. when do you think the huge public infrastructure projects in china started being built? do you know how many people starved to death every year BEFORE land reform and collectivization (and how normalized it was)? how many peasants were able to access the bare bones of a childhood education, let alone go on to become university graduates and scholars, like mobo gao or dongping han?

before the midcentury, rural towns were trapped in impoverishment and underproduction not just because they were literally being worked and starved to death, but because the capital to, for e.g. make basic improvements to local wells and irrigation or any kind of public project simply didnt exist. even the richest town officials were living in what their contemporaries in europe would consider pathetic squalor. E.P. thompson in his work on 18th C england mentions how the abject poverty of the chinese peasant was widely known and used as rhetorical fodder even by english peasants toiling at the same time.

no matter what you think of china's trajectory now or then (and if you read this as blanket support for china, lmao), it wasn't all for nothing, or god forbid some kind of ego stoking project because you can only conceive of politics occuring at the level of heads of state. it was millions of the poorest people in asia remaking society and seeing their country become one of the world's top economies. that is just a fact. if you don't understand that, then you can't understand the first fucking thing about modern china or its historical relationship with other (especially the impoverished) countries of the world.

[linkspooky]

Can I Be a Hero?

Shigaraki and Hawks are two children who started with the exact same dream, to become a hero only to take completely opposite paths in life. One raised from childhood to be a hero by the hero association, and the other raised by AFO to become a villain. 

These two characters are written in parallel, as intentional hero-villain foils. They’re destined to meet in canon one day and just keep barely missing one another so until then let’s explore more of their relationship under the cut.

1. The Same

First, there are several similarities in both their characters and their origins. 

They both come from abusive households. In Hawks’ case it’s only implied but, one he lives in trash and squalor with a beer bottle in the background. The dysfucntion in Hawks’ household life from an early age is obvious, to the point where having his life uprooted by the hero commission is considered a privilege because they promised to pay for everything. 

Shigaraki came from what seemed on the surface to be a healthy household. His father was a succesful businessman, the family owned the house, even the in-laws were happily invited to live in the house. Hawks is implied to have grown up in isolation, whereas Shigaraki grew up surrounded by people. However, Tenko suffered from a quieter, and subtler more insidious form of domestic abuse where he was the scapegoated child of an otherwise “Happy home.” Tenko was treated as the problem child and made constantly to feel bad for suffering his father’s abuse like he provoked it by breaking the rules. 

They both were born into a sort of lineage. Hawks is most likely related to the Great Theif Takami who Endeavor captured, and Shigaraki is the grandson of Nana Shimura. 

They’re both adversely affected by the circumstances they were born into. Hawks’ household was probably in that condition because his father was a villain, or his father was captured and he was living on his own. Shigaraki was targeted by AFO because he was Nana’s descendant, and Kotaro carried his feelings of Nana’s abandonment with him for life and this eventually turned him into Tenko’s abuser. 

They both have an event that sets them on their life course.

Tenko’s quirk activates on accident killing his whole family. 

Tenko sees a truck accident and uses his quirk to save several people. 

As a result of these incidents they are “saved” from their abusive households. It’s important to notice the difference, Hawks conforms by being offered a chance at education and a better life if he decides to become a hero. However, Shigaraki destroyed the household that demanded conformity from him in the first place. He becomes outcasted as a result to the point where nobody even notices him suffering on the street. 

They’re both saved by predatory people who take their original names away:

Takami’s name is suppressed and he’s given a hero name instead. He’s literally renamed as a hero.

Tenko is renamed with AFO’s last name. He’s literally renamed as a villain. 

On a third note they are both children who you would never look for if they went missing: Hawks was poor, Tenko was literally neglected in the middle of the street in broad daylight allowing AFO to kidnap him. 

That’s even literally brought up by All Might and Gran Torino. If they had ignored Nana’s request, and actually monitored her child Kotaro and his family then Shigaraki never would have happened. 

They’re both defined by their quirk, to the extent that their whole lives have been defined by it. 

Shigaraki was born with a quirk suited for destruction, and this is what several characters insist that’s all he’s capable of. Shigaraki is then raised to be a symbol of fear who lusts only for destruction. 

Hawks was called a genius for his quirk, and raised as a prodigy hero. His quirk is ideally suited for saving people and he’s done so his entire life. His own wish was to become a shining light that inspires everyone the same way Endeavor inspired him. 

This is where they start to diverge. There’s more details I could go on about with all the differences, but I’ll summarize it like this. They present themselves as literal opposites. That is, the character they show to others. Their image. Etc. 

Shigaraki is regarded by everyone he meets as a man child. He has visible scarring on his face that he hides. He’s frank and honest, and always tells everyone exactly how he’s feeling. 

Hawks’ thing is being “The Man who goes too fast.” If Shigaraki never grew up, then Hawks grew up far too fast. Hawks is deceiptful, never shows his true face even though he doesn’t wear a mask. He’s considered traditionally attractive, does modeling, and is extremely popular and well liked. 

2. But Different

If there’s one way to summarize the main difference between Hawks and Shigaraki it’s this. Shigaraki externalizes everything, every feeling, every little bit of trauma he has, instead of holding it all inside of him he pushes everything out. Hawks internalizes he has a rich inner world, but everything on the surface is vapid, it’s shallow, it’s just a performance for him. All of his trauma is inside of him, and he keeps it there. His real self is hidden somewhere in a cage deep within. 

The reason they rely on these different strategies of expression is entirely to do with how they were raised. Hawks was raised inside of the system, and was taught confromity. Shigaraki was raised outside of the system. He was taught the exact opposite, to never conform to anybody’s standards. 

They both grew up inside of an assigned role. Shigaraki was told it was his job to destroy whatever he likes, Hawks was told it was his job to save people. However, Hawks is not a better person, or a better victim than Shigaraki. Interanlization is just as bad of a coping strategy as externalization, and just as unhealthy. They are both characters who are barely coping with a lifetime worth of the trauma as being raised as literal child soldiers and exposed to so much violence a young age they’re both desensitized and numb to it. They’re hurting all the time, but also they’re numb. 

They’re so similiar down to the fact that they both have the same internal desire. Shigaraki longs to be free from all of his trauma, and Hawks longs to be free from the weight of his responsibility, but it’s still the same longing. 

But they are different. 

It would be easy to say that Hawks is the more selfless character because he devotes himself to saving others, whereas Shigaraki is the more selfish because he lashes out at the world from his trauma. However, there’s no such thing as a perfectly selfless person. Hawks is capable of shockingly great feats of selfishness. Shigaraki is someone who can be selfless and do things for other people. 

Hawks will go out of his way to destroy people too, just like Shigaraki.  Hawks will destroy his own friends. 

There’s a marked difference in the way Hawks and Shigaraki both treat Twice, someone who is a victim with many things in common with the both of them. Twice is someone who did not get saved and fell through the cracks like Shigaraki. Twice is someone who grew up in abject poverty and had to rely on his quirk to survive like Hawks. 

