#interspersed with some relevant quotes

[citrus-cactus]

CITRUS, YOU HAVE MY PERMISSION TO TALK ABOUT YOUR POOR LITTLE MEOW MEOWS

DR. CRINGEFAIL: 2 4 14 21

SAD SCOTTISH MAN: 2 7 20 22

Enjoy!

BLESSINGS BE UPON YE, YOU KIND, HANDSOME, OBSERVANT STRANGER, YOU. MY CROPS ARE WATERED, MY FIELDS ARE THRIVING!!

Ask game here.

Under! The! Cut! Cuz! I’m! Embarrassed!

The one, the only, Noodle-In Chief:

2. When I think I truly started to like them (or dislike them, if you've sent me a character I don't like)

It's not 100% clear to me, but it was definitely around the September timeframe of the novel (the first time I read it, in ‘22). I don't think it was OFFICIALLY too late for me until he met the Harkers at the end of September and Mina was like "Hey Jack. JACK. You keep your diary on all these wax cylinders, and they're not even LABELED?!" And Jack was like "...Um. Yeah, actually... that never even occurred to me." gOD, you IDIOT <3 (I may be paraphrasing). But it was this and several of his earlier blunders paired with his dogged determination to remain genre-blind and skeptical of everything that he was witnessing that ultimately endeared him to me. There Is Most Definitely Something Wrong With Him (derogatory) (affectionate).

He’s truly a problematic fave, but he’s my favorite character in the novel nonetheless!

4. How many people I ship them with

Um, the entire vampire-hunting polycule? THIS MAN DESERVES ALL THE KISSES where canonically he has none, and he deserved to be one of Lucy’s three husbands, fr fr :(

14. Best storyline they had

The incredibly tragic story, told in his own words, of how John “Jack” Seward, MD had to watch the woman he loved waste away and die of a mysterious ailment, interspersed with personal asides regarding how full of vigorous manhood all of his friends are, and how his former professor is so incredibly hot good at everything and spry for his age, but who also may be (in Jack's professional opinion) a touch crazy. Peak sopping wet noodle time, it’s amazing <3

21. When do you think they were at their happiest?

September 30: "I got home at five o'clock, and found that Godalming and Morris had not only arrived, but had already studied the transcript of the various diaries and letters which Harker and his wonderful wife had made and arranged. Harker had not yet returned from his visit to the carriers' men, of whom Dr. Hennessey had written to me. Mrs. Harker gave us a cup of tea, and I can honestly say that, for the first time since I have lived in it, this old house seemed like home."

BUDDY!!!! T^T

"JUST SOME GUY(tm)”:

2. When I think I truly started to like them (or dislike them, if you've sent me a character I don't like)

I mean, I’ve always liked him quite a bit (that voice, that tragic backstory, that Shakespearean flavor). But for whatever reason I didn't become obsessed until my rewatch last summer. CanNOT stop thinking about this man, the former king who has really just been a pawn his entire life; what he thinks, what he feels, how he's been going through the motions while searching for the one who betrayed him, yearning for a death that will not come for as long as he has. HE’S JUST SO SAD, YOU GUYS!!!!!

7. A quote of them that you remember

Every word that comes out of John Rhys-Davies’ mouth is SO GOOD, but the quote that sticks out the most is (of course) "KNOW her? I NAMED her." GODDDDDDD it's infinity good and I never get tired of hearing it, not even once (and since they use it in every relevant "Previously On," you hear it A LOT). It's ok though, because they 5000% knew what they were doing with that one.

Some other choice one-liners:

"I'm just… so... tired" is also top-tier delivery, and does a really great job of summarizing his entire existence since 1057.

"And I know how to read them" is such a sassy retort (and a GREAT callback to “Lighthouse in the Sea of Time”).

“For that matter… WHY ARE WE WORKING TOGETHER?” is sooooo *chef’s kiss.* Enjoy being a walking, talking meat puppet with your worstie for several more months, my guy!

20. A weird headcanon

Ummmmm soooooo I designed a gargoyle form for Mac as my headcanon for what he would've looked like in "The Mirror" (of course I did). My Watsonian explanation for why we didn't get to see him that night is he was way too busy getting drunk off his ass and crying over his long-dead wife (yet again) :C

22. When do you think they were at their lowest?

990-some-odd years is a looooong time to find your lowest point. Even though moments like Gruoch’s marriage to Gillecomgain, his first “death”, the ending of “City of Stone,” and the middle of “Sanctuary” were pretty low moments for him, I’m quite sure his lowest point was never actually seen on the show (centuries-long depression isn’t exactly Disney Afternoon-friendly). The day(s) he found out about Luach and Gruoch’s deaths were obviously waaaaay up there. I imagine he had a really rough time of it during the Black Plague, so I’ll say his lowest point was somewhere in there :C :C :C

I do hope he was able to enjoy the Renaissance a little, tho. I’ll bet he commissioned a lot of art.

If you’ve read this far, THANK YOU FOR PUTTING UP WITH MY RAMBLING ABOUT THESE SAD, SAD FICTIONAL MEN!

[annes-room]

🍇 Jan 20, 2024

book review: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

⭐ 4.5/5

I feel like I understand why this book is so revered now. I also think it's incredible relevant today, and I think everyone should read it.

buckle up I have a lot of thoughts

short summary: featuring the Joad family, the story takes places during the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s. the Joad family is displaced from their home in Oklahoma, they pack up everything they own and drive their family truck to California to look for work, meeting hundreds of others just like them--starving and penniless. work is scarce but they keep trying, and they find community everywhere they settle.

something that I really appreciated about the presentation of the novel is how the main story is interspersed with chapters showing larger pictures of what everyone was going through: car dealership negotiations, trying to pawn off valuables for change, what happens to their farmlands after they leave, experiences of squatter's camps (that Steinbeck visited and collected accounts about while writing this book), shrinking wages and fermenting rage, perfectly good food left to rot because no one can afford it. it paints a wider picture of how desperate people were and how panic spread. it gave another perspective of the Joads by showing the variety of reactions people had to the injustices.

I won't lie, it's a bummer of a book to read, it starts bad and just gets worse, but the whole time, I had hope. the Joads had hope. I was rooting for them the entire time. every time they banded together during a struggle showed their resilience and hope that their luck would turn. and in the end it didn't. misfortune follows them the whole time. right from the start, family members start dying or leaving--up to the very last chapter. they start out with 13 people, and by the end, all but 6 are either gone or dead.

despite the fact that the novel doesn't really offer any solutions to the problems, I think it's still an important read. there seems to be another cycle coming around, where the cost of living is higher than a paying wage. there's a slight comfort in knowing that there will always be a community to find and rally around when everything seems insurmountable and pointless.

"but it's a classic novel! I can't understand those!" yes you can. the prose in this book is probably one of the easiest to understand that I've read in a classic novel. it still has it's dry points, but even if you don't understand every single reference to that time period, you'll still get a lot out of it.

some of my favourite quotes:

-a truck driver after debating whether or not to help a hitchhiker: "He knew he was being trapped, but he couldn't see a way out. And he wanted to be a good guy." (page 7)

-"a spotted brown hat creased like a pork pie" (19)

-"The red sun touched the horizon and spread out like a jellyfish" (45)

-"this was the new hearth, the living center of the family; half passenger car and half truck" (100)

-"This is the beginning--from "I" to "we."" (152)

-""Ain't you got half a buck?" [...] "Yeah, on'y I wisht they was some way to make her 'thout takin' her away from somebody else."" (187)

-"Down in the valley the earth was the lavender-gray of dawn." (289)

I started out thinking Tom was going to be the main character, but I think in the end it was actually Ma. she was the one doing the most to keep the family together and to encourage everyone not to give up. the first and second-last chapters propose that the women were always watching the men, trying to forecast their emotions to determine whether everything would be alright. either way the women would have to be the support on the other side, and that's the responsibility that Ma shoulders throughout the entire novel.

this book has a way of drawing you in and putting a magnifying glass to the discomfort the family experiences. Wikipedia has a quote from Steinbeck about the novel: "Throughout I've tried to make the reader participate in the actuality, what he takes from it will be scaled on his own depth and shallowness." I think it's absolutely true and he accomplished his goal. this is a book that will stay with me for a long time.

[rachelkaser]

Stay Golden Sunday Reissue: The Heart Attack

Note: This is a repost of an older Stay Golden Sunday that had to be redone for housekeeping reasons.

Sophia becomes very ill one night and is convinced she’s going to die. The Girls confront the idea of mortality.

Picture It…

The Girls bid farewell to their guests as a storm rages outside. They praise Sophia for the meal she cooked for everyone, and Blanche says it was even better than the food she ate in Italy. The Girls tell Sophia to take a load off in the living room. They start the dishes in the kitchen, while Rose talks about her family’s Scandinavian cooking.

Back in the living room, Sophia says she’s got a “bubble” of pressure in her chest. Rose thinks it might be gas, but Dorothy says her mother isn’t looking so good. Blanche goes to call the doctor. Sophia clutches her chest as the bubble turns to pain. Dorothy lays her down, while Sophia worries she could be having a heart attack. Blanche says the doctor was out, so she called the paramedics.

DOROTHY: Ma, you know, you don’t look good. SOPHIA: I’m short and I’m old. What did you expect, Princess Di?

The two discuss their family’s deaths – which include a fall from a donkey and misfiring a gun while taking out the garbage – to rule out the possibility of heart disease. Blanche and Rose talk about how death should come without pain or illness, getting sidetracked until Dorothy shuts them up. They go to make coffee, while Sophia begins to worry she’ll die. She starts giving Dorothy instructions on what to do after she’s dead, and says Dorothy was always her favorite, even if she never showed it.

In the kitchen, Rose and Blanche discuss death. Rose says her family members live to their 90s and 100s, which Blanche attributes to the Minnesota cold slowing down the aging process. They also discuss cremation vs burial: Rose wants to be buried with all her sentimental items, while Blanche wants to be buried in Arlington Cemetery because it’s full of men. Sophia tells Dorothy she loves her. When Rose and Blanche return with the coffee, she thanks them for keeping her company. She decides to rest while Blanche goes to call the paramedics again.

BLANCHE: Do you want to be buried or cremated? ROSE: Neither! BLANCHE: What do you want to be, flushed down the toilet like a goldfish?

Rose tells Dorothy it’s probably not a heart attack, as she’s seen one and they’re bigger. She recounts Charlie’s heart attack to Dorothy, which happened while they were making love (she told Arnie this back in Episode 3, but this is the first time she’s told one of the other Girls). She dressed him before emergency services arrived, and his last words were that he loved her. Blanche returns and says the paramedics are held up by the storm, and they’ll just have to wait… and pray, as Rose adds.

The Girls crowd Sophia, who wakes up and tells them she had a near-death experience and saw Heaven. She describes seeing her husband and asks Dorothy to get her rosary. Blanche’s main interest is if there are lots of men in Heaven (which… why wouldn’t there be?), and eventually goes to help Dorothy. Left alone with Sophia, Rose bugs the crap out of her by recounting farm stories.

BLANCHE: What about men? Are there lots of men in Heaven? ROSE: Oh Blanche, come on! BLANCHE: Well you asked her about God and Jesus!

In Sophia’s room, Dorothy’s going through Sophia’s things, looking for the rosary. She tells Blanche that she’s not ready for Sophia to die, and that she’ll still feel like an orphan at her age. She breaks down in tears at the thought, and Blanche comforts her by saying Blanche and Rose are her family too, and they’re there for her.

In comes Dr. Harris, presumably Elliott’s replacement as their house-call doctor. He inspects Sophia and finds her side is sensitive, so he asks her what she ate recently. The girls list a truly disgusting amount of food, including scungilli, fried mozzarella, and two boxes of Milk Duds. Dr. Harris says it’s not a heart attack, but more likely a gallbladder attack from overeating. Sophia is instantly relieved, but takes back what she said about Dorothy being her favorite now that she’s not dying.

