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cecilspeaks · 4 years

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169 - The Whittler

Let us go then, you and I When the evening is spread out Against the sky And pick up some Dell Taco for dinner. Welcome to Night Vale.

Beyond our town, past the Sand Wastes, in the Scrublands, sits the old general store. An oaken cabin style A-frame with boxed windows and a covered patio. On the porch there sits a swinging bench and upon that bench sits an elderly man, his face crumpled like a discarded letter, his eyes like tire tracks hidden beneath the shady brim of a straw cowboy hat. The old man holds a block of Elmwood the size of a potato in his right hand, and in his left, a carving jack. He whittles away at the knot of food, shaving off small corners, making detailed lines and indentations. The wood is all his world. And this world is quiet in his lap, on his bench, on his patio, before his general store amid the Scrublands past the Sand Wastes, which curl about Night Vale like the gentle but calloused hands of a father holding a newborn. As the old man whittles, he whistles sad songs with no words. But all those who hear the notes know they are bout loss. That they are about loneliness. But no one hears those notes. Not yet. No one sees the old whittler, nor his general store far out in an uninhabited stretch of desert. Not yet. If they did, they would wonder how an old general store, which was not there yesterday, was suddenly here today, a shop that by all accounts had weathered decades of abusive heat, wind, and isolation. They would hear his sad song, and the universal language of wistful sorrow would hide from them their understanding of time.

Let’s have a look now at sports. This Saturday night, the Night Vale High School Scorpions basketball team begins the district tournament. The Scorpions, having finished the season 18-2, earned the number 1 seat this year, but face some tough competition in their bracket. In the first round, they must battle another basketball team. This is logical, because most basketball tournaments feature other basketball teams. But the other basketball team is considered weaker than the Night Vale Scorpions, because a series of accumulated numbers indicates this is so. Should the Scorpions make it out of the first round and into the semi-finals, they would likely battle the number 4 seed, Nature. A tougher matchup to be sure, as Nature is unpredictable and ubiquitous. Nature’s style of play is best described as capricious and random, sometimes showcasing an array of flashy skills like sunny days, crystalline lakes, and otters. But Nature is a lockdown defensive force with effective momentum stoppers like lightning, quicksand, and poison ivy.

And in the finals, the favorites to compete for the title are Night Vale High School versus themselves, perhaps the toughest battle of them all, as each player must confront their harmful secrets, painful pasts, and darkest nightmares. Themselves are able to match the pace and power of Night Vale’s offensive and defensive sets, and we expect an excellent game. Good luck, Scorpions!

Most days the Scrublands are absent of humans, unapproachable and hostile. Today is not most days, as a line of Night Vale citizens has formed outside of the general store to see the old whittler and his wood menagerie. Parents ask for photos of their children with his work, and he only whistles and nods nearly imperceptibly. It could almost be interpreted as a slight twitch of the neck, rather than an affirming nod, but interpretations grow liberal when want is high.

Fathers and mothers snap pictures on their phones of children accepting gifts of wood figurines from the old man. The kids stare into the thin black ellipses that pass for his eyes, searching for the charming smile of elderly approval. But instead, seeing every single constellation of the night sky inside slits as thin as thistles and as black as tar. The historic expansion of the universe cannot be fully understood in words or even human thought, but it can be comprehended in the eyes of the tanned, wrinkled stranger.

The old whittler does not charge a penny for any of his work. He does not smile nor accept the many thank-yous coaxed out of the young ones by their manner-minded handlers. Nor does he accept requests. Children have many mascots, heroes, and cartoons that they love to possess via keepsake totems, and they repeatedly ask the old man for whittled representations of their favorite things, like Pokemon characters or one of Pixar’s anthropomorphic cars, or even Ted Allen, host of Food Network’s long running cooking competition “Chopped”. But the old whittler only carves what he carves. And he carves tiny horses, little cowboys, old-timey wagons, armadillos, tigers, tractors, almost anything you can think of. He finishes his sculpture of a koala bear and hands it to Amber Akinyi, who looks at her husband Wilson Levy, who is holding their sobbing, screaming 16-month-old baby Flora. The couple smiles together, never knowing that this balsa koala is everything they could have ever wanted beyond a loving family. Wilson begins to cry at the simple beauty of this craft. Amber begins to cry at the feeling of being understood, and young Flora stops crying as she fawns over the 6-inch tall antipodean marsupial, cartoonishly gnawing on a eucalyptus leaf.

