#my friend who's also Into Greek Plays has been enabling me so: this happens

[asaethiel]

have been Thinking About murder-y electra from regency oresteia au for approx. three years (ref: x)

[IMAGE ID: digital art of a young woman wearing an unbuttoned white shirt and holding up a knife. she is facing left with her chin tilted up, and holding the knife at a downwards angle. it is covered in blood, as is her hand. she has short curly dark hair. her hair and the background are a dark blue color and her skin is purple-ish red. the blood is bright red and the knife is gold. end description]

[c-is-for-circinate]

So as close as I am to fully escaping Hades for the first time, I figure I might take this opportunity to write down a couple of things I'm scared of from this ending. The story is so good so far! But I have seen good stories before! And there are patterns, right, patterns it's so easy for even good stories to fall into, so yeah, I have fears, and they mostly come down to Hades himself.

(Yep, this one got long again! People seem to be enjoying my game-reaction rambles, so, for your enjoyment under the cut: themes of separation and reunion, predictions for what Zagreus is the god of, and a whole lot of discussion of familial abuse dynamics, how they're depicted in fiction, and the work it takes to change them in real life. Stay warned! Stay safe!)

(ALSO, I still haven't made it past the first couple of chambers in the Temple of Styx, so no spoilers in the reblogs/comments please! Yes, even though the whole post is me going on about predictions and hopes and concerns about the path the story might take. I WILL GET THERE SOON.)

It has been really interesting watching some of the stuff the game is doing with themes of parting and reunion, and how that corresponds to life and death. So many of our social links are about reuniting estranged loved ones: Chaos and Nyx, Eurydice and Orpheus, Patroclus and Achilles. Hades is estranged from Olympus, Persephone left. And every time we leave, or try to leave, it is both an attempt at a parting (and Meg and Than are so hurt by that goodbye, or lack thereof) and an attempt at a reunion with our mother. Every time we die it's a reunion, every time we die it's fun, it's great, we get to go back home and check in with all of our friends and be impressed by whoever made Employee Of The [Timeperiod] and sell fish to the cook and put down yet more rugs. (My Zagreus has something of a rug addiction. What can you do.)

It's at the point where I feel pretty secure in stating that Zagreus is going to discover eventually that he is both life/death/rebirth god, and god of partings and reunions. Both halves of both of those things. People leave each other when they die and re-find their loved ones in death; you go away from one group of people to come back to another; you have to depart to return, and I really think that's where we're going to end up with Zagreus. He's going to reunite his various friends with their loved ones, he's probably going to restore communications between Hades and Olympus and even Persephone, he's going to reunite with his mom, and he's going to come back to the Underworld before he leaves to see everyone up top all over again. And of course the vehicle for all of this coming and going is death, because death is the ultimate departure and reuniter. (This is absolutely a religious concept containing a whole bunch of "oh hey our culture has a lot of Christian influence, doesn't it", Greek trappings aside, but that's fine, it's a game made in 2018 not 300 BC, these things happen. They keep calling the Underworld 'hell' and 'infernal'. It's all good.) Of course he's a cthonic god. Of course he bleeds, because you have to bleed in order to die, and Zagreus has to die again and again and again. That's his whole thing.

Thing is, though, looking at those themes, I am also continually aware of the fact that some partings are for a really good reason. Some partings should not end in reunion.

Yes, of course this is about Hades the abusive dad. I have been talking about Hades the abusive dad basically non-stop since I started playing this game, where did you think this post was going.

There are a few things I'm nervous about, separate but related, and at the core it all comes down to, I'm not okay with it if we learn why Hades got to be this way, and Zagreus forgives him as we-the-audience are meant to do, and Hades promises to do better, and nothing concrete about the situation is forced to change. Actual, meaningful, practical, logistical, non-hypothetical non-metaphorical change, not just for Zagreus but for Hades himself.

Because I know how this story tends to go, in fiction. Fictional abusive parents (especially in fantasy/sci-fi stories) tend to come in two types: 'coerced their offspring into actual murder with a side of physical abuse and optional unethical lab experimentation', or 'this was here to create character conflict, we didn't mean for it to read as actually abusive, this parent just has flaws to make them a good character, we swear!' Hades isn't the first type--we have never once seen Hades strike his son, or anybody, or even come out from behind his desk--which means that the fear is, always, always, in every piece of fiction, that he's the second. That the writers are going to decide that the right response to his abuses is remorse, forgiveness, and one really good conversation. That they don't realize it's abuse in the first place.

And, like. They have to know, right? They have to. They can't have done this by accident. (Sometimes, writers get so close by accident.) They can't have done so well at drawing out this situation simply by going, 'well, people are meant to fear this god, so they'd probably react like this, and I guess based on what I've seen in other stories or vague acquaintances they'd then do this,' and never put the name on the situation. Every single time we leave to the tune of a Hades word-flash, he's being dismissive, insulting, and sometimes downright cruel. He is cruel. They have to know!!!

But oh boy have I been consuming media for a lot of years, and oh boy have I run into a lot of writers who don't know.

Reconciliation is such a loaded word, but stories about dysfunctional families really do love it. Stories based around themes of reunion are primed for it. And of course, it's nice, it ties a happy ending off with a sweet little bow, everyone gets to be with the people they love and the family is safe and nobody gets hurt, but so rarely have I seen stories that show the actual work required to rebuild those relationships in a realistic or meaningful way. So rarely do stories trying to build that happy ending actually let the victim of abuse set and maintain boundaries. The character never gets to actually just cut the damn ties to the thing that hurt them. The character so rarely even gets to be safe.

And it's so hard in this game specifically, because "THERE IS NO ESCAPE", because every single thing about this game says that the story's not over when Zagreus gets to the surface, that no matter what he's going to have to come back. It's so hard, because this is a game about reunions. I am not going to get an ending where the abused kid trying to flee his toxic home and abusive dad actually gets to leave and stay gone, not in this one. And that hurts (I have watched and supported and done my best to help multiple real-life friends get the fuck out of homes like that, and stay gone, I have seen how hard it is, how complicated, how awful, and there are never stories for that), but I can live with it, if I get an ending where Zagreus is at least safe. Where things change. Where they really change.

Which is why I need actual, concrete, material changes in the logistics and power structure of the Underworld for this ending to be okay. Understanding why Hades is Like That doesn't cut it. Remorse doesn't cut it! Because look, even if Hades wants to do better, even if he admits he's at fault and tries to be better, he is still set up in a position as an all-powerful tyrant, and trying to become a better person is hard. There is nobody around who can keep him in check when he starts backsliding, which he will. Even if he doesn't want to, he will.

Because people are people, and it's really difficult to break patterns! Especially if everything around them stays the same. Hades is going to slip at some point, be cruel, be callous, be tyrannical, no matter how much of an effort he's making. Not to mention, it is STRESSFUL to face your own crimes and improve, it sucks, it feels bad. And what do habitual abusers do when they feel bad? What's the only coping mechanism Hades appears to have established for dealing with his own shit? That's right, it's inflicting suffering on everyone else around him. (This is why it doesn't really matter what circumstances drove Hades to act this way, why it can't matter--I believe that he is suffering, but he copes with that suffering by inflicting additional suffering on everyone around him, everyone who relies on him, and that's still true no matter what made him feel bad to begin with.) So then we just get a great old guilt-->lashing out-->more guilt-->more lashing out merry-go-round of abuse even as Hades is trying to change. That's how these things work. And yes, change is possible, improvement is absolutely possible, but the environment needs to change first. The system that enables and rewards Hades for acting this way can't stay in place. Things need to actually change, with people who are around to support Hades in his growth and also check his power, people who have power of their own to stop him. And however it happens, for this story with this protagonist with these goals to feel like a happy ending, Zagreus needs to be safe.

It would be okay, though a little disappointing, if those changes were mostly based in magic and fate and, idk, divine mind-control. (This story has been so grounded in actual human dynamics that a fantastical solution to a realistic problem would feel like a letdown, but if it actually solved the problem I'd be okay with it, more or less.) It would be okay, though a little disappointing, if the responsibility for bringing Hades to heel fell upon Zagreus and Persephone, if the two family members who he hurt badly enough that they felt the need to run away from him entirely now had to shoulder the burden of helping him fix himself. (There are definitely ways to write that dynamic better and ways to write it worse, and I think I trust these writers to land on the 'better' side of the scale, but I still don't love the implications.) I think I'd be pretty into it if Hades took a vacation off to Olympus to Work Out His Shit with his own family, while a coalition of Meg, Nyx, Thanatos, Zagreus, and Queen Persephone took over running the Underworld in his absence. I think we might end up getting some combination of those things. I'm hopeful. I think these writers might know what they've written. I think they might have a sense for what it'll take to fix.

But yeah, I'm nervous. (Nervous enough that I might switch to God Mode just to get through, combat has started getting really tedious instead of fun, I want to know what happens next, and this is a game and there is no shame in making it more fun for myself by making the boring parts a little quicker and easier.) I've seen so many stories go wrong. This one has done so much to earn my trust. We'll see if it breaks.

[blackswaneuroparedux]

Anonymous asked: I noticed you did post to acknowledge the death of Uderzo, the co-creator of the Asterix comics. I have to ask Tintin or Asterix? Which one do you prefer?

It’s like asking Stones or Beatles? I love both but for different reasons. I would hate to choose between the two.

Both Tintin and Asterix were the two halves of a comic dyad of my childhood. Whether it was India, China, Hong Kong, Japan, or the Middle East the one thing that threads my childhood experience of living in these countries was finding a quiet place in the home to get lost reading Asterix and Tintin.

Even when I was eventually carted off to boarding school back in England I took as many of my Tintin and Asterix comics books with me as I could. They became like underground black market currency to exchange with other girls for other things like food or chocolates sent by parents and other illicit things like alcohol. Having them and reading them was like having familiar friends close by to make you feel less lonely in new surroundings and survive the bear pit of other girls living together.

If you asked my parents - especially my father - he would say Tintin hands down. He has - and continues to have in his library at home - a huge collection of Tintin comic books in as many different language translations as possible. He’s still collecting translations of each of the Tintin books in the most obscure languages he can find. I have both all the Tintin comic books - but only in English and French translations, and the odd Norwegian one - as well as all the Asterix comic books (only in English and French).

Speaking for myself I would be torn to decide between the two. Each have their virtues and I appreciate them for different reasons.

Tintin was truly about adventure that spoke deeply to me. Tintin was always a good detective story that soon turned to a travel adventure. It has it all: technology, politics, science and history. Of course the art is more simpler, but it is also cleaner and translates the wondrous far-off locations beautifully and with a sense of awe that you don’t see in the Asterix books. Indeed Hergé was into film-noir and thriller movies, and the panels are almost like storyboards for The Maltese Falcon or African Queen.

The plot lines of Tintin are intriguing rather than overly clever but the gallery of characters are much deeper, more flawed and morally ambiguous. Take Captain Haddock I loved his pullover, his strangely large feet, his endless swearing and his inability to pass a bottle without emptying it. He combined bravery and helplessness in a manner I found irresistible.

I’ve read that there is a deeply Freudian reading to the Tintin books. I think there is a good case for it. The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham's Treasure are both about Captain Haddock's family. Haddock's ancestor, Sir Francis Haddock, is the illegitimate son of the French Sun King – and this mirrors what happened in Hergé's family, who liked to believe that his father was the illegitimate son of the Belgian king. This theme played out in so many of the books. In The Castafiore Emerald, the opera singer sings the jewel song from Faust, which is about a lowly woman banged up by a nobleman – and she sings it right in front of Sir Francis Haddock, with the captain blocking his ears. It's like the Finnegans Wake of the cartoon. Nothing happens - but everything happens.

Another great part is that the storylines continue on for several albums, allowing them to be more complex, instead of the more simplistic Asterix plot lines which are always wrapped up nicely at the end of each book.

Overall I felt a great affinity with Tintin - his youthful innocence, wanting to solve problems, always resourceful, optimistic, and brave. Above all Tintin gave me wanderlust. Was there a place he and Milou (Snowy) didn’t go to? When they had covered the four corners of the world Tintin and Milou went to the moon for heaven’s sake!

What I loved about Asterix was the style, specifically Uderzo’s visual style. I liked Hergé’s clean style, the ligne claire of his pen, but Asterix was drawn as caricature: the big noses, the huge bellies, often being prodded by sausage-like fingers. This was more appealing to little children because they were more fun to marvel at.

In particular I liked was the way Uderzo’s style progressed with each comic book. The panels of Asterix the Gaul felt rudimentary compared to the later works and by the time Asterix and Cleopatra, the sixth book to be published, came out, you finally felt that this was what they ought to look like. It was an important lesson for a child to learn: that you could get better at what you did over time. Each book seemed to have its own palette and perhaps Uderzo’s best work is in Asterix in Spain.

I also feel Asterix doesn’t get enough credit for being more complex. Once you peel back the initial layers, Asterix has some great literal depth going on - puns and word play, the English translation names are all extremely clever, there are many hidden details in the superb art to explore that you will quite often miss when you initially read it and in a lot of the truly classic albums they are satirising a real life country/group/person/political system, usually in an incredibly clever and humorous way.

What I found especially appealing was that it was also a brilliant microcosm of many classical studies subjects - ancient Egypt, the Romans and Greek art - and is a good first step for young children wanting to explore that stuff before studying it at school.

What I discovered recently was that Uderzo was colour blind which explains why he much preferred the clear line to any hint of shade, and it was that that enabled his drawings to redefine antiquity so distinctively in his own terms. For decades after the death of René Goscinny in 1977, Uderzo provided a living link to the golden age of the greatest series of comic books ever written: Paul McCartney to Goscinny’s John Lennon. Uderzo, as the Asterix illustrator, was better able to continue the series after Goscinny’s death than Goscinny would have been had Uderzo had died first, and yet the later books were, so almost every fan agrees, not a patch on the originals: very much Wings to the Beatles. What elevated the cartoons, brilliant though they were, to the level of genius was the quality of the scripts that inspired them. Again and again, in illustration after illustration, the visual humour depends for its full force on the accompaniment provided by Goscinny’s jokes.