Later that evening, the Girls minus Sophia (who’s presumably resting) talk about mortality in the kitchen. They question the reason they worry about things like dieting when they’re going to die eventually – a thinly veiled excuse to eat some chocolate cake and ice cream. They do eventually get turned off of the dessert when they realize that, while they are going to die eventually, they’ll feel the negative effects of overeating immediately, like Sophia did. They decide to go out for a walk (one hopes the storm is not still raging), and Blanche brings it back around to her favorite topic:

BLANCHE: Let’s go for a walk. ROSE: Right, burn it off! DOROTHY: Are you kidding? After what we ate, we’d have to walk to Canada. BLANCHE: Oh, Mounties! I love Canadian men!

“You couldn’t say ‘belch?’ What is it, a Viking curse?”

This is the first episode that centers around Sophia, and given the multiple references to her age and health in the preceding nine episodes, it’s fitting that it’s about a health scare. Estelle Getty, who has mostly played comic relief up to this point in the series, gets her shot at carrying the dramatic half of an episode – and she definitely delivers.

To be a little real with you, this episode has been hard for me to watch the last few years, ever since my mother died. She was the one who introduced me to Golden Girls, and episodes like this hurt both because I know now she and I will never have that Dorothy-and-Sophia rapport in old age like I always assumed – my mom was not even 60 when she died – and because I was basically in Dorothy’s position at the time. If I could have chosen a quote to describe the months of my life after my mother died, it’d probably be this one:

DOROTHY: It doesn’t matter. You lose a parent, you might as well be six. It’s scary. And it pushes you right up to the head of the line.

I appreciate that, when confronted with the possibility that she might die, Sophia’s not accepting or serene even though she’s very old. I think there’s a perception that, when you get old, you just have to accept that you might die soon and be okay with it because you’ve “lived a full life” or some such nonsense. Instead, Sophia outright says “I’m not ready” and that she’d take even one more day of life.

I leave it to other shows to try and teach people to accept death with grace. I prefer Golden Girls’s way, which is to say “Screw that,” and portray the octogenarian matriarch as not wanting to die. There’s something very real in Sophia saying she never really thought she would die.

SOPHIA: 80 years old, and it would come as a complete surprise.

There’s quite a bit of real-world backstory to this one, too. Originally, it was intended to be broadcast live, which is why it’s the first episode since the pilot to take place entirely within the confines of the Girls’ home. According to Golden Girls Forever (quite a treasure trove), NBC had done a live episode of Gimme a Break and attempted to replicate its success with a night of live shows, ostensibly to promote Saturday Night Live. Golden Girls would have been one of about five shows to air its episodes live.

At first all the other shows were onboard, but then showrunners protested the final offering of the night, a detective show called Hunter, couldn’t be filmed live. So the live plan was scrapped. Director Jim Drake remembered it as being for the best, since the actresses weren’t really equipped to do the show in a single live, continuous taping. While their shows were filmed in front of a live studio audience, they still had the option of doing multiple takes. Somewhat relevant, but here’s a video of Golden Girls bloopers:

The other real-world issue that influenced the filming of this episode was one that also cast a pall over the previous episode – the death of Bea Arthur’s and Betty White’s mothers. But while it seemed to throw off the chemistry of the previous episode to a certain extent, if anything it helps this one. There are differing accounts as to whether Rose’s monologue about Charlie’s death was drawn from the deaths of White’s mother or her husband, Allen Ludden. I suspect it’s a combination of both, but you can see she’s genuinely crying while talking about it.

My only real criticism of this episode is that the final scene doesn’t really seem like it’s attached the rest of the story. The Girls talk about their own mortality, and how the fact of dying makes things seem trivial. They don’t even mention Sophia, despite the rest of the episode revolving around her. It feels like a discussion they might have after a friend died – or, more accurately, a scene inserted by a writer who wanted to opine about death for five minutes.

That’s not even mentioning the fact that the way the Girls behave in this scene is very at odds with the rest of the episode. It’s just strange to me that they’d come to the conclusion that, since they’re going to die, they might as well gorge themselves on rich food, when doing so is the exact reason Sophia had a gallbladder attack – and they just heard a doctor tell her that.

Regardless, this is another great Susan Harris episode, and the first episode that puts Sophia front and center. While it’s a bit melancholy there are enough jokes interspersed throughout to keep it from being a downer.

Episode rating: 🍰🍰🍰🍰 (four cheesecake slices out of five)

Favorite part of the episode:

The Girls crowd around a sleeping Sophia (see the image at the top of the article), and she wakes with a shout, scaring them all. When Dorothy asks her what’s wrong, she says:

SOPHIA: What? You’re sitting on top of me. I open my eyes, I see pores like that, I think I’m on the moon!

[the-fae-folk]

*Quoth* every bit of writing advice ive read talks about having a really good hook. but nothing actually explains what that means or how to do it.

(transcribed and translated from Quoth the Raven) Of course they don’t tell you how. Most people who tell you to do that have no idea how to write a good hook. They’re just parroting advice that they’ve heard. Lets start with what a hook is. A Narrative Hook is just a literary technique that “Hooks” the reader’s attention and keeps them interested enough in your writing to actually want to keep going. So many bits of advice emphasize that your hook has to be the very first sentence. In many cases they are correct. But not always. A hook can also be several paragraphs, or even the first few pages of a novel. Only academic writing needs to place so heavy an emphasis on your first sentence and paragraph because you have to make your point immediately and move on. There’s no time for dallying or dillying in Academia. But even though you have a bit more leeway in other types of writing you’ve still got to be careful. This isn’t just something you can scribble out and move on. A good narrative hook takes some planning. You have to think about WHO your audience is and WHY this particular bit of writing will hook them. What about it will intrigue or interest them enough that they’ll resist other plays for their attention in order to follow those thoughts. And of course not only does your hook need to be for your audience (or audiences if you insist on writing for more than one at a time), but it also needs to be relevant to your story or characters somehow. It should give us a reason to keep reading so that we can see more where that came from, to see how it connects and keeps giving. Even something that touches upon the themes of your book would be good if the writing is clever enough. Dialogue will give insight on the characters, setting, or even signs of the conflict. Let me give you an example. “The skies are always dark when I stop at the McDonald's on my way to work in the morning. Just a breakfast sandwich and a sprite is enough to keep me going. I always see the strangest people when I come out this early. But the strangest of all was when I saw Death herself feeding the starlings with french fries.” In this paragraph I’ve done several things. I purposefully did not put the hook at the beginning of the paragraph. Instead I’ve given you both a general setting for your story (Set in a contemporary world where such things as a McDonald’s exists and people actually want to eat there) and some insight into your character and their life (someone who is unfortunate enough to have to get up for an early morning shift and doesn’t have time for breakfast at home). It tells you about the sorts of things they’ll eat and what the general expectation for this part of their life is like (they see lots of weird people around this time of day because that’s just what happens at McDonald’s around 6am).

Then I drop the bombshell. Disguised as a casual statement that is merely continuing the previous thought I happen to mention that I saw Death doing something as ordinary as feeding starlings her french fries. This sentence, though seemingly tame is quite extraordinary for a number of reasons. It introduces the metaphysical concept of Death as a character who can move about and do person things like eat (or not eat) french fries. It tells us that Death is not just a person...but a HER! How many depictions of Death are female in our contemporary media? A few...but not that many. Even something as mundane seeming as Starlings might have significance. Besides being initially odd (Because usually one might say crows or pigeons when someone is feeding birds), you might have starlings have some greater significance later on, perhaps some kind of symbolism you hint at. Or you might just really like starlings and think that they themselves are odd enough to mention that it might help, either one works just as well. Even though Death is just feeding a bunch of birds some fries we already have so many questions that NEED answering. Why is Death there? What’s her story? Why starlings? And why McDonald’s french fries of all things? We’ve hooked the reader into wanting more. But did you know that you don’t have to begin things with a scene? A question could be a startling and interesting way to start out a piece of writing. Drop straight to the heart of the matter and question the reader themselves. “What is your third favorite reptile?” Is a fun one I’ve heard, especially since you can immediately elaborate on that with your own favorite reptile and why any of this is relevant to whatever your writing is supposed to be about. Really there are lots of ways you can start a story. A declaration that something is so! A significant quote that pulls your reader straight into the middle of a heated conversation. Perhaps an interesting fact or statistic might help you (it can even be entirely made up if your story is set in a fictional world. I once read a book that interspersed the entire story with encyclopedia style clips about places, people, things, and creatures that didn’t exist outside of the story’s world). Even just describing something in great detail is acceptable, whether an enchanted forest, a cold and empty moon, or an apartment filled with half filled cups that your protagonist keeps forgetting to finish and put in the dishwasher. You can even begin with a particularly unique or really well chosen metaphor (or simile) that will set a certain tone or idea for everything that comes after it. (I read a short story where they used a popular spiritual cliche as their first sentence and then spent the entire piece undermining the sentiment.) So many ways to make a hook, and even better, make a good hook. However... You don’t HAVE to use a hook. It’s a literary technique that has become rather popular, but it’s not set down in the rules that you must absolutely use one or your entire piece of writing will burst into flames and die. There are a lot of good stories, essays, and other pieces of writing that don’t use hooks. It does get a lot more difficult if you don’t  use one though. The point of a hook is that initial attention grab. If you decide not to use one you will run the risk of many people not reading past your first few pages. It’s not the end of the world, but its a dangerous game to play. The rest of your work will have to be truly worth the read for you to get away with that sort of thing in this day and age. Well, I hope that answers your question and gives you a good place to start writing hooks for your stories! (or essays). In thanks I request that you go feed some birds (not starlings because they’re so annoying. Always like “look at me! I’m so mateable and majestic even though I’m flying in a swarm of a thousand others who look exactly like me and none of us will shut up for five minutes about who can get it on the best or who can find the best fruit and insects.” Ugh. Stupid little things. They think they’re so pretty. I agree, they’re pretty irritating.) (Notes from the Author of the Blog: One unmentioned form of Narrative Hook is called “In Media Res”. It literally means “in the middle of things” which is fairly on point because the technique is about beginning your story in the middle of the action instead of slogging through all the boring exposition. It’s a little hard to pull off well because it demands that the writer find fluid and subtle ways to introduce all that worldbuilding and essential info to the reader without giving a pages long infodump later on when the reader needs to understand something for plot reasons. Also, a Hook can be found in other types of media besides writing. In music it is a musical phrase or idea that is used to catch the listener’s attention and make the music seem appealing. In film they have something similar that is used to try and grab the viewer’s attention in the first 5-10 minutes. It is a very good tool to know how to use and use well, though it may take a bit of practice to get right. Finally, the Author of the Blog does not share Quoth’s views on Starlings; though maybe still don’t feed them (or any bird) french fries.)

[clacing]

do u have other she ra works in progress or gif ideas? what r they abt?

I do!! I assume by “she ra works in progress” you mean fics, so here’s what I’m working on right now:

- Chapter 5 of HYBM is undergoing some serious rewriting, because I realized by the time I got to the editing part that I wasn’t satisfied with it at all, that it felt very stale, and that I honestly wanted the story to go another way entirely. Sorry to anyone who’s been waiting for an update for 3 months, but I really am working on it and I hope it’ll be worth the wait! - An estranged childhood best friends AU. I won’t spoil it too much, but it’s a very personal project and I think it’s going to be three chapters. I’ve got one chapter ready, but I want to finish HYBM first, otherwise people would be waiting too long for the second one. Basically, Adora and Catra haven’t spoken to each other in years, except on each other’s birthday, but Catra keeps thinking about Adora and wants to fix things between them, though it proves to be harder than she thought. It’s interspersed with flashbacks of what exactly happened that tore them apart. - A Titanic AU with Adora as Rose and Catra as Jack - just because I’ve seen a lot of the other way around, and I personally like this casting more. No idea if I’ll ever finish it because trying to adapt the movie to SPOP is very hard dffgfg but I’m sure liking how creative it forces me to be - Another SPOP fic for a project I can’t talk about because it hasn’t been announced yet, but you’ll see soon enough - I barely started writing it, but I’ve been thinking about a Catradora Assassin AU and I’ve got the general plot down. The problem is it’s supposed to be more explicit than what I usually write, and I’m not sure if I could do it right :/  As for gifs, they’re not very exciting ideas but here’s what I’ve got: - Catradora 5x13 gifset with the quote “Heart, I implore you, it’s time to come back from the dark” - SW telling Glimmer “You won’t be like your parents. You will be better” vs Glimmer outpowering her dad in 5x13 - Not a gifset but I was making a photoset, before I could convert my videos and finally gif again, of Catradora + relevant lyrics from Noelle’s playlists And you can send in gifset requests at any time!! 