The whittler also carves people. Small human figures, yes, like firefighters and ballerinas and clowns, but also actual people. Harrison Kip told the old man he wished to be happier in his own skin, and the old whittler grabbed Harrison’s cheeks and brought Harrison’s round, soft face before his own crinkled countenance, and Harrison screamed. He screamed in fear of what the old man was about to do. He also screamed in joyous anticipation, and the two screams were discordant like adjacent keys pressed simultaneously on a church organ. The old whittler pressed his knife against Harrison’s chin and began to pull the blade back, using the force of his thumb and the trunk of his forefinger. He repeated throughout Harrison’s assenting and defiant shouts, and after a few moments, Harrison stopped yelling and stood. His jaw squarer, his nose thinner and longer, his shoulders broader. And Harrison smiled.

Soon, the whittler began carving houses, roads, and city buildings. They were larger than the koala, much larger, for they were full-sized renditions of these things. He sliced and sawed away at block after block of red oak, hackberry and peachwood, forming new arteries of city travel, whole blocks of residences, and even cultural landmarks and venues. And the town of Night Vale, in a single late morning, began to expand into the distant and uninhabitable Scrublands of our desert.

Let’s have a look now at horoscopes. Gemini. Bury yourself in your work today, Gemini. Pile that garbage high and rest your weary head beneath its odorous, but comforting weight. Cancer. No more Mr. Nice Guy, Cancer. Today you are Mrs. Disinterested Lady. Get out there and be uninvolved in everything. Leo. You’re the talk of the town, Leo. Word after word is about you, and it is juicy! Like a rare steak, like a blood orange. Juicy like 2008 coutoure. Whew! You should hear what they’re saying. Virgo. You are not what you seem to be, Virgo. You seem to be a blackberry shrub, overreaching and prickly. But really you are a human, squishy and small. Continue to be the thorny fruit-bearing bush, though. Libra. You seek balance, Libra, but you are as lopsided as wealth disparity graph in an economist’s classroom. Share your worth, distribute your value fairly and compassionately, Libra, for the villagers are sharpening their tools. Scorpio. Hey Steve, love you pal!

Sagittarius. Your (-) [0:10:42] in relationships is going to be your downfall, Sagittarius. You’re an obsidian monolith, towering over everyone, absorbing all light, except the faint reflection of those who want to know what glows inside your stony façade. You don’t have to be a diamond, Sagittarius, or even quartz. Just try for salt lick, OK? I think you can achieve that.

Capricorn. Oh the games you play, Capricorn, you wicked little sea goat! You naughty caprine ocean dweller with your horns and scales, vexing us with your riddles and labyrinthian logic! The stars offer no advice for you, Capricorn, only envious praise. Aquarius. Put your money where your mouth is, but wash that money first, Aquarius. It’s been in so many other people’s mouths, ever since we added Jolly Ranchers as legal currency. Pisces. You’re swimming upstream, Pisces. Figuratively speaking, of course. I mean you are a human who does not need to actually swim upstream for food or a mate. Get out of the metaphorical stream and avoid the damage you’re going to do to your body and soul. Except for you, Tim. You’re a woodchuck, who is literally swimming upstream. I don’t like you, Tim, because you are eating my tulips. You can drown. Aries. Fake it til you pretend to make it, Aries. Taurus. Don’t hide your feelings, Taurus! Frame them! Display them ostentatiously on the wall. Mount them on plinths behind velvet robed (-) [0:12:33]. Curate an exhibit of your feelings, Taurus. Charge admission.

And now the news. The Night Vale City Council deliberated today on whether the old whittler in front of the old general store in the Scrublands was friend or foe to our town. Those voices arguing in favor of the old man celebrated the huge municipal expansion he was creating so quickly onto undeveloped land.

“This new infrastructure would have taken us dozens of years and millions of dollars to deploy, and he has accomplished it all in half day!” these voices said in unison. “Plus,” they added, “he whittled a little army man for my kid, a bracelet for my wife, and a sweater for our cat. It’s everything we ever wanted!”