Here below is a great example:

There’s a lot of genius in this. Uderzo copied Theodore Géricault’s iconic ‘Raft of the Medusa’ 1818 painting in ‘Asterix The Legionary’. The painting is generally regarded as an icon of Romanticism. It depicts an event whose human and political aspects greatly interested Géricault: the wreck of a French frigate, Medusa, off the coast of Senegal in 1816, with over 150 soldiers on board. But Anthea Bell’s translation of Goscinny’s text (including the pictorial and verbal pun ‘we’ve been framed, by Jericho’) is really extraordinary and captures the spirit of the Asterix cartoons perfectly.

This captures perfectly my sense of humour as it acknowledges the seriousness of life but finds humour in them through a sly cleverness and always with a open hearted joy. There is no question that if humour was the measuring yard stick then Asterix and not Tintin would win hands down.

It’s also a mistake to think that the world of Asterix was insular in comparison to the amazing countries Tintin had adventures. Asterix’s world is very much Europe.

Every nationality that Asterix encounters is gently satirised. No other post-war artistic duo offered Europeans a more universally popular portrait of themselves, perhaps, than did Goscinny and Uderzo. The stereotypes with which he made such affectionate play in his cartoons – the haughty Spaniard, the chocolate-loving Belgian, the stiff-upper-lipped Briton – seemed to be just what a continent left prostrate by war and nationalism were secretly craving. Many shrewd commentators believe that during the golden age when Goscinny was still alive to pen the scripts, that it was a fantasy on French resistance during occupation by Nazi Germany. Uderzo lived through the occupation and so there is truth in that. Perhaps this is why the Germans are the exceptions as they are treated unsympathetically in Asterix and the Goths, and why quite a few of the books turn on questions of loyalty and treachery.

Even the British are satirised with an affection that borders on love: the worst of the digs are about our appalling cuisine (everything is boiled, and served with mint sauce, and the beer is warm), but everything points to the Gauls’ and the Britons’ closeness. They have the same social structure, even down to having one village still holding out against the Romans; the crucial and extremely generous difference being that the Britons do not have a magic potion to help them fight. Instead they have tea, introduced to them by Getafix, via Asterix, which gives them so much of a psychological boost that it may as well have been the magic potion.

I re-read ‘Asterix in Britain’ (Astérix chez les Bretons) in the light of the 2016 Brexit referendum result and felt despaired that such a playful and respectful portrayal of this country was not reciprocated. Don’t get me wrong I voted for Brexit but I remain a staunch Europhile. It made me violently irritated to see many historically illiterate pro-Brexit oiks who mistakenly believed the EU and Europe were the same thing. They are not. One was originally a sincere band aid to heal and bring together two of the greatest warring powers in continental Europe that grotesquely grew into an unaccountable bureaucratic manager’s utopian wet dream, and the other is a cradle of Western achievement in culture, sciences and the arts that we are all heirs to.

What I loved about Asterix was that it cut across generations. As a young girl I often retreated into my imaginary world of Asterix where our family home had an imaginary timber fence and a dry moat to keep the world (or the Romans) out. I think this was partly because my parents were so busy as many friends and outsiders made demands on their time and they couldn’t say no or they were throwing lavish parties for their guests. Family time was sacred to us all but I felt especially miffed if our time got eaten away. Then, as I grew up, different levels of reading opened up to me apart from the humour in the names, the plays on words, and the illustrations. There is something about the notion of one tiny little village, where everybody knows each other, trying to hold off the dark forces of the rest of the world. Being the underdog, up against everyone, but with a sense of humour and having fun, really resonated with my child's eye view of the world.

The thing about both Asterix and Tintin books is that they are at heart adventure comics with many layers of detail and themes built into them. For children, Asterix books are the clear winner, as they have much better art and are more fantastical. Most of the bad characters in the books are not truly evil either and no-one ever dies, which appeals hugely to children. For older readers, Tintin has danger, deeper characters with deep political themes, bad guys with truly evil motives, and even deaths. It’s more rooted in the real world, so a young reader can visualise themselves as Tintin, travelling to these real life places and being a hero.

As I get older and re-read Asterix and Tintin from time to time I discover new things. 

From Asterix, there is something about the notion of one tiny little village, where everybody knows each other, trying to hold off the dark forces of the rest of the world. Being the underdog, up against everyone, but with a sense of humour and having fun, really resonated with my child's eye view of the world. In my adult world it now makes me appreciate the value of family, friends, and community and even national identity. Even as globalisation and the rise of homogenous consumerism threatens to envelope the unique diversity of our cultures, like Asterix, we can defend to the death the cultural values that define us but not through isolation or by diminishing the respect due to other cultures and their cultural achievements.

From Tintin I got wanderlust. This fierce even urgent need to travel and explore the world was in part due to reading the adventures of Tintin. It was by living in such diverse cultures overseas and trying to get under the skin of those cultures by learning their languages and respecting their customs that I realised how much I valued my own heritage and traditions without diminishing anyone else.

So I’m sorry but I can’t choose one over the other, I need both Asterix and Tintin as a dyad to remind me that the importance of home and heritage is best done through travel and adventure elsewhere.

Thanks for your question.

[thenightling]

All Volumes of The Sandman placed in order of least favorite to favorite

First here is the order in which The Sandman should be read :

1. The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes 2. The Sandman: The Doll’s House 3. The Sandman: Dream Country 4. The Sandman: Season of Mists 5. The Sandman: A Game of You 6. The Sandman: Fables and Reflections 7. The Sandman: Brief Lives 8. The Sandman: The Worlds’ End 9. The Sandman: The Kindly Ones 10. The Sandman: The Wake The Sandman: Dream Hunters The Sandman: Endless Nights The Sandman: Overture (a very beautiful prequel)

____________________________  

And now the order of least favorite to favorite.

Warning: This post contains some spoilers.

14.  The Kindly Ones.

I won’t sugar coat it.  I’m not really a big fan of The Kindly Ones.  I don’t care for the stylized art or the plot that much.  Though I love The Sandman this is definitely not a volume I would consider a favorite.  Yes, The Kindly Ones has its fans.  It has a few good moments, I particularly liked how Matthew was portrayed in it.  All of The Sandman is good in its own way.  But The Kindly Ones is just not a favorite for me. 

 13.   The Wake. 

I have to look at this as someone who got into The Sandman late.  I do like The Wake but I think if I read a six month (or longer) story arc of characters grieving another character, teenage me (I was fourteen in 1996) would probably have gotten frustrated and depressed.  

I love the art style.  I believe I read somewhere that (at the time) The Sandman: The Wake was the only graphic novel drawn entirely in colored pencil.  The artwork is beautiful.  

I think I might have enjoyed The Kindly Ones more if it had been drawn in the style of The Wake.    

As with all of The Sandman there are a few shining moments. I do like the issue dealing with Hob’s Dream (issue 73).   And I liked seeing Nada’s reincarnated toddler self, and Orpheus, whole, and at peace in Ellysium (Greek Heaven).  

12.   Endless Nights.   

Endless Nights is a collection of seven stories, each focusing on a different member of The Endless family.  

 Endless Nights has a sad but well-written story about Morpheus and Killala of The Glow, one of the first to harness the green light that would later be the catalyst for The Green Lantern corp.  I wonder if things would have played out differently if Morpheus had just been more up front and honest with Killala from the start.     

11.    The World’s End.

The World’s End features a strange interdenominational inn that transcends time and space and serves as a refuge for the displaced during ... er... Let’s just call them what DC comics calls them. “Crisis.” 

This is a collection of short stories from characters who have all been touched by Dream and his world in some way.   My favorites include Cluracan’s story and Hob’s Leviathan.    

There’s also some heavy foreshadowing for The Kindly Ones.  

10.   The Dream Hunters (Graphic novel version). 

  The Dream Hunters is a stand alone story set in Ancient Japan and works as a bitter-sweet fable.

9.     The Dream Hunters (novella version.) 

 I like the novella version of The Dream Hunters better than the graphic novel version because the artwork is just so gorgeous.  

8.  Fables and reflections.

Here is another collection of short stories all tied into The Sandman. Most of them can be read on their own.

7.   Dream Country.   

Here’s another set of The Sandman short stories that can be treated as stand alone one-shot stories.   My favorites of these is A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which is a brilliant and off-beat Shakespere story in which Shakespeare is made to perform a Midsummer Nights Dream for the real Seelie Court.

I also liked Calliope because we get to see Morpheus as a sort of avenging angel type.  

I happened to be reading A Dream of Cats for the first time on the very day I adopted Loki and Vlad (two of my three cats).   This was not planned out, just a strange coincidence.   

6.  A Game of you.

This is probably the most misunderstood volume of The Sandman.  Though Neil Gaiman based it on the personal experiences of a real life trans friend of his, whom consulted with him through the writing of it, many modern readers (mostly thanks to a very misleading Mary Sue article) have called this volume transphobic.   

In actuality for 1992 this was an extremely progressive depiction of a transwoman and one of the first (if not first) trans women of DC comics.   

Some of the complaints are because Wanda dies (many characters in The Sandman die, including the main protagonist...) while others think that the story claims transwomen cannot use feminine magick.  This is not true.  That was a claim made by a very dark witch, Thessaly AKA Larissa, a character who later betrays the series’ over-all protagonist.   She probably should NOT be trusted.

The scene showing Wanda’s soul pretty much confirms how wrong Thessaly was. 

The story deals with Barbie on a Jim Henson’s Labyrinth-esque adventure in her own personal dream world, and her friends who come to her rescue.  

5.   Brief Lives.

Brief lives is the story that tells us what happened with Destruction of the Endless.  It is beautifully drawn.  And this is where Song of Orpheus finally comes to its bitter-sweet conclusion as Morpheus enables his poor son to find peace at last. 

4.  The Doll’s House.

The Doll’s House gives us the story of Rose Walker- a person who is also a “Dream Vortex” (A person whose mind has the potential to cause dreams and reality to collapse into each other and destroy both) and how dangerous that can be.   We are also introduced to The Corinthian, a Nightmare who could give Freddy Krueger a run for his money. 

3.  Season of Mists.

The Sandman: Season of Mists is a storyline that some Lucifer show fans might recongize.  The Devil decides to quit.   There’s a lot more to it than that but Lucifer quitting ruling Hell is the catalyst for most of it.   

After finally (after ten-thousand-years!) realizing he was wrong in leaving Nada in Hell, Morpheus resolves to rescue her, at risk to himself.  However once he gets there he finds Lucifer is shutting the place down.  In spite, Lucifer leaves Morpheus the key to Hell.   Suddenly The Dream Lord has to deal with all the entities that might want that “Prime psychic real estate.”  

2.   Overture 

The Sandman: Overture and The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes are both my favorite volumes of The Sandman.  I tend to alternate between which one is number 1 based on my mood.

In The Sandman: Overture Morpheus discovers that The Universe is ending and “It’s all his fault” for refusing to put out a star back when he was reeling at the destruction of a world because he had not wanted to kill a Dream Vortex (a person whose mind has the power to merge dreams and reality).    

Now he’s off on a quest with a cat (whom he believes is another incarnation of himself).  He adopts an orphaned child, and sets out to save the universe.   

This is probably the most gorgeously drawn of all of The Sandman. The print is a little difficult for me to read (Impossible for me to read in physical format) but I can make the digital version large and enjoy the story and all the lovely detail in the artwork.  

1.  Preludes and Nocturnes

This is the one that starts it all.   An order of early twentieth century occultists summon and trap The Lord of Dreams by accident when they meant to capture Death.  Though they realize their mistake relatively quickly they decide to keep him prisoner anyway.  After seventy-two-years of captivity Morpheus finally escapes and seeks out his lost property.   

This is the one that roped me and made me a fast-fan to The Sandman.

[mentalcurls]

1. Sembri una pu***na

So I started the all-Skam Italia rewatch last Sunday and it turns out I have a lot to say about it. Like, four pages on Word of stuff to say. It took me three days to get evrything out and make it readable. So here, for you reading pleasure, my thoughts on ep.1 season 1 “Sembri una pu***ana”. There’s some kind of heavy stuff and I draw some parallels to my personal experience, since I was, unce upon a time, a teenager and a student at the same school all the highschoolers in SkamIT attend, and I’m also beginning to do the Bechdel test on the episodes!

The montage at the beginning is really powerful when you link the images from Giovanni and Eva’s class’s time at the Succursale to Gio’s essay, that Eva’s reading in the background, in particular the first part: LudoBesse is basically telling us how much of a waste Eva thinks her and Laura’s friendship is to Laura now

Something else about Gio’s essay (as someone who attended classico): it’s a YES from me because criticizing liceo classico is peak classico culture, it’s a HELL NO because classico is actually the best school in the world and I sincerely hope that if anyone else but himself said/wrote that kind of stuff about his school Gio would be at their throats

Eva has that “seeing someone outside the school gates and static fills your ears” moment just like Marti when he sees Niccolò for the first time! Hers is of course with Laura and Sara, who are with... Silvia and Fede! I like that they showed us a bit of this friendship that we didn’t really get to see in the og.