[tshepiso-reads-books]

I Fully Understand The Hype | The Diviners by Libba Bray

Started: November 16th, 2019

Finished: November 24th, 2019

Despite the fact that it took me an unbelievably long time to finish I had a rip-roaring time reading The Diviners [Goodreads} . This spooky paranormal read was filled with equal parts atmosphere and charm and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a fun YA read.

Our primary protagonist in The Diviners is seventeen year old Evie O’Neill, a whip smart flapper with her eyes on notoriety. After an unfortunate incident in her hometown of Zenith, Ohio Evie is sent to live with her bachelor uncle, Will in Manhattan. Almost immediately after her arrival Evie worms her way into the hunt of an occult serial killer Naughty John and uses her skills of psychometry and boundless charm to unravel the paranormal mystery.

The Diviners is filled with great characters. While Evie is the primary protagonist of our narrative, we also closely follow five other characters: Memphis Campbell, Theta Knight, Mabel Rose, Jericho Jones, and Sam Lloyd. All of these characters are richly rendered and compelling enough to carry their slice of the narrative. What’s great about Bray’s character writing is her ability to capture the unique vulnerabilities that make the core of all our characters. I was able to easily connect with each of them because of their engaging personalities and depth of their characterisation. While Bray didn’t spend equal time with each of the teens (that would have made for one hell of a slog) she still managed to create six memorable characters, which is  a feet deserving of praise

I adored the relationships developed in this novel (both platonic and romantic) . The book was filled to the brim with hilarious dialogue that made every group scene a fun time. I appreciated the quiet moments between characters; those scenes in particular revealed interesting facets to our protagonists and made me believe their growing friendships. My favorite character interactions were definitely between Evie and Mabel, I adore these two’s friendship so much. I wouldn’t go into The Diviners for romance because it’s certainly a background element to the plot (though shout out to Theta and Memphis for having the most adorable meet-cute). I can tell Bray is setting up a lot of romantic conflict so it’s gonna be a fun time watching that unravel.

The mystery in this novel was intensely compelling. Because we get the concurrent perspective of our antagonist, Naughty John, The Diviners isn’t hinged on figuring out the mystery of who the serial killer is. The atmosphere works to build a sense of pure dread and anticipation in the audience. Bray establishes the ominous tone throughout the novel so well because of her omniscient third person narration. She intersperses asides that have a birds eye view of the conflict that both give her story scope as well has imbue the story with a sinister presence.

I adored how deeply political this novel was. The Diviners is often praised for its diversity in its cast, we have a fantastic plethora of minorities in this book including black, jewish, immigrant, and gay characters throughout. I don’t often see people talking about how integral a refutation of bigotry is to the plot of the novel. The racism and xenophobia of 1926 is baked into the plot and setting of The Diviners in a way that never felt like lip service or set dressing, but pointed and relevant. The fact that the antagonist of this story is supported by a rising white supremacist movement hits hard in the context of 2019. I’m not even capturing the depth and breath of this but the thesis of Bray’s point can be summed up in this one quote:

“When the world moves forward too fast for some people, they try to pull us all back with their fear”

The 1920s is an often glamorised period of history, people love the flappers and the cinema. Bray brings to light the ugliness of the time in an important way and reminds us that the 1920s was also a time of eugenics and xenophobia and in bringing that to light speaks to the bigotry of America today.

Stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟

The Diviners was pure joy to read. I fully understand the hype and I will promptly be binging the rest of the series once King of Crows comes out in February.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Content warning: sexual assault (IPV), animal abuse

[alpha-incipiens]

Favourite music of the decade!

This is some of what I’d consider the most innovative, artistic and just great to listen to music from 2010-2019.

First a Lot of very good songs:

Crying - Premonitory dream

Arcade Fire - Normal person

Sufjan Stevens - I want to be well

Deerhunter - Sailing

Foster the People - Pumped up kicks

Carly Rae Jepsen - Boy problems

Grimes - Butterfly

Travis Scott - Butterfly effect

Future - March madness

Kanye West ft. Nicki Minaj et al - Monster

Juice Wrld - Won’t let go

Danny Brown - Downward spiral

Kendrick Lamar - Sing about me, I’m dying of thirst

Kate Tempest - Marshall Law

The Avalanches - Stepkids

Iglooghost - Bug thief

Vektroid - Yr heart

Ariel Pink - Little wig

Mac Demarco - Sherrill

Vektor - Charging the void

Jyocho - 太陽と暮らしてきた [family]

Panic! at the disco - Ready to go

The Wonder Years - An American religion

Oso oso - Wake up next to god

The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die - I can be afraid of anything

And my top 20(+2) albums:

Calling Rich gang’s style influential on trap would be like saying Nirvana may have had some impact on early-90s grunge. In 2019 with trap so omnipresent in popular music, hip hop or otherwise, through the impact of artists like Drake and Travis Scott it’s almost hard to remember when this was a niche genre - it was Rich gang that popularised its modern sound here. Birdman’s beats with their rattling hi-hats and deep bass could have been made 5 years later without arousing suspicion, while Rich Homie Quan and Young Thug deliver consistently entertaining flows and numerous bangers between them. Thugger, this being his first major project, steals the show with his yelpy and hilarious rapping style. This may have once been the defining sound of house parties in the Atlanta projects; now it can be heard blasting in the night from white people’s sound systems around the world.

Early 21p may have never aimed to be cool, to avoid a certain appearance of lameness, but they did have a knack for writing some really catchy pop with an optimistic message. To the devoted, the critics of Pilots’ apparent mishmash of nerdy rap, sentimental piano balladry and EDM production were just stuffy, wanting music to stay how it was back-in-the-day forever and unwilling to get with the times. This viewpoint is understandable when you approach this album openly and actually listen to Tyler Joseph’s lyrics about youthful anxiety and insecurity, delivered with real conviction and sincerity, actually recognise that disparate musical elements are all there for emotional punch. A few songs do underwhelm. But this is emo for post-emo Gen Z’s and it’s easy to see why to some it can be deeply affecting.

The musical ancestor to the ongoing and endless stream of ‘lo-fi hip hop beats’ youtube mixes, chillwave filled the same low-stress niche, and Dive released at the peak of the genre’s relevance. Tycho’s woozy, mellow sound prominently features rich acoustic and bass guitar melodies over warm synths, enhancing the music’s organic feel compared to that of purely digital producers in the genre. The experience of starting this album is like waking up in a soft bed, the cover’s gorgeous sunrise reddening the room’s walls, while a guitarist improvises somewhere on the Mediterranean streets outside. And it is indeed great to study or relax to!

Simple, minimal acoustic guitar and vocals. If you’ve got talent this type of music shows it, or else it doesn’t: perfect then for Ichiko Aoba. Her touch is light, her songs calm, meditative, in no rush to get anywhere. As if serenely watching a natural landscape, one can best understand and enjoy Aoba’s music in quiet and peaceful appreciation.

Through the incorporation of genres like shoegaze and alternative rock, Deafheaven managed to create a rare thing: a metal album that’s both heavy and accessible, needing no sacrifice of one for the other’s sake. Over these four main songs, there’s a sensation of being taken on an intense, atmospheric and even emotional journey, with the band stepping away from the negativity and misanthropy that dominates most metal. The vocals, closer to the confessionalism of screamo than classic black metal shrieks, express more sadness than they do aggression, and in respites between solid blaring walls of guitar and drums, calm pianos and gently strummed guitar passages set a pensive tone. This totally enveloping, flawlessly produced sound can take you away, like My Bloody Valentine’s best work, into a dream or trance.

By the late 2000s MCR had taken their thrones as the kings of a subculture formed from the coalition of goth, emo, scene and other assorted Hot Topic-donned kids, and earned a lifelong place in the hearts of many a depressed teenager. But after the generation-defining The Black Parade Gerard Way took off the white facepaint and skeleton costume, ditched the lyrics about corpse brides and vampires, and embraced an anthemic, purely pop punk sound. The silly story of Danger Days, set in a dystopian California where villainous corporations rule and only the Punks can stop them, serves as a kind of idealised setting for the all-out rebellion against authority and normality that so many fantasised about taking part in. The band’s electrifying performances are the most uplifting of their decade making music. For many diehards the upbeat sound here was a celebration that they’d made it through the most difficult years of their lives, and a spit in the face of those who’d done them wrong.

The teller of rural American tales, the indie legend, the teen-whisperer himself. John Darnielle, long past his early lo-fidelity home recordings and now backed by a full band, loses none of the heart his songs are famous for. The theme of the album, taken straight from John’s childhood when the pro wrestling on TV offered an escape from his abusive stepfather, is complemented by the country and Tex-Mex flavouring to the instrumentation. Some of the best lyrics in his long career infuse the stories of wrestlers with universal meaning - his characters try, fail, lose hope, reckon with their mediocrity, and when they step into the ring they’re up against all the adversity life can throw at them. John Darnielle’s saying that when that happens, you stand up and sock back.

Folk music was always a major part of the Scandinavian black metal scene during its peak years, so when American musicians began exploring the genre naturally they incorporated American styles of folk. The complex, oppressive and sometimes hellish compositions here, starkly contrasted with bluegrass that sounds straight from the campfire circle, give the impression of life in the uncharted woods of the American frontier, in the middle of a brutally cold winter. Almost unbelievably, one-man-band Austin Lunn plays every instrument on the album: multiple guitar parts, bass and drums as well as banjo, fiddle, and woodwinds.

Andy Stott seems to delight in making his music as unnerving, haunting, perhaps even scary, as possible. The female vocals these songs are built around become ghostly, echoing and overlapping themselves disorientingly. The percussion, audibly resembling metal clanging, rustling or rattling in the distance, is often left to stand for its own, creating a tense space it feels like something should be filling. UK-based club and dub music can be felt influencing the grimy almost-but-not-quite danceable rhythms here, but the lo-fi recording and menacing vibe makes this feel like a rave at some sort of dimly lit abandoned factory.

There’s so much Mad Max in this album you can just picture it being set to images of freights burning across the desert. True to its title, the nine songs on Nonagon Infinity roll into each other as if part of one big perpetual composition, with the end looping back seamlessly to the start and musical motifs cropping up both before and after the song they form the base of. With its fuzzy, raw sound, bluesy harmonica and wild whooping, the Gizz create a truly rollicking rock’n’roll experience. The band would go on to release 5 albums within twelve months a year later, but Nonagon shows these seven Australian madmen at the height of their powers.

Sometimes you just want to listen to fun, hyperactive pop. The spirit of 8-bit video game soundtracks and snappy pop punk come together to create a vividly digital world of sound that seems to celebrate the worldliness, connectivity and shiny neon colours of early 2010s internet culture and social media. The up-pitched vocals and general auditory mania recall firmly Online musical trends like nightcore and vocaloid, while the beats pulse away, compelling you to dance like this is a house party and the best playlist ever assembled is on. It demands to be listened to at night with headphones, in a room lit only by your laptop screen.

“You hate everyone. To you everyone’s either a moron, or a creep or a poser. Why do you suddenly care about their opinion of you?” “Because I’m shallow, okay?! … I want them to like me.”

The fact that that Malcolm In The Middle quote is sampled at the emotional climax of this record should give some idea to the absurdity that defines Brave Little Abacus. It’s not even the only sample from the show on here. And yet the passion and urgency so evident in Adam Demirjian’s lispy singing and the band’s nostalgia-inducing, even cozy, melodies are made to stir feelings. The tearjerker chords and guitar progressions are so distinctive of emo bands with that special US-midwest melancholia, and they are interspersed with warm ambiance and playful sound effects ripped from TV and video games, seemingly vintage throwbacks to a sunny childhood. Demirjian’s lyrics, yelled out as if through tears or in the middle of a panic attack, verge on word salad in their abstraction, but that’s not the point: you can feel his small town loneliness and sense the trips he’s spent lost on memory lane. The combined effect all adds to Just Got Back’s themes of adolescence and the trauma of leaving it. While legendary in certain internet communities for this album and their 2009 masterpiece Masked Dancers, the band remains obscure to wider audiences.