The dissenting voices, and they were few, could only argue that he failed to acquire proper permits for any of this construction, let alone an outdoor vendor’s license which is mandatory even for giveaways. Excepting restaurant samples, marketing promotions, and military dispersion of chemtrails. The many-voiced, uni-bodied creature that is the City Council, huffed in nearly unanimous support for this old man. His sad whistling, his prolific whittling, and his beneficence to our city. “Did you see?” said there of the voices, “that inside the general store there’s everything you could ever need. Cans, boxes, shelves, counters! Walls. It’s amazing. Everything is craved from a single block of wood, and it’s all connected! No glue or bolts or rivets anywhere.” “He’s a deft hand,” concurred four other voices. “How does he even find single blocks of wood that huge?” wondered a solo voice aloud. “Whatever!” the entire City Council roared in unison. “That old man is a superb whittler!”

And now financial news. [hysterical laughter Ha ha hahahaha hahaha every-everything’s fine! It’s just dandy! Uh, thank you for asking.

And now back to our top story. Out in the Scrublands, an entire wooden suburb has grown from the withered hands and sharp knife of the old whittler, who has for the first time today, moved from the porch of his general store. He stands now upon a stage, a round platform on the center of a great amphitheater, which he personally carved deep into the cracked, red rock of the desert floor. The people of Night Vale gather and sit on wood plank rows, which curve in a semi-circle around the old man on the stage. Each person in attendance holds in their hands a whittled object given to them as they entered the audience space. The items are all different, esoteric, and unique, each item and unexpected gift of the whittler. Each item the very thing they have always wanted, even if it was never what they thought they wanted. They hold gently their presents, protecting them with their very lives. The whittler, with his straw hat still shading his keyhole eyes and riverbend mouth, stands before the people of Night Vale who sit in an arena of his own making, each cradling a beloved statuette of his own making. The old man reaches out and takes the hand of his bride. She, of course, is of his own making as well. She is craved of weeping cedar. Her veil, though entirely wood, is somehow translucent, and her sorrowful eyes are faintly visible behind the intricate work of the whittler’s blade. The old man whistles once again, and the crowd whistles along with him. They know the song now. It lives in them like longing, like blood. Like a soul. They know every word of the wordless (-) [0:16:51], and the notes of loneliness spread across the Scrublands to the mountains’ edge and echo back in the key of hope, with a lilt of contentment and satisfaction. They will only be happy when he is happy and he is, indeed, happy. As the whittler clutches the hand of his newly carved betrothed, the clouds part, revealing the happiest thing of all: The weather.

[“Embroidery Stars” by Carrie Elkin http://carrieelkin.com/]

Into the Scrublands I went, myself already as happy as I could ever be for I was with my own true love, my husband. I journeyed to see the whittler for myself, as an effort of journalism, a chronicler of interesting events. I wanted for nothing. My happiness cannot be improved. Or so I believed.

When I arrived, the whittler more than 100 feet a way, and through a mass of thousands, greeted me with a nod so unobtrusive, I believed it to be a trick of the eye. But from the distance, I could see the whole of the universe in those dark eyes under dark shadow, behind the final violet of sunset. I knew he meant me.

Carlos and I stepped to the podium, and the old man opened his palm to reveal an original carving just for me. I had hoped it was a Nintendo Switch, but it was a [sea plane] [0:23:05]. Carlos, like a child on Santa’s lap, cooed and asked the old man for a superconductive supercollider. And the old whittler, his burlap cheeks heavy with gravity and history, reached into the breast pocket of his (-) shirt and handed Carlos a tiny wooden rose. Carlos hugged his rose to his chest, and I my (sea plane). The whittler took the hand again off his bride and gazed upon her, her veiled eyes met by his boundless stare. They stood like that for more than an hour, not speaking. The only sounds were the cicadas chirping and the crowd whistling.

But the tune faded, and soon only the cicadas cut through the silence of a still desert twilight. And one of us, Larry Leroy, stood and walked on to the stage. He touched the old man’s shoulder. The old man did not turn. He did not speak. He collapsed into black ash. Then his bride, then the seats beneath us, it all gave way to crumbling nothing. Then the buildings and roads and even the general store turned into ash. Finally, every one of our object dissipated, like Eurydice almost free from Hades. A gentle cool breeze arrived to sweep our hope away.

We returned home, wordless, with occasional whistles of the whittler’s tune, once again in a sad and lonesome key. Our cherished gifts, we told ourselves, were nothing more than baubles, ephemera, however blessed or magical. They were mere things, not love, not family, not true love, they were objects, toys. Props. Distractions. They were everything we have ever wanted, because we could hold them, see them, touch them. We can no longer do that, but we can remember what it was like. The rough of the wood against the soft of our hand.

Stay tuned next for our new game show: “Name all the nouns!”