Martino and that iconic first “A zozzoni!” ❤️

Marti and Gio are competing for who got the best grades in the History test and I have a lot to say about this: we know Gio has really high grades (we are told he has an average of 9/10 in Latin and he got 8,5 in History) and that thing he does, bragging about it with his friend, the friendly competition between them, the actual talking about his grades without worrying who’s listening to him? That shit wouldn’t have flied for me, a once-upon-a-time student of liceo classico with an average of 8/10 in Latin, 8/10 in Ancient Greek and 9/10 in History and in part it was because I didn’t have the best classmates, but for the most part I couldn’t have done that because I am a girl (and my friends and classmates were 98% female)

girls are socialized to be humble about accomplishments, first and foremost, to avoid bragging AND humblebragging as well, and to always care about other people and their feelings; basically, whenever the topic of marks and grades came up while I was in high school, I had to try my best to avoid disclosing my own; if they were brought up directly, say them as dispassionately as possible and then try to change topic; I had be conscious of the fact I was talking someone who had much worse grades than me most of the time, so I had to keep into mind their experience of finding things I found doable (like translating from Latin) extremely hard, of disliking subjects I enjoyed (and most of the time the professor who taught them too, especially when they’d recently gotten a bad mark) and of being frustrated by their grades. I could never have competed with any of my friends about who got the highest marks (most of the time there was actually a sort of “gallows humor” competition over who got the lowest). I couldn’t show I was happy about my good grades, because I’d get negative comments from my friends (yes, even close friends, people I get on with and love to this day) who would dismiss my accomplishment as obvious, something that came easily to me because I was a nerd (the translation in Italian is “secchiona” and it doesn’t have any of the “cute” connotations pop culture gave its English counterpart) and something I shouldn’t “show off”. On top of that, if something was hard for me, it was whatever and what right did I have to complain when I had such high grades anyways, it wouldn’t be a problem in the long run.

So yeah, Martino and Giovanni, right now I kind of hate you for not having to take on any emotional labour in these kind of situations and society for socializing males and females in different ways when it comes to accomplishments and for accepting different behaviours from boys and girls.

QED Gio and Marti turn to Eva and ask her about her mark, she’s reticent but they get an answer out of her (that is not even the truth) and they mock her for it. Yes it’s all fun and games but Eva’s mark is really bad compared to Giovanni’s and Martino’s (especially her real mark) and grades are important for teens, no matter how much they deny it, if nothing else then because they influence their relationship with their parents

you can see Eva is hurt by their careless mocking, by Gio’s fake attempt at placating with “stuff she’s good at” (among which is re-heating pre-cooked food which is at the same time a way to have her “stay in the kitchen” and not even be able to properly cook) and by the way he and Marti underestimate her and laugh at her in the following exchange, when Marti shushes her and she calls him “asshole” with that annoyed face. It’s silly, “loving” mockery but it affects people anyways and it shows a lack of empathy only guys are allowed. She’s expected to take it with good grace (and this takes additional emotional labour) because it’s just for fun and they’re friends and they don’t mean it, but it’s not fair

“There are no secrets in a couple, but there aren’t between friends either.” THE WAY MARTINO PUTS HIMSELF ON THE SAME LEVEL AS EVA in Giovanni’s life, straight away! This boy. And Gio agrees! That shit must’ve been so frustrating, poor Eva.

This conversation  between Gio, Eva and Marti: G: Today we’re going to Elia’s place to study. E: Oh, so that’s what you’re calling it now, studying. M: Oh c’mon, 6 minus, shhh. is the beginning of the reoccurring dynamic between them in the season that will make Eva paranoid and will bring her to confronting Laura and to cheating aka Giovanni keeping a secret, lying to Eva about where he goes and what he does, Martino enabling him by misdirecting or distracting her or Gio doing it himself, then either or both the guys calling her crazy or paranoid for doubting their words. You know what’s that? It’s called gaslighting.

[Gaslighting means manipulating a person by psychological means into questioning his or her own sanity. It’s the same technique that, according to some of his critics, Donald Trump used to get gain traction with voters (see Trump giving “alternative facts” and dubbing the media that fact checked and corrected him “fake news”).]

[I’M NOT SAYING THAT GIOVANNI IS THE SAME AS TRUMP, I DON’T THINK THEY’RE THE SAME, I only want to present an example of how this form of psychological manipulation is an actual thing in the real word and is really effective and dangerous.]

I am aware that Giovanni is just a dumb teenager trying to hide his weed habit from his girlfriend, that Martino is just being a good bro and covering for his best friend, that they’re doing this without any malicious intent towards Eva and that she’s insecure all by herself. Still, gaslighting is not a behaviour our societies should excuse, especially because it’s usually practiced by the usual suspects over women and minorities. I’d never seen it pointed out in the context of Skam Italia so I thought I’d bring it up, especially in light of S2 and of the “unproblematic” label Gio’s been given. He’s not perfect, he does shitty stuff too, then afterwards he simply grows up and becomes better. Let’s not forget about it and celebrate the person he’s become.

Case in point is the whole 1.2 Online clip. This is conversation between Eva and Gio: G: My battery died. E: But you were on-line. G: No, I wasn’t, my phone died a couple of hours ago. E: But I saw you. G: Eva, I don’t know how it happened. There must be something wrong with my phone, I don’t know. Sometimes I see you online and you’re not, too. I mean, everyone knows it happens. We can Google it if you want. E: No, it’s okay. And where were you? G: At Elia’s. E: Till now? G: Yeah. E: That’s weird. I talked to Martino earlier and he said you guys left a while ago. G: Eva, what’s wrong? Martino left earlier and I stayed till now. What, you don’t believe? Don’t you trust me? Are you insane, uh? [G kisses E] Everything’s alright. Little koala? Little koala always works. [G carries E to her room, then they have sex.] Giovanni lies about his phone being dead, then tells Eva that her seeing him online is impossible or a fluke, that everyone knows those kind of flukes happen, then lies again about being at Elia, when she tries to expose him he adjusts and starts questioning why she doesn’t believe him, finally calling her crazy and distracting her with kisses and sex. This is gaslighting.

(I had actual chills as I watched the scene again and typed this.)

Those theatre kids are so awkward, but quoting weird passages from greek/latin/italian poetry by heart is peak liceo classico culture

unsupportive boyfriend Gio shows up again when Eva suggest they go to the Easter party: his first reaction is “What? Why? You don’t even like that”, so savage, but fair Eva reminds him he’s actually a loser who, at 16, plays card to have fun with his friends like a 60 year old

Gio is being an asshole, he only considers going with Eva’s suggestion in exchange for something, then guilts her into accepting his “deal” bringing up Marti’s difficult family situation and her grades, implicitly, by promising to volunteer for the philosophy oral test, plus he’s rude and insensitive af because he brings up her inviting a friends when he knows fully well that when they cheated on Laura she got completely cut off

this will show up again, but let me just start to say it in the first episode: how unfair is it for Eva to be suffering most of the consequences in her life for getting together with her best friend’s boyfriend, when Giovanni faces no consequences that we know of for cheating on his girlfrien? And how unfair it must feel, deep deep down, to Eva

then, when she agrees, he takes back his side of the deal and Eva has to say it’s fine, it’s nothing because he says sorry and that’s socialization kicking in, telling her not to be difficult, not to be needy and not to complain cause that’s annoying and girls guys want to date are not any of those things; honestly, the emotional labour Eva has to go through

that getting ready montage, Eva really goes full on revenge mode like Lady D and she’s fully feeling her oats

the first dress Eva tries on is the same we saw Laura wearing at the party, but Eva’s red while Laura’s blue: I put all my money o it being a dress they bought together and on it being kind of their go-to dress, Eva thought about wearing it to remind Laura of their friendship but in the end decided it would only make things harder

oh, the conversation with Laura at the bar. God, if the situation is this tense can you imagine being in the same class as her and as Gio six hours a day everyday? We’ve talked about how shit it must have felt for Niccolò to be in the same class as Marco Covitti in S2, but Eva’s situation is awful too. I wonder how much of that factors in her bad grades and troubles with school

how more people don’t ship Italian Evanora is beyond me, have you seen this interaction?

on the other hand, I wonder how much Eleonora thought about it later, about how she must have come on too strong, about how maybe Eva thought she was weird or hitting on her and how much that weighed on Eleonora not reaching out first again, cause she makes a face like she regrets her life the minute Eva walks away

it breaks my heart, honestly: Eva has just been told she’s a whore by someone she once considered a friend, but when she finds this person’s new friend, who she doesn’t know, crying in the bathroom she doesn’t bat an eyelash, reassures her and tries her best to help her (so much emotional labour that women “naturally” take on themselves because we’re taught to be empathetic and caretakers even when we’re ourselves in distress)

one question: if Federico Canegallo is as popular as the Villa crew seems to be, how the hell does nobody know him when Eva is looking for “Fede”? Besides, Silvia doesn’t even react to the fact that he’s a friend of Edoardo’s when she sees him in the bathroom!

the interaction between the two Fedes kills me in every version

ok fuck you Silvia for not even saying thanks for trying and looking at Eva like she’s a decerebrate

Bechdel test: the episodes passes the test because of the conversations between Eva and Laura (nice 😑), Eva and Eleonora (though they’re mostly talking shit about other girls, so still not very good) and Eva and Silvia (though we actually don’t know her name yet at this point, we can only guess it from context, so it’s borderline). So this is cute.

This post is part of my complete series of meta about Skam Italia season 1.  If you’d like to read more of my thoughts about the other episodes, you can find the mastepost linked in the top bar on my blog under SKAMIT: EVA. Cheers!

[crimsonrevolt]

Congratulations Anna you’ve been accepted to Crimson Revolt as Ophelia Pomfrey!

↳ please refer to our character checklist

Anna, darling! You know how much we adore you, and Amos, and we absolutely adore Ophelia! We are so incredibly excited for her to once again grace the dash! We’ve definitely missed having her around. It’s always interesting to have a character that is more neutral in stance in the midst of people who are so polarized! The way that you balance her with kindness and seriousness really flushes her out as a balanced character. We’re also excited to see where the war will take her this time! 

application beneath the cut; tw: mentions of death, blood (in para sample)

OUT OF CHARACTER

INTRODUCTION

Anna, 23, she/her, PST

ACTIVITY

Probably a 6/10, I’m currently job-searching but I’ll be on at least once a day to do something!

TRIGGERS

*removed for privacy

HOW DID YOU FIND US? Through the hp rp tag originally, I think, but I’m already in this roleplay as Amos and as an admin.

WHAT HARRY POTTER CHARACTER DO YOU IDENTIFY WITH MOST?

I honestly don’t know. Maybe Neville or Luna? I took a lot of things from different characters and it sort of became a hodgepodge mix for me when it came when identifying with someone. Although… maybe Remus, actually? Especially when he was first introduced. He was calm and quiet and empathetic, and although he was a mentor to Harry, he was obviously struggling with his own issues and I identified with that a lot. Odd, I know.

ANYTHING ELSE? Just that I adore this rp so much (as you all probably know) and that I hope you all like Ophelia!

IN CHARACTER

DESIRED CHARACTER

Ophelia: Derived from Greek οφελος (ophelos) meaning “help”.

Pomfrey: Welsh surname of French medieval origins. Derived from male personal name Humfrey (meaning peaceful warrior)

I honestly didn’t know that her last name meant that and now that I think about it, it’s kinda perfect. Obviously JK Rowling knew what she was doing.

FACE CLAIM

Deborah Ann Woll.

REASON FOR CHOSEN CHARACTER *The following is from my original app – but basically, I missed playing her and thought that she had an interesting backstory and personality that could bring a lot to the rp!

There’s so many amazing female characters in this roleplay already, that I truly wanted to make one who stood out and would add something new to the mix we have. Poppy Pomfrey was always a fascinating character to me, especially for the crucial role she plays in the books – someone who is in charge of keeping the students of Hogwarts safe even when the school is attacked by Dementors, Voldemort, a Basilisk, etc. and I thought about how that would transfer to our roleplay. There’s so many fighters here already, that I thought it’d be interesting to have someone who’s a healer – someone in charge of making sure people stay safe and recover from whatever wounds they have, be it external or internal, and that’s how Ophelia started to form in my mind.

It was never mentioned in the series if Poppy Pomfrey had any family, but I imagine she probably did, and so I created Ophelia, who’d be her niece. She takes after her aunt more than her own parents though, spending time with her in the Hospital Wing even during her Hogwarts years and continuing her medical training after that. I believe she sees her aunt as an inspiration. Someone she wants to exemplify, particularly now when so many people are either suffering from the trauma of war, or actual physical ailments. Her parents however hold pureblood beliefs, despite their blood status – and strive to realign themselves with Lord Voldemort. Ophelia was expected to follow in their footsteps, but no matter how dearly she loves her parents, she has always been unable to do so.

She’s a healer – she’s not in this war to fight or to prove her worth, she just wants to prevent more harm from coming to anyone. She joined the Order for the sake of gaining more intel than she’d previously had about the war and how it’s progressing, along with more access to people who’d been wounded, but she doesn’t stand beside them in battle, rather on the sidelines waiting to see who’s been harmed in order to treat them. Ophelia abhors violence of any kind, and although she knows that this isn’t a battle they can win without some kind of fight, she still finds it difficult to involve herself as completely as others. As a healer, she implicitly wants to help everyone, regardless of which side they’re on. As a member of the Order, she finds it difficult to balance the differences of opinion and the guilt that comes with betraying what her parents expect from her, but she sticks around because she knows that this is the right side to fight on.

This neutral quality is something that I really want to explore. I believe she takes her job very seriously, and as such she won’t distinguish between friend or foe, something that’ll inevitably lead to her getting into more trouble than she’d planned for, or maybe will lead to her gaining the trust of people who might otherwise never reveal something to the Order. I think she can see where people are coming from more easily too, she understands the fear that drives the Death Eaters and Aversio (or that’s how she prefers to explain their actions) and Ophelia wants to give people hope, and along with that maybe find a way for peace in amongst all the violence that has transpired already. There’s a certain naiveté about that, which she’s well aware of. But going against the idea means going against some of her core principles, and so she keeps the mindset.