Twice is constantly more of a burden to the league than an asset. He’s the reason Magne died, because his too trusting nature had him invite someone like Chisaki without knowing the risk. A normal villain would throw Twice out for his incompetent mistake, but instead he’s comforted. 

Shigaraki says the two of them can work together to fix his mistake. Instead of being thrown out, he’s told he’s needed. He’s asked to stay together with the league for everyone’s sake. Twice at this point is still too traumatized to use his quirk properly. Afterwards, he fails even to duplicate Chisaki’s special bullets. However, Twice has value to the league no matter what his quirk can do. He’s valued as a person. 

He’s humanized, both by Shigaraki’s and Toga’s actions together. 

However, Hawks reacts differently. He dehumanizes the people who need his saving the most. When he’s at his most vulnerable, Hawks corners him and rutlessly mocks him. 

Look at the opposite way they show their faces. Shigaraki shows his full face for the first time to Twice when Twice, whereas when Hawks reveals his true intentions his face is almost completely obscured. 

Hawks dehuamnizes twice in two regards. One, he insists that Twice conform to his black and white standards. Hawks divides people into good people worthy of saving and bad people who are not. Every member of the league is a victim like Twice. However, Hawks only considers one of them a good person, and one of them is worth saving. Even when Twice says they’re all his friends, Hawks demands Twice betray all of them for the sake of himself. Of course Hawks would, Hawks doesn’t even know what it means to have friends. 

The second way Twice is dehumanized is that Hawks only sees him as the potential damage his quirk can do. Twice is not a three dimmensional person, with reasons for what he’s doing, thoughts, and feelings. Hawks only sees him as a time bomb about to go off. This also relates how Hawks sees people in general, he always, always, always strips them down to their worth to him. Endeavor is someone he can position to be the next number one hero. Twice is someone to use to get closer to the league, and then destroy because he’s too trusting. Hawks only got close to Tokoyami because he wanted information about Class A, even though he did grow a little bit more fond of him. 

Twice makes mistakes over and over again for the league, but he’s never thrown out. Even when Twice is the reason the raid is happening, Dabi rushes as fast as he can to save him, Toga almost loses herself avenging him. Twice’s life had value. 

Except to Hawks. 

Here we strike upon the difference between them and it’s almost entirely in how they treat the people closest between them. They’ve been raised all of their lives as tools, but Shigaraki doesn’t treat other people as tools. Shigaraki accepts people and gives them shelter, Hawks throws them out. 

Shigaraki also used to be like this. He used to throw away all the recruits that AFO gave him and waste them on stunts like the UA Invasion. However, it’s something he grew past.

Which is one more difference between them. Shigaraki has this great capacity for change that Hawks has not shown us so far. They both long to be free, but Shigaraki is the only one of the two of them that actually fights against something for that freedom. 

Shigaraki will always choose to make his own decisions, to be his own person. 

However, Hawks is given that same choice and chooses the opposite. He wants his decisions made for him. He wants to remain inside the cage because it’s safer there. 

It’s not just that though - it also extends to how they treat other people. Shigaraki liberates those he interacts with. Twice, Himiko, Dabi, Magne, Spinner, Mr. Compress (whatever his issues are) are all given a place of belonging within the league. 

However, Hawks will take away the freedom of other people too. He does so to Twice. He possibly did so to Best Jeanist. He pushes others to conformity, believing that is what saves them because it saved him. 

Utlimately what’s different about them is the choices they make despite their circumstances. Hawks was given a choice to be free. He’s given the oppurtunity to get better but doesn’t. Every time Shigaraki fails he learns from his lesson. Shigaraki is rising up, and Hawks is spiraling downward entirely because of the choices they made. Shigaraki has friends, Hawks has none. (Because he murdered the only real friend he did have). 

That’s not to judge on whether they’re good or bad people. It’s just the direction their arcs are taking them. Shigaraki has always been on a self improvement kick, getting better with every failure. Hawks tragically is consumed by his failures and gets worse and worse, hence why there are so many references to Icarus in his character. 

It’s been built up for a long time now that Hawks is going to meet Shigaraki at some point. In fact his desire to meet Shigaraki is what caused the hero raid on the PLF in the first place. 

Those two are destined to meet in a Javert / Jean Valjean fashion. However, the question is what will Shigaraki do now? Hawks is someone who at least had a chance of Shigaraki sympathizing with him before because Shiga takes in all kinds of strays. However, now with Hawks chosen action to kill Twice who genuinely sympathized with him - he must have murdered off any chance of that.

Either way the two have so much in common that they have to meet. At which point Hawks’ fate will be left in Shigaraki’s hands. It’s likely even if Hawks is to be saved, it will be Shigaraki’s job to do it, because Shigaraki is the character with the most in common with him. 

Either way their meeting has been building for a long time, and when they do finally meet something will change about both of them. That’s how integral both of their parallel stories are about one another. 

[skywardsister]

Deltarune Fanfic- Just Cosmetic

“It’s just… no good,” drifted the voice of a figure sulking down one of the few shadowed alleyways in Cyber City. Once the figure reached an old dumpster, they set down a duffel bag from their shoulder and knelt over it, unzipping it and fishing around inside with both hands. There was a series of small clinks and clacks before the figure produced handfuls of palm-sized, plastic trays and jars; carefully, the figure lifted the dumpster lid with one hand to deposit their trash.

“YEOWCH!” Something within the dumpster yelped and banged against the metal interior causing quite the ruckus. “Occupied! No longer accepting donations! Go find some other five-star resort to unload your baggage!”  

The grimy dumpster lid flipped up all the way to reveal a squat, greasy man wearing a tattered suit jacket, pink and yellow spectacles, and a deep scowl which revealed a set of bulky teeth. A torn candy wrapper stuck to his tarry hair but he didn’t seem to notice. He shot a glare as dirty as his home at the offender- they were clearly another Addison of a muted yellow hue.

“Here,” the short man gave a mighty harumph, air puffing from his pronounced nose. He momentarily disappeared before popping back up with an armful of the uninvited guest’s discarded belongings. He rested his forearms on the lip of the dumpster and briefly assessed the items. The trays and pots were full of colorful creams and powders that shimmered in the right light, all untouched and probably unopened. “I dunno why you’d wanna waste all this quality merchandise-”

“It’s junk,” the yellow figure interrupted. Their smooth voice quivered barely before hardening. “Nobody wants my services, so they’re completely worthless.”

With a thoughtful expression, the dumpster-occupant stuck out a hand towards the stranger before him.

“Spamton G. Spamton,” stated the grungy man. “You seem to be in a real dill, so I’ll slice you a deal.”

The yellow Addison stared at Spamton’s petite hand reluctantly, then his face. A deal from someone living in abject squalor seemed counterproductive to put it nicely, but they weren’t sure where he was going with this.

“Marigold,” answered the Ad hesitantly. “And you can have the makeup- seriously, just take it.”

“Hey, wait!” Spamton shouted as Marigold moved to leave. The impish man had practically flipped himself out of the dumpster onto the ground. “What’s a guy gotta do around here to get a little spit-shine, huh? I can’t apply-directly-to-the-forehead if I don’t have the skills!”