And as always, good night, Night Vale, Good night.

Today’s proverb: Give a man and a fish and he’ll wonder what your deal is. Teach a man to fish and he’ll ask you once again to please leave him alone.

#welcome to night vale #wtnv #wtnv transcripts #episode 169 #the whittler

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darkspellmaster · 6 years

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Dumbledore, Grindlewald, David Yates, JK Rowling and the issue with the use of words. Part 1

(To save people from the issue of reading this on Mobile I’ll break it up.)

So recently, I found an article on the Mary Sue that really got to me on a personal level as a writer. Again normally, I don’t go off on rants like this, and for good reason as people tend to twist things and don’t actually use their reading comprehension to understand what I’m trying to say. But in this case I really can’t keep my mouth shut on this. So, in the event of flames coming at me, I’ll say this much I’m covered in that lovely fire proofing foam and if you must disagree do so respectfully, thanks.

So let’s start at the beginning of this whole thing. Back all the way in January, The Mary Sue put out an Article by writer Princess Weekes, which covered a story about Director David Yates talking about the movie, and specifically Dumbledore. (You can read the article Here https://www.themarysue.com/dumbledores-sexuality-vague/ ) The article by Ms. Weekes covers another article that came out dealing with an interview by Mr. Yates for Entertainment weekly. (which you can find here http://ew.com/movies/2018/01/31/fantastic-beasts-dumbledore-gay/ )

In the EW article, clearly taken from an interview and the full transcript of the question not reveled (great work there guys way to leave us wondering just what you asked to get this response from him), Yate’s states

“According to The Crimes of Grindelwald director David Yates, this year’s sequel, at least, will not directly reference Dumbledore’s sexuality.

“Not explicitly,” Yates replied when asked if the film makes it clear that Dumbledore is gay. “But I think all the fans are aware of that. He had a very intense relationship with Grindelwald when they were young men. They fell in love with each other’s ideas, and ideology and each other.”

He goes on to add

“Yates then added a bit more about what Dumbledore is like in the new film: “He’s a maverick and a rebel and he’s an inspiring teacher at Hogwarts. He’s witty and has a bit of edge. He’s not this elder statesman. He’s a really kinetic guy. And opposite Johnny Depp as Grindelwald, they make an incredible pairing.”

Then this is followed up by a comment about something Rowling said,

“All of this isn’t to say that Dumbledore’s sexuality won’t eventually be addressed in the three additional Fantastic Beasts sequels planned after Crimes. In fact, screenwriter and Harry Potter creator Rowling has previously hinted that it will be at some point. “I can’t tell you everything I would like to say because this is obviously a five-part story so there’s lots to unpack in that relationship,” Rowling said at a press conference two years ago. “You will see Dumbledore as a younger man and quite a troubled man — he wasn’t always the sage…We’ll see him at that formative period of his life. As far as his sexuality is concerned … watch this space.”

The article of Ms. Weekes was then followed up by another article by Dan Van Winkle (which you can read here https://www.themarysue.com/jk-rowling-no-interest-in-dumblethoughts/ ) who seems to be of two minds of the matter, and seems to be equating things to his owe experiences, which is fine, but honestly this is different than his friend in college.

In the article Mr. Van Winkle references another article from the Mary sue by Charline Jao (Seen here https://www.themarysue.com/fantastic-beasts-casting-calls/ ) which talks about the crew looking for certain ages for people playing the roles of a younger version of Newt, Leta, Sebatian, Dumbledore and Grindelwald.

This article by Mr. Van Winkle was then followed up once more by yet another article on the Mary Sue by Kaila Hale –Stern (Seen here https://www.themarysue.com/dumbledore-lgbt-sexuality-fantastic-beasts/ ) about the issues with fans regarding this whole situation.

After reading these three pieces plus the connected original article and the one that was previously published all the way back in 2017, I have to somewhat rub my temples in awe of how people really don’t use reading comprehension and are vastly forgetful of huge facts when convenient to not paint the whole picture of the situation.

So let’s break this all down as best we can to clear things up, hopefully, and maybe get some people to understand exactly what Mr. Yates, Mrs. Rowling, and the crew of Fantastic Beasts are really up to here in regard to the situation with Dumbledore and Grindelwald and the future series of these films.

Allow me to first say I’m going to break this into 4 major sections.