PREFERRED SHIPS // CHARACTER SEXUALITY // GENDER & PRONOUNS

Pansexual, I don’t think she’s explored it much though, maybe some experimental kisses with girls every now and then and a boyfriend that lasted no more than month. Romances and sex haven’t been things that she invested herself to. While in school she strove to be on top of her coursework so that she could become just as proficient a healer as her aunt, and after graduation she slowly worked herself up from a mere intern at St. Mungos to assisting the head of the Potion & Plant Poisoning Department. All of that’s left her with very little time to devote to relationships, and although she’s a romantic at heart, she doesn’t see that as a priority.

Any ship will be remarkably slow burn, although I’d love to explore the vulnerability that comes with that and the ways she adjusts to having an emotional connection with someone.

She is a cis-female, and prefers she/her pronouns.

CREATE ONE (OR MORE!) OF THE FOLLOWING FOR YOUR CHARACTER:

Old Blog: http://opheliapomfrey.tumblr.com/

Wand: Willow with Unicorn Hair Core

Willow is an uncommon wand wood with healing power, and their ideal owner is often has some (usually unwarranted) insecurity, however well they may try and hide it. They have handsome appearance and well-founded reputation for enabling advanced, non-verbal magic) the willow wands there have consistently selected those of greatest potential, rather than those who feel they have little to learn.

Unicorn hair generally produces the most consistent magic, and is least subject to fluctuations and blockages. Wands with unicorn cores are generally the most difficult to turn to the Dark Arts. They are the most faithful of all wands, and usually remain strongly attached to their first owner, irrespective of whether he or she was an accomplished witch or wizard. Minor disadvantages of unicorn hair are that they do not make the most powerful wands (although the wand wood may compensate) and that they are prone to melancholy if seriously mishandled, meaning that the hair may ‘die’ and need replacing.

Boggart: Disappointment: more specifically, letting people down due to her own personal failures. Not being fully prepared to deal with a situation that she should be able to handle and losing the people she tries so hard to save.

Patronus: Those with the elephant patronus can be shy people, thinking everything through before acting. To some they may come off as worriers, but to them this is just how they function, they hesitate in all of their choices, but in the end they are comfortable with what they choose. They are affectionate, welcoming and warm to an almost maternal sense once they allow someone into their life. This is the hardest decision for these people to make, as they wish for peace throughout their entire life, and when they are hurt the emotional blow is severe. (x)

Personality Type: ISFJ - “The Defender” (x)

Zodiac Sign: Cancer

Playlist:

Bridge Over Troubled Water - Simon & Garfunkel I’ll take your part / When darkness comes / And pain is all around

Safe & Sound - Taylor Swift ft. The Civil Wars Just close your eyes / You’ll be alright / Come morning light / You and I’ll be safe and sound

All That I Am - Parachute And the light hits those eyes / As she’s dying to say / Just take me away from all that I am

From Eden - Hozier Babe, there’s something tragic about you / Something so magic about you

Silhouette - Owl City The mountain of things I still regret / Is a vile reminder that I would rather just forget

Piledriver Waltz - Arctic Monkeys I etched a face of a stopwatch / On the back of a raindrop / And did a swap for the sand in an hourglass

✓ Dependable

Out of her group of friends, she’s known for being the “mom” someone who assumes responsibility for everyone and who’ll be there no matter what else happens. It was a role she took on without thought, not minding the fact that she missed out on parties and having fun. She likes having people know they can rely on her, thinking that if they don’t have that knowledge it’ll be hard for her to treat them should they get hurt.

✓ Honest

She hates sugar-coating over the truth. Not seeing it as a kindness but as delaying the inevitable moment someone finds it out and is even more hurt because of it. Being lied to is a pet-peeve of hers, and she expects people to treat her with the same respect that she doles out to others. Being honest is a way of showing someone trust, even when there’s no reason for it, and it’s a very personal thing for her.

✓ Encouraging

The best way to heal people is to add a dash of kindness to whatever treatment you’ve already prescribed, or at least that’s Ophelia’s motto. She might be strict when it comes to making people rest and get the help they need, but when it comes to the people under her care, along with anyone else she meets, she’s nothing but patient and encouraging, wanting to put them at ease rather than set them further off-balance.  

✓ Altruistic

Although she loves her job for the knowledge she’s been able to gain, the main reason she became a healer was so that she could do exactly what the title suggests. She gives a lot to people, without ever thinking about what they might give to her in return, and she holds the firm belief that spreading kindness is the only way you can truly eradicate evil.

✗ Reserved

Although honest, she’s not willing to just word-dump on anyone. She’d rather let other people do the talking in conversations. It comes from years of sticking to the library and her studies more than on actual human interactions, and she has difficulty with conversations that aren’t about a patient or some new medical discovery. Sometimes Ophelia wonders if she’s too intent on her work, but she pushes that thought away with the knowledge that at least she’s not wasting time with meaningless conversations.

✗ Anxious

This is not a trait she’s proud of, and one she’s been trying to suppress all her life. But the fact of the matter is that she’s always been fretful, a little too intent on everything that can go wrong than being able to focus on the things that work. She blames it on the fact that as a healer she’s constantly on the lookout for things to fix and because there’s so many things wrong with the world, she has difficulty balancing it all.

✗ Methodical

Even before she started to gain an interest in healing, Ophelia always liked to feelstructured. It’s a slightly OCD tendency, and she tries to keep it from preventing her stress, particularly with how she can’t keep everything orderly and clean while in the midst of battle, but she likes to be precise. Scared that even the slightest slip up will cause the death of some other person to rest on her hands. Leaving something to chance is something she never does, and while some might call it obsessive, she prefers to think of it as merely planning ahead and being aware of all possible outcomes. She doesn’t know how to be anything else, especially now that she’s got her medical training behind her.

✗ Melancholic

It’s hard for her not to bear the burden of the deaths she’s seen. And as much as Ophelia tries to close herself off to the emotions that come with it, she never succeeds in doing so completely. It’s caused everyday moments to always be tinged with a sadness, just waiting for the next thing to go wrong, and no matter how often she attempts to remind herself to just live and not worry as much as she does, it’s something she struggles with.

IN CHARACTER QUESTIONNAIRE

♔ If you were able to invent one spell, potion, or charm, what would it do, what would you use it for or how would you use it? Feel free to name it:

“I’ve already started trying to invent some potions – simple healing concoctions that address some of the illnesses not already treated. But I suppose a cure for lycanthropy – it’s gone unexplored for so long and it’s terrible that someone has to live with that stigma. I’d most likely ask someone else to name it – because I’m not sure I could do that justice.”

♔ You have to venture deep into the Forbidden Forest one night. Pick one other character and one object (muggle or magical), besides your wand, that you’d want with you:

“I wouldn’t want to take anyone with me – it’s Forbidden for a reason and I’d feel like I was putting them into unnecessary danger. And I’d… take a healing salve with me… or perhaps a basket to carry any useful plants for potions.”

♔ What kinds of decisions are the most difficult for you to make?

“Ones that are unrelated to work and don’t involve logic. The ones where you can’t get advice from books or anything rational and have to rely on gut instinct alone.”

♔ What is one thing you would never want said about you?

“That I made a decision without thinking about it – or that I did something to purposefully hurt someone.”

WRITING SAMPLE

Battle was messy – blood and spells and bodies intermingling until Ophelia wanted to scream, her heart unable to bear the weight of all the hurt that others were causing. It was nothing like being in the Healing Ward of St. Mungos, no matter how much she’d tried to convince herself of it. But here she could see the origin of the screams of pain that seemed to multiply as the battle went on, could taste the hatred of everyone around her on the tip of her tongue, not just on the Death Eater’s side, but from the Order as well. It all made her want to recoil, curl up in a ball and wait for the monstrosities to be over. But although she knew from that very first mission that it’d be her last, sure that the violence that came with war wasn’t something that she could willingly take part in, she wouldn’t simply give up either. A healers hands weren’t meant to dole out harm, they were meant to help, and she was still certain of the fact that being in the Order was the best way she could ensure other’s safety.

After all, there was destruction in the aftermath; helpless souls calling out for aid in amongst the wreckage, and it was there that she found her peace. Stepping over the lifeless bodies in search for a life she could save, a hope she could grasp onto when the entire world seemed to be crumbling in upon itself. It wasn’t much, but she was certain that every life she’d be able to save was worth something, maybe not to her or anyone else in the field, but for someone else, that person could mean the entire world.

And yet, it pained her to watch others fall apart in front of her. The results of violence so evident that she couldn’t begin to shake it. And for someone who’d once been filled with the hope that she’d be able to make a difference in the world, Ophelia was starting to crumble, her smile wavering on the edges until she wondered how long she could keep it up. How long it would take for someone to notice.

But for now, she held her head up high. Intent on being strong because so many others relied on her being so. Her features drawn tight as she made her way through the makeshift tent she’d set up. The bodies she’d levitated onto little cots belonging to Order members, muggles, and Death Eaters alike, no matter the fuss the Aurors had raised at first. Underneath it all, they were still all skin and bones with hearts pumping blood and every one of them deserved the chance to live. Even if she’d had to bargain with the Order over the fact that they’d be able to question the Death Eaters once they recovered for them to allow her to treat them.  

The noise of someone entering the tent distracted her from her patient, her eyes narrowing as the elderly figure of Dumbledore came into view. His expression was grave, distant, and Ophelia instinctively stepped in front of the girl she was treating, young – probably still attending Hogwarts, identified as belonging to one of the more prominent pureblood families.

If Dumbledore was here, it meant only trouble. She was well aware of that by now, and with the way the tides of war were shifting, news was never something good. Hushed words followed his approach, her features creasing as his intentions became clear. They needed to question the girl. Sure that her connections could offer them some kind of lead as to how to progress, but although Ophelia understood the rush to get information, she wouldn’t willingly give up the oath she’d taken upon first becoming a Healer.

“No,” Her voice was firm, and Ophelia was slightly surprised at the fact that it didn’t shake at all. She’d watched her aunt stand up to the man many times while she’d still been attending Hogwarts, but she’d never thought she’d be able to do so on her own. But this was her job, and she’d be damned if she let someone take away the responsibility that came with being a Healer. Even in times like these. “This is my ward and she’s my patient, and I don’t care if she’s got information for you – you’re not going near her until she’s been healed.”

[the-end-of-art]

Nothing better than similar friendships

The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination Harvard Commencement Speech 2008 by J.K. Rowling (Text as delivered)

President Faust, members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers, members of the faculty, proud parents, and, above all, graduates.

The first thing I would like to say is ‘thank you.’ Not only has Harvard given me an extraordinary honour, but the weeks of fear and nausea I have endured at the thought of giving this commencement address have made me lose weight. A win-win situation! Now all I have to do is take deep breaths, squint at the red banners and convince myself that I am at the world’s largest Gryffindor reunion.

Delivering a commencement address is a great responsibility; or so I thought until I cast my mind back to my own graduation. The commencement speaker that day was the distinguished British philosopher Baroness Mary Warnock. Reflecting on her speech has helped me enormously in writing this one, because it turns out that I can’t remember a single word she said. This liberating discovery enables me to proceed without any fear that I might inadvertently influence you to abandon promising careers in business, the law or politics for the giddy delights of becoming a gay wizard.

You see? If all you remember in years to come is the ‘gay wizard’ joke, I’ve come out ahead of Baroness Mary Warnock. Achievable goals: the first step to self improvement.

Actually, I have wracked my mind and heart for what I ought to say to you today. I have asked myself what I wish I had known at my own graduation, and what important lessons I have learned in the 21 years that have expired between that day and this.

I have come up with two answers. On this wonderful day when we are gathered together to celebrate your academic success, I have decided to talk to you about the benefits of failure. And as you stand on the threshold of what is sometimes called ‘real life’, I want to extol the crucial importance of imagination.

These may seem quixotic or paradoxical choices, but please bear with me.

Looking back at the 21-year-old that I was at graduation, is a slightly uncomfortable experience for the 42-year-old that she has become. Half my lifetime ago, I was striking an uneasy balance between the ambition I had for myself, and what those closest to me expected of me.

I was convinced that the only thing I wanted to do, ever, was to write novels. However, my parents, both of whom came from impoverished backgrounds and neither of whom had been to college, took the view that my overactive imagination was an amusing personal quirk that would never pay a mortgage, or secure a pension. I know that the irony strikes with the force of a cartoon anvil, now.

So they hoped that I would take a vocational degree; I wanted to study English Literature. A compromise was reached that in retrospect satisfied nobody, and I went up to study Modern Languages. Hardly had my parents’ car rounded the corner at the end of the road than I ditched German and scuttled off down the Classics corridor.

I cannot remember telling my parents that I was studying Classics; they might well have found out for the first time on graduation day. Of all the subjects on this planet, I think they would have been hard put to name one less useful than Greek mythology when it came to securing the keys to an executive bathroom.

I would like to make it clear, in parenthesis, that I do not blame my parents for their point of view. There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction; the moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you. What is more, I cannot criticise my parents for hoping that I would never experience poverty. They had been poor themselves, and I have since been poor, and I quite agree with them that it is not an ennobling experience. Poverty entails fear, and stress, and sometimes depression; it means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships. Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts, that is indeed something on which to pride yourself, but poverty itself is romanticised only by fools.

What I feared most for myself at your age was not poverty, but failure.

At your age, in spite of a distinct lack of motivation at university, where I had spent far too long in the coffee bar writing stories, and far too little time at lectures, I had a knack for passing examinations, and that, for years, had been the measure of success in my life and that of my peers.

I am not dull enough to suppose that because you are young, gifted and well-educated, you have never known hardship or heartbreak. Talent and intelligence never yet inoculated anyone against the caprice of the Fates, and I do not for a moment suppose that everyone here has enjoyed an existence of unruffled privilege and contentment.

However, the fact that you are graduating from Harvard suggests that you are not very well-acquainted with failure. You might be driven by a fear of failure quite as much as a desire for success. Indeed, your conception of failure might not be too far from the average person’s idea of success, so high have you already flown.