At this point, the tiny businessman climbed out of his home with difficulty, dropping the cosmetic cases onto the ground before he followed them. He plopped himself down and arranged the items in odd groups, picking each one up and squinting at its label before placing it in a seemingly arbitrary spot.

“Give me a new face and I’ll test drive it around town,” Spamton removed his glasses and flashed a cooky smile that reminded Marigold of an old car commercial mixed with a toddler on picture day. His grin was awkwardly wide, the corners of his mouth taut into pinched dimples, and deep grey bags accentuated the tiredness in his eyes. It was possible Spamton hadn’t touched clean water in ages, let alone soap. Perhaps a minor makeover wouldn’t hurt.

Marigold sighed and fully turned around to really take a good look at the businessman before strolling over and kneeling down across from him. Up close, the man stunk mildly like moldy fabric seat-covers. The odor lightly wrinkled Marigold’s nose but they didn’t allow it to repel them. The makeup artist quirked their lips to one side and rolled up their sleeves to their elbows before officially getting to work.

Spamton’s white skin was a simple color to match so hiding those eyebags was a cinch for Marigold, although it wasn’t like the businessman needed to look more alert than he already was. With that wide grin and his zany mannerisms, Spamton was as wired as a circuit board. The soft sensation of the brush against his skin ensured he remained still, though; he appeared almost transfixed by the feeling, barely twitching as the bristles glided back and forth. Soon, Marigold retired their first brush and opted for a new one with a differently shaped head, dipping into more vibrant pigments.

“I’ll need you to shut your eyes now,” instructed the yellow Addison, to which their customer promptly did. Marigold started with the right eye, lightly coating the closed top lid with a bright pink shade similar to that of one of his glasses lenses. When half of the eyelid was sufficiently filled in, Marigold moved to the other side of Spamton’s face to do the same on his left. Once that was complete, the artist abandoned that brush for a third one, finishing off each eyelid with a shining gold in each inner corner and lining both lids with black gel liner. They took a moment to assess their work- it was all coming together considerably well.

“Well, do I look like a big shot yet?” Spamton quipped, finally opening his eyes once Marigold gave him permission.

“I’m not sure what your definition of a “big shot” is, but I’d say you’re shaping up,” replied Marigold with an even smile. “Just a couple more finishing touches and you’ll be ready.”

Spamton clapped his little hands together in excitement, adjusted his sitting position slightly and got back to staying still to allow the artist to finalize his new look. Marigold patted the man’s closed eyelids with a powdery, soft, circular pad before wiping off any lingering, excess powder afterwards. A few clumps of the dry, white substance landed on Spamton’s suit jacket which the makeup artist also swept off thoroughly with their palms.

Just like that, Marigold capped the open products they’d utilized for the job, unfolded a compact mirror and handed it to their customer tentatively.

“Hochi mama,” Spamton exclaimed with widened eyes, turning this way and that to observe himself in his reflection. He wiggled his eyebrows. “If looks could kill! I’ve never looked so premium before!” The salesman flashed a gleeful grin at himself and then at Marigold, who handed him a couple of sealed makeup remover pads and instructed him to use them later whenever he was ready.

“Keep your merchandise,” Spamton clamped the mirror shut and put it in Marigold’s hand. “You’re gonna need it after I parade this mug around! Come on, I’ve got a couple of old buddies I wanna make jealous,” Spamton hopped up and waved Marigold to follow him. The makeup artist packed away their cosmetics in pairs and hoisted their duffel bag back onto their shoulder.

“If you say so,” Marigold chuckled as Spamton tottled down the alley ahead of them.

Spamton and Deltarune are property of Toby Fox, Marigold and the story are mine (please don’t use my work without my permission- thanks!)

[mandareeboo]

Do you think Lilith ever thinks about that? Eda dying before her I mean. Like, she may not have showed it in the show but I bet there was a part of her that was afraid Eda would die before she could cure her and her sisters death would end up being caused by her.

Oh, definitely. Lilith is very clearly someone who takes everything to heart. She shows multiple times in season one that she's under the impression that she has to "save" Eda by having her join the Coven, that Eda is living in abject squalor without her. She has a savior complex. It's just how she's coped with the whole thing.

It's been awhile since Lilith and Eda saw each other pre-season one. We don't know how long, but you can assume it's been awhile. Lilith mentions how Eda's face "surprised her". She personally reminds Eda that the curse turned her hair white. She "jokes" about her hip breaking while they search for the flower. Eda's appearance is something Lilith thinks and comments on often.

Lilith went off to do Emperor's Coven things, came back, and there was Eda- her little, spunky sister- covered in wrinkles and arthritis and her hair, wild and bright as she was, has faded to time, and she has to face that every time they come in contact with each other. And now they’re likely going to be living together.

[jinglyjangly]

it rly is wild how anti-civilisation bethesda is in fallout. like its been 210 years and everyones still living in shit cities, just barely cowering for their lives and nothing else. there havent even been ATTEMPTS to retake the rest of boston, the people are just content with living in abject squalor!

Maybe boston would just be Like That?

I kinda want to play fo76 just to explore the map, but man i just...dont like MMO... also the lore is so wonky? I hear good things about ESO so maybe one day fo76 will be good in like...5 years

[mikeo56]

Florida Department of Health

Months ago, an employee of Weichert Realty located at 601 Del Prado asked me to work on a residential property they manage at 4442 Ruthann Ct. I live on Ruthann Court next to this property. I had to roach-bomb this property for two days and toss the fridge there in the garbage before I could work inside. The severe problems I found at 4442 are, One, there was no air conditioning or heating in the master bedroom or master bathroom. Two, the guest bathroom steel tub was rusted out at the bottom and was sitting in its own leaked dirty water such that this water squirted into the tub if someone used the tub. Three, the septic/field system would back up and flow into the front yard during a rain. I have lived next to this unit, no more than 100’ from its front yard for about ten years and have seen contractors digging out this area several times in the last several years. I have smelled the septic overflow from my home on occasion also. Weichert management has known of this for years. I also sent them a report describing the leak in August of 2019; a copy of my report to Weichert is attached. It is dismaying that any property management company would allow their tenants and their tenant’s children to play in human waste for year after year, family after family, possibly contract after contract.

 I would add something to the report of August of 2019 concerning the property at 4442 Ruthann Court. The roof plywood is rotting at the eaves and eventually this decay could weaken the structural integrity of the roof. The fungus causing the plywood decay could affect the trusses where the trusses rest on the exterior walls adjacent to the rotten eaves.

 I am aware that recently 4442 has been given a new field system and that the Florida Department of Health was involved. Again, I did send Weichert a report in August of 2019, detailing that there was a very large ejection of septic water into the front yard. And, again I believe that Weichert management had to have already known about the sewage leak for years, considering the number of contractors that dug around in that same spot I identified the sewage source.