Time period in Cannon

Dumbledore’s history

Newt’s story

Authors Mystery and the Hero’s journey

So let’s start with Yate’s EW comment which kick started this whole issue. In the comment Yate’s says that there isn’t going to be anything Explicate in regard to showing that Dumbledore is gay. Now before anyone pulls out the pitchforks allow me to explain why this is actually correct in this case, and that making his relationship and showing he’s gay would be a bad idea for the film makers.

The term he said was “Not Explicitly,” and the word Explicit means….

“stated clearly and in detail, leaving no room for confusion or doubt.”

Why is this important because it connects heavily to all three sections that I’m going to cover here. Being Explicit at the time for Dumbledore would have caused more trouble than it was worth, given that the relationship, or the one sided relationship, had long since passed.

There are two very serious reasons why Dumbledore isn’t being shown as expressly openly gay at this date and time. While the Wizarding World is, by and large, governed by it’s own laws as we’ve seen, it’s clear that a lot have been adapted from the Muggle community. Down to the fact that they too seem to have respect for the Queen and see her as their ruler as they are British subjects of the crown (which begs the question of if they pay taxes and all that, but that’s delving too deep into things here).

Now what I’m getting at here is the lesser of the important reasons, namely because I don’t have any proof of this in regard to the book. However, it’s still something that is rather unique during the time period this is set in and I’m sure that Rowling is, and was at the time of her writing the script, aware of.

During 1861 a law from England was enacted where in various acts of sexual activity with a young girl was prohibited (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal_Law_Amendment_Act_1885 ). This was on top of another bill the Offenses Against the person act of 1861, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offences_Against_the_Person_Act_1861 ), and then on to that the Labouchere Amendment (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labouchere_Amendment ). The last act was eventually what landed Oscar Wilde in jail. This Amendment was designed to help with the Victorian moral of demonizing homosexuality.

“ Any male person who, in public or private, commits, or is a party to the commission of, or procures, or attempts to procure the commission by any male person of, any act of gross indecency with an other male person, shall be guilty of a misdemeanour, and being convicted thereof, shall be liable at the discretion of the Court to be imprisoned for any term not exceeding two years, with or without hard labour.

Furthermore, the section included a vague clause which allowed for the prosecution of anyone who played "party to the commission of" gross indecency. This clause, poet Symonds noticed, served essentially as a conspiracy charge, allowing for a broader pool of convictions.”

This law lead to several prosecutions due to it’s vagueness and even to at least a few suicides from those that were arrested under this law.

The issue here is that, given the way the Wizards look at things and that a good portion of them are not in the modern world, nor were they at the time when Dumbledore and Grindelwald were teens, it’s not that huge of a leap to assume that a similar law had been enacted by the wizarding community. I mean just look at the history of laws we do know about including House Elves and pure blood and the whole court system.

If, and again I stress the word if, such a law exists in England at the time of this movie –and it did in the normal Muggle world –then Albus would be automatically arrested for the act of gross indeceny and carted off to trial. This very law wasn’t off the books until 1967 in the UK and even later in Scotland, Ireland and Wales! Albus would have been in a world of trouble during 1927 for this…

Speaking of the time period, that’s the second part of this comment on the time period cannon that all three of the above articles seem to miss addressing.

So Fantastic Beasts starts off in 1927. During this period we know that Grindelwald was active and a known fugitive, as per the first movie indicating. We know that both England and the US are looking for him during the period of the second movie, and we know that anyone associated with Grindelwald could be placed in jail for assisting in his crimes.

We also know, thanks to the very first book, that Dumbledore defeated Grindelwald in 1945 during the Second world War. Now how does this tie into Yate’s comments. Given that the group that comes to see Dumbledore are questioning him about Newt’s activity and his connection to him, it’s not that hard to think that they have reason to suspect that Dumbledore may be involved with Scamander, who is wanted for questioning regarding events of the US and having creatures that could be seen as dangerous with him.

We can then, rightly, assume that the first movie, much like the first HP book, was set up. Here we have Newt, we get a mention of Dumbledore, and overall we even get a Voldermort like disquise reveal of the character of Grindelwald. Given that the heavier aspects of the story, that of the fight between Grindelwald and Dumbledore won’t be happening for another two decades, it would be better for Dumbledore to keep his mouth shut on the matter of his connections to Grindelwald. Not only because of their previous relationship and how that would look in regard to him being complicit to or actively helping Grindelwald, but also that leads them to connect the dots to his sister’s death.

