#kazzy subliminally forces all of you to read the shuttle (1907)

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Reasons to read The Shuttle by Fances Hodgson Burnett:

It's written by the same author who wrote The Secret Garden, and A Little Princess. She actually wrote a lot of really good novels aimed more towards adults (and a bunch of others for kids as well!) If you liked any of her other works, you'll probably like the magic and life woven through this book as well!

There's a female protagonist who's strong- not in the "she fights well" type, but in the "she thinks things through and takes charge and has a sound head for business and gets stuff done" sense.

The primary antagonist is a well written and truly despicable villain- not some larger than life prettyboy who commits war crimes, but the kind of villain you could meet in your everyday life. He's just a regular guy who makes awful choices and hurts those around him.

There's a complicated romance. It's not one of those "guy and girl meet and fall instantly in love," but a "guy and girl who say they would absolutely never want to end up with someone like the other person fall in love."

The main character has a healthy relationship with both of her parents, who are both alive!!!

There's a really, really great father-daughter relationship there too!!!

There's a typewriter salesman from America and everyone loves all his Americanisms and good nature. (Dracula readers: if you like Quincey Morris, you'll probably adore G. Selden!)

The foreshadowing throughout this entire book is incredible. Even on my fifth readthrough, I'm picking up on things I hadn't noticed before.

Narrative foils! The comparisons and contrasts that can be drawn between Sir Nigel and Lord Mount Dunstan are mind-blowing, and Burnett did a wonderful job highlighting them.

There's a really adorable side-couple and they are so lovable they hold a place in my heart even though they only show up in a couple chapters.

Banter. There's flirting veiled by banter. There's insults veiled by banter. There's so much witty banter in this book.

I don't want to spoil the ending but everyone gets exactly what's coming to them, and it's got a very satisfying conclusion.

There's so many beautiful, poetic quotes in this book.

There's a really good found family relationship between one of the lords and a vicar who's basically like a father and also best friend to him.

I could go off for hours about how amazing the heroine's primary love interest is, but I'll just say this book has given me such high expectations for men.

There's a bit of a love triangle, but it doesn't take up too much presidence in the plot, and it's written in such a way that even the readers can easily see both options as appealing

It starts out a bit slow, but the pace picks up as you read, and a lot of engaging plot twists, so by the end you're on the edge of your seat!

You can find it for FREE on many ebook sites, like Google Play Books, and it's also available for FREE on Project Gutenberg!

If you like rambling about books with people, I will absolutely ramble about this book with you. I could talk for hours about this book.

Tl;Dr: The Shuttle is a criminally underrated book and your only regret will be that you didn't read it sooner!

Slight trigger warning: This book deals with domestic abuse, neglect, and manipulation, which is based on actual abuse the author went through. As such, a couple chapters may be triggering for some readers who've been through similar scenarios. There's also some violence in the climax, and even though it's not described in too much detail, it can still be a bit heavy.

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"that matters between man and man, not between vermin and executioner"

me:

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"Ice Cream"

The Shuttle drabble for @monthly-challenge day 14!

Since the shuttle first began its weaving, families have always been families. Little boys have always been little boys, and grandfathers have always sought to spoil them.

Reuben Vanderpoel was no exception to this rule, and on his visits to England, he would dote on his grandson. An annual trip would be taken into town together— just Ughtred and his grandpa Reuben— to see a show, to the toy store and the pet store with all the weasels and dogs.

And at the end of the day, they would always stop and get ice cream.

Grandfathers have always been grandfathers.

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"She leaned in light ease against the stone back of her seat, the rose light cast by her parasol faintly flushed her. The silence of their retreat seemed accentuated by its background of music from the gardens. They smiled a second bravely into each other's eyes, then their glances became entangled, as they had done for a moment when they had stood together in Mount Dunstan park. For one moment each had been held prisoner then—now it was for longer."

The Shuttle, Frances Hodgson Burnett

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"best friends secretly think of each other as sidekick" except it's Dunstan and Penzance from The Shuttle and it's "best friends secretly think of themself as sidekick"

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Thinking about them (parallels between narrative foils)

Killian and Rumplestiltskin both being abandoned by their parents and how they rose above it. How they each got their disability and how they handle it. How they treat the people they love.

Orpheus and Hades- Orpheus with nothing to give the woman he loves, and Hades with everything to give the woman he loves, and somehow they both fall short.

Will Turner and Davy Jones having the same curse, one focusing on how hard the ten years are, the other on how beautiful the one day.