 Considering the letter I wrote to Fort Myers News Press concerning the corruption of Lee County Code Enforcement (a copy is attached) and that I state unequivocally, that my previous landlord following the printing of my letter claimed a Lee County Code Enforcement Officer threatened him if he did not evict me, I would suggest that a close association between Weichert and Lee County Code Enforcement would indicate that the property 4442 Ruthann Court managed by Weichert Realty might be one of many properties that Weichert is allowing to rot while accepting tenant’s rental payments.

@@@@@

Report to Weichert August 2019

Re:4442 Ruthann Court

To: Weichert Reality and Property Owner

From: Michael H O’Neal

Concerns

1)    AC system: The added bedroom and bathroom (where the middle carport was) receive less than adequate air flow. The compressor and air handler are good but the ductwork is the original duct-board and it was installed with little concern for efficiency. Flex duct was added to this old ductwork to supply the added bedroom and bathroom.

I rerouted the bedroom duct and removed the kinks from it, also I spread existing blown insulation over an area about 5’x5’ above the bedroom where the drywall was left bare and uninsulated. It improved the flow somewhat and the bedroom does cool better. However, if the problem still exists A) the bedroom flex should be attached to the end of the main trunk. B) The bathroom flex is too short, taught, kinked and is not connected at the main trunk and should be lengthened, unkinked and reattached. C) If these two things are fixed and the cooling inadequacy still exists, the only other modification I’d suggest is adding a return in the bedroom placed across the room from the supply and near the closet; use 4” flex and connect the flex to the intake side of the plenum. The room would cycle more frequently.

2)    Roof shingles, roof plywood, fascia board, soffit and gutter: Gutters would be great for the tenant along the front entry and above the rear lanais and over the living room closet slab projection beyond the footer. During rain the runoff at the rear lanai makes the lanai space almost unusable from dirty spatter created by run off. Gutters, however can’t be installed in the front until the rotted fascia board is replaced. The roof plywood is also rotted in a couple of places above the front eaves along with the soffit below it. I was in the attic repeatedly and saw no indication of any water stain or rot in the roof plywood or trusses. The roof plywood rot, was as far as I could tell only in two places in the front and over the soffit. Often, as shingles begin to fail there is roof rot at this spot as the drip edge is no longer mated securely with the membrane and, water gets under it, leaks develop and rot begins and what you have here is the result. It will get worse. The shingles also are old and brittle and this creates the question as to what is the best way to deal with this, repair or re-roof?

3)    Exterior sheathing:  The exterior sheathing on this unit is a wood product and is rotted in many places on the north and east sides of the unit and likely elsewhere. Use hardy board (fiberglass and concrete material) when replacing.

4)    Septic System: There is a broken septic line from the unit to the septic tank. While I was there working it rained so profusely that both toilets filled to the top when flushed, and almost spilled over. There was a gentle flow coming up from the ground just outside the front door and a few feet beyond the PVC clean out in the sidewalk. The smell of sewage was very apparent. I would guess the line is broken somewhere between the cleanout and the driveway. Within hours after the rain stopped the toilets worked properly.

5)    Windows: All of the windows are very close to being past repair and they have annealed glass, which shatters into large shards if broken. I’d suggest finding a distributor who sells the windows stock in the sizes that are already installed in the unit.

6)    Cantilevered Slab: At the NE rear corner of the unit the concrete slab, which is the floor of the living room “closet” extends unsupported beyond the footer as most of the soil is washed out from under it. It might possibly snap off. I’d suggest the property needs rain gutters here to avoid the washout.

7)    Guest Bath Tub: This heavy gauge steel tub sits in a pool of rusty water. It is rusting out from its underside. The leak could be from a cracked drain pipe or it could be from a very slow pressure leak. There is old water damage to the adjoining bedroom drywall. I say it is old as, it is dry and the unit does not stink. I’d suggest replacing it with a shower/tub combo like the unit in the master bathroom and coming through the adjoining bedroom wall to install it. Do not buy a single piece tub/shower unit. Get a four-piece unit that can be can be carried in the adjoining bedroom, remove drywall and a few studs from the wall between the bedroom and bathroom and one can install the new shower/tub easily. This wall between the guest bed and guest bath is not a structural wall.

@@@@@

Printed: Fort Myers Florida News Press

Wednesday, April 29, 2015 page A2

Code enforcement needs to do their job

Lee County code enforcement is part of the problem, not part of the solution. It is an agency that should be defunded and its head investigated.

There are code enforcement officers that stand in stark contrast to their fellow officers in that no amount of trash or debris might warrant a violation for these officers. These corrupt officers override their fellow officers’ violations and close cases where trash has not been attended and allow their friends who are property owners to ignore the county ordinances and leave this trash lying about in neighborhoods that neither the officer or the property owner live in. Some of these officers even encourage their property owner friends to threaten neighbors who file code complaints. These officers should be jailed. Lee County Code Enforcement is supposed to be a positive influence toward keeping our neighborhoods clean and free of trash, not a criminal enterprise that serves property owners who have rentals in neighborhoods in which they do not reside. Why do these officers abandon the folks who live and make their homes in our neighborhood? Your guess is as good as mine, but usually it’s for money.

Code enforcement should serve the people who have homes out here, people who live out here. It is not up to me to clean up my neighbor’s yard. I can try and speak to those neighbors who are somewhat trashy but ultimately and legally it is up to the landlord to regulate their tenant’s trash by cleaning it up themselves, giving an ultimatum to their tenants or evicting their tenants. If the landlord fails in that, then code enforcement must fine the landlord, not overlook the failings of the landlord and leave the trash for me and the others who expect code enforcement to enforce the code, as the law requires. Code enforcement has no right to penalize the entire neighborhood by letting rental owners escape their legal responsibility to keep their businesses cleaned up so that the neighborhood doesn’t decline from the trash. What an abject fail that is.

If I, as a neighbor, allow code enforcement to proceed in trashing our neighborhood, I allow them to paint our entire neighborhood and those in it as undeserving trash.

M H O’Neal

Squalor Is Not Free

[samkat10423]

Alrighty then. Yesterday I played around with that mod I told you guys about, and this is now my new bookstore. It is still dark – mostly because I wanted it to fit in with the other builds on this lot. But now, at least, it’s not just a big, black blob that you can’t really see. (But I may still lighten it up a tad more). BTW, that mod is actually a lot of fun to play with, and I can so see myself using it a lot.

But I did work on a lot yesterday. This is the new town, Public Bath house – because despite being poor and living in abject squalor, the town fathers do recognize the virtue of semi-cleanliness. So, they have allowed the old bath house – a relic of better days – to remain standing. They don’t allocate any funds for its upkeep, but until it falls down, it’s allowed to stay.

Anyway, this lot was originally created by KyriaT for AnnoSims St. Mary Meade project. And her version was sparkly-clean! But this is Smokey Town – which I’m thinking of renaming Spinner’s End – where sims actually enjoy breathing in polluted air and cooking with and bathing in, even more polluted water. Yes, they do! So, I grimed it up.