Ultimately, we all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure, but the world is quite eager to give you a set of criteria if you let it. So I think it fair to say that by any conventional measure, a mere seven years after my graduation day, I had failed on an epic scale. An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded, and I was jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless. The fears that my parents had had for me, and that I had had for myself, had both come to pass, and by every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew.

Now, I am not going to stand here and tell you that failure is fun. That period of my life was a dark one, and I had no idea that there was going to be what the press has since represented as a kind of fairy tale resolution. I had no idea then how far the tunnel extended, and for a long time, any light at the end of it was a hope rather than a reality.

So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realised, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.

You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.

Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations. Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way. I discovered that I had a strong will, and more discipline than I had suspected; I also found out that I had friends whose value was truly above the price of rubies.

The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive. You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity. Such knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it has been worth more than any qualification I ever earned.

So given a Time Turner, I would tell my 21-year-old self that personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a check-list of acquisition or achievement. Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two. Life is difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone’s total control, and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes.

Now you might think that I chose my second theme, the importance of imagination, because of the part it played in rebuilding my life, but that is not wholly so. Though I personally will defend the value of bedtime stories to my last gasp, I have learned to value imagination in a much broader sense. Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation. In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared.

One of the greatest formative experiences of my life preceded Harry Potter, though it informed much of what I subsequently wrote in those books. This revelation came in the form of one of my earliest day jobs. Though I was sloping off to write stories during my lunch hours, I paid the rent in my early 20s by working at the African research department at Amnesty International’s headquarters in London.

There in my little office I read hastily scribbled letters smuggled out of totalitarian regimes by men and women who were risking imprisonment to inform the outside world of what was happening to them. I saw photographs of those who had disappeared without trace, sent to Amnesty by their desperate families and friends. I read the testimony of torture victims and saw pictures of their injuries. I opened handwritten, eye-witness accounts of summary trials and executions, of kidnappings and rapes.

Many of my co-workers were ex-political prisoners, people who had been displaced from their homes, or fled into exile, because they had the temerity to speak against their governments. Visitors to our offices included those who had come to give information, or to try and find out what had happened to those they had left behind.

I shall never forget the African torture victim, a young man no older than I was at the time, who had become mentally ill after all he had endured in his homeland. He trembled uncontrollably as he spoke into a video camera about the brutality inflicted upon him. He was a foot taller than I was, and seemed as fragile as a child. I was given the job of escorting him back to the Underground Station afterwards, and this man whose life had been shattered by cruelty took my hand with exquisite courtesy, and wished me future happiness.

And as long as I live I shall remember walking along an empty corridor and suddenly hearing, from behind a closed door, a scream of pain and horror such as I have never heard since. The door opened, and the researcher poked out her head and told me to run and make a hot drink for the young man sitting with her. She had just had to give him the news that in retaliation for his own outspokenness against his country’s regime, his mother had been seized and executed.

Every day of my working week in my early 20s I was reminded how incredibly fortunate I was, to live in a country with a democratically elected government, where legal representation and a public trial were the rights of everyone.

Every day, I saw more evidence about the evils humankind will inflict on their fellow humans, to gain or maintain power. I began to have nightmares, literal nightmares, about some of the things I saw, heard, and read.

And yet I also learned more about human goodness at Amnesty International than I had ever known before.

Amnesty mobilises thousands of people who have never been tortured or imprisoned for their beliefs to act on behalf of those who have. The power of human empathy, leading to collective action, saves lives, and frees prisoners. Ordinary people, whose personal well-being and security are assured, join together in huge numbers to save people they do not know, and will never meet. My small participation in that process was one of the most humbling and inspiring experiences of my life.

Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without having experienced. They can think themselves into other people’s places.

Of course, this is a power, like my brand of fictional magic, that is morally neutral. One might use such an ability to manipulate, or control, just as much as to understand or sympathise.

And many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all. They choose to remain comfortably within the bounds of their own experience, never troubling to wonder how it would feel to have been born other than they are. They can refuse to hear screams or to peer inside cages; they can close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them personally; they can refuse to know.

I might be tempted to envy people who can live that way, except that I do not think they have any fewer nightmares than I do. Choosing to live in narrow spaces leads to a form of mental agoraphobia, and that brings its own terrors. I think the wilfully unimaginative see more monsters. They are often more afraid.

What is more, those who choose not to empathise enable real monsters. For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it, through our own apathy.

One of the many things I learned at the end of that Classics corridor down which I ventured at the age of 18, in search of something I could not then define, was this, written by the Greek author Plutarch: What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.

That is an astonishing statement and yet proven a thousand times every day of our lives. It expresses, in part, our inescapable connection with the outside world, the fact that we touch other people’s lives simply by existing.

But how much more are you, Harvard graduates of 2008, likely to touch other people’s lives? Your intelligence, your capacity for hard work, the education you have earned and received, give you unique status, and unique responsibilities. Even your nationality sets you apart. The great majority of you belong to the world’s only remaining superpower. The way you vote, the way you live, the way you protest, the pressure you bring to bear on your government, has an impact way beyond your borders. That is your privilege, and your burden.

If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice; if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless; if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped change. We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.

I am nearly finished. I have one last hope for you, which is something that I already had at 21. The friends with whom I sat on graduation day have been my friends for life. They are my children’s godparents, the people to whom I’ve been able to turn in times of trouble, people who have been kind enough not to sue me when I took their names for Death Eaters. At our graduation we were bound by enormous affection, by our shared experience of a time that could never come again, and, of course, by the knowledge that we held certain photographic evidence that would be exceptionally valuable if any of us ran for Prime Minister.

So today, I wish you nothing better than similar friendships. And tomorrow, I hope that even if you remember not a single word of mine, you remember those of Seneca, another of those old Romans I met when I fled down the Classics corridor, in retreat from career ladders, in search of ancient wisdom: As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters. I wish you all very good lives. Thank-you very much.

[lordofsunshadowandsailor]

replies (long)

These include some replies from months ago, the last one added just before I left on my vacations. Sorry for having taken so long to answer.

Also, four attentive friends have alerted me in PMs about Apollo Tim/Jim being a probable misspelling mistake -- I’ve already explained them, and make it now public, that it is his professional name and he alternates between both -- we still don’t know his real name yet.

For the new followers, I do try to reply at least every end of the month, or after each update, and offer the most thorough answers I can -- so please to ask and comment!

declarations-of-drama replied to your photo “Tobio’s rude command slapped Alvar, his spitted words like sharp...”

Oh my god! I knew this would be how it would end for that day :/ I love how you made Alvar the proud shameful one here who regretted it all after being such a forceful partner earlier ^^

Alvar, pretty much like Tobio, got carried away by the heat of the moment -- and they are both now reflecting about what has just happened, what has been done -- and mostly, how, and where. To Alvar it seems properly bestial, and he deeply regrets it. For Alvar, it would have been fine if it were in the privacy of one of their bedrooms -- but then, Tobio, who wants no commitments, who can’t bear the idea of being homosexual, wouldn’t have been talked into making it in a love nest... They are a complicated pair, going opposite directions in their longings and desires.

simblu replied to your photo “Tobio’s rude command slapped Alvar, his spitted words like sharp...”

I love how eloquently you capture their internal conflicts.

Thank you! Because this is mostly what the story is about -- and all of my stories, I should say. Though I’m planning to have a whole bit more of action in LoSSS, with crimes and mysteries to be solved, it is always the characters’ inner lives and internal conflicts I write mostly about. My stories happen inside, and not outside, more in thoughts than in actions (that are often contradictory), and relying a lot on flashbacks. 

declarations-of-drama replied to your photo “In that parting moment it seemed prophetic enough, though – the...”

I would say "Poor Alvar!" but then I would be reminded how he acted like a virgin all innocent and unknowing which in itself sort of felt like a trap for Tobi. 

Maybe that is Alvar’s way of seducing guys? 

He doesn’t do it consciously, though, I guess. It’s like -- after sex, during which he really opens up and wide, but once it is through he closes himself again, not just his legs but his sexuality. It’s always a somewhat long way back into sex for him each time, as if he truly were a virgin every occasion he has to get into doing it again...

declarations-of-drama replied to your photo “In that parting moment it seemed prophetic enough, though – the...”

Also - I love the description here - makes me want to tell Alvar to go and bathe :D lol

I hope it is not too graphic or shocking, but it sounds true and probable to me, a few nasty details thrown in that add verisimilitude to the scene.

declarations-of-drama replied to your post “story replies”

Looking forward to more from your story - enjoy your holiday! X

Thank you, dear. And after wonderful vacations in which I wrote just one paragraph of a different story, we are back at LoSSS!

simblu replied to your photo “Still, though Tobio turned his head to look in Alvar’s direction, he...”

Good questions...

I am pretty much asking these myself, and sharing them with he reader, since it took so long between updates...

tyrellsimsoficeandfire replied to your photo “Tobio!” He exhaled the name more than called it, and finally seemed...”

How much I love these icarus scenes! Interesting how you play with the two levels of storytelling : Victorian and greek fantasy

Thank you dear! I started planning this to be a steampunk story, having that as the fantastic element of the story -- but in the end it’s a style I know very little of, and before I realized it I had included Greek elements in it, or the idealized -- and often kitsch -- Victorian ways of regarding classical Greece. It is of course an even stronger tendency once I’ve again vacationed in Greece. :) I’m glad you enjoy it, and be prepared for more!

tyrellsimsoficeandfire replied to your photo “Perusing the room, Alvar did notice a shelf full of flasks, and...”

Classy decor!!!! Adorable style

Thanks! I admit it is not a style I am familiar with, so it involves a lot of references to make it appropriately dated... So thankful, really, to all the wonderful CC creators who enable it!

tyrellsimsoficeandfire replied to your photo “The portrait, though having captured both her unique beauty and spirit...”

Recently you wrote your own writing skill's development surprised you: As no native speaker I am always fascinated. Don't think I could write that fantastic in English. Praise to you!!!!

Thank you for you kindness and support! It really comes as a surprise each time I read my own text. How did those words come together, I ask myself? But it is as if they have a need of their own, and I just obey it and write as they like.

And yet, there you are, writing your own beautiful version of Romeo and Juliet! Praise to you too! :)

willky12 replied to your photo “Perusing the room, Alvar did notice a shelf full of flasks, and...”

What man indeed.

This is my perception from what I’ve read and watched about the period following the end of WWI. It damaged irreparably an entire generation of men -- and women! I believe the stats say that only one in ten women did marry after the war, the rest having remained singletons, and widowers. This is actually one of the themes of LoSSS.

willky12 replied to your photo “The portrait, though having captured both her unique beauty and spirit...”

I agree entirely, you write like an Englishman! The second paragraph in post #11 was really well done I thought.

Thank you dear! I am indeed trying to give a British accent to this story, but how could I really differentiate? Of course I had to reread the paragraph you mentioned to try to understand what you perceived... Your feedback is beyond important to me, and I am so thankful really!

willky12 replied to your photo “I hadn’t seen him until this morning.” Alvar sounded out of breath,...”

This is a surprise!

It is! 

I was going to hold it for later, but decided the story needed some shaking. Thing is, now I recall why I was going to introduce it only later, and shall have to modify some future scenes I had planned having now shared this information. My problem to solve only, though. :)

jepensedoncjesims replied to your photo “With a sharp sting across his chest, Alvar deposed Apollo Jim on the...”

The second paragraph very wonderfully expressed. Such vivid images of the warm colors of Autumn with the anxiety or death lurking about. Beautiful work.

Thank you, dear. I oscillate between letting the image speak for itself or describing it and pointing at specific details... I tend to think not many people have seen Death hanging there on the other side of the window, right behind Alvar. Thanks for having noticed it!

simblu replied to your photo “With a sharp sting across his chest, Alvar deposed Apollo Jim on the...”

You do write so beautifully.

Thank you for your kindness, dear. I do try my best to honor a language that is not mine and that therefore I respect even more.

simblu replied to your photo “Tobio could tell why, but he wanted to listen it from Alvar. Lost Boys...”

So well told, really.

Thank you! Since it is a long post, I did pay special attention to the flow between sentences and paragraphs, and it seems to have turned out well.

simblu replied to your photo “You are taking him to your ancestral lands? To live under the same...”

Wow, Tobio is rather harsh in his assessment of that Lost Boy, isn't he?

According to the post you mentioned just above, he seems to be well versed in Lost Boys, having frequented parties where they were the main attraction -- and maybe even having hunted them in Pennington Park. He must know better -- certainly better than Alvar!

tyrellsimsoficeandfire replied to your photo “Tobio could tell why, but he wanted to listen it from Alvar. Lost Boys...”

It's always fascinating how deep you go into character building and how developed yours settings/backstories are. That's pure realism with every nasty detail included. It interests me, how much of research you do and how?

Thank you for asking.

This passage, specifically, demanded some research, yes.

I Google a lot, I read lot, and I even try to watch movies or documentaries on the themes I am writing about -- so that it is not just fun, but entertainingly learning at the same time. I do have many boards of references of images and links to texts on Pinterest, and not just a few file collections in my own laptop. 

What I don’t want with this story, though, is to be specific about dates and places, otherwise I’ll have to be specific about facts and events -- and that is beyond this project.

danjaley replied to your photo “The boy stood clearly not for a sailor, though the hat could have been...”

I wonder if Alvar has the remotest idea how his attempts to be distant and reserved make Tobio imagine the most colourful scenarios.

I really don’t think so, since they don’t communicate a lot, do they? There are entire paragraphs for their thoughts and perceptions, that they keep to themselves though sharing it with the reader, while only a few lines with dialogue. They each live in their own world, and see things from very different perspectives and through diverse experiences and backgrounds.