These Danish punks know how to convey emotion through their raw and dramatic songs. Elias Rønnenfelt’s vocal presence and charisma cannot be ignored: his husky voice drawls, at times breaks, gasps for breath, builds up the deeply impassioned, intense force behind his words. The band sounds free and wild, unrestrained by a tight adherence to tempo, often speeding up, slowing down or straying from the vocals within the same song, as if playing live. Instrumentally the command over loud and quiet, tension and release, accentuates the vocals in crafting the album’s pace. Horns and saloon pianos throughout give the feel of a performance in a smoky, underground blues bar, with Rønnenfelt swaying onstage as he howls the romantic, distraught, heartbroken lyrics he truly believes in.

At some point on first listening to Death Grips, a thought along the lines of “He really yells like this the whole way through, huh?” probably crosses the mind. When Exmilitary first appeared, quietly uploaded to the internet, the rapper’s name and identity unknown, another likely reaction among listeners might have been “What am I even listening to?” But perhaps more revolutionary than Death Grips’ incredibly aggressive sound and style might have been its foreshadowing of how over the next decade underground rap acts would explode into the mainstream through viral songs, online word of mouth and memes. It showed all you needed to come from nowhere to the top of the game was to seize attention, and it did that and far more. MC Ride’s intoxicatingly crass, intense rapping captures the energy of a mosh pit where injuries happen, the barrage of sensations of a coke high, while the eclectic mix of rock and glitchy electronics on the instrumentals is disorienting in the best way. If rap were rock and this was 1977, Death Grips would have just invented punk. Ride’s lyrics paint a confrontational, hyper-macho persona; unlike much hip hop braggadocio, the overwhelming impression given is that Ride truly does not care what anyone thinks. He just goes hard and does not stop. It’s music to punch the wall to.

Inspired by classic rock operas, this concept album represents some major ambition and innovation in musical storytelling. Delivered in frontman Damian Abraham’s gravelly shouted vocals, the complex lyrical narrative of the album follows a factory worker, an activist and their struggle against the omnipotent author (Abraham himself) who controls their fates. Featuring devices like unreliable narrators and fourth-wall breaking, it takes some serious reading into to untangle. But it’s the bright guitarwork, combining upbeat punk rock and indie to create some killer riffs, that gives the album its furious energy and cinematic proportions.

Joanna Newsom is enchanted by the past. Like 2006’s ambitious Ys, the music on Divers makes this evident with its invocation of Western classical and medieval music, throwing antiquated instruments like clavichords together with lush string orchestration, woodwinds, organs, folk guitar and Newsom’s signature harp. With her soulful, moving vocals leading the way, it’s hard not to imagine her as some kind of Renaissance-era country woman contemplating nature, love and mortality in the fields and the woods. As always Newsom proves herself a stunningly original and creative arranger with the sheer compositional intricacy and flow of these songs, and most of all the harmonious intertwining of singing and instrumental backing.

Burial’s music is born from the London night: the bustle of the streets, the faint sounds from distant raves, the buskers, the rain on bus windows. This EP’s dreamlike quality makes listening to it feel like taking a trip across the city well after midnight, watching the lights go by, with no idea where you hope to get to. Every single sound and effect on these two songs is so precisely chosen, from the shifting and shuffling beats, the swelling synths and wordless vocals that sound like a club from a different dimension, the ambient hiss and pop of a vinyl record. Musically this sound is drawn from UK-based scenes like 2-step and drum ‘n bass, but twisted into such a moody and abstracted form as to be nearly unrecognisable as dubstep. Just when this urban, dismal sound is at its most oppressive, heavenly soul singers or organs cut through like a ray of light in the dark.

There’s an imaginary rulebook of how construct music, how to properly make tempos and combinations of notes sound harmonious, and Gorguts have spent their career ripping it up and throwing it in the bin. On 1998’s seminal Obscura, their atonal experimentation sounded at times like random noises in random order. But listen closely to Obscura or Colored Sands, their return after a long hiatus, and the method behind the madness emerges. One mark of great death metal is that it’s impossible to predict what direction it will go even a few seconds in advance, and the band achieves this while presenting a heavy, slow, momentous sound. The density of inspired riffs, and the intricate balancing of loud and quiet, fast and slow paced throughout these songs are exceptional. In instrumental sections the guitars will echo out as if across a barren plane, then the song will build up to the momentum of a freight train. Behind the crashing and twisting walls of guitar the patterns of blast beat drumming are almost mathematical in nature. Luc Lemay’s harsh bellows sound like a warlord’s cry or a pure expression of rage to the void. It’s threatening, menacing, unapproachable, but it all makes sense in the end.

Futuristic yet deeply retro, Blank Banshee’s music takes vaporwave beyond its roots in the pure consumerist parody of artists like Vektroid and James Ferraro and makes it actually sound amazing. Songs are built out of a single vocal snippet processed beyond recognition, new agey synthesisers, Windows XP-era computer noises, hilariously out of place instruments, all set to the 808 bass and hi-hats of hip-hop style beats. The genre’s pioneers intentionally sucked the soul from their music using samples pulled from 70s and 80s elevators, infomercials and corporate lounges - here the throwback seems to be to the early 2000s childhood of the internet, and the influence of a time when email and forums were revolutionary can be felt. The effect of this insanity is an album that whirls by like a techno-psychedelic haze: the atmosphere of dark trap beats places you squarely in a 2013 studio one moment, the next you’re surrounded by relaxing midi pianos and humming that a temple of new age practitioners would meditate to. Still, at some point when listening to this album, perhaps when the ridiculous steel drums kick in near the end, you realise that this is all to some degree a joke, and a funny one. It’s hard to overstate what an entertaining half-hour this thing is.

While 2012’s Good Kid, m.a.a.d City presented a movie in album form of Kendrick’s childhood and early adult years, TPAB’s journey is one of personal growth, introspection, and nuanced examination of the state of race in post-Ferguson America. It’s simultaneously the Zeitgeist for the US in 2015 and a soul-search in the therapist’s office. Sounding deeply vulnerable, he openly discusses depression, alcoholism, religion and feelings of helplessness. The White House and associated gangstas on the cover give some idea to the album’s political themes, with Lamar contrasting Obama’s presidency to the political powerlessness and lifelong ghetto entrapment of millions of black Americans. Everything I’ve written about the lyrics here really only scratches the surface because the words here are substantive, complex and dense with meaning. Near enough every bar can be analysed for multiple meanings and interpretations, essays can and have been written on the overall work, anything less does not do justice. The musical versatility on display is astounding: the album acts as an extravaganza of African-American music, from smooth west coast G-funk to east coast grit, neo-soul and rock to beat poetry, and most of all jazz. Like an expertly laid character arc the record progresses through its ideas in such a way that they’re all impactful, with the slurred rapping imitating a depressed drunken stupor followed later by exuberant, defiant cries of “I love myself!”, the white-hot rage against police brutality balanced by the hopeful mantra: “do you hear me, do you feel me, we gon be alright”. Perhaps the most culturally significant album of the 2010s and an essential piece of the hip-hop canon.

This harrowing hour chronicles the struggles and everyday tragedy of a series of characters and their relationship with the city they live in, narratively driven by some outstandingly poetic lyrics. Jordan Dreyer’s wordy tales despair at the poverty, gang violence and urban decay in the band’s native Grand Rapids, Michigan, an almost childlike open-hearted naivete in his words as he empathises with the broken and alienated people in these songs. There’s no jaded sneer or sly lesson to be learned as he sings about the child killed by a stray bullet or the homebird left alone after all their friends move away, just genuine second-hand sadness and a dream that compassion and community will eventually heal the pain. Taking elements from bands like At the Drive-In’s fusion of punk and progressive, and mewithoutyou’s shout-sung vocals, La Dispute hones its sound to a razor edge to put fierce instrumental power behind the lyrics. Not an easy listen, but a sharply written songbook and a perfect execution on its concept.

Around 2008, Joanna Newsom met comedian Andy Samberg. Within a year, their relationship was becoming the basis upon which the poetry of Have One on Me was spun. Newsom’s lyrics, exploring her relationship with her future-husband, nature, death, spirituality, are above all else loving. Through her warm and vibrant voice, at times an operatic trill and in others deeply soulful, she expresses the joy of love for another, the peace and earthly connection of her beloved pastoral lifestyle, deeply affecting melancholy and grief. Contemplative, artful, genuine or expressive: every lyric in every sweet melody is used to offer her ruminations on life or overflowings of passion.

More so than her previous and next albums, the feel of the album is of not just a folkloric past but also the present day, with drums, substantial brass and string arrangements, and even electric guitar anchoring the sound to Newsom’s real, not imaginary, life in the 21st century. Yet songs here with moods or settings evoking simpler lifestyles and the women living them in 1800s California or the Brontës’ English moors still have a universal relevance. Whether rooted in past of present, the instrumental variety of these compositions, from classical solo piano, grand orchestral arrangements led by harp, to the twang of country guitars or intricate vocal harmonising, makes it apparent that this is the work of a master songwriter in full command of well over a dozen talented musicians. Ultimately, what makes this my favourite album of the decade is that, very simply, it is one stunningly beautiful song after another, all collated into a cohesive 2-hour portrait of Newsom’s soul.

[aglaecan]

talk to me about caranthir and khuzdul

let’s talk about meta, baby || accepting

aw yeah, feanorians and language, my favorite topic! i’mma write this, and intersperse it with relevant quotes from various books of HoME, yeah? yeah.

okay okay okay. so. the dwarves are known to be a secretive people, who generally did not teach their language to others, while at the same time preserving it themselves and passing it along to their children, even after, in some cases, it was no longer a native tongue but a book-learnt one. it’s also a very difficult language, even if you can get someone to teach you.

“The Dwarves were in many ways a special case. They had anancient language of their own which they prized highly; andeven when, as among the Longbeard Dwarves of the West, ithad ceased to be their native tongue and had become a ‘book-language’, it was carefully preserved and taught to all theirchildren at an early age. It thus served as a lingua francabetween all Dwarves of all kinds; but it was also a writtenlanguage used in all important histories and lore, and in record-ing any matters not intended to be read by other people. ThisKhuzdul (as they called it), partly because of their nativesecretiveness, and partly because of its inherent difficulty, wasseldom learned by those of other race.”

however, there is some canon on the fact that the secretiveness is not 100%; for one thing, Adûnaic, which itself derives from Taliska (being the language of Hador and Beor), bears a strong resemblance, in places, to Khuzdul, indicating that at some time in the past, the dwarves and early Men were close enough that their languages influenced each other.

“This gave rise to the theory (a probable one) that inthe unrecorded past some of the languages of Men - includingthe language of the dominant element in the Atani from whichAdunaic was derived - had been influenced by Khuzdul.”

and further, there’s evidence that not all the dwarves were as secretive as the others; the Longbeards seem to have been the most reclusive, but the dwarves Caranthir would have known were more likely to be the Firebeards and Broadbeams.

“…of whom the Longbeards appear to have been themost secretive and least concerned to have dealings with Elves orMen”

“Since the ancestors of the Firebeards and the Broadbeams awokein the Ered Lindon, these kindreds must be presumed to be theDwarves of Nogrod and Belegost.”

now, the canon does specifically state that only Curufin was really interested in learning Khuzdul, being the most like Fëanor himself and therefore the most linguistically-inclined. and so he’s really the main source of knowledge that the Noldor loremasters have on Khuzdul.

“His sons were too occupied in war and feuds to pay attentionto such matters, save Maglor who was a poet, and Curufin, hisfourth and favourite son to whom he gave his own name; butCurufin was most interested in the alien language of the Dwarves,being the only one of the Noldor to win their friendship. It wasfrom him that the loremasters obtained such knowledge as theycould of the Khuzdul.”

but that said, Caranthir had traffic with the dwarves of Belegost and possibly Nogrod for at least 300 or so years. traffic in which both sides found great profit, and you know what you need to do when you’re trading with people? talk to them. and, i’ll say, despite the quote above where it states Curufin was the only one of the Noldor to win the friendship of the Dwarves, there’s also this, from elsewhere in the canon (emphasis mine):

“…since those of Belegost to the north had become friends of Caranthir son of Feanor.'”

(and also the fact that Maedhros had evidently befriended Azaghâl, but that’s entirely a different post altogether.)

and one final reference…

“…Lake Hele(d)vorn nearthe Dwarf-regions in the north of Dor Caranthir [Thargelion]: itmeans “black glass”, and is probably also a translation of a Dwarf-name…”

so they know at least some isolated words of Khuzdul, because they’ve given landscape features names which are direct translations of Khuzdul names.

basically this is all a very long winded way of saying that i find it, given this body of references and canon, extremely unlikely that Caranthir, a Noldor with a background in linguistics and language acquisition and a strong and centuries-long commerce with a group of Dwarves not specifically noted to be overly secretive, would not have known Khuzdul. 

or at least some of it. fluent? unlikely; there was no reason (nor actual desire) for him to expend the effort of learning it fluently. but the basics? simple syntax and grammar, important or common words, maybe a few fancier ‘ceremonial’ or formal phrases? (cursewords?) definitely all of that. Curufin was the only one who studied it, but Caranthir would know it.

[mcgowanhomes-blog]

Are you winter ready? Time to make an outdoor living room.

In Australia, we are blessed to have a comparatively temperate winter – especially in Queensland. While the rain may increase and the wind gets a little stronger, it’s nothing like the snow-capped winters of the Northern Hemisphere.

As such, we have fantastic conditions for creating outdoor living rooms that can be used all year round. Instead of retreating indoors to your cosy couch, why not transform your exterior space into a new type of retreat? Here are five things to consider:

1.Shelter

Queensland may not experience a harsh winter, but it rains all the same! Therefore, it is essential you consider what type of shelter you’re going to use in your space. To avoid creating a dark and cavernous area, consider what will allow sunlight to filter through while also protecting yours from the elements. Something that retracts – such as a canopy or sunroof – is a great option.

Depending on the material and design, the roof can make the space appear larger, or create a sense of intimacy – so choose wisely!

2.Decking

Decking is a fantastic way to define your outdoor living area. If you’re working with a smaller space, considering decking the entire area and interspersing low-maintenance plants around the edges or in larger pots. If it’s a larger garden, use decking as a way to define the entertaining area. With a hard-wearing set of table and chairs on top, as well as some appropriate outdoor lighting, you’ve got the perfect spot to host a relaxed dinner party.

3.Firepits

A fire pit is one of those pieces of furniture that satisfies both the functional and decorative aspects of an outdoor garden. It can also bring an added element of intimacy to a larger space, while also providing an eye-catching feature and practical heat source. For those with a culinary mind, a pizza oven is also a practical alternative.

Where you position a fire pit or similar feature can have a huge impact on the end design – will you use it as the centerpiece, or act as a break-out area in a larger garden?

4.Lighting

There’s no point investing in an outdoor living area if you can’t see anyone once the sun sets! Therefore, it’s imperative you include some form of outdoor lighting in your space. There’s no need to choose between functionality and ambiance either – combinations like a bright feature piece surrounded by decorative lanterns provide the best of both worlds. For something other-worldly, why not consider integrating your lighting design into the natural environment?

5.Furniture

No outdoor area is complete without high-quality furniture. The specifics will depend on what you want to use the space for – will it be for hosting parties on a Saturday night or lounging on a Sunday morning? If it’s the latter, soft furnishings will create visual warmth, resulting in a comfortable and cosy atmosphere. Consider woven blankets, velvet throw pillows and other layered options – they’ll make the space feel homely until summer comes around when they can be packed away until the following year.

Client education is the key, do your research before building or renovating your home.

While most of us would love handing over our home, going on holiday and coming back to a brand-new home, the reality is much different. Building a new home, addition or renovation is something that requires plenty of homework.

Long before you appoint a builder, you should complete your own research on the multiple ins and outs of building or renovating your home. It’s worth looking into just how much budget you have to play with, whether your dream designs are feasible and how long the process will realistically take.

Once you’ve done your own research, it’s time to consult a builder. But just which one do you choose? Read our latest blog to find out

Are you looking to knock-down and rebuild?

McGowan Homes is Gold Coast’s award-winning, custom home building experts, specialising in architecturally designed, luxury homes tailored to your dream lifestyle. 

Owned and operated by Jeremy and Christine McGowan, we aim to ensure peace of mind through open communication, a personal approach & outstanding service, time and time again.

If you’re looking to knock-down and rebuild then GET IN TOUCH

[scripttorture]

Sources

So this isn’t exactly a Masterpost. Good sources on torture are hard to find and it’s not always obvious what they cover. I’ve had a couple of people recommend fictional titles in the comments and while fiction can be helpful for working out how to handle torture in stories it is rarely accurate and no substitute for factual sources.

 I thought it might be helpful to give everyone a quick run down of the sources I’ve found most useful and what they cover.

 This may well be edited in the future as I find more books. :)

 Torture and Democracy by D Rejali

 This is basically the book on torture.

 It’s the size of a breezeblock.

 Rejali covers torturers and victims, provides a systematic breakdown of why torture fails, gives a history of electrical torture, an analysis of factors that encourage torture in society and an overview of how the law fails torture victims. Interrogation is extensively covered.

 This book covers torture in the modern era globally and in that area it is very thorough. Historical torture is not extensively covered.

 But for a thorough understanding of the topic and modern torture, Rejali is a must.

 Why Torture Doesn’t Work: The Neuroscience of Interrogation by S O’Mara

 O’Mara’s book is much more focused on science than Rejali’s. It is a point by point analysis of some of the most common ‘clean’ (ie non-scarring) torture techniques used today, explaining exactly how harmful they are and debunking claims that they’re not ‘real’ torture.

 O’Mara’s speciality is the brain and he uses his knowledge to show the biological under-pinings of why torture can not work.

 An excellent source on torture generally and a brilliant explanation of how pain, memory and distress work. This is useful for writing any traumatic event but doesn’t cover a wide range of torture techniques and is very Western-focused in its approach.

 Cruel Britannia: A Secret History of Torture by I Cobain

 While I have some problems with Cobain’s book he remains an excellent source.

 My problems are pretty simple, Cobain’s a journalist not a scholar and he often allows apologist arguments to creep into his book. He often takes torturers’ word for it and believes them when they suggest that valuable information can come from torture.

 Rejali and O’Mara will tell you why that’s wrong.

 But the interviews in this book are incredibly valuable. Cobain interviews victims and torturers and sets them in a wider political context, showing how governments have supported or ignored torture.

 His interviews on the London Cage and the collected work on Ireland, Aden, Cyprus and the Mau-Mau is well worth a look for anyone interested in those conflicts in particular or the British ‘National Style’ of torture in general.

 Sourcebook on Solitary Confinement by S Shalev

 Shalev’s Sourcebook is a free resource that’s available online and an excellent break down of the damage solitary confinement causes.

 While this is obviously focused on one technique this Sourcebook contains pretty much all the information you could want on solitary.

 The majority of the data comes from US prisons and the book is obviously biased towards confinement in a prison context. But the discussion of symptoms, risk factors and long term effects makes this utterly invaluable.

 Any author who writes about solitary confinement or isolation should consult at least the second chapter.

 Mao’s Great Famine by F Dikötter

 One of the best books on famine in print.

 The style is somewhat impersonal, but I think that works in its favour. The focus is essentially on how widespread famine can occur rather than how starvation affects the individual.

 The discussion on community and the role of enforcers is particularly good.

 I’d recommend it for anyone writing a large-scale natural disaster or atrocity.

 Amnesty International Reports (Annual 2016/2017)

 Amnesty’s annual reports give good concise updates on torture globally, year by year. They are freely available online and generally contain a lot of survivor accounts.

 It can be difficult to find specific information using them. You can not, for example, tell from the summaries whether particular techniques are covered. They rarely contain follow-ups on survivors and so are not a good resource for the recovery process.

 But the accounts of survivors, in their own words, are invaluable.

 World Food Programme

 An excellent resource on starvation and malnutrition. If you want to know how a starving or malnourished character would be treated or recover this is probably the best free resource you can find.

 Very good for physical effects and for descriptions of disaster relief programs. Not so great on survivor accounts or giving an idea of what starvation feels like on a personal level.

 International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims

 If you’ve been following my blog for a while you may have heard of these guys. Not only do they work to support torture victims but they also publish a free online journal dedicated to helping survivors recover.

 Rather academic and dense, this material often requires a lot of effort and engagement. This is very much the academic side. It can be incredibly helpful, but it’s not always easy to find the information you’re after.

 A Darkling Plain by K R Monroe

 A collection of interviews with survivors of a wide range of atrocities, Monroe’s book shows a real range of both traumatic events and responses to them.

 The main focus of the book is how people move on with their lives after atrocities and how they hold on to their sense of humanity. As such it’s incredibly useful to authors whose writing touches on these themes and authors who want to include a wider range of realistic responses to traumatic events.

 Highly recommended.

 The Wretched of the Earth by F Fanon

 The appendix contains some of Fanon’s notes on people he treated during the Franco-Algerian war.

 These notes include two torturers, a family member of a torturer, victims and relatives of victims.

 This is still one of the most valuable readily accessible sources on torturers’ behaviour.

 The Question by H Alleg

 Alleg’s account of torture during the Franco-Algerian war is a classic for a reason. This is a lucid, often harrowing account of torture failing from a victim’s perspective.

 I talk about victims refusing to cooperate. Alleg describes what it feels like from the inside.

 I strongly advise anyone writing from a victim’s perspective to read this book.

 We Wish to Inform you that Tomorrow we will be Killed with our Families by P Gourevitch

 The Rwandan genocide. This book provides both an overview of the events, interviews with survivors and transcripts/quotes from the time period.

 A difficult but important book, and extremely useful for writing conflict and war crimes.

 A History of Torture by G R Scott

 This book was written in the 30s and boy does it read like it was.

 The casual racism and sexism is extreme and off putting however this remains one of the most thorough books on historical torture globally. Just…read it with a critical eye.

 To the Kwai and Back by R Searle

 This collection of war drawings is, in my opinion, Searle’s best and most affecting work.

 They chronicle Searle’s experience of the Second World War as a prisoner of the Japanese. The drawings document torture, starvation, forced labour and death marches and are interspersed with Searle’s commentary and memories.

 The book serves as both a survivor’s account and (as Searle is looking back) a discussion of how he as an individual recovered. It serves as a very good source on large-scale atrocities seen from a personal perspective.

 Nonviolence: The History of a Dangerous Idea by M Kurlansky

 The focus of this work is in the title but torture crops up in this wide ranging historical narrative time and time again.

 It won’t be relevant to everyone’s stories, but I’m including this book for its numerous moving examples of people across cultures and history resisting torture, slavery and genocide without violence. We have very few fictional examples of this kind of action, and the history is rarely remembered.

 I want you, my readers, to be aware of as many sources as possible so you can break the mould if you want to.

 Tell Me Where I Can Be Safe: Human Rights Watch report on LGBTQ Rights in Nigeria

 This is a pretty harrowing read containing a lot of rape and sexual violence as well as torture. Victim accounts are prominent and the report only covers a relatively recent period in one country.

 I include this because my reading strongly suggests that it is typical of anti-LGBTQ violence across much of Africa and the Middle East. The methods and tactics used crop up across multiple countries and have been known to occur in Europe (though Gay and Trans Rights legislation has helped combat such violence).

 As a result I think this is a very valuable resource for writing torture and abuse of LGBTQ people specifically and an extremely important resource for Western writers who wish to write LGBTQ characters who are not from the West.  

 The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by R Skloot

 An incredibly valuable overview of unethical experimentation in modern America.

 While far from a complete survey this book covers unconsenting or uninformed experimentation on minors, mental health patients, black people and prisoners.

 It talks about how experiments were conducted, how subjects were chosen and the effect on both the victims and their families.

 Highly recommended for anyone who wishes to write unethical experimentation.

 The Horrible Histories Series by T Deary and M Brown

 Yes these are children’s books and yes I am sure they deserve a place here.

 With their focus on the ‘gruesome bits’ of history these books generally contain quick and accurate overviews of historical tortures. Descriptions of punishments, methods of execution and medical treatments at the time are present in almost all of these short, accessible books.

 The focus is on English history as such there’s a lot that isn’t covered, but they’re very good for getting a sense of the tortures that were used during different historical periods quickly and easily.

Men and Hunger: a psychological manual for relief workers by H S Guetzkow, P H Bowman, A Keys, 1946 (The Minnesota Starvation Experiment)

 This is not the full text but the 70 page summary sent out to relief workers immediately following the experiment. This covers all the important psychological and physical effects of starvation in enough detail for an author writing a starving character to find it extremely helpful. It contains a lot of specific examples of behaviours and quotes from the men involved with the experiment, giving a rounded, detailed sense of their experience.

 However it does contain some racist and sexist language common during the 1940s when it was written.

UN Human Rights report on Rohingya refugees from Myanmar

 This is the UN report on the on-going genocide/ethnic cleansing taking place in Myanmar.

 The report contains accounts of murder, rape, gang-rape, torture and the murder of children. It also contains brief statistical analysis of the crimes survivors reported witnessing or experiencing (over half of Rohingya women reported being raped or sexually assaulted, over half of the survivors interviewed reported that a family member had been murdered).

 This could be useful to people writing about ethnic cleansing and genocide. I think it gives an overview of the situation within countries where these crimes occur, giving a sense of what they’re like before, during and after these atrocities.

War Child: Reclaiming Dreams

 This is a quick summary of the effects war has on children by the charity War Child. It focuses on the work they do in various countries; it aims to raise money for the charity and awareness of the causes they’re involved in.

 It provides a decent, quick overview of the many factors that affect children in war; both as civilians and as combatants. It talks about how children are used by armies (pointing out that the idea of they are always forced to fight is false) and how families and children caught in the cross fire are affected.

 A useful source for authors writing about children in combat zones and a good starting point for anyone planning on writing child soldiers.

The UN Standard Minimum Rules for the treatment of Prisoners, aka the Nelson Mandela Rules

This is a pretty dense legal document outlining how prisoners should be treated and the conditions that are a minimum acceptable standard for keeping them.

It’s tough reading but it could be useful for anyone planning to write about prisons and prisoners in a modern setting.

The collected works of S Kara

Kara’s research on slavery today is based on almost twenty years experience and thousands of interviews with enslaved people across continents.

He covers both individual experiences and the larger global picture of modern slavery. He covers multiple countries and slavery in different kinds of industries.

He also provides a thorough and convincing breakdown of the numbers; how many slaves there are today and where. This is accompanied by a clear analysis of how slavery has been allowed to continue and what needs to be done to stop it.

Brilliant, harrowing, necessary books that are a must for anyone writing about slavery.

Disclaimer

[mindthewolves]

differential diagnosis of common problems in fic*

*not just fanfic, but you don’t see that much original fic from people just starting out because Gatekeepers

disclaimer – this is not a “god this is terrible writing how could you do that ever” but a “we all have blind spots and maybe would benefit from getting a beta reader” and yes, ofc that includes me too. also these are general Story Things as separate from Issues of Representation Things.

other writers, hello and feel free to chime in!

content:

characters that exist solely for another character’s development. write people as people, not objects.

relationships in which A Modicum of communication would save you 20 chapters of angst

infodumping, extensive and conspicuous exposition, the like

on the other end of the spectrum, not grounding the scene (can’t visualize what’s going on)

extreme violence without reason or as a shoddy excuse for character development, particularly as highly gendered tropes

perfection (I see this with kara a lot in supergirl fic. she’s invulnerable, with super strength, super nice, drop-dead gorgeous, and secretly a scientific whiz kid AND ALSO can paint you something to sell at Sotheby’s. this has gone too far.)

songfic with the entire song written out in the middle of the story while the plot slips through your fingers or random lyrics interspersed throughout. ditto poetry. ditto quotes by people who are supposed to lend Weight and Gravitas to the fic

medicine/science that is indistinguishable from magic. R&D takes a long time. you do not defibrillate for asystole. (hello, flash. i’m looking at you.)

the telepathic narrator: in which the POV jumps back and forth between characters (most commonly love interests) with every other sentence

see related cheat code: “character A knew that character B was feeling/thinking X, Y, and Z” just no

precocious toddlers Wise Beyond Their Years or grown-ass adults with the intellect and emotional maturity of children (again, unless done for effect)

extensive author notes that prescribe exactly what you should take away from the fic and what things were Supposed To Mean. stories do not work like that; they’re open to interpretation, AND they should stand on their own without explanation

formatting:

why is there extra white space on ao3 you guys

block text of more than ~5 lines per paragraph, i cannot read it

italics where they shouldn’t be; it’s like listening to an oddly accented musical line

weird formatting of glosses for non-English words

each character’s reaction/description should go with their dialogue

if character A is speaking:

incorrect: “What movie do you want to watch?” character B shrugged.

correct: “What movie do you want to watch?”

character B shrugged.

changing verb tense in the middle of a story

spelling and word choice:

the epithets, cease and desist. it’s distracting and it reduces your character to a single aspect (usually of their appearance) that is (usually) not relevant to the scene at all. particularly egregious: epithets based on race/ethnicity

unclear pronouns, esp with f/f or m/m ships

its =/= it’s, pls google. the first is possessive and the second is “it is”

their/they’re/there and your/you’re, remember google is your friend

lets =/= let’s and all other verbs in this pattern: the first is the verb conjugation (-s) for he/she/it in present tense. the second is “let us”

reign =/= rein. you reign over a kingdom but you “rein in” an impulse. like a horse.

taut =/= taught

weary =/= wary

bawling =/= balling

adverse =/= averse, you are “averse to” pickles but go out in “adverse” weather

it’s “another think coming” rather than “another thing”

there seems to be some confusion over the words lay and lie. you lie down on a bed, past tense lay, present participle lying, past participle lain. you lay an object down on a table, past tense laid, present participle laying. these are not the same word, despite the spelling overlap.

misspelling your character names. really?

that word does not mean what you think it means

see also: i looked this up in the dictionary no one will know it but ppl will think i am Smart

for the reader/audience side of things:

how to comment (an example, not an absolute)

thank the writer. fics are not tangible but they are still gifts

what did you like about the fic and why?

other things you’d like to see, meta about the characters, lines that stuck with you, what worked and what didn’t

if you want to offer suggestions and they are not constructive, stop right there. hard stop.

if you have constructive criticism, drop an ask and see if that’s something the writer is even interested in. you don’t walk up to someone who’s wearing a pair of gloves they just knitted and say, “that row of stitches, it’s going the wrong way.” keep in mind that ao3 or tumblr may not be the place for unsolicited critique, especially from strangers online with no established credentials. concrit is like dark magic and not to be tampered with lightly. people who actually know how to give it are probably not the people who roll up in your comments with Demands

should I even comment?

if you read The Thing, leave a comment. support your writers. it’s not just paying it back or being a good fandom citizen. language is about connection – we write to be read. the fic is the ask; the comment is the answer

fic is not a one-way street or it doesn’t have to be

& I promise that even a well thought-out comment will take a fraction of the time it took to write the actual fic

also if you are a reader who wants to write, or a reader who wants to read better, commenting (i.e. thinking about what makes fic work and putting that into words) will help up your game too

for betas and critique partners:

the diplomatic critiquer

more references

read fic that you admire, take it apart, see how it works

be clear about what the writer is looking for w a beta read AND what the beta reader is willing or able to do. for me this comes in three tiers: 

1. content editing, story problems, representation problems

2. sentence and paragraph-level problems: internal echoes, issues w writing voice, things that don’t make sense, etc. 

3. copyediting: spelling and grammar only

motion to add an opt-in “yes, looking for concrit” box on ao3

sites for critting original fic: critique circle, critters

[yyhfanfiction]

The Sea Prince by knightsqueen05

M | English | Romance/Fantasy | Multi-Chapter | 17,167 words | In Progress

On: FanFiction.net

Summary: “A fantasy/historical love story loosely based on three different versions of "The Little Mermaid". Two demons manipulate the actions of a love triangle between a village princess, her fiancé through an arranged courtship, and a sea prince. Who will she choose? Will she marry for love or will she marry for commercial gain?”

Overall Score: 91.25%

Read more below (warning: SPOILERS!).

Note: As this review was completed on a work-in-progress, the reviewer comments and the rating should be taken with a grain of salt.

Canon Plausibility

Definition: How well the plot and characters aligned with the original story universe.

Score: 4.00/5.00

A high score for this element indicates that the story blended into the original universe well. This includes the characters being portrayed as they originally were, and that the plot and/or any original characters aligned with the sense of the universe as well.

Reviewer comments: The score on this will be a bit different to interpret as this is an AU. However, given the actual context, the majority of characters' actions were logically based. The only inconsistency in this was how Karasu was shown as a weeping, emotional drama queen. I can kind of see it, but at the same time, considering how the other canon characters were adapted to their new roles, his original personality didn't translate quite as well. It went a bit too far out in left field for him.

Relationships

Definition: Platonic and romantic interaction and development between characters interspersed over time.

Score: 4.00/5.00

A high score on this element indicates that the presentation of the interactions between characters created realistic and meaningful relationships that allowed the readers to connect with and understand the characters.

Reviewer comments: There was not too much of an issue with how the relationships were presented throughout the story, but as the writing style is of a more succinct/explicit nature, I did find myself not being able to understand why Kiyoni or Kurama all of a sudden felt like they were in love with each other. This is a balance though, because I can also see that it's a cliché/normal thing to do given the type of fairytale it springs from.

Plot and Technical Execution

Definition: Interrelated content sequenced in the storyline, including subplots, presented in a grammatically accurate manner.

Score: 4.50/5.00

A high score on this element indicates that the readers did not have a hard time following along with the storyline and that major situations were addressed logically. Additionally, there were likely few or no grammatical errors.

Reviewer comments: There were very few mistakes in terms of the plot and the adaptation of the period/fairy-tale time was accurately and consistently portrayed. However, there were moments where I had a harder time following the flow of the writing that could have been broken up better (i.e., the dialogue dispersion). There were a handful of typos here and there, but nothing major.

Conflict

Definition: Internal or external struggle presented throughout the storyline, eventually reaching resolution.

Score: 5.00/5.00

A high score on this element indicates a balance of presented conflict. The characters have taken a stance in a situation or addressed a pressing internal struggle. This has allowed for character development and reader interest.

Reviewer comments: As this story is in progress, I cannot rate resolution yet. However, there is logical conflict presented (Kiyoni's unwanted, arranged marriage) and it has helped develop characters and progress the story well.

Originality

Definition: Uniqueness of the presented plot as relevant to the fandom.

Score: 5.00/5.00

A high score on this element indicates that enough unique content was presented, sparking readers' interest.

Reviewer comments: I am absolutely in love with the originality of the story. The POC main OC is a nice change of pace and the actual alternate universe is a really interesting change that I don't often see. I am an ocean/mermaid fan, so bonus points on that. I wonder if the author will integrate African mermaids? Another interesting point to maybe touch on eventually.

Dialogue

Definition: Quality and quantity of the conversation had throughout the storyline, including verbal and nonverbal communication.

Score: 4.33/5.00

A high score on this element indicates that there was an effective balance in quantity and/or quality of verbal and nonverbal dialogue. The dialogue was well-utilized in furthering character or story development.

Reviewer comments: The dialogue was usually balanced. The only issue I had with it, aside from what I mentioned about breaking up different speakers on new lines, is that there was some repetition mentioned. That is, the author would say something like this: Akio made a speech. "Everyone, I have a speech." (This is not a direct quote, but my exaggerated example/oversimplification.) It's usually easier to omit this type of unnecessary repetition and put the effort into auxiliary information that can better describe the scene/setting/behaviors. A simple reread of the chapters may suffice for catching this.

Pacing

Definition: Appropriateness of the speed of the presented storyline.

Score: 4.67/5.00

A high score on this element indicates that the pacing was appropriate for the storyline and that the readers were able to meaningfully experience the story without losing interest or being confused.

Reviewer comments: Overall, the writing is very explicit and not overly detailed. I can understand this as there is a lot of story and information to convey. Usually, this representation might bother me, but I didn't feel very upset about it in this story. I want more information and details because I find it so interesting, but what is presented does suffice. Any lower ratings are indicative of just an area or two that felt like they might have needed more details (e.g., I'm missing out on what Hiei is doing while all this stuff is going on with Mukuro right now, but the author may touch on that soon).

Front Matter

Definition: Appropriateness and instilled intrigue of the categorized preview information and summary.

Score: 5.00/5.00

A high score on this element indicates that the front matter was accurate and enticing. This may range from a well-constructed summary to appropriate categorizations for the rating or genres.

Reviewer comments: No comments. All information was appropriate and interesting to catch my attention.

Additional Comments

Overall, what could the author improve most to make the story better?

I think that if there were just a few more details or possibly better transitions between scenes and dialogue, it might help the reader follow along better.

Overall, what did the author excel at that really made the story for you?

I really love the originality and new roles that everyone has. It's interesting to see how Kurama is now a mermaid prince and he has his bros he chills with and that the Kuwabara's are fishers now. Those are the kind of details I enjoy reading/seeing and like the freshness of it all.

What was your favorite moment in the story? Were there any particularly funny or surprising moments?

My favorite moment was probably just how the Kuwabara's fished Kurama out of the ocean. I imagine it'd be pretty crazy to have that happen and was almost expecting them to bring up some Japanese lore about sea monsters that are common in the supposed time period. I wasn't expecting them to be fishers, nor was I expecting them to catch Kurama, but it fit well and made their relationship development logical/fun.

[konvolutes]

February 2017

@ California Theater in Berkeley with Lydia from Paris School of Economics, visiting student of Picketty.

“What white people have to do is try and find out in their own hearts why it was necessary to have a nigger in the first place, because I'm not a nigger,” he said. “I'm a man, but if you think I'm a nigger, it means you need it… If I'm not a nigger and you invented him -- you, the white people, invented him -- then you've got to find out why. And the future of the country depends on that, whether or not it's able to ask that question.”

I knew next to nothing of Baldwin’s political thought and activism beyond the page before seeing this. Terrific film-craft, a collage over a single unfinished text of James Baldwin interspersed with his own voice.

The entire voice-over narration (spoken by Samuel L. Jackson) of Raoul Peck’s incisive documentary is derived from the writings of James Baldwin, whose unfinished memoir and study of the lives of three slain civil-rights leaders—Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King, Jr.—provides the movie’s through line. Peck adds a generous selection of archival footage showing the heroes of Baldwin’s project at work and detailing Baldwin’s own intellectual activism at times of crisis. Moving from divisions within the civil-rights movement (including those separating Malcolm X from King) to its unities, Peck also spotlights Baldwin’s analysis of the yet unbridged gap between the legal end of segregation and the practice of white supremacy. (Unredressed police killings of black Americans, as Peck shows, are a crucial and enduring result of that ideology.) The filmmaker cannily cites Baldwin’s remarkable writings about movies to illustrate the author’s overarching thesis, about the country’s tragic failure of consciousness; Peck’s references to current events reveal Baldwin’s view of history and his prophetic visions to be painfully accurate.

I Am Not Your Negro begins with the author’s return to the U.S. in 1957 after living in France for almost a decade—a return prompted by seeing a photograph of 15-year-old Dorothy Counts and the violent white mob that surrounded her as she entered and desegregated Harding High School in Charlotte, North Carolina. After seeing that picture, Baldwin explained, “I could simply no longer sit around Paris discussing the Algerian and the black American problem. Everybody was paying their dues, and it was time I went home and paid mine.”

Especially riveting is Baldwin’s discussion of Poitier in “The Defiant Ones,” a film that divided black and white audiences when it was released, in 1958. In “The Defiant Ones,” Poitier plays an escaped black convict who is handcuffed to a racist white convict (Tony Curtis). Gradually, the two become friends, of a sort, and toward the end of the film Poitier’s character sacrifices his own freedom to help Curtis’s character. In “The Devil Finds Work,” Baldwin points out that black audiences wanted Poitier’s character to abandon his former tormentor, while white audiences thought that his loyalty was laudable.

alongside “O.J.: Made in America” and “13TH,” with which it shares some concerns. This trio of moves present a complex statement on the evolution of racial barriers that have plagued the country over the past century, and the impulses that keep them in place, but “I Am Not Your Negro” casts the widest net.

Within the confines of a five-minute stretch, he veers from clips of Rodney King riots to Ferguson, Billy Wilder’s “Love in the Afternoon” and Gus Van Sant’s “Elephant” — with Jackson’s whispered narration as the key linking device — addressing both the frustration driving black activism and the broader systematic dysfunction that has marginalized issues of race in society. Peck’s dazzling approach never slows down, but maintains a clarity of vision that’s enthralling and provocative without turning into didacticism.

Baldwin’s sexuality surprisingly left out, despite his other writings on the topic and intersectionality with race. During the ’60s, liberals and radicals alike mocked and attacked Baldwin because of his sexuality. President John F. Kennedy, and many others, referred to him disparagingly as “Martin Luther Queen”; and Eldridge Cleaver, one of the leaders of the Black Panther Party, wrote in his memoir Soul on Ice: “The case of James Baldwin aside for a moment, it seems that many Negro homosexuals, acquiescing in this racial death-wish, are outraged and frustrated because in their sickness they are unable to have a baby by a white man.” In Baldwin’s No Name in the Street (1971), a source from which I Am Not Your Negro draws heavily, the author responded to Cleaver’s attacks against him, but viewers wouldn’t know from the film’s narrative slant how the experience of race and sexuality were closely intertwined for Baldwin.

Backstory of the film

They gifted him Baldwin’s “The Fire Next Time” and he was forever changed.

“Since that first contact with Baldwin, I never left him,” he said. “I read everything. He was a constant reminder for me, a constant mentor, a constant companion.”

When Peck began making films -- after being a New York City taxi driver and working as a journalist and photographer, and while he was Haiti’s minister of culture —  he knew that “one day I would tackle Baldwin,” especially since he starts every screenplay he writes with a Baldwin quote to help “sustain the whole writing process.” He set out to do just that nearly 10 years ago.

In need of permission from the Baldwin estate —  the writer died in 1987 —  Peck wrote them a letter despite everyone telling him they were notorious for refusing or ignoring requests. “I have nothing to lose,” he thought.

He received a written response within three days and an invitation to meet with Baldwin’s sister Gloria Karefa-Smart in Washington, D.C. By the end of their meeting, she, a fan of Peck’s 2000 film “Lumumba,” had granted him unprecedented access to the entire estate.

“She chose me, much more than me choosing Baldwin,” he said.

Over the next four years, he ruffled through Baldwin’s many works, published and unpublished. In that time, he had written a number of scripts, for a narrative feature and a mixed narrative-documentary flick, but “all that was not satisfying for me,” he said.

“Deep down what I wanted was how to do the ultimate Baldwin [film], the film that would be bold and nobody could shake up, that would stay forever and make everybody go back to Baldwin and the books,” he said.

It was necessary for him to at least try to have the same impact Baldwin himself had on people and society with this film. But “to be totally Baldwin, I knew I had to set myself back and leave the stage for him, his words.”

The idea for “I Am Not Your Negro” would come only when Karefa-Smart was packing up the estate to send to the New York Public Library. She came across a 30-page collection of notes and that she sent to Peck believing that he’d know what to do with them. The notes were of Baldwin’s unfinished book, “Remember This House,” and provided “the open door” Peck was longing for.

“Remember This House,” the foundation of the film, was Baldwin’s effort to tell the story of race in America through the assassinations of Malcolm X, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Medgar Evers. The filmmaker took the words from those pages and crafted a narrative, voiced by Samuel L. Jackson, that Peck hopes will endure and remain as relevant as Baldwin himself. And in contrast to how most modern documentaries are made, the now Oscar-nominated “I Am Not Your Negro” has no talking heads. The only words are Baldwin’s.

“I made sure every single word was pure Baldwin,” he said. “It was not about how creative I am. It was about how do I make sure it hits the people frontally, without any filter.”

[thebookbeard-blog]

December is for Star Wars.

At least that's what I decided at the end of 2015 after watching The Force Awakens, a movie that re-kindled a love and passion that had been dormant since my teenage years. I went back to the theater three more times. I left each showing feeling like a kid, in the best of ways. I was, at almost thirty years old, Star Wars trash once again -- a label that I happily and readily accepted. I began to consume more SW-related pop culture. I started watching Star Wars Rebels, which in time I came to realize captures the spirit of the original trilogy better than almost anything else. I started reading some of the comics being put out by Marvel at the time, chiefly Kieron Gillen's Darth Vader run, a brilliant piece of storytelling on its own. Then I started to explore some of the books set in the Star Wars universe. 

The trash of the thing.

The first SW book I ever read was Claudia Gray's Lost Stars. My expectations were low: Star Wars is such a visually rich setting, after all, and I had doubts as to how well it would translate to the written word. If anything, I only expected a fun romp through the Star Wars universe. I certainly didn't expect it to be an arresting and heart-wrenching piece of fiction. But it turned out to be both. I loved it enough that it was the first book I picked as a favorite read for last year. And I loved Gray's writing enough that I would eagerly pick up whatever she wrote for the expanded universe next. The fact that this happened to be a story that focused on Leia increased my interested only by a hell of a lot.

Bloodline features and older, wiser, slightly weary Leia, still serving in her function as a Senator for the New Republic. At the beginning of the story, tired of all the ceremony and hypocrisy of politics, she's determined to retire from it all, but not before engaging in one last diplomatic mission which she hopes will do some actual, genuine good for the galaxy -- not to mention serve as one final adventure. That this adventure should prove to uncover a vast and deep conspiracy that threatens not only her personal safety and reputation but the fate of the entire galaxy should really come as no big surprise -- this is a Star Wars story, after all.

Gray's portrayal of Leia is beautifully nuanced, and balances the political and personal aspects of the character with grace and aplomb. This is a Leia that is a brilliant and savvy politician, as well as a bad-ass who knows how to handle a blaster and is ready to throw down at a moment’s notice.

Leia lifted her blaster, losing her sights on Rinnrivin’s guard — and targeting the central strut of the tunnel support directly overhead. One bolt held the entire thing together. That bolt was no larger than a child’s fist. At this range, in semi-darkness, perhaps one shot in a thousand might be capable of destroying that bolt. But Leia made the shot.

In short, the very same Leia that we all know and love. The same Leia that the late, great Carrie Fisher brought to life. Gray's capable prose does her more than enough justice.

The story is made all the more interesting by the fact that it deals heavily with politics, something that the prequels tried to do with very mixed and muddy results. It’s one of the more fascinating aspects in Bloodline however, and the intrigue and West Wing-like drama of it all carries the story through. That the political landscape of the novel happens to look very much like our own just adds a more surreal and slightly ominous layer to it all. 

Gray has gone on record to say that Bloodline wasn’t written as commentary, but it's pretty hard, especially after the events of last November, not to view the story as a reflection of our current reality. Part of the reason that Leia wants to retire has to do with the Senate devolving into a two-party system -- parties that are themselves fragmented into conflicting fractions. She laments how "every debate on the Senate floor turns into an endless argument over ‘tone’ or ‘form’ and never about issues of substance." And try to read this bit of dialogue and tell me it doesn't sound like something you’d find on a recent think piece.

“Surely you won’t deny the New Republic is committing mistakes of its own.”

“Not the evils of tyranny and control.”

“No. The evils of absence and neglect.”

And, of course, there’s the now viral quote at the close of the book that has gained new relevance in light of yesterday's marches:

“The sun is setting on the New Republic," Leia said. "It's time for the Resistance to rise.”

Indeed. 

Bloodline is both a brilliant character portrait and relevant social commentary. Claudia Gray can write Star Wars like no other and I will read anything she writes in this universe.

After dealing with the heady but heavy themes of Bloodline however, I figured I was due some for some warmth and comfort. At which point I usually turn to a Rainbow Rowell book.

I love Rainbow Rowell. I love her quirky and clever and passionate writing (if there was a book equivalent to Gilmore Girls, it would be a Rowell book). I love her amazing and uncanny ability to make you fall for a character in almost no time at all.

This same talent is brilliantly showcased in Kindred Spirits, a slim novella that, over the course of sixty-two pages, manages to have more character development than most sprawling, brick-sized novels.

It's an unfair gift, really.

This is a story about three Star Wars geeks camping out in desolate line in front of an Omaha theater for the premiere of The Force Awakens. It is lovely, and it is charming, and it is so wonderful. I finished the story in one sitting, desperately wishing there was a full-length novel featuring these characters that I could immediately pick up. Heartwarming and beautiful.

And so December rolled around once more, and with it another Star Wars film, because Disney will never be stopped.

But of course I loved almost everything about Rogue One: I loved its beautiful and beautifully diverse cast, I loved its relentless and brutal pace, I even dug its CGI missteps. It's a dark, dark film, to be sure, but it also seems very apt and timely. Rebellions are built on hope, etc.

I picked up the Rogue One: A Star Wars Story novelization by Alexander Freed because I kept coming across good reviews. I was skeptical -- I had tried to read Alan Dean Foster's adaptation of The Force Awakens and found the writing style so tedious that I couldn't get past the first chapter. Thankfully though Freed doesn't seem to suffer from this: his writing style is relatively spartan and straightforward, which serves this kind of story well. Even so I was still very much surprised at how much I enjoyed reading this, and even more surprised at how much more depth it managed to add to the story. 

One of the main criticisms about the film is that we don't spend enough individual time with the characters too feel much of anything when they meet their ultimate fate. Which is fair: movie's are all about the external after all, whereas in books and comics you can delve more into the character's feelings and motivations -- literally get inside their heads. This is what Freed does in the novelization, and to great effect. We get so many details regarding each character's background, personality, and motivation.

Cassian stashed his paranoia in the back of his brain -- out of the way but within easy reach.

Jyn knew the sounds of occupation well. They were the sounds of home.

Baze did not limit his targets to those who might spot the blind man, but he kept Chirrut under observation nonetheless; where the Force would fail Chirrut, Baze would not.

And it does affect how you feel about the characters as the plot happens to them. This is made most evident in K-2SO's final scene, an already heartbreaking moment in the film, but here Freed adds one last final touch that makes is all the more tragic and all the more beautiful. Totally evil stuff, but good nonetheless.

This device isn't limited to the characters either: for the more technical aspects of the plot we get things like communiques and log entries interspersed throughout the story, and they are also used to great effect. In a particularly brilliant entry, we get to find out just how Galen Erso, with the help of sheer bureaucratic nonsense, ensures the flaw he engineered in the Death Star reactor remains in place. A detail that is both morbidly hilarious and also incredibly realistic.

I do think that one of the things that makes the movie such a visceral experience gets totally lost in the translation, however, and that is much of the action. Freed does a serviceable job, but the action still very much slows down and lack urgency and tension. Darth Vader’s big scene is an absolute show-stopper in the movie, for example, whereas here it reads as very much anticlimactic. 

But that is admittedly a minor criticism that applies mostly to the third act, and I do think that the material and information that was added to the story more than makes up for it.

Highly recommend reading this before you watch Rogue One for the eight time.

It was raining. It didn’t rain in L.A. It was raining in L.A. and I was Princess Leia. I had never been Princess Leia before and now I would be her forever. I would never not be Princess Leia.

And then there's Carrie. Oh Carrie.

December was a particularly tough month in a particularly tough year. Too many artists I admired passed away, and then halfway through December I went a personal loss that left me dazed and numb. Then Carrie Fisher died, and it all struck me as once, and I was just sad for a long while.

I had downloaded The Princess Diarist shortly after finishing the Rogue One novelization. It seemed like an appropriate follow up, and I've been meaning to read Fisher's stuff for years anyway. It stayed unread on my tablet for a bit (the aforementioned personal loss took any desire I had to read much), but I picked it up immediately after learning of Carrie's death. It seemed like the appropriate thing to do.

The Princess Diarist is about Fisher looking back on diary entries she had penned in the late seventies, during the filming of Star Wars. It's a meditation on fame and growing up in Hollywood and being young and growing old. It's a wonderful read. Raunchy and hilarious and clever; whimsical and melancholy. Brutally honest and full of life truths. I highlighted a great many passages:

The crew was mostly men. That’s how it was and that’s pretty much how it still is. It’s a man’s world and show business is a man’s meal, with women generously sprinkled through it like overqualified spice.

I looked at her aghast, with much like the expression I used when shown the sketches of the metal bikini. The one I wore to kill Jabba (my favorite moment in my own personal film history), which I highly recommend your doing: find an equivalent of killing a giant space slug in your head and celebrate that.

Back then I was always looking ahead to who I wanted to be versus who I didn’t realize I already was, and the wished-for me was most likely based on who other people seemed to be and the desire to have the same effect on others that they had had on me.

I don’t just want you to like me, I want to be one of the most joy-inducing human beings that you’ve ever encountered. I want to explode on your night sky like fireworks at midnight on New Year’s Eve in Hong Kong.

Because what can you do with people that like you, except, of course, inevitably disappoint them?

I wish that I could leave myself alone. I wish that I could finally feel that I punished myself enough. That I deserved time off for all my bad behavior. Let myself off the hook, drag myself off the rack where I am both torturer and torturee.

I was sitting by myself the other night doing the usual things one does when spending time alone with yourselves. You know, making mountains out of molehills, hiking up to the top of the mountains, having a Hostess Twinkie and then throwing myself off the mountain. Stuff like that.

Trying relentlessly to make you love me, but I don’t want the love -- I quite prefer the quest for it. The challenge. I am always disappointed with someone who loves me -- how perfect can he be if he can’t see through me?

I call people sometimes hoping not only that they’ll verify the fact that I’m alive but that they’ll also, however indirectly, convince me that being alive is an appropriate state for me to be in.

I had feelings for him (at least five, but sometimes as many as seven).

Time shifts and your pity enables you to turn what was once, decades ago, an ordinary sort of pain or hurt, complicated by embarrassing self-pity, into what is now only a humiliating tale that you can share with others because, after almost four decades, it’s all in the past and who gives a shit?

This is a joy of a book, but it still made me sad. Sad that I never got to read and appreciate her written work while she was alive. Sad because the beautiful gem of a person who wrote these true beautiful things was now gone, drowned in moonlight, strangled by her own bra, and we'll never, ever see her like again.

“Carrie?” he asked. I knew my name. So I let him know I knew it. “Yeah,” I said in a voice very like mine.

Good night, Space Momma. Thank you for you voice. Thank you for being so unabashedly you.                                                                                           

[literaturetopics]

Week Six: The Fountains of Silence

The Fountains of Silence is about Spain, post-Spanish Civil War during the reign of Franco. It follows a couple of people: Dan, a son of a wealthy oil man who’s looking to be a photojournalist; Ana, a young woman who works at a hotel, taking care of the needs of American tourists, a fair number of who have been around there a while; Rafa, Ana’s brother who works as a butcher and gravedigger, and used to be in a boy’s home before reuniting with his family; Julia, Ana’s older sister who has a husband and baby, who sews jewels onto matador outfits; Puri, Ana’s curious cousin, who works in an orphanage and loves babies, and is often reprimanded for asking too many questions. I’m only, like, 106 pages in, but the plot is starting to rear its head. The Fountains of Silence is a story about uncovering and documenting the trauma following the Spanish Civil War, and specifically offering them through the personal stories of the characters. Ana and her siblings have lost their parents. Ana, it feels like it’s been implied up to this point, is a survivor of sexual violence, or an adjacent intimate trauma, at the hands of a hotel guest. (This is a dual exploitation of both Ana and a dictatorial Spain on that person’s part.) Julia is trying to support her family and newborn, trying to get them into a better living place, but in doing so must sacrifice a lot, her health being one of those things. Rafa is trying to find hope and forward momentum following the abuses he suffered, and at the moment in the story that’s expressed through helping a peer, and friend who gave him and other boys hope, achieve the role of matador. Puri expresses a clear dual mind, both inhabiting a gentle wish of wanting kids to be cared for, while also having questions about the world which can’t be answered under the dictatorial regime; she’s a beacon of hope, but a naïve hope as it doesn’t yet seem that she recognizes the bleaker reality of the space she inhabits. Dan has been directed to look under the bright veneer of Spain to find out what’s going on, with it being implied that doing so will give him some clout and connections in the journalist world, and thus helping him achieve his want to be a photojournalist and determine his own destiny. That’s where 106 pages gets you, the beginning of a tale of investigative journalism, humanity, and hope… hopefully.

A standout part of Sepetys’ article is the supposition that historical fiction is a door, and that that door leads to further learning and inquiry into the world and history. If I can be a big gay nerd for a second, (gay isn’t relevant here, but I like to broadcast it) I like video games and watching other people play them as well, and one thing that came up in one video was the idea of games as a means of learning, or as an entry point into it through tangential learning. Tangential learning is that potential space for deeper, self-directed exploration. For instance, I’ve recently picked up Nioh 2, a game that places itself in the space of both mythic and historic Japan. It leans more into the fictional, I’d say as someone with little to no knowledge of Japanese history (and thus little to no authority on the matter) but there are historical figures and events, and even looks into the culture in different ways. From the fictionalized pieces within, there comes a very real want to look deeper and examine the actual history and stories. Tangential learning. The opening of a door. Sepetys’ claim of historical fiction as a door feels very real, in my experience. I’m 24 (I almost said 25 because I have no connection to time…) and I know very little if anything about the Spanish Civil War, but through reading what I have of The Fountains of Silence, 1) I’ve identified this lack of knowledge, and 2) kind of want to look into it more. History is a hard thing for me to sustain, so I need to act on this feeling sooner, because any later and it won’t happen, and this book has enabled a level of entry into that. Furthermore, the structure of the book 1) intersperses quotes pertaining to the subject, and 2) has a glossary of terms in the back and also a list of sources Sepetys drew from, meaning the path to learning is mapped a bit further out from this singular text. (Which, I don’t know that’s I’ve experience in abundance with historical fiction) If my history with history had been sprinkled with the power of tangential learning opportunities opened up by historical fiction, maybe I’d have a different relationship with it. I think there is a lot of promise, in my experience with reading this text, for historical fiction to not just allow people entry into learning history, but also inspire, and better teach, a life-long engagement with history. (That’s just… y’know… something I’s thinking about in relation to this text…)

“Are you sure?” Ana smiles. “Nick is probably there.”

“Don��t you mean Señor Van Dorn?”  jokes Daniel.

Color drains from Ana’s face. She stares at her feet. “Yes, of course. Señor Van Dorn. My apologies.”

“Ana, I’m joking. You call Nick by his first name. I want you to call me by mine.”

She stares at his boots, unable to meet his eyes.

The hotel, in some ways, is a place of freedom, because it needs to keep up appearances to bring in tourists and stuff, but this moment here, amongst others, clearly shows that any apparent freedom within those walls is hollow. Through a combination of Ana’s own experiences and also the general environment of silence and maintenance of power structures, this joke Dan makes is fully taken as a reprimand, as a kind of threat. It more clearly illustrates what that constant presence of control does, how it can turn what might seem as idle chatter into something bigger and frightening. It also illustrates how little Dan seems to be picking up on, or at all knows, about the state of Spain, about the position he currently inhabits. History isn’t devoid of feeling, but some ways that it is taught can make those feelings abstract, or hard to fully connect with. But historical fiction has the ability to clarify, to add in the extra layer to bridge the boundary between understanding and feeling. And that’s what I think this moment does, in part. Like, it goes from “right, dictatorship” to “oh, right, there’s no room for japes because any little misstep could spell a terrible fate.”