I also got rid of the 2 hipped roofs she had in the back, and replaced them with these glass ones. (They’re from AppleFall’s Victoria Greenhouse set, over on TSR). I also changed the fencing, added some more windows overlooking the pool, and grunged everything up.

This is the first floor – which I dirtied up, and eliminated crap I didn’t really need. 

And this is the top floor – where all I really did was change out the artwork, and add that sauna/mudbath thingie EA gave us. Well, they didn’t actually give it to us. They charged a bunch of money for something that should have just come with a basic world, but that’s so EA.

Then, because I was in a super lazy mood, I did some minimalistic landscaping to the city hall lot that came with this world. It was just a rabbithole plunked down on an empty lot, so, yeah, this is very basic. The statue is of Twallan – which I like to use in all of my towns – and I did give the rebellious sims a soapbox to stand on, for when they drop by to protest their local leaders.

Then, next door, I started the town cemetery. Right now, it’s pretty empty, because so far, I’ve only killed 4 sims. They are still currently residing in the crypt. Once I’ve killed off a few more, I’ll have a sim go collect them so that I can give them a “proper” burial. That way, I can have something in my graveyard other than just generic graves. Plus, it’s fun to kill sims. Well, it is!

Anyway, after I did that lot, I went into CAS for a while – making sims so I can KILL them! – and did about 10 families. One of whom, was the town inventor and his trusty canine friend, Dawg. 

Then, I hopped over to an empty commercial lot across the street from my city dump, and built him a nice house. (Even gave him that nice bathtub car from MTS).

This lot starts out with just the canal running through it. I did put up a fence along it –that even has signage warning sims to “keep the heck out!” – but didn’t bother with one along the riverbank. I figure if he’s stupid enough to fall off a ginormous cliff, that’s just natural selection keeping the gene pool semi-lucid.

And then I quit, because Devil Dog – aka: Sophie – insisted it was time to go outside and do dog stuff.

[animentality]

Alabamans whine about socialism and hand outs, yet they're some of the poorest motherfucking American citizens, and rank almost last in all of America in terms of education.

They're also living in abject poverty, but have the nerve to act as though living in the south should be glorified.

You. Live. In. Squalor.

You're living so backwards you're clinging to the idea that women's bodies are still exclusively the property of men, and for that you deserve to burn.

I don't care at this point if that makes me sound like a terrible person.

I was gonna say I hope a hurricane hits, but that would be pushing it I guess.

[pariahsparked]

😶 why don't you drink anymore?

Send 😶 + a really uncomfortable question and my muse has to answer it

"It may come as a surprise to some people, but I haven't really indulged much at all since I became Deadlock. I did occasionally then, just because it was a harder life than you might think, but I quit completely during my time with the Circle of Light. See, engex - poorly made, dangerously strong, horrifically bad engex - was one of my far too many terrible vices when I was living in the Dead End.

When you're living in abject poverty, you do what you can to forget you're living in squalor. You use, you drink, anything to help you not think about exactly how you're making the shanix to keep you alive.

Besides that, the processor pain and upset tanks after overindulging were never very fun. On top of... other reasons being incapacitated was an issue.

So it's just midgrade energon for me, thanks."

[brokenmusicboxwolfe]

I have recently had a bad habit of rambling in draft posts while unable to sleep. Rather than delete the drafts, I’ll post them as I get to them but I’ll make them easy to skip.

This one was a rant about the way characters tend to skew wealthy, particularly in movies and tv. Or at least wealthy from my POV down here in the dirt...

Stupid reason for not getting enough sleep: waking up in the night thinking about how probably 80% of fiction is set amid the well off, the folks that seem rich to the rest of us but would claim to be middle class.

Last night I watched a movie about a couple that had seperated over their different ways of grieving the death of their baby. So far, so dramatically universal...but look at their lives. His business is failing, but his famous restauranteur father has a spare place to toss him. Her father can pull strings to get her into her college course of choice, then when she wants to quit strings are pulled again to let her finish her graduate school work in France. The parents name drop casually people like Itzhak Perlman and the Stones, because they live in that world, the famous adjacent...

This is not how most of us live. Heck, her parents’ kitchen was larger than the homes of a few people I’ve known!

I’m sure the people in the business of creating these upscale fantasies of “normal” would say it’s aspirational. It’s like the excuse for all the women in movies looking like fashion models and the men like jocks. People want beauty. But I something else at work too...

The people with the power to get  movies and tv made, publish books, and the like tend to come from that world.

People create from the worlds they know. In so many cases it’s a world where heartbreak can send you moving to France for six months, where a serious medical problem never bankrupts you, where paying for college isn’t a major source of stress, where you shop in high end grocery stores for imported artisinal goat cheese and where people buy brand new cars as gifts. 

I don’t live in that world. I think there are a lot more of us that don’t than do.

My problem with all this isn’t that I have to drive 50 miles for chard and can’t afford to find out what truffles taste like, while these people almost never even look at the prices in menus. What bothers me is that these fictions suggest a life of security most of us will never know.

They have a nerfed life. Probably the creators, but definitately the characters. They have the luxury to worry about their personal dramas without having to also worry about  shelter, food, medical care, cost of education, or other ordinary but necessary concerns. 

Poorer people do get stories, of course. Abject poverty becomes all about suffering, squalor, and the desperation to escape. Lower class working poor stories can be glorifications of some purer notion of family or a sneering at ignorance and prejudices, and often both at once. The shadow of superiority hovers over them.

Actually, it reminds me of the term “outsider art”. You don’t get the tag of real artist unless you are the right sort, so the rest have to settle for qualifiers. You have to have the right education and live in the right places, even when the art itself is indistinguishable in quality if the creator’s back story is unrevealed. The critics and the rest the snob crowd get to enjoy art by the wrong sort and smuggly pat themselves on the back for being so  clever as  to discover these nobodies. 

Maybe it’s just me, fed up with characters living lives so alien to my own. I am supposed to feel for them, but get distracted by how damn easy they have it. Sometimes I wonder if the writer realize just how privileged their creations are, or if their own backgrounds are incredibly comfortable. 

Look, I know I’m not typical. Instead of worrying about fashion, I’m busy sewing patches on ten year old jeans so I won’t have to buy new ones. I don’t look for an interior decorator but instead worry about my rotting down house becoming unlivable. The idea of landscaping makes me laugh as I hack at the never ending vines in the yard. When I cook I don’t have the help of a food processor or suchlike and the idea of wasting money on a dishwasher is insane.  I simply have no choice but to repair or take care of things on my own, and hope we can keep paying the property taxes. Never having my hair done in my life hasn’t hurt me, but loosing the woods probably would.

But that’s me, and I know I will never see my own life reflected in fiction. Many people that live completely normal lives don’t see themselves either. The rich and high end upper middle class may have all the issues of life and death the rest of us do, but it sure is easier with fancy meals, million dollar houses and the option to work from home when you can’t stop the tears from making your expensive makeup run.

I’m just saying there are huge swaths of the American public that don’t live in poverty but also can’t fly off to Europe every summer!