[0100100100101101]

Berlin—February 1st, 2017. I am rushing through the neighborhood of Mitte, slaloming my way through icy mud piles along the streets. Google tells me the sun is setting today at 16:53. I have two more hours of daylight. Just about enough to get a few shots of Errolson Hugh, the Canadian designer behind the Berlin-based performance wear brand Acronym.

We get together at his studio in the Mitte neighborhood in former East Berlin, which is now a popular bourgeois-bohemian neighborhood. In his loft-like studio, I almost crash into one of the stacks of the hundreds of shoe boxes that dot the floor plan like Greek temple columns. “Sorry about the mess,” Errolson says in a calm voice, “all these shoes go online for sale tonight.” Inside the boxes is the Acronym Nike Air Force 1 Downtown sneaker, the latest edition of their ongoing collaboration. Like almost everything Acronym puts onto the market, it is in high demand and soon to be #VeryRare. I find out later that night that all 600 sneakers sold in less than 12 minutes online.

I look past the shoe boxes through the massive floor-to-ceiling windows. The sky is grey and darkening at the horizon. We dash out in the backyard to catch the last rays of gloomy light. Errolson grabs a couple of black jackets, among them the J1A-GT, a revamped version of Acronym’s first collection from 2002. “It’s damn cold,” I gasp, and Errolson smiles, replying, “Oh, this is nothing compared to where I come from.”

Born in Canada, Errolson grew up facing another echelon of cold winters. To keep ourselves warm, I ask him if he can show me a few martial arts moves, knowing that he has been a karate pro since he was a kid. He shortly considers, looks around the neighborhood, then says, “Yeah, why not.” Errolson tells me that he and his younger brother both started training together, when they were 10 and eight years old, respectively. The uniform, the karate gi, is a very traditional example of Japanese pattern-making, and its geometry is such that there are no restrictions to physical motion. That was the first time Errolson realized a piece of clothing could limit or enable the way the body works. “I was always driving my mom crazy trying to find pants that I could wear and kick in. Any kind of pants. I’d always be in the department stores in the changing rooms, throwing sidekicks,” he says.

Errolson is dressed in his own collection, wearing black P25-CH pants, exactly those ones he dreamt of as a kid—pants you can move in freely, stay outside in, and practice karate. I ask him what he learned from karate apart from how to do a badass axe kick. “Martial arts fosters self-reliance, and you learn to trust your own judgment. You realize, in a very real, physical way, that you can do more than you think you can. The whole mind over matter thing, mastering situations, all of that has real world application, particularly if you’re an entrepreneur or you’re in a super competitive industry, like fashion.“

Only much later would the designer apply the merits of karate to his work process, design, and brand. Errolson’s parents, Chinese-Jamaicans, moved from the tropical Caribbean to the woodlands of Alberta to study architecture. After graduating, they worked together all over Canada, moving around to wherever the jobs would take them. “For me, Canada was the feeling of alienation and total isolation,“ Errolson says about his up-bringing, “Growing up there was myself, my brother, maybe one other Asian kid at school, one black kid. People wanted to grow up and be hockey players or work in the oil industry, that’s kind of all there was, so being a designer was about as realistic as becoming an astronaut.”

Nobody knew anything about fashion. Errolson remembers one shop, which had a copy of The Face and i-D, that was like a message from outer space. “I think it was my guitar teacher who first gave me an issue of The Face,” Errolson remembers, “That blew me away. Then my dad gave me a copy of Interview magazine at Christmas in 1985. Madonna was on the cover, along with handmade pencil drawings. It was this giant newsprint magazine. I still remember spending the entire day reading. I knew every single page of that magazine by like a week later.” With no internet, those rare magazines were the only channel to see what was going on outside of Alberta.

In 1989, Errolson enrolled at Ryerson Polytechnic University. He graduated, but it was a bumpy road. “They tried to kick me out, twice. I was a horrible student—very disruptive and not respectful,“ he confesses. I ask him if it had to do with his karate mentality, the idea of being self-reliant and one’s own boss. “Yeah, there had always been that outsider perspective,” he answers. “It is still that way with my brand.”

In 1999, Errolson registered the brand Acronym with his partner and former girlfriend Michaela Sachenbacher. From the start it focused on experimenting at the edges of what apparel can be. “Acronym is conceptual,” the designer says, “You take something and make it compact and useable. You express something very complex in a compact way, which is similar to everything we’re trying to do with apparel.”

Michaela and Errolson are both trained as designers. She now runs all of the legal, production, and finances of the company from Brooklyn, while Errolson does all of the Acronym studio work, collaborations with Nike or Stone Island, rotating between Berlin, Milan, and Tokyo. They both design Acronym together. “I’m the visible part, but Michaela is equally strong as far as aesthetics, and Acronym definitely wouldn’t look the same if she wasn’t co-owner,” Errolson says, “She is the person I’ve probably learned more from than anyone else in my life. I’ve known her since we were 18.”

Before establishing Acronym as a fashion brand, Michaela and Errolson had a creative agency in Munich. They were designing and art directing mostly active sportswear, for mountain bike or snowboard brands like Burton. Both picked up on the technology that was there and through friends came across military and industrial apparel, which at some point led to the question, “Why can’t we have all of this for everyday use?” The couple realized that what they were looking for in clothes was not yet on the market. “People were like, ‘Oh that sounds terrible, it’s so difficult, it’s expensive, why would you want to do that?’ So we started Acronym almost out of frustration. We said, ‘Alright, if you don’t want to do it, we’ll do it.’ At first, people didn’t care. It was like five to six years before anybody was interested.”

Errolson is well-connected in the fashion world, having lived in Los Angeles, Tokyo, and New York, but for years the brand remained something like an outsider, a well-hidden secret. Another reason Acronym stayed detached from the fashion system is the way the company and the studio work. “We operate in parallel with it, and sometimes we intersect with it,” the designer says about the industry at large, “but for the most part our process and the way we work has almost nothing to do with the way everyone else works. This is our strength and it’s also obviously our weakness. The strength of it is being so outside of the system you develop your own independent way of doing things, and it really gives you an individual approach and a fingerprint. Then the negative part obviously is to interface with the system at play. You’re not limited by the limitations of the system, but you also don’t get to benefit from the advantages of being in the system.”

From the beginning, Acronym was focused on soft and light shell fabrics like Gore-Tex, a lightweight, waterproof, breathable fabric membrane designed for all-weather use. A lot of what Acronym does is taking an unattractive or not obviously stylish fabric and finding a way to make it look good. It always starts with the function of the apparel. There is a lot of thought that goes into each design and an obsession with details. The architectural influence from his parents comes into play with Errolson’s approach to materials. “The whole form follows function thing, fitness to purpose, all of those broad architectural concepts. My brother and I grew up with those all around us, and so it was very natural for me to apply that to apparel.”

Acronym’s collections never have more than 15 pieces, an indication of the painstaking detail that goes into each design. It took three years to work on the brand’s first collection, named Kit-1. It was released in 2002 in an edition of 120, consisting of a jacket, a bag, and accessories. The industry noticed, liked it, and the Fall/Winter 2003 collection was picked up by concept stores like Colette in Paris.

There is a misconception in the fashion world that Acronym limits its number of pieces on purpose to create artificial scarcity. In fact, there is so little of Acronym because it is so hard to make. It is very difficult to find a factory that can meet the technical criteria to produce it, Errolson explains to me while pouring himself a glass of Coca Cola. “There’s always a very specific reason for the things that we put in, and those things happen to be expensive, and that’s why it’s expensive. We’re not trying to create something purposefully scarce or purposefully luxurious, we’re just trying to make the best possible thing we can. It’s not a marketing strategy.”

Until 2009, Errolson and Michaela were the company’s only employees. They got so used to working by themselves and for themselves that when people started knocking at their door, they were surprised. Errolson wondered, “Wow, where did people get our number? Why do you call us?“ Even today, it is still kind of like that. There is no PR, no marketing, hardly any events. It was not simple to reach Errolson as he travels and focuses more on work than doing publicity. Yet the team has grown slowly over the years. “I basically hired all of my friends. We joked that all of the lost children of Berlin end up in our office. In other cities, people talk about being cool, because it’s actually a bankable commodity. The way they describe it, that kind of cool actually exists in Berlin as a real thing. People are legitimately cool here, and it’s not about knowing it. I think that also comes because it’s the least materialistic city I have ever lived in. People just aren’t about money. They just don’t care. I think that’s super healthy.”

Only in the past few years has the visibility of Acronym increased. One factor being the cultural shift in the industry in favor of their aesthetic and the rise of high fashion performance wear. Acronym pioneered the introduction of technology as its own category of design aesthetic, and their moves have paved the way for many brands’ ready-to-wear collections in recent seasons. Today, technology is one of the industry’s big trends, blending traditional sportswear with high fashion. Dubbed athleisure, active wear, or performance wear, it is casual clothing designed to be worn both for exercising and for day-to-day use in the cityscape. Fitness and athleticism has become one of the defining cultural paradigms of contemporary urban life, similar to the powers of street culture, that has turned the fashion world upside down in the last decade.

When I ask Errolson about his relationship to streetwear, he says it is hard for him to have an objective view on that, because he knows those guys, and through his work with Burton snowboards, way back in the day, met a lot of the people who invented what everybody calls streetwear today. In Tokyo, he met people like Nigo, Jun Takahashi, and Hiroshi Fujiwara. “Everything we take for granted as streetwear today,” the designer says, “started there organically. They’re all friends. They worked together. They invented the idea of collaboration.”

Acronym itself slowly began working with very carefully selected partners. After five to six years, they realized that trying to do it all by themselves was not possible. “You can’t change the industry as a single brand,” Errolson admits. Among the collaborations are well-established sportswear and streetwear brands that were part of Acronym’s growth. When Paul Harvey retired from his job as creative director at Stone Island, the Italian brand approached Errolson to be a part of that team, a partnership that gave birth to Stone Island Shadow Project. “That’s been super amazing because we get to do things ourselves,” Errolson says. “That’s the only collection we’ve ever worked on where you get to design not only the pieces but also the fabric of those pieces in the collection. They’re so up for trying different things, difficult things, and stuff no one else would even attempt. They’re like, ‘Yeah, let’s add these three processes on top of it and see what happens.’ And you just don’t get that anywhere else.“

Since 2013, Acronym has had another mutually successful partnership with Nike. Both brands worked together to create iconic sneakers, among them the Lunar Force 1 and recently the Presto Air, which has helped Nike develop an avant-garde feel and reach out to the premium menswear segment of the sneaker market. Both companies also worked together on another line, relaunching ACG (All Conditions Gear), Nike’s iconic mountaineering-inspired offering. “It’s the first time we’re really able to work at a scale where we can take an idea and put it on the street in a way that’s much more accessible to more people than we would with Acronym,” Errolson reflects. “Working with Nike means that you’re really working with pop culture. It’s not just a product or a collection. It’s so ingrained into so many people’s histories.”

When Errolson says this, we both glance at the hundreds of shoe boxes in the studio, holding the latest much-anticipated collaboration between Acronym and Nike. By the time the interview ends, the sun is down, leaving this part of the studio in the shade. It is hard to imagine that all the sneakers will be gone soon. Other parts of the studio show pieces of older Acronym collections and accessories, most of them designed from black materials. I ask him if that color is a fetish. “According to my dad, I used to wear all black when I was 10, which is kind of strange to me because that’s before Yohji and Comme des Garçons, which I never would have heard about anyways. He thinks it’s from being influenced by Arata Isozaki, who is a Japanese architect, which kind of makes more sense because there were definitely a lot more architecture books around. But with Acronym later, and the size of production that we used to do, black was the only color that all of the suppliers would have on stock, and that you could order and expect to look sort of okay. That’s why everything is black.”

Besides the underlying constants of dark colors, select materials, and a focus on functionality, in recent seasons, Acronym started to concentrate on pattern-making and how the garments move on the body. As with everything, Acronym takes its time. It’s a culture of methodical tactility. When Errolson mentions this shift, I am reminded of his karate gi and how it sensitized his perception of fashion and empowered him to become a better fighter. “That’s why fashion is so powerful,” Errolson says. “It’s that intersection of design, communication, and identity. It’s a large part of who you are, how you define yourself, how you present yourself to the world. So people definitely get attached to that. Plus, it’s just hard to find a pair of pants that fit you perfectly. It’s actually quite difficult.”

Before leaving his studio, I ask Errolson what was the last mind-opening thing he learned from someone. He tells me about his daughter and seeing her grow up: “It’s amazing to see somebody discover everything for the first time and it’s a good reminder that there can be magic in the most banal things.”

[caddyxjellyby]

Alcott Readathon 2018: Jo’s Boys (1886)

"Miss Alcott's books are all delightful, and Jo's Boys is one of the best of them." - Boston Evening Transcript

"Thousands of readers will approach this later book with keen curiosity. They will find it lacking in some of the spontaneity of its predecessors, yet still an interesting volume[.]" - Unknown

"Its romance has a singular strain of youthfulness about it, which hardly enables one to feel in it the dignity of real love, courtship, and marriage." - The Critic

"The fault of the story is that there is too much of it. One is bewildered by the numerous boys and girls, and finds it hard to keep the run of 'who is who.' " - The Providence Sunday Journal

"A trifle labored and tedious." - The Graphic

In 1882 LMA helped start Concord's temperance society, destroyed most of her mother's diaries, raised her niece Lulu, and mourned her hero Emerson. In October she started Jo's Boys, originally intended a St. Nicholas serial. That same month Bronson had a stroke. In February 1884 she described the book's future as uncertain.  In December 1884 she started again, writing two hours for three days, which made her ill with vertigo for a week. In April 1886 she mentions working on it for one hour a day, a limit ordered by her doctor. In June she moved from Boston to Concord and was able to finish 15 chapters. July she turned in the manuscript and it was published in England in September and America in October.

1: Ten Years Later

Mr. Laurence is dead and left his fortune to found Laurence College. Marmee is also gone. Hannah is not mentioned. Mr. March is the school chaplain.