This I think is why we’re not getting explicit story telling here in regard to their relationship. Dumbledore is very much the character we saw in the first book at this stage, a mystery, and to anyone who had not read the books and this was the first time learning of him, having him be that character again fits in with Newt’s journey, which is what this story is really about.

On top of that you have the added fact that in this time, we know that Grindelwald, unlike Voldemort, is actively looking for the other Hallows (which is why we see the signs in the title) and he already has the first, the wand, in his possession. We know that Dumbledore will not get this item until his battle with him in 1945, so we have a full 2 decades to go before any major changes happen between these two.

So while it makes sense in the modern audience, who already knows about their relationship to have confirmation of feelings or tension, that people would want to see that tension explode on the screen. But this isn’t Dumbledore’s story, just as Harry Potter wasn’t about him either. To showcase that tension this early in a five series film would be honestly breaking the tension that will probably happen in movies 3, 4, 5. This is where the period comes into play as well.

No one at this time, outside of Dumbledore and Grindelwald and Albus’s brother Aberforth knows about what happened with their sister, and because of that, in this period. It wouldn’t make sense for Dumbledore, both out of fear of possibly being arrested for being homosexual, and, more likely, having direct ties to Grindelwald and being arrested for that, would even hint at ANY sort of relationship with him.

See Part two for the next aspect.

#fantastic beasts: the crimes of grindelwald #fantastic beasts 2 #fantastic beasts sequel #albus dumbledore #gellert grindelwald #newt scamander #aberforth dumbledore #david yates #JK Rowling #jkr #discourse #the mary sue #entertainment weekly

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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How Patty Jenkins Steered the Wonder Woman 1984 Ship

https://ift.tt/37yG4ON

If you ask the cast of Wonder Woman 1984 pretty much any question about the film, they will find a way to gush about how much they love working with Patty Jenkins. Did Pedro Pascal bring any of his past characters into his new role as Max Lord? No, but it took a new level of vulnerability that Patty supported him through. Has Kristin Wiig always wanted to play a villain? Yes, and almost no one has asked her—except for Patty, apparently.

“[Patty is] like a Japanese sword,” says Wonder Woman 1984 star and producer Gal Gadot to Den of Geek and other outlets during a 2018 set visit. “No, really. It’s the same wonderful creative rule of hard smarts, see the bigger picture and the macro and the micro and everything. She has all the same qualities but now everything is quicker. She’s been there, she knows how it works. She has the same clues that worked with us in the previous one, and it’s just like this very smooth process.”

“Once Patty lands on an idea, it seems like it’s fully formed and she knows everything about it,” adds Chris Pine. “Since I’ve met her — she pitched me the first story — I’ve never met someone more self assured and more knowing about what she wants, how she’s going to do it, why she’s doing it. She is a machine. She is just a glorious machine to behold. A samurai sword is a good allegory.”

Even though Jenkins was not signed on to direct a sequel when she was making Wonder Woman, she still discussed prospective narrative plans with Gadot and Pine, starting about halfway through production.

“We were fantasizing about the next one if the first one would succeed,” recalls Gadot. “Then, we already started to talk about the story of this one. With Patty, it’s just a different work process. She’s very, she’s engaged. She’s very much engaging with all of us. And we all have a lot of say, into our character. Of course, the big broad vision is Patty’s. But she gives a lot of liberties and we do what we believe is right for the character. So I’m very, very lucky to work with her again.”

Jenkins wanted to do a second film in the franchise so that she could tell a Wonder Woman story past the origin tale of the character.

“She’s only Wonder Woman in the last scene of the [first] movie,” says Jenkins during a recent Wonder Woman 1984 press conference. “So I found myself really craving doing a movie about Wonder Woman, now full-blown Wonder Woman. And then I started reflecting on what I felt was going on in our world and what Wonder Woman would want to say to the world. And the story came out of that.”

Unlike the first film, Jenkins wrote the screenplay for WW84, along with Dave Callaham and Geoff Johns, the latter of whom also worked on the story with Jenkins. She ultimately found her way in with a compelling question.

“The last one was [Wonder Woman’s] discovery of humanity. Now, how does she live within humanity? And by the way, she’s not perfect either. So her own struggles and journey to do the right thing, which is so universal to all of us. Being a hero is not an easy thing, it’s actually a super difficult thing. So that I was really interested in too, of like, what does it feel like?”