[plunder-heaven-and-devour-god]

I harped on what made Notre Dame De Paris a great novel and definitely worthy of its longevity. But now I need to rip it to shreds because sometimes cultural and historical relativism can fuck itself. I need to have this discussion with the void. 

I have 206 bones to pick with Hugo and his bullshit.

Don't come at me with your bullshit 1800s enlightened poet’s soul with pretenses of progressivism. Your 15th century sexism is just 19th century misogyny is period attire. The racism is ABHORRENT. Like, I'm not an idiot. Medieval cities like London and Paris were FRAUGHT with people of color, not just the Romani who are so gruesomely marginalized in real life but also in the book. There were "Moors" and many people of the Arab world who passed through Paris. They held rights, they held positions of power and they held positions of servitude equally.

Hugo's era reeks of the eugenics employed to wipe out cultures, skin colors, and ethnic physical features. From the Belgian Congo to the north American destruction of its first Nations cultures there is so much of that coloring Hugo's work. Not to go into it too much but the racism is a different flavour in the 19th century and that’s what you taste reading this book. It’s not the racism that we know today.

Here is what shocked me to my core. I had to stop the book and put my head in my hands.

Quasimodo is black.

And I don't mean the strange colloquialism of a "black countenance or a black attitude" that Romantic writers like to use to mean a dark figure. Neither do I mean the terms old literature uses to call a white person ugly with ethnic features.

I mean fully black. Hugo's 19th century racism in 15th century clothing rears its head. They call him an ape, a contorted construction of the Orient, he describes his black back while being whipped like an animal. When Esmeralda gives Quasimodo water to drink Hugo describes the water falling slack from his surprised and big black lips. His visage and body are ugly because they are black.

Yes there are layers to this, there is the perceived xenophobia, paranoia, and racism of the 15th century but there is also Hugo's which comes after slavery, after the rise of capitalism, after the racism that started with Europe's quest to dehumanize whole ethnicities to justify a global market. You can't sympathize with what isn't human, and that is the motive behind any dismissal of race, gender, etc.

I say this because the racism of the 15th Century is different than how Hugo imagines it. And that is what adds that layer of incredulity to my reading of the text.

Quasimodo is black. Idris Elba taking the role is FINALLY ONE THAT WILL BE ACCURATE. And what's more is that we have recontextualised the story in order to make Quasimodo a sympathetic hero so I'm glad that we call all collectively destroy this image of ugly=black. We can have a narrative that puts black at the forefront of marginalization and mistreatment.

But the Romani, oh my god. They are so persecuted by the fictional parisians and the parisian who writes about them, and the audience that did not want to sympathize as human.

There is, I swear to God, one of the longest chapters about these three women who talk about how this "village whore" had a beautiful daughter and she was supposedly "stolen" by "gypsies". The mother went mad and is later found in what is essentially a public oubliette. She's a pitiable recluse, a feral disgusting husk of limbs. There is SO MUCH TO UNPACK. Apparently her baby was replaced with a disgusting "black/brown gypsy" child who almost killed the mother upon seeing it. We find out later its Quasimodo.

This recluse screams abuse at Esmeralda who passes by just as we are about to witness the famous scene of her feeding Quasimodo water upon the pillory. But yet when one of the women's children shows up this recluse and childless mother has a breakdown. We are supposed to feel bad for her. Hugo does nothing to devillify the Romani people, we are supposed to feel sympathy for this childless mother who has become feral in this public oubliette; she was driven mad by gypsies, the gypsies are evil look at what they did to this not so innocent woman.

All I could think was "you should die in that hole too." PERISH.

We are supposed to sympathize with the White Parisian Power Structure which does indeed think itself superior to the Romani. We are supposed to think this recluse woman has a point, we are supposed to look upon the Romani with revolt in them and think: EW I KNOW RIGHT. But we don’t, not today, we think: what an awful caricature.

To his credit. Hugo does a good job of showing us the fickleness of public sympathy, the parision mob screams for blood and laughs like the Roman mobs in coliseums. I get that. The woman, like many characters are multi faceted, neither good nor bad to a 19th century audience.

Not to mention the Court of Miracles and all the "dark skin personnages" who populate it are done such a crime to them.

Hugo is OBSESSED WITH WHITE BEAUTY. White swan necks, pale hands, rosy feet, white virginal bossoms. He, like every single gly fucking Westerner in yesteryear and today that prizes near a aryan level of beauty. I'll go into this more but Esmerelda is not actually Romani, she's apparently got that "attractive skin that Roman women or andelusians have" and I'm paraphrasing but apparently a slight olive sun tan was a stratification of skin color too fucking dark for Hugo. And as a woman who is often not dark enough to be indian and not white enough to white I find this SO CONDESCENDING AND SO AWFUL TO WOCs.

I can't tell you how many times he trivialises their poverty, their tricks, their mysticism when in reality they are an excommunicated people by the pope. They cannot go anywhere and are not allowed to make a living. There's a reason that Diederle's 1939 version took an anti-fascist position to this opinion and MARGINALLY cracked open some sympathy for the Romanis. He was fleeing the Germans, and according to Lindsay Ellis his film was the only film shown at Cannes that year, a festival created against Naziism. The terms, stereotypes, abuse, and ugly caricatures of the Romani (sometimes called Egyptians, lepers, Jews, blacks, Moors) have literally not changed in centuries, I wouldn't even say after the Holocaust. One can see why this film was used to such a great affect against Faciism, all the terms and abuses which are identical in many places are showcased here.

It's frustrating because some people imply that : "well that's the point, the people in the book are bigoted, unsympathetic, and awful, and that's really how it was in 15th century Paris". To the latter I say no and I've explained why it may be true on a case by case basis. But it’s really REALLY NOT historically accurate and Hugo CLASSIFIES THIS HIMSELF IN THE BOOK AS A HISTORICAL FICITON. And to the former I also say: that's not the point.

Hugo's narration is not just a third person narrator, he refers to himself, asks the reader to permit him things or moments, he clearly sports opinions of art, architecture, the abject deplorability of living in medieval squalor, the ugliness or stupidity of one or another. He is very clearly a character in the book, one that has to differentiate his stance from other characters. His voice, his narration does nothing to exonerate or make a moral statement out of his foes and heros. Which is strange because his self insert character puts on a morality play at the beginning staring the marriage of "commerce and agriculture" and "clerical with noble". Basically Capitalism and Catholicism. He even calls it not very good afterwards. Hugo is a famous playwright. He is occupied with his moral plays and questions. He has Les Miserables to show his support, and exoneration for the people of Paris.

The difference is that he is tackling marginalized people's, people of color, disabled people of color, monstrous people of color, women of color, persecuted and excommunicated people's, pedophilia (yeah I'll get to this.) And he's a white guy. He really isn’t the man who should be writing this.

He venerates the building of Notre Dame which is a beautiful chapter in the book yes. But it is made of stone it cannot feel, it cannot feel the years of mutilation it experience so says Hugo.