Franz is in Germany with his merchant uncle. Emil was sent on a long voyage in the hopes that he would give up on sailing, but the opposite happened. Dolly, George, and Ned study law. Nan and Tom study medicine. It's not mentioned where Nan went, but LMA's friend Dr. Rhoda Lawrence went to Boston University School of Medicine.

Jack is in business in Chicago. Nat attends the Conservatory. Dick and Billy are dead, the narrator claiming "life would never be happy" for them which is both disgusting and an odd contradiction of statements made in Jack and Jill. Rob is gentle and quiet but manly inside. Ted is loud and mischievous. Demi disappointed Meg by becoming a reporter, as LMA's elder nephew Frederick Pratt did. Daisy is "her mother's comfort and companion." Josie, 14, amuses them with her love of theater. Bess, 15, is tall and beautiful. Dan went to South American for a geological expedition, then Australia for sheep farming and is now in California.

Nan and Tom walk to Plumfield. He's in love with her and she brushes him off. He got a blue anchor on his arm to match hers. Josie runs after Ted, who stole her copy of The Lady of Lyons by Edward Bulwer-Lytton.

The four meet Jo, Meg, and Daisy for tea. Demi arrives with the news that Emil will return soon and Franz is engaged to Ludmilla.

2: Parnassus

Amy and Laurie's house. Laurie critiques Bess's clay baby. "You can't see beauty in anything but music," she answers. Amy made marble busts of Beth and John.

Nat's about to leave for Leipzig. He loves Daisy, but Meg disapproves because they don't know his family and music is a hard living.

Josie and Ted ask their grandfather to weigh in on their debate.

'Why, we were pegging away at the Iliad and came to where Zeus tells Juno not to inquire into his plans or he'll whip her, and Jo was disgusted because Juno meekly hushed up. I said it was all right, and agreed with the old fellow that women didn't know much and ought to obey men,' explained Ted, to the great amusement of his hearers. 'Goddesses may do as they like, but those Greek and Trojan women were poor-spirited things if they minded men who couldn't fight their own battles and had to be hustled off by Pallas, and Venus, and Juno, when they were going to get beaten. The idea of two armies stopping and sitting down while a pair of heroes flung stones at one another! I don't think much of your old Homer. Give me Napoleon or Grant for my hero.' Josie's scorn was as funny as if a humming-bird scolded at an ostrich, and everyone laughed as she sniffed at the immortal poet and criticized the gods. 'Napoleon's Juno had a nice time; didn't she? That's just the way girls argue—first one way and then the other,' jeered Ted. 'Like Johnson's young lady, who was “not categorical, but all wiggle-waggle”,' added Uncle Laurie, enjoying the battle immensely. 'I was only speaking of them as soldiers. But if you come to the woman side of it, wasn't Grant a kind husband and Mrs Grant a happy woman? He didn't threaten to whip her if she asked a natural question; and if Napoleon did do wrong about Josephine, he could fight, and didn't want any Minerva to come fussing over him. They were a stupid set, from dandified Paris to Achilles sulking in his ships, and I won't change my opinion for all the Hectors and Agamemnons in Greece,' said Josie, still unconquered. 'You can fight like a Trojan, that's evident; and we will be the two obedient armies looking on while you and Ted have it out,' began Uncle Laurie, assuming the attitude of a warrior leaning on his spear.

They're interrupted by Emil, Josie's favorite cousin, who has presents for everyone. Nan's earrings are skulls, but Josie says she won't wear them.

3: Jo's Last Scrape

Several years before, when Plumfield was in bad shape, Jo "hastily scribbled a little story" about herself and her sisters. To her astonishment it became a bestseller. Rumors exaggerate her fortune, which makes me wonder about the rumors because in 1887 LMA gave John and Frederick Pratt $25,000 each. In then dollars.

Rob reads her fanmail over breakfast - people seeking autographs, advice, donations; a love poem; and a little boy who thinks her books are first-rate.

Ted tells a reporter who visits that, "She is about sixty, born in Nova Zembla, married just forty years ago today, and has eleven daughters." (Forgive me the mixed quotation marks.) A woman and her three daughters come, Fritz with a bunch of his students, and a woman collecting a grasshopper and a shawl to put in a rug.

Jo retreats to her room, determined to finish 30 pages, but there's a man who won't leave. It's Dan. "I've been longing to see you for a year," she says.

4: Dan

He tells her about California and the money he got from investing in mines. He doesn't recognize Bess - "I thought it was a spirit." "Two years have changed you entirely," she replies.

Everyone starts making plans to head West. Dan thinks he might settle on a farm or return to the Montana Indians. They're dying of starvation, "a damned shame."

I don't think I understood before that "she never grudged her Jack a glass" referred to alcohol.

Jo calls the girls and the seven boys "the flower of our flock" and mentions for the first time Alice Heath, a Laurence College student.

Dan brought Ted a mustang, Josie a dress to play Namioka in Metamora, and a buffalo head for Bess.

'Thought it would do her good to model something strong and natural. She'll never amount to anything if she keeps on making namby-pamby gods and pet kittens,' answered irreverent Dan, remembering that when he was last here Bess was vibrating distractedly between a head of Apollo and her Persian cat as models. 'Thank you; I'll try it, and if I fail we can put the buffalo up in the hall to remind us of you,' said Bess, indignant at the insult offered the gods of her idolatry, but too well bred to show it except in her voice, which was as sweet and as cold as ice-cream. 'I suppose you won't come out to see our new settlement when the rest do? Too rough for you?' asked Dan, trying to assume the deferential air all the boys used when addressing their Princess. 'I am going to Rome to study for years. All the beauty and art of the world is there, and a lifetime isn't long enough to enjoy it,' answered Bess. 'Rome is a mouldy old tomb compared to the “Garden of the gods” and my magnificent Rockies. I don't care a hang for art; nature is as much as I can stand, and I guess I could show you things that would knock your old masters higher than kites. Better come, and while Josie rides the horses you can model 'em. If a drove of a hundred or so of wild ones can't show you beauty, I'll give up,' cried Dan, waxing enthusiastic over the wild grace and vigour which he could enjoy but had no power to describe. 'I'll come some day with papa, and see if they are better than the horses of St Mark and those on Capitol Hill. Please don't abuse my gods, and I will try to like yours,' said Bess, beginning to think the West might be worth seeing, though no Raphael or Angelo had yet appeared there. 'That's a bargain! I do think people ought to see their own country before they go scooting off to foreign parts, as if the new world wasn't worth discovering,' began Dan, ready to bury the hatchet. 'It has some advantages, but not all. The women of England can vote, and we can't. I'm ashamed of America that she isn't ahead in all good things,' cried Nan, who held advanced views on all reforms, and was anxious about her rights, having had to fight for some of them. 'Oh, please don't begin on that. People always quarrel over that question, and call names, and never agree. Do let us be quiet and happy tonight,' pleaded Daisy, who hated discussion as much as Nan loved it.

Jo, Meg, and Amy all vote for the school board; Demi says he'll escort Nan and Daisy next year.

5: Vacation

Funny how in books like this and The Secret Garden, exercise makes you grow less thin because working up an appetite makes you eat more.

Demi takes photos, particularly of Bess. Nat and Daisy hang out all they can.

At the good-bye dance Laurie takes Jo on a tour. Emil sits on the roof serenading girls with Mary's Dream and tossing them roses.

The second window framed a very picturesque group of three. Mr March in an arm-chair, with Bess on a cushion at his feet, was listening to Dan, who, leaning against a pillar, was talking with unusual animation. The old man was in shadow, but little Desdemona was looking up with the moonlight full upon her into young Othello's face, quite absorbed in the story he was telling so well. The gay drapery over Dan's shoulder, his dark colouring, and the gesture of his arm made the picture very striking, and both spectators enjoyed it with silent pleasure, till Mrs Jo said in a quick whisper: 'I'm glad he's going away. He's too picturesque to have here among so many romantic girls. Afraid his “grand, gloomy, and peculiar” style will be too much for our simple maids.' 'No danger; Dan is in the rough as yet, and always will be, I fancy; though he is improving in many ways. How well Queenie looks in that soft light!' 'Dear little Goldilocks looks well everywhere.' And with a backward glance full of pride and fondness, Mrs Jo went on. But that scene returned to her long afterward and her own prophetic words also.

Nan takes a splinter out of Tom's hand; he says it's the only time she was kind to him and too bad he didn't lose his arm. "I wish you'd lost your head," she says because his hair pomade stinks.

Ted poses on a stool as Josie and others give commentary. Jo explains they're planning for the upcoming play.

George and eat while complaining about the unladylike amount the girls eat. It proves that studying is bad for them.

A girl says to another that the dress she thought was elegant at home looks countrified here. Second girl tells her to ask Mrs. Brooke for advice.

Nan and Alice interrogate the young men over whether they believe in Women's Suffrage (yes, yes, and yes). You know what I really like? When people recognize that voting isn't the be-all end-all of women's legal right. When people recognize that legal rights aren't social rights and the former existing doesn't magic the latter into existence.

6: Last Words

Meg, weren't you married at 20? Isn't Daisy 20? I'm just saying.

"Girls, have you got nice pocket handkerchiefs?" jokes Jo as her sisters leave for church.

Jo talks to Nat about himself and about Daisy, claiming it's better to have no promises made until his return. "No one will be quicker to see and admire the brave work than my sister Meg. She does not despise your poverty or your past; but mothers are very tender over their daughters, and we Marches, though we have been poor, are, I confess, a little proud of our good family. We don't care for money; but a long line of virtuous ancestors is something to desire and to be proud of."

On the roof she lectures Emil on his new duties as second mate. "Jack ashore is a very different craft from what he is with blue water under his keel," he says. The narrator hints he'll remember this later.

Dan confesses that in San Francisco he gambled a little. Jo cautions him against it and he reassures her. He knows his biggest fault is not gambling but his temper, and he's afraid he'll kill someone one day. She gives him Undine and Sintram to borrow.

7: The Lion and the Lamb

With their parents at the mountains and the Laurences at the shore, Rob and Teddy have the run of the house.  Dan's dog Don won't eat or play. Ted suggests he's sicks; Rob says he's just pining for Dan and goes back to writing Latin verses. Ted switches Don, Don gets angry, Rob jumps in front of Ted and Don bites his leg. Nan decides it must be burnt with a poker. Rob takes it like a trooper but Ted faints.

Jo and Fritz note that Rob's even more serious and Ted's a little less wild. Ted claims it's his brother's influence but Jo coaxes the truth out of them.

8: Josie Play Mermaid

Josie's idol Miss Cameron is also at the shore, but she has a private beach and it's hard to see her. One day she loses her bracelet and Josie dives down to fetch it. Miss Cameron invites her over and Josie gives Ophelia's mad scene and a bit from a farce and Portia's speech.

"You've a good voice and natural grace," says the actress and advises her to finish her education and start training when she's older. They blah blah about purifying the stage. Josie starts hitting the books and piano to the delight of her family.

9: The Worm Turns

Tom appears at Jo's with an awful scrape: he's engaged. Oh no Nan didn't! says Jo, but it's not Nan, it's Dora West. Nan mentioned her in Chapter 1.

Down at Quitno he was rowing and the boat capsized but she wasn't mad about it. Later she was riding on the back of his bicycle and a donkey kicked it and they fell. She cracked up and said "Let us go on again" and he replied about going on forever. Jo thinks it's hilarious and a good match. Dora's ability to take things in stride will serve her well if their hypothetical future child is anything like young Tom.

Tom hints that Demi flirted with Alice. "A great dead of courting goes on in those [tennis] courts."

Nan is pleased and resolves to buy Dora a medicine chest for a wedding present. He gives up medicine and goes into business with Bangs Sr.

10: Demi Settles

Demi tells Meg he quit reporting and she's very glad. He got a place at Jo's publisher as Frederick and the real John did.

They talk about Josie and the upcoming plays and Demi promises he'll protect her if she treads the boards.

Josie teases him, via a reference to The Old Curiosity Shop, about spooning with Alice and he tells her not to be silly.

11: Emil's Thanksgiving

My favorite chapter! The Brenda, Englishman Captain Hardy commanding and his wife and daughter Mary aboard, is en route to China when there is a FIRE IN THE HOLD. ABANDON SHIP. Captain Hardy is pushed overboard by a falling mast and knocked out.

They float for three days and then start to worry. During the fourth night two sailors steal the brandy bottle and fall overboard.

A sail appears, but it's too far away to notice the little boat. Emil despairs during the night until Mary singing a hymn he knows from Plumfield brings to mind Jo's talk.

Then it starts to rain and a ship comes to rescue them. What day is it? Emil asks. Thanksgiving!

12: Dan's Christmas

Dan, traveling west, befriends a younger boy, Blair, who reminds him of Ted. Some guys cheat at cards with Blair, Dan calls them out, one draws a pistol, and Dan punches him. The guy hits his head on a stove and dies. Dan gets sentence to a year in prison.

A real life incident appears. LMA and Bronson visited a prison in 1879 and she told the occupants a hospital story. The Sunday before Thanksgiving, the same thing happens to Dan, and it inspires him to not participate in the revolt the other men are planning.

He sends Jo a note at Christmas.

13: Nat's New Year

In Leipzig, Nat brags a little too much about his connections, so people assume he's upper-class and invite him to balls and plays and beer-gardens. He spends a little too much money and plays the gallant with Minna, whose mother confronts him about his intentions. When the bills and a letter from Plumfield arrive at New Year's he resolves to stop being a socialite.  His landlady gets him a job teaching English. It must be nice to have connections.

14: Plays at Plumfield

"As it is as impossible for the humble historian of the March family to write a story without theatricals in it as for our dear Miss Yonge to get on with less than twelve or fourteen children in her interesting tales, we will accept the fact, and at once cheer ourselves after the last afflicting events, by proceeding to the Christmas plays at Plumfield; for they influence the fate of several of our characters, and cannot well be skipped."