Many critics who have screened the film already have commented on the broader themes, and how WW84 aligns so well with 2020. It’s impressive, considering how long ago it was written. Says Jenkins: “I found myself saying there was something about what the world wants to talk about right now, and she happens to have this lasso of truth, and truth ends up figuring in very large.”

And while Wonder Woman does exist within the larger DCEU, Jenkins and producer Chuck Roven have been clear that this is a standalone film. And while there might be some easter eggs, Jenkins said she and Geoff Johns were both really excited to tell this exact story.

“I’m not a huge fan of like doing chapter two of a seven chapter story. That’s just not my jam. I feel like that may happen in the way background, but every movie in my opinion that I want to make should be its own great movie,” Jenkins said on set. “So I have my own ideas about what her overreaching arc is, of the whole thing, but it’s the story first.”

No offense intended towards Superman, but do you feel like after this success of the first movie that Wonder Woman has become the new core of the DC universe now?

Fans and casual viewers might be excused for wondering if Diana Prince hasn’t eclipsed Clark Kent, in the DCEU if nowhere else. Certainly, a strategic advantage of both films taking place pre-2017 is that Jenkins and Gadot get to play with a pre-Justice League world.

Jenkins says, “I think that she planted her foot strong in the world. I mean I think that she’s a very strong core right now, and I think that there are lots of other great things that had been planted before and will be planted after. But I do I feel like she sort of landed and set her place in this world, and hopefully things are influenced by each other when they work in that way.”

In order to bring this new story to life, Jenkins wrote and directed a script for a much more complex film, logistically. Producer Charles Roven likewise glowed about Jenkins, calling her amazing to work with and sharing insight into the reality behind the scenes of a massive film like WW84.

“We expanded the global footprint of the places where we shot,” Roven said. “We shot in Virginia. Then we went to the UK and we also, after that, we went to Spain and then we went to the Canary Islands. So our global footprint really expanded significantly. And of course that makes it very, very complicated.”

Much will be made of Jenkins’s hiring of Cirque de Soleil performers and her decision to rely as much as possible on practical effects, and rightly so. The Amazons look powerful and natural because they’re really running, jumping, riding, and flipping through the air – the CGI is used to augment their natural abilities. In the case of Lily Apsell, who plays young Diana, she trained to run an obstacle course. CGI was used to add more dangerous elements that she doesn’t directly interact with that add to the suspense of the scene and maintained the actor’s safety.

As Pine put it, “That’s less about the hugeness of special effects, rather than making the special effects work for the realism of the film.”

For Jenkins, it’s important to carry the realism over to the characters too, especially villains. Without spoiling anything, there’s no moustache twirling in WW84. Pedro Pascal’s Max Lord and Kristin Wiig’s Barbara Minerva are on the more complicated end of the spectrum.

As Gadot puts it, “When I first read the script, I told Patty, ‘Wow, I like I like them as much as I like Diana and Steve.’ … I’m so tired of the obvious villain, the German soldier that you know from the get-go, okay he’s the bad guy — they’re like real people. Just like you, and you, and me. We can see ourselves in them. And they’re not bad people per se. But they just didn’t make the right choice at the right time. And I find it so interesting and so appealing, and I actually care about them.”

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While the script certainly helps, so much of that comes from the performances of Kristin Wiig and Pedro Pascal.

Pascal is quick to credit Jenkins: “I call it the Patty Jenkins experience. You can’t get away with something that is the typical. It has to be a complete and have all the risks, and all of the danger, and ultimately the humanity, no matter how dark of a character it is to make the experience as honest as possible.”

“I wasn’t surprised because of all of her films that I’ve seen before and the performances that are in these movies. But I definitely didn’t know if I would be able to get there and I owe it to my director. I completely owe it to my director, if it worked.”

Reader, it worked.

He’s certainly not alone in his sentiment.

Kristin Wiig shared, “The wardrobe and the costumes and all of that definitely helped, and again, like Pedro was saying, working with Patty and trying to figure out who she is with every stage. But I’ve never done anything like this before.”

“It was very scary because I could visualize what I didn’t want it to be more than what I did want it to be. But I felt very taken care of and it was an amazing, scary, but fun experience for me,” Wiig said. “I was really shocked and happy and of course felt extra pressure when [I] signed on and when I was talking to Patty about it. But yeah, and I’m superhero geek. I see all the movies, I’m at the theater, I’ve seen all of them. I was obsessed with the first one. So to know that I was going to be in it, and that I got a chance to be a villain, and that Patty believed that I could do it, it was an amazing life experience for me.