The LAST LINE of the 1939 version is Quasimodo looking upon the happy crowd after saving Esmeralda, she goes into the sunset. He is left bereft, alone, still ugly, still forgotten by the narrative. He clutches a gargoyle and says: “Why was I not made of stone like these.” We are at a place in our society that values the individual enough to realise that the Cathedral doesn’t have any FUCKING FEELINGS. Quasimodo does!

Moreover, if the printing press killed architecture as a register human history, it means we get a fundamental shift from

Cathedral important to------>2)Characters are important

Which incidentally, Hugo really did not care about his characters. In visual mass media killing the book, this phenomenon has accelerated and now Notre Dame is not the focus but the setting and circumstances of the story. The characters and their plights are what is more important.

And again, people would say: what were you expecting? To which I say: yeah. I wasn't expecting much more. To be honest, sometimes I even expect worse. He is a man of his time. And for a man of this time the very clear anti clerical, and anti establishment sentiment is already progressive by the standards of his epoch and that of the historical setting of the book.

But.

Yet again, we haven't had a version of the story that has ever shown the plight off the marginalized. Not properly.

We have had a black Quasimodo yet on screen because I think many content creators and audiences did not want to sympathise with a black quasimodo. And Esmerelda of color is supported, I think, because the gendered benefit of her beauty for consumption. And the added benefit of any and all racism taking on a gendered role. We never truly get to see the Romani demystified or devilified. They’re still goofy and charletons in the Disney movies in 1996.

However, the Disney movie made Quasimodo its hero, they gave us the corny yet poignant: internal beauty is what matters. The question who is the monster and who is the man is posed to the audience. We only ever get to see Frollo's abusive relationship with the Hunchback. We get to sympathize with quasimodo. AND AGAIN Lindsay Ellis does a MUCH better and succinct job than me of explaining this. (its a great video, half of the articulations here come from her forming the idea first).

In the 1939 film we see this anti fascist, anti Holocaust sentiment in the treatment of the Romani. They are still cartoonish, and treated badly. But Esmerelda is actually Romani in this one, although white washed to hell and back.

I can't say yet, because Esmerelda and Frollo haven't actually had a scene together yet in Notre Dame De Paris. But the Disney version and the 1939 version are the only two insofar that treat Frollo's obsession with Esmerelda as violence. His lust for her is abuse, it is racial and sexual violence. His absolute anti-romani mania that equals his clerical devotion is manifested in this. And stupidly enough the fucking Disney version does this on film the best in my opinion. There was room for melodrama in the book and even less in the 1939 version. But the Disney one doesn't fuck around. To quote James Janisse from Drunk Disney: "monsters are rapey". They take the subtext of his lust for this “gypsy girl” and spell out physically in a short amount of time and leave you no wiggle room.

And Frollo is one of my favourite fictional characters because it's rare for me to watch a Disney movie between my fingers in disgust and horror. I love him because of Tony Jay's tar gargling voice and the blaspheming Catholic imagery and the disgusting split we witness down his deplorable excuse of a human soul.

But I want to get the issue of Frollo out of the way. The Disney version took its Renaissance formula and made him, although more dimensional than let's say Ursula or Radcliffe, is still a maniacal, evil laugh, and Disney-fied villain. We are never to question who is the monster and who is the man.

That isn't the issue with the book, Hugo writes this as a commonplace occurrence, this repressed lust for the object of his hatred. Which is fair and fine. And for the audience he is a prominent face in a heartless medieval mob of horrid antagonist/villains.

However, I don't know if Hugo cared if you did know who the main antagonist was. He oscillates from condemning the artists who ruined the gothic soul of Notre Dame, to the White Whole Foods mom's of 15th century Paris to the people who stone Quasimodo on the pillory. Jehannes Frollo is a douche, and unlikeable, so is Phoebus, oh god so is Gringoire. Literally every mob or crowd scene we see that all of Paris is an antagonist. Hugo almost says: look at all these awful ugly disgusting people, they're all gross and awful now moving on to my sweeping 20 page description of this corner of the cloisters.

Hugo described awful people doing awful things and then pipes up and says: aren't these people horrible! He just doesn't...do that with Frollo? Mostly because Frollo has been wholly inactive until Book 7 of 21. But when he is he doesn't say: this near forty year old is getting flushed and possessive of a sixteen years olds virginity and throws gringoire on the floor out of jealousy because he hears about his peep sow.....ISNT THAT HORRIBLE. I haven’t heard Hugo do a condemnation of that yet, which wouldn’t be strange if he hadn’t done that for literally everyone else.

There are several chapters explaining how smart Frollo is, how voracious his mind is, the depthless love he has for his spoiled and ungrateful brother Jehannes. We find out he's reviled by the public because he knows alchemy, mathematics, and languages. He's considered to be a sorcerer WHICH IS IRONIC considering that he's tasked the head torturer to track down la Esmeralda for witchcraft. This is purposeful on Hugo's part. The judge who condemns Quasimodo to be whipped at the pillory is also deaf. It's a whole farce. It's meant to be. Deaf men condemn deaf men. A perceived Sorcerer condemns a perceived Sorceress. Blah blah blah I’m Victor Hugo, the building is the only sacred thing.

But to be frank, Hugo hasn't been like: if the audience permits we would like the examine the horrible defection of Frollo's predatory nature. He calls Frollo a bird of prey once but that's it.

The mob and Frollo become unbalanced and sooner rather than later Frollo becomes the major evil. Even Frollo, is a quiet evil in this book, and the 1939 version does a good job of capturing this in the God Help the Outcasts scene. Again, in the written word killing the edifice we have reshuffled the roles and priorities of the story. Frollo is the major evil. And that's fine with me.

And I'm not trying to fish out a message about how Hugo feels about Frollo or who the true evil of the book is. That is clear to the audience. It's a varying and fickle degree of personnages who do awful things. In later adaptations the preoccupations of individuals leads us to draw greater conclusions from them. I'm just hoping we get one good condemnation out of Hugo, regardless of the obvious plot and set up as the antagonist.

EDIT:

Now that I'm further into the book I can safely say Hugo makes Frollo one of the most despicable villains in all of literally fiction. It's disgusting and nauseating. And the reason Hugo never says: look at how wrong this is is because this book is very anti clerical and anti Catholic church. Its not anti-spiritual or against faith I would say. But Hugo was progressive in the sense that he was anti establishment to a degree. Frollo is this exemplification for the hatred and bigoted mania the Catholic Church was exuding at the time. Between excommunicating an entire race, inquisitions, monstrous campaigns of slaughter, there is also lots of sexual misconduct. Rampant sexual misconduct. The clergy abusing their power. The repressed sexuality associated with evil and wrongdoing takes a definitive example in Frollo. He is positively obessed with Esmerelda to the point where Hugo spells out to us in big letters: this is sexual violence.

He is the main villain, literally no one can fucking take that mantle away from him. I was going down the wrong vein of thought above. So ignore it. Because Hugo takes a while to get to the plot of his story it means that we don't have Frollo truly do anything until the seventh book of 21. And when he does...