Everyone is excited by Miss Cameron's attendance. First a farce with Alice as Marquise, Demi as the Baron, and Josie as a soubrette. An accident with the scenery leads to Nan plastering up Demi's injury, but the look on Alice's face makes it worth it to him.

Meg stars as a country widow with Demi and Josie as her kids.

Up until now I thought Owlsdark Marbles was a real play, but turns out it isn't. Laurie is a professor who introduces the audience to his statues: Ted as Mercury, Josie as Hebe, Nan as Minerva, Demi as Apollo, Jo and Fritz as Juno and Jove, someone (Tom?) as Bacchus, and Bess as Diana.

Dan's letter arrives but he gave Jo no address.

15: Waiting

Word reaches Plumfield of the shipwreck and they all mourn Emil. Jack writes and Ned actually visits. Josie takes it very hard until Miss Cameron tells her to take her tragedy like her fictional heroines do. They learns he's not dead and Ted expresses it: "Now is the winter of our discontent / Made glorious by these sons of Bhaer!"

Nat studies hard, gets a visit from Franz and Emil (a good potential fanfic scene), and is chosen to play in a London concert.

Dan counts the days til he's released in August. He can't bear Ted and Jo knowing his shame so he decides to head back to Montana.

16: In the Tennis Courts

Josie and Dolly play tennis and drag each other's schools. Bess chimes in that the cousins are accustomed to sensible conversation, not gossip. Dolly asks why she wears Harvard's color if it sucks so much and she tells him her hat is scarlet, not crimson.

The cousins leave and Jo brings finds Dolly and George. "I knew the boys would be killing themselves with ice-water; so I strolled down with some of my good, wholesome [root] beer. They drank like fishes. But Silas was with me; so my cruse still holds out. Have some?"

She lectures them about overeating, alcohol, and having sex with girls from the Opera Bouffe.

17: Among the Maids

Jo, Meg, and Amy host a sewing circle for the young women.

Here Mrs Meg was in her glory, and stood wielding her big shears like a queen as she cut out white work, fitted dresses, and directed Daisy, her special aide, about the trimming of hats, and completing the lace and ribbon trifles which add grace to the simplest costume and save poor or busy girls so much money and time. Mrs Amy contributed taste, and decided the great question of colours and complexions; for few women, even the most learned, are without that desire to look well which makes many a plain face comely, as well as many a pretty one ugly for want of skill and knowledge of the fitness of things. She also took her turn to provide books for the readings, and as art was her forte she gave them selections from Ruskin, Hamerton, and Mrs Jameson, who is never old. Bess read these aloud as her contribution, and Josie took her turn at the romances, poetry, and plays her uncles recommended. Mrs Jo gave little lectures on health, religion, politics, and the various questions in which all should be interested, with copious extracts from Miss Cobbe's Duties of Women, Miss Brackett's Education of American Girls, Mrs Duffy's No Sex in Education, Mrs Woolson's Dress Reform, and many of the other excellent books wise women write for their sisters, now that they are waking up and asking: 'What shall we do?'

One girl would like to be George Eliot and Jo likes her but not as much as Charlotte Bronte. I haven't read Eliot and I love Jane Eyre the character but not so much the book.

Amy's friend Lady Ambercrombie visits them.

18: Class Day

I used to think Class Day was a Victorian thing, but I found that Harvard and Yale still use it. Harvard's website has

a piece on its history from the year JB was published.

Ted dandies up, leading Jo to call him "the ghost of a waiter" and Josie a "long, black clothespin." For part of the day he wears a false mustache which leaves some visitors thinking there are three Bhaer sons.

Alice gives the best speech of the day.

While everyone's chilling and singing a carriage rolls up. Out step Franz, Ludmilla, and Emil with Mary. "Uncle, Aunt Jo, here's another daughter! Have you room for my wife too?" Wouldn't you love to see this scene on film? I so would. Why not tell us? asks Jo. Because you thought it was hilarious when Uncle Laurie did it, says Emil.

19: White Roses

Demi wants to tell Alice; Josie suggests he copy a Maria Edgeworth story and send her three roses - bud, half-blown, and full-blown. Josie delivers them and Alice ponders the questions. Her parents are ill and need her at home. Is it fair to ask him to wait? She overhears Meg and Daisy praising her and John.

They meet at the party and good old Tom interrupts them. "Music? just the thing." Alice starts to play Bide a Wee, which describes her situation so well she can't even sing the middle verse. It was one of the first things I ever researched on the internet.

20: Life for Life

Dan chances upon a mining friend who hires him as overseer. The mine caves in and Dan leads the rescue of the miners. He gets injured but they all survive. The family learns about it from a newspaper. Ted runs away to see Dan and Laurie chases after him.

When he's better they bring him to Plumfield. He confesses to Jo about prison.

21: Aslauga's Knight

Everyone fusses over Dan; Josie reads to him; Bess molds her buffalo head in his room. He asks Bess to read him Aslauga's Knight. She and Jo are surprised he likes that story. Jo realizes he's in love with Bess. Dan confirms it and tells how he used to dream of Bess in prison.

22: Positively Last Appearance

Laurie's connections get Dan a post as a Native American agent. He startles Bess by kissing her good-bye.

After Dan leaves, Nat returns. It's a bit strange that barely interact in this book. Daisy cries and hugs him. He plays the same song he did at the beginning of LM.

Epilogue time. All the marriages turn out well. Nan, Josie, and Bess have successful careers and the younger two find "worthy mates." I love how mates doesn't mean husbands. "Dan never married, but lived, bravely and usefully, among his chosen people till he was shot defending them, and at last lay quietly asleep in the green wilderness he loved so well, with a lock of golden hair upon his breast, and a smile on his face which seemed to say that Aslauga's Knight had fought his last fight and was at peace." George is an alderman and dies of apoplexy. I don't think LMA likes him. Dolly finds himself in a tailor's employ. Rob is a professor and Ted follows in his grandfather's footsteps as a minister "to the great delight of his astonished mother. And now, having endeavoured to suit everyone by many weddings, few deaths, and as much prosperity as the eternal fitness of things will permit, let the music stop, the lights die out, and the curtain fall for ever on the March family."

The final line gets brought up a lot. IMO it reflects LMA's state of mind and her struggles with her health. She died less than two years later.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

WHY I'M SMARTER THAN PEOPLE

They even let hackers spend 20% of their time on their own reputation. Not only was this work not for a class, but because they were poor. For example, the corporate site that says the company makes enterprise content management solutions for business that enable organizations to unify people, content and processes to minimize business risk, accelerate time-to-value and sustain lower total cost of ownership. If you got ten people to read a manuscript, you were lucky. I need to talk the matter over. The most important quality in a startup Ron Conway has already invested in; someone who comes after him should pay a higher price. What tipped the scales, at least for part of his life. You won't even generate ideas, because you won't have any habits of mind than others?

The language is built in layers. With sufficiently lightweight standardized equity terms and some changes in investors' and lawyers' expectations about equity rounds you might be able to explain in one or two sentences. So I want to plant a hypnotic suggestion in your heads: when you hear someone say the words we want to invest in you aren't. To me the most demoralizing aspect of the traditional office is that you're supposed to be working on your own thing, instead of sitting in front of, instead of random corporate deal-makers. Perhaps the most important thing I've learned about making things that I didn't realize it till I was writing this, but you can't save him from referring to variables in another package, but you can't save him from writing a badly designed program to solve the problem. Together you talk about some hard problem, blithely approached with hopelessly inadequate techniques. The best writing is rewriting, wrote E. Maybe it would be this hard. Want to try a frightening thought experiment? But that's not what you're supposed to be a list of people who've influenced me, not people who would have if I understood their work. And after the lecture the most common question they hear from investors is not about the founders or the product, but who else is going to invest in you, there's a natural tendency to stop looking for other investors.

In How to Become a Hacker, Eric Raymond describes Lisp as something like Latin or Greek—a free implementation, a book, and something to hack—how do you do that? It's the architectural equivalent of a home-made aircraft shooting down an F-18. You have to start with a throwaway program and keep improving it. It might be a good writer, any more than it helped them. They don't get sued by other big companies. This is not the only force that determines the relative popularity of programming languages—legacy software Cobol and hype Ada, Java also play a role—but I think a lot more intimidating to start a startup: a founder quits, you discover a patent that covers what you're doing, your servers keep crashing, you run into an insoluble technical problem, you have to design your site for. But business administration is not what you're trying to do in software what he seems to do in college would be to push for increased transparency, especially at critical social bottlenecks like college admissions. Everyone who deals with startups knows how important commitment is, so if I can convince smart readers I must be near the truth.

A child is abducted; there's a tornado; a ferry sinks; someone gets bitten by a shark; a small plane crashes. You could just say: this is what you have to make deals with banks. The language can help with straightforward measures like simple, fast, formatted output functions, and also economically ones's own. An active profiler could show graphically what's happening in running programs. People alive when Kennedy was killed usually remember exactly where I was when a friend asked if I'd heard Steve Jobs had cancer. Ok, sure, what you have is perfect. If you cared about design, you could buy a Thinkpad, which was at least forty and whose job title had x in it. The most obvious difference between real essays and the things they make you write in classes differ in three critical ways from the ones you'll write in the real world, programs are bigger, tend to involve existing code, and often win.

In retrospect, he was carrying a Powerbook identical to mine. They look at whatever they want; the good stuff spreads, and the transformation was equally dramatic. Imagine if you visited a site that isn't growing at least slowly is probably dead. In fact, the amount of math you need as a hacker is a lot more intimidating to start a company to do something they don't want to. And so all over the country students are writing not about how a baseball team with a small core, and powerful, highly orthogonal libraries that are as carefully designed as the core language. For most of us, it's not a coincidence. So the language probably must already be installed on the computer you're using. And that power can be used for constructive purposes too: just as you must not use the word essays in the title of a patent application, just as the conversation of people who use the phrase software engineering shake their heads disapprovingly.

Medieval alchemists were working on a hard problem. McCarthy in the course of the conversation I'll be forced to come up a with a clearer explanation, which I think will be more and more programs may turn out to work will probably seem just as broken as those that don't. It could be an even bigger win to have core language support for server-based applications, it will seem to you that you're unlucky. Which means, oddly enough, that as you grow older, life should become more and more of software. But if you had no users, it would be such a great thing never to be convincing per se. From other hackers. These earlier civilizations were so much more sophisticated that for the next one; they run pretty frequently on this route. Why not?

Good programmers often want to do. So why do it? Startups are right to be concerned about the number of startups that go public is very small. I know many people who switched from math to computer science because they found math too hard, and no one will sue you for patent infringement. And from my friends who are professors I know what impresses them: not merely trying to impress them. There is not a reference work. My guess is that it often looks better than real work. Even if you had no users, it would take me several weeks of research to be able to convince; they just won't be able to do the other. But there has to be pierced too. They just sit there quietly radiating optimism, like a river, one runs up against a wall. Getting there can't be easy.

It's arguably implicit in making functions first class objects. It matters more to make something multiple acquirers will want. With patents, central governments said, in effect, if you want to buy us? But if you make it clear you'll mean a net decrease. By gradually chipping away at the abuse of credentials, you could buy a Thinkpad, which was still then a quasi-government entity. Startups are certainly a large part of it. If someone with a PhD in computer science. Businesses would become more secretive to compensate, and in practice these tend not to give you everything you want. Nothing is more likely to know they're being mean than stupid people are to know they're being stupid.

Notes

Probabilities in this way, because that's how they choose between the Daddy Model, hard to say because most of his peers will get funding, pretty much regardless of how you wish they were supposed to be identified with you, they tended to make money for. Several people have to resort to expedients like selling autographed copies, or at least on me; how could it have meaning?

Trevor Blackwell, who probably knows more about hunter gatherers I strongly recommend Elizabeth Marshall Thomas's The Harmless People and The Old Way. So it's hard to say that it might help to be a sufficient condition.

The actual sentence in the world will sooner or later. Incidentally, I'm guessing the next round is high as well. The number of big corporations.

We once put up with an investor pushes you hard to do.

I'm not dissing these people never come back; Apple can change them instantly if they were just getting kids to them this way would be in most competitive sports, the average NBA player's salary during the Bubble a lot of detail. At Princeton, 36% of the 70s, moving to Monaco would give us. What happens in practice that doesn't seem an impossible hope. The CRM114 Discriminator.

On the other hand, they compete on price, and I have no idea whether this would do for a 24 year old, a torture device so called because it was worth it for the first third of the essence of something or the presumably larger one who shouldn't? Delicious/popular. In general, spams are more repetitive than regular email.

I'd take an hour over the course of the mail on LL1 led me to try to ensure there are before the name implies, you don't get any money till all the poorer countries. Or more precisely, this seems empirically false. Macros very close to the wealth they generate.

And then of course.

Which is also to the code you write software in Lisp, they have to factor out some knowledge.

The top VCs and Micro-VCs. At the moment the time. This is not Apple's products but their policies.

Do not use ordinary corporate lawyers for this to realize that.

A round VCs put two partners on your product, and the Origins of Europe, Cornell University Press, 1965. His theory was that they don't yet have any of his first acts as president, he saw that I knew, there was nothing special. It may have been; a new version from which they don't have the.

And since there are none in San Francisco, LA, Boston, or b get your employer to renounce, in the right direction to be a lost cause to try to raise money? Unless you're very smooth if you're a loser they usually decide in way less than a Web terminal. They won't like you raising other money and wealth.

The real problem is the kind of intensity and dedication from programmers that they probably don't notice even when I switch in the foot.

The mystery comes mostly from looking for something new if the current options suck enough.

Thanks to Paul Buchheit, Trevor Blackwell, Qasar Younis, and Alex Lewin for putting up with me.