Sir Nigel and Lord Mount Dunstan both coming from families that squandered their fortunes. One of them going to America to find an easy way out and the other to work hard to save his family name. One of them frustrated that the rich heiress he married isn't sharing her money, the other refusing to marry for money. One of them going "three quarters insane" with lust, the other being "as in love as any lunatic has ever been." One of them basically saying "my family is a bad lot so why try to be better" and the other basically saying "my family is a bad lot and it's my goal to be better."

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Dunstan: *invites his crush to spend a few minutes alone with him*

Dunstan: *tells her a story about an ancestor he relates to who fell in love with a woman exactly like her*

Dunstan: *stares longingly into her eyes the entire time*

Dunstan, later that night: OH MY GOSH DO YOU THINK SHE MIGHT'VE REALIZED I WAS FLIRTING WITH HER?

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In her song, I Hate It Here, from the anthology edition of The Tortured Poets Department, Taylor Swift mentions having read a book about a secret garden when she was a precocious child. The book in question is most likely The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. If any of you recognized and have read this book and would like further reading from Burnett's works, I will now direct your attention to The Shuttle, a brilliant novel in wh... *[I am taken out by the fbi man with lazer eyes who lives in the tree next to my house]*

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oh also btw there is a community for fans of the shuttle. yes, right here on tumblr. want to join? let me know. 😁

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if i may, as chairman of the shuttle fandom, humbly present my latest masterpiece of a playlist:

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There once was a boy named Ughtred Anstruthers, and he did absolutely nothing to deserve it

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Back in the 1900's, it was acceptable for women to propose on leap day.

The Shuttle takes place in 1907, with the climax happening toward the end of the hop picking season (late fall.) It's not too crazy to assume that the hop pickers getting better -> Dunstan showing Rueben Vanderpoel around the estate -> (assumed) proposal timeline goes up until early December.

But what if Dunstan drags his feet about proposing because after everything they've been through, he's absolutely terrified that she might say no. Christmas passes. New Year's passes. January passes. The first twenty-eight days of February pass.

And then Bettina says "nope no more of this I'm tired of waiting for him to get the guts" and come Leap Day, February 29, 1908, Bettina Vanderpoel proposes to Lord Mount Dunstan.

Can you guys imagine how absolutely floored he would be? I feel like he might faint, tbh.

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what i should be doing: going to bed

what i am doing: running chracters from an obscure* 1907 novel through an incorrect quote generator

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For the director's cut ask game - ⭐ for your favorite fic you've written!

As the Sun Rose and Seasons Changed: Director's Commentary

I already got to talk about my favorite fic, This is (Kinda) the Way, so I thought I'd share instead another fic I'm proud of. This one is an important missing moment from my favorite 1907 novel, The Shuttle, one that I keep saying "oh, surely someone already wrote a fanfic about this!" about, but once I realized no one had, I knew the torch must be passed to me.

This commentary contains spoilers for Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Shuttle. If you've not read The Shuttle, don't read this commentary! Instead, read this list of reasons you should read The Shuttle, or just cut out the middleman of my campaigning and go read it for free right now on libby, project gutenburg, or as a pdf!

Starting right off, why did I name it what I did? Well, the title of the fic is taken from this quote from Lord Mount Dunstan in ch. 35: The Tidal Wave, which, if you remember, is the scene in which Dunstan finally confesses his feelings about Betty to Penzance.

“The Book of Revelations has shown to me how—how MAGNIFICENT life might be!” Mount Dunstan clenched and unclenched his hands, his eyes flashing. “Magnificent—that is the word. To go to her on equal ground to take her hands and speak one's passion as one would—as her eyes answered. Oh, one would know! To bring her home to this place—having made it as it once was—to live with her here—to be WITH her as the sun rose and set and the seasons changed—with the joy of life filling each of them. SHE is the joy of Life—the very heart of it. You see where I am—you see!”

The first chapter title "As Any Lunatic Has Ever Been," is also taken from the same chapter of the book.

Mount Dunstan threw back his head with a big, harsh laugh. He came out of the shadow and stood still. “Well,” he said, “I am in love—as much in love as any lunatic ever was—with the daughter of Reuben S. Vanderpoel. There you are—and there I am!”

This line has always struck me as a beautiful one, especially held in contrast to this line from his narrative foil, the dearly despised Nigel Anstruthers.

“Are you QUITE mad?” she said. “Not quite,” he answered; “only three parts—but I am beyond my own control.

There's something to be said about Nigel only allowing his lust towards Betty to drive him "three parts" of the way mad, but Dunstan finally admitting that his love and devotion for Betty has finally driven him all the way to the point of what may as well be insanity.