I wanted to vomit to be honest. I couldn't listen to the audio book. I kept putting down my ebook and walking around and avoiding it. It was one of the hardest reads. Phoebus allows Frollo to be a voyeur as he coerces Esmerelda to have sex with him (she's sixteen literally all the men in this book have to die). He plants a horrid disgusting putrid kiss on her after she faints in a pool of phobus blood. He is one of the hooded figures who puts her to the leather bed and tortures a confession out of her next to Charmoulue he heard torturer. He comes down to her oubliette to just literally beg for sex, he implores her begs her, literally even if she were to hurt him. Then when she is about to be hanged he leans down in front of the whole crowd (so some people think he's hearing her last confession) and tells her again the offer to bang is still there. She only says no because of Phoebus (who is actually alive and feeling up his fiancée within seeing distance). He starts associating the bodily harm of Esmerelda with sex and it's just so disgusting.

God and when Esmerelda gets her sanctuary in one of the appartment of the belltower Quasimodo never went the appartment. He brings her birds and flowers, respects her space. But that fuckwit Frollo can see the appartment from his office, i guess you'd call it where he's been angsting for weeks as he voyeuristlically sees Esmerelda go about her day. Then he remembers that he has a key, assaults her again, and Quasimodo pretty much almost shanks him.

Now Frollo is trying to get Gringoire to lure Esmerelda out.

Anyways this is all to say this Frollo is the worse one, Hugo went there, i was so wrong. This version made me so nauseous and terrified. Hugo doesn't mince words with who he thinks is the villain. The sexual obsession is racial violence, the racism is gendered. Vice versa.

Anyways it so bad I cant wait til every man except quasi dies in this book. Though, to the other men's credit sometimes i hate grigoire and Phoebus more than Frollo. Idk it really depends on who is doing what and when.

But let's get back to Hugo.

Where do I start when it comes to Hugo and La Esmerelda. Again, it's a useless discussion to have, we know this is a misogynistic and bigoted warp of a set of female stereotypes.

But I'll start with this.

Esmerelda is sixteen years old. She's infantilised, ridiculed, condescended to, abused, and so so so much more. Not to mention Hugo seems to revile and hate women despite his prolific attendance of 19th century brothels.

Yeah and I think Frollo is supposed a thirty nine year old who looks twice that age already. Which you know is pedophilia. Which Hugo just presents for you to make your judgment, hopefully congruent. Duh.

That's not my beef with how Hugo writes Esmerelda.

It's how the narration goes out of its way to sexualise that innocence. Nothing new, mind you of 19th Century Romanticism or 15th Century historical setting. But as a modern reader it can jar you out of the experience. Gringoire literally says: “she doesn't even know what the difference between a man and a woman in her dreams". And he revels in peeping behind a curtain and sees her in her shift while UGH explaining this to Frollo who wants to know if she's still virginal. Literally locker room talk about a child and her body to an old priest from a shitty poet.

Esmeralda is not sexually mature, when she dances she does it with a child’s abandon and to put bread on the table. She doesn't understand what her sexual appeal is, and it makes the dances feel voyeuristic and nonconsensual. And it's stupid. Making her older gives her agency when this book literally robs her of agency. Making her younger gives her no agency and makes us observant in her abuses, or at least that is how I felt.

Hugo writes others calling her: girl, little girl, gypsy girl, "the Esmerelda", the sorceress". You're probably asking: why are you surprised. I'm not I'm just aggravated at times when faced with a time capsule from the 1800s. It’s hard listening to Frollo, every judge, mother, petty bourgeoisie, Phoebus, and Gringoire call her “little girl” without thinking she’s eight years old.

There is a scene where Phoebus calls Esmeralda into a home where he's hanging with his fiancée, her family, and bitchy friends. And BECAUSE WOMEN CAN’T BE FRIENDS the minute Esmeralda comes in, Hugo describes that each of the women turn on their bitch switch because she's prettier than they are and they all want the one man in the rooms affection because ALL WOMEN WANT IS A MAN’S ATTENTION. So they start tearing her apart. Phoebus is gross, a pig, a soldier more likely to force a women than not. He infantilizes her just as much as the narrator.

The women start verbally shaming her, they slutshame and everything else they can think of. Until she just? Feels like she's given leave to go? Esmeralda only speaks when spoken to, she only came in when she was bid to. For such a free spirit according to Hugo she’s the perfect docile and desirable woman when need be.

Her beauty and sexuality are made appealing and un-romani for consumption, for the men in the book and the reader. Because Hugo like most men of the time and many of today are obsessed with white beauty. She has no faults, she is literally described as being perfect if not for her "pout" which, again, feels SO SEXUAL for a childlike sixteen year old. The only faults she has is the ones litigated against her for things she cannot change like her gender and supposed race.

It made me want a story told from Esmeraldas point of view, written by and for WOC. I want to see Esmeralda bandaging up her feet after a day of dancing, her toes and knuckles bloodied up from trying to earn a living. After a day of dancing she would glance over at the meagre coins in her hat and sigh at how little food she will have. I want the exoneration of the Romani people and treat them with dignity.  Her poverty is unattractive and not noble but imposed on her by a system that hates her for something she can't control. I'd want an older Esmeralda with more agency, more control over herself. Shes be romani, or not. You commit to one. I'd love to see a scene where she is on the run and she does feel the entire world hate her and she is allowed moments of imperfections and cry. The world is on fire, the flames of Esmeralda as the book calls it, but their the flames of an ignoble archdeacon, the pursuit of an ingoble Archer and a wretch treated as badly as her. I want to see Esmeralda rage against an effigy, a saint and swear on her knees that she would kill all four of them with her bare hands, Frollo, Quasimodo, Gringoire, Phoebus for making her the literal objectified vessels of their want. I’d want her to kick Frollo's dead body. I would want to see her in Notre Dame by herself under the rosary window while we get lighting to denote what alignment our leading men are as they watch her and pour all of their hates and wants and make her into a vessel for themselves. To make that clear to the audience is so important. I would want her to have friends, female friends. I'd want her to stab AT LEAST ONE TO THREE PEOPLE. I would want her to be shown intelligent because she's put down for being illiterate. I want to see Esmeralda so righteously mad that God would have to beg for her forgiveness. I'd want her to leave Paris after the epic affair of Notre Dame and set back on her nomadic path convinced that no man or place is good enough for her. But when all is said and done, even when she has nothing, she has always had herself and that has been enough. She has herself and her people and that is what she needs.

And don't get me wrong I STILL LIKE THIS BOOK A LOT. And even with these parts being wholly unacceptable to me as a modern person I can enjoy the book, and not even have to practice a 2018 woke awareness to it. If I didn't read books by authors who thought that darker skinned people were inferior I'd  pretty much be reading almost nothing. The story is genuinely interesting and so are the characters, stunted and pushed aside by the author as they are. But I just needed to do a comparison. To lay out all the thoughts on the table with the facts and go pretty much say what Hugo does: Not much changes in all this time, and at the same time nothing is the same.