It’s not unusual for stars to applaud their director on a press tour, but Patty Jenkins’s cast takes just about every opportunity to do so (though Pascal gives a lot of compliments in general, to everyone.) Having seen the final product, Jenkins backs up her good process with a good movie. In an industry that is so unequal when it comes to gender representation and opportunity both in front of and in particular behind the camera, it’s gratifying to see, especially considering that Warner Brother executives were so slow to secure Jenkins for the sequel. Not only was Jenkins not locked into directing a possible sequel in her initial contract, but subsequent contract negotiations took longer than expected as Jenkins fought to be paid the same as any male director would expect to receive after such a box office success.

But, for the cast, it’s not just about making a good movie; it’s about having a good and competent boss, and a safe and supportive workplace (not that the two aren’t usually related). That, among other things, seems to be, as Pascal called it, “The Patty Jenkins experience.”

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

“There’s something about working with a director that is completely there with you,” says Gadot. “For you, behind you, beside you, and to guide you. That gives us the freedom to really let go and take all the risks that one can be very frightened to take if you don’t have such a partner.”

The post How Patty Jenkins Steered the Wonder Woman 1984 Ship appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3rcI0nJ

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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demondeanismybaby · 7 years

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A Night Out

Pairing: Dean x reader, Sam

Word count: 2101

Summary: You need to get dressed up for some hoity toity benefit, and Dean pretends to be your boyfriend. You know he doesn’t see you that way, but it is making you a little crazy, then he acts even weirder....

Warnings:none, fluff mostly

A/N: This is for an anon who requested Can I request a dean x reader with a lot of fluff and some smut if you feel like it? Maybe where they've been dating a while and one day they have to get really dressed up for a case and it's the first time dean has seen the reader looking fancy and he likes it a lot , I didn’t really get to the smut but I feel like maybe I might even do a part two to this so who knows. Lyrics are from Faithfully by Journey.

Flexing around you were trying to get the exact right position to zip up your dress, the top of the zip stopped right at the edge of your shoulder blades, but since it was in the very center of your back your couldn’t get it all the way. Puffing out your breath, you tried to blow your hair out of your eyes, this was the exact reason you never dressed up. Too much work.

Pausing and letting your arms fall you gazed at your reflection, the full length mirror was one of the few things you had decided to actually purchase when you moved into the bunker, and you studied your reflection. Your hair wasn’t styled yet, and your makeup wasn’t done but your silhouette was already making you look transformed. Instead of your typically baggy hoddie and frayed jeans, the fabric clung to your body in a way that accented the curves you did have, it draped low in the front barely holding in your chest with delicate straps. The fabric was matte with a faint silver shimmer when you shifted in the light.

“Wow, are we getting robbed by the world’s fanciest burglar?” Sam quipped from your open door.

You turned to roll your eyes, “shut up and help me please,” you mimed to your zipper.

Walking over he easily slid it up the rest of the way before laughing a little at your obvious discomfort, “why didn’t you just ask Dean, I mean I am sure he would love to help you.”

You ignored the way Sam drew out the word love, “I would have,” you replied. Even though you kind of doubted it, you were sure he was going to give you a way harder time once he actually saw you dressed like this.

Sam gave you a doubtful glance before he walked out to let you finish getting ready. You made your way to the bathroom, you were doing your hair on autopilot because you kept thinking what Dean was going to do when he saw you, you could picture him scoffing saying you wouldn’t be able to do much damage to a monster in heels, it made you cringe because he never saw you as anything other than a hunter. It was alright most of the time because you loved being able to kick ass and you knew you could take either Winchester but sometimes you wished he saw you as soft and girly, instead of just a battle buddy.

“Hey you ready? We need to leave now so we can meet Dean,” you called from the garage, glad the bunker had extra cars so the Sam could drive something decent.

He did a slight double take when he reached you, he was in street clothes since he would just be waiting outside, “damn you clean up good.”

“Thank you,” you curtsied.

The drive was uneventful, it was the typical you and Sam bickering that made him feel like a brother, you half-wished you could turn your feelings for Dean into something so platonic.

Finally you got to the banquet hall, you knew you were supposed to meet Dean inside, and were on the look out for a crossroad Demon that was going to making deals with the well-to-dos that were congregating for some silent auction. Scanning the road you didn’t see the impala and wondered if maybe he’d had it valeted, you snickered.

“