lupinthehowlingwerewolf

[lupinthehowlingwerewolf]

People have written a lot of touchy-feely pieces on this subject but I thought I’d get right to the heart of the matter

[lupinthehowlingwerewolf]

[lupinthehowlingwerewolf]

i’ve been crying laughing over this for the past 5 minutes

[lupinthehowlingwerewolf]

THE TYRANNY OF THE SUN IS OVER

[lupinthehowlingwerewolf]

[lupinthehowlingwerewolf]

[lupinthehowlingwerewolf]

oh so when Ollie says he's a vampire, he really means it, huh

- has to be invited in to Saltburn bc otherwise he wouldn't be able to ever enter that world

-the place is called Saltburn-salt is often used as warding against evil forces (but once invited into the protected space it is too late)

-he's there to consume these people, take their lives so he may live on (as the version of himself he sees as his due)

-consuming bodily fluids that are regarded as carrying someone's 'essence'/life (blood, seminal fluid)

-he's visiting people at night to prey on them, using their weak points, in this position behaves more dominantly than his daylight self

- a lot of this 'vampiric' behaviour is also mixed with sexuality, which is very much part of the vampire image

-destroying the mirror that doesn't show him (how he wants to appear...in the ending scene he no longer has a problem with it, relishes his new image as sy with status)

- Venetia, who he originally calls himself a vampire to, dies losing a lot of blood

[lupinthehowlingwerewolf]

saltburn is NOT dark academia just bc they’re at oxford for a bit of it there was no academia happening those bitches were passing around a copy of harry potter and the deathly hallows. i’m still not convinced felix could read

[lupinthehowlingwerewolf]

the way felix is convinced he's living in a romance movie to the extent that he dresses up like juliet. he considers kissing oliver in the maze. he makes himself off limits but not quite with the open door while he's in the bath; he's the damsel of the film, no doubt. but felix's tragedy is that oliver is convinced it's a horror story and a tale of revenge. so he doesn't play his part as romeo. he vomits up the poison so he can't die from "some poison more" and leaves felix to die alone.

[lupinthehowlingwerewolf]

[lupinthehowlingwerewolf]

Crying over these lesbian cats

[lupinthehowlingwerewolf]

Suzanne Collins has me deranged.

We know from the Ballad of Song Birds and Snakes that many of the features of the modern Hunger Games are Snow's invention, including those that motivate the districts, like prizes. It's fair to assume he likely came up with the idea for tesserae, it's an easy way to keep the districts well fed while encouraging/forcing participation and general involvement in the games. It's a great reminder, even the food you eat is linked to the games themselves. Tesserae is a type of tile work commonly associated with Romans which Collins draws a lot of inspiration from in her depiction of the Capital. It has also in the past been used as a token. In this case, you take the token of food in exchange for extra names in the bowl. Now that's fucking excellent on it's own, real neat bit of linguistic worldbuilding.

BUT what really gets me, what truly fucks me up is that Snow didn't name it that because he's like a language nerd. Tigris had to use tile buttons, tesserae buttons on his shirt during songbirds because they couldn't afford anything else. Snow inherently associates that material with poverty, specifically with the lack of food he had during that time. As a result tesserae represents poverty starvation and desperation to everyone in the districts. Snow is so god dam self obsessed he imbedded ,intentionally or not , personal fucking references to himself within the districts.

AND THAT is why Collins is so crazy to me that detail is tiny, you truly would not notice and in the grand scheme it's not that important but that's woman is on her shit and she's fucking thinking her thoughts and its genius. HER MIND UGH. truly has me messed.

[lupinthehowlingwerewolf]

truly haunted by “i think you look just like your father, coriolanus” because he knew exactly what she meant by that too

[lupinthehowlingwerewolf]

to my knowledge (someone correct me) Snow never hears Katniss sing The Hanging Tree (that’s a movie invention, and it’s not even confirmed in the movies that he’s hearing it), but those are not the only songs Lucy Gray sings … and can you imagine the slow creeping paranoia beginning to crawl back up his spine when Katniss honors Rue in much the way Sejanus honored Marcus … when she then begins to sing Deep in the Meadow, Maude Ivory’s song … when Peeta tells the story of how he fell for his girl, when she was singing, of all things, the Valley Song … not to mention all the references to mockingjays throughout the first arena (whose idea was that?) … oh, it’s delicious … the first similarity Snow could dismiss as mere coincidence (it’s not uncommon, we know, for tributes to stay with a dying peer), the second, as a product of an insular backwoods culture (right? RIGHT?) but by the third … he must have felt a ghost-chill on the back of his neck … and I LOVE it … Snow lands on top, but as soon as that burning chariot burst out of the night, he should have known … his time was up

[lupinthehowlingwerewolf]

my watery friend... are you too brushed with the pattern of the dappled light...?

[lupinthehowlingwerewolf]

I know we all love to relate to Katniss and the people in the districts who are oppressed by the capitol, and if we only ever look at the power structures within our own countries many of us are like them, under the boot of oppressive capitalist governments; however. Our countries do not exist in a vacuum separate from the rest of the world. If we want to make comparisons between our current world and the world in the Hunger Games we need to understand that we live in a global economy where the exploitation of the global south maintains the wealth and power of the global north.

The lifestyles and wealth of people in the US, Canada, Australia, and Europe are maintained by the neo colonial relationship these countries have with the countries of South America, Africa, and Asia. The same way the lifestyle of those in the capitol is maintained by the exploitation of those in the districts. We are the capitol citizens. The natural resources we use don't come from our (in some cases stolen) land. They come from the global south. These resources are mined and extracted by exploited workers in the global south. Our products are made by exploited workers in the global south. Our food is grown by exploited workers in the global south. And every time those people elect a government who promises to nationalize these resources so the people can actually benefit, our governments in the north swoop in and coup democratically elected leaders. We replace them with right wing politicians who will maintain the current order in our favour, with no regard for how those politicians will treat their citizens. There are decades of examples of this, and it is ongoing.

The poverty in the global south is not 'naturally' occurring; it is maintained actively by our governments for the benefit of the global north. 75% of the worlds mines are owned by Canadian corporations, and most of these mines are in South America and Africa. It is South Americans and Africans who are forced into back breaking labour, sowing seeds whose fruit they will never reap. These countries are rich in resources they are kept from owning. You don't go to poor countries to make money.

And when I say 'the lifestyles and wealth of people in the north' I'm not just talking about the rich and famous, I mean all of us. I know there is vast inequality here, I am part of the working poor, believe me I know many of us still face immense oppression. However the majority of us, including the poor and working class, still benefit from this exploitation. The clothes we wear, the electronics we use, the cars we drive, the food we eat, all of that comes to us through the exploitation of people we rarely see.

In a real world comparison to the Hunger Games, citizens of the global north are the citizens of the capitol. There is inequality, just like in the capitol, however we are often protected from the worst sides of our governments. That brutality is reserved for those living outside of the imperial core, outside of the capitol.

[lupinthehowlingwerewolf]

suzanne collins is such a genius... the cultural phenomena of her series leading to the hanging tree house remixes, mockingjay being milked for two (bad) movies, the capitol-inspired makeup palettes, the halloween costumes, the explosion of the market for dystopia, the butchering of her characters and removal of disabilities, disfiguration, and racial tension + representation to sell more tickets, the extra gale scenes to fuel discourse, and the audience showing up to cinemas to watch what was pretty honestly marketed to them (the jacob vs edwardification of the symbolic love story and also to watch children fight to the death) it's just so ridiculously ironic i would say you can't write this shit, but she did write about it... in The Hunger Games published 2008