Anyway, we're here to talk about my fic, not about parallels in The Shuttle.

(Though, if you'd LIKE to talk about parallels in The Shuttle, or even just about The Shuttle in general, my dms and inbox are always open ;))

I love writing fics based on this book because I tend to match the voice of the media I'm writing from (dwampyist humor in Milo Murphy's Law fics; first person in Percy Jackson fics, ect.) and The Shuttle fics give me a chance to write before an audience with great pomp and splendor, using many archaic and descriptive words, copying Burnett's style, filling in with seventy-five words what a modern author might write in only seven. It's almost a form of poetry tucked away inside a form of prose, that here I can write a story in a way that makes the magic of every slightest moment come alive.

One of the recurring themes throughout the novel is that of pride, which could be said to define both Bettina and Nigel, but especially Dunstan. This is highlighted by Penzance, again in chapter 35:

“You think your reasons for holding aloof from her are the reasons of a man.” Mr. Penzance's voice sounded to him remote. “They are the reasons of a man's pride—but that is not the strongest thing in the world. It only imagines it is. You think that you cannot go to her as a luckier man could. You think nothing shall force you to speak. Ask yourself why. It is because you believe that to show your heart would be to place yourself in the humiliating position of a man who might seem to her and to the world to be a base fellow.” “An impudent, pushing, base fellow,” thrust in Mount Dunstan fiercely. “One of a vulgar lot. A thing fancying even its beggary worth buying. What has a man—whose very name is hung with tattered ugliness—to offer?” Penzance's hand was still on his shoulder and his look at him was long. “His very pride,” he said at last, “his very obstinacy and haughty, stubborn determination. Those broken because the other feeling is the stronger and overcomes him utterly.” A flush leaped to Mount Dunstan's forehead. He set both elbows on the mantel and let his forehead fall on his clenched fists. And the savage Briton rose in him. “No!” he said passionately. “By God, no!” “You say that,” said the older man, “because you have not yet reached the end of your tether. Unhappy as you are, you are not unhappy enough. Of the two, you love yourself the more—your pride and your stubbornness.” “Yes,” between his teeth. “I suppose I retain yet a sort of respect—and affection—for my pride. May God leave it to me!”

And this idea of both Betty and Dunstan sacrificing the pride that's held them both apart for too long reaches its climax at the end of chapter 44:

“Listen,” he broke out suddenly. “Penzance told me—warned me—that some time a moment would come which would be stronger than all else in a man—than all else in the world. It has come now. Let me take you home.” “Than what else?” she said slowly, and became even paler than before. He strove to release himself from the possession of the moment, and in his struggle answered with a sort of savagery. “Than scruple—than power—even than a man's determination and decent pride.” “Are you proud?” she half whispered quite brokenly. “I am not—since I waited for the ringing of the church bell—since I heard it toll. After that the world was empty—and it was as empty of decent pride as of everything else. There was nothing left. I was the humblest broken thing on earth.” “You!” he gasped. “Do you know I think I shall go mad directly perhaps it is happening now. YOU were humble and broken—your world was empty! Because——?” “Look at me, Lord Mount Dunstan,” and the sweetest voice in the world was a tender, wild little cry to him. “Oh LOOK at me!”

This all sets up as a backdrop to Dunstan's line to Reuben in my fic:

"All I own is a crumbling ruin, overgrown lawns, a title of a blackguard– unjustly endowed, but the fact still remains. Of graces, I have none, and of learning, nothing of note, and I've not a shilling to my name. I once believed I could even offer my pride, but with how I've allowed it to be stripped away, I'm afraid I've not even that left to offer."

{and for extra credit, with humillity and the sacrifice of pride being prevalent in this book, I feel it a good time to bring up that another recurring theme in this story is bluebells, and that of bluebells underwater. It should be noted that this book was written in and around the Victorian era, and in the Victorian flower language, bluebells represent, you guessed it, humility.}

I also included shortly thereafter the line "with the boldness and determination of a knight set out to war, determined to conquer and return to his beloved." This is in reference to the passages in ch. 15 and ch. 18, in which Betty notes that Dunstan "would have looked well in a coat of mail," and Penzance notes the way Dunstan carries himself: "his right hand was clenched on his hip, as a man's might be as he clenched the hilt of his sword."

Now onto chapter two of the fic!

This title, "Two strong forces drawing together," also comes from one of Penzance's lines in, no surprise, chapter 35 of The Shuttle.

“I have spent my quiet life in thinking of the forces for which we find no explanation—of the causes of which we only see the effects. Long ago in looking at you in one of my pondering moments I said to myself that YOU were of the Primeval Force which cannot lose its way—which sweeps a clear pathway for itself as it moves—and which cannot be held back. I said to you just now that because you are a strong man you cannot be sure that a woman you are—even in spite of yourself—making mad love to, is unconscious that you are doing it. You do not know what your strength lies in. I do not, the woman does not, but we must all feel it, whether we comprehend it or no. You said of this fine creature, some time since, that she was Life, and you have just said again something of the same kind. It is quite true. She is Life, and the joy of it. You are two strong forces, and you are drawing together.”

To this day, one of the most romantic lines I've ever written probably comes in this proposal right here:

"You've no reason to be afraid, James."  "You've no idea what I fear to lose, Miss Vanderpoel. I know of your love for Dunstanwolde, and your disdain for its condition– and of my love for it as well. If all I were offering was my land and my title, to watch from the sides as you touch all around me with your life, I'd give even that. But what I ask is something deeper. I do not ask you to love a sullied name or a crumbled ruin. I ask you to love the man who holds nothing besides them. I'm asking you to love me."

This one also ranks pretty high on the list, though:

 He wasn't the first man who'd proposed to her– but somehow she'd hoped all along that he would be the last.

(This, of course, has cannonical basis as well, as it's mentioned that both Lord Westholt and Sir Thomas proposed to her, and she turned them both down.)

And, anyways, there's my director's commentary! Thanks for reading!

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Incorrect Quote Generator meets The Shuttle, pt 1

Selden: If history repeats itself, I’m so getting a dinosaur!

~

Nigel: I was arrested for being too cool.

Rosalie: The charges were dropped due to a lack of supporting evidence.

~

Bettina: You know, it’s fine to admit you were wrong.

Dunstan: *Sipping their drink after accidentally adding salt* I just like the way it tastes.

~

Ughtred: *on the phone with Bettina* I can’t talk right now, I’m doing hot girl stuff.

Bettina: You’re pulling Oreos apart and saving off the frosting to make a mega Oreo, aren’t you.

Ughtred: Maybe.

~

Bettina: This can’t get any worse. Can it?

Dunstan: Sure it can - just give me a minute.

~

Rosalie: I can't believe there's a cat somewhere in my house. Amazing feeling. Love cats. And he's here, in my house! Somewhere! And I may encounter him! What a treat.

~

Nigel: I am free of all prejudice. I hate everyone equally.

~

Penzance : Oh shoot!

Penzance : Excuse my vulgarity.

Ughtred: I’ll let it slide.

~

Rosalie: I've got a weapon, and I'm... admittedly VERY afraid to use it!

~

Ughtred: Does anyone know how to relax? Asking for a friend.

~

Rosalie: I met this person on tinder and asked for their last name. They sent it to me and went “Doing a little background check? You might find out I’m a murderer, just ignore that” with a kissy wink emoji. Alright so I good sense of humour.

Rosalie: I looked them up, they were a murderer.

~

Ughtred: You have Crayons?

Dunstan: Yes, I have—

Ughtred: You're— how old are you?

Dunstan: YES I AM AN ADULT AND I HAVE CRAYONS, I HAVE A BOX OF EMERGENCY CRAYONS IN THE CABINET UNDER THE TV BECAUSE EVERYBODY NEEDS CRAYONS SOMETIMES, OKAY? EVERYBODY NEEDS CRAYONS.

~

Dunstan: You read my diary?

Reuben: At first I did not know it was your diary. I thought it was a very sad handwritten book.

~

Ughtred: Can we get a birthday cake?

Dunstan: It’s not your birthday.

Ughtred: The cake won’t know!

~

Nigel: When surrendering, Bettina is to hand the sword over HILT first.

~

Rosalie: Why are we friends?

Nigel: Poor decisions on your part.

~

Rosalie: My expectations are low, but they can always go lower.

~

Nigel: You treat an outside wound with rubbing alcohol. You treat an inside wound with drinking alcohol.

~

Dunstan, to the Squad: The real secret to immortality? Not dying. You want to be immortal? Okay, that’s easy. Just don’t die. That’s it. Refuse to die. There you go.

Penzance : But how-

Dunstan, ignoring them: “But how”, you may ask. Well, easy. Just don’t do it. Refuse to. Say “no thanks”.

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reasons why the joker and the queen by ed sheeran and taylor swift reminds me of the shuttle.

#1: these lyrics:

#2: ed sheeran's hair is red and taylor swift's eyes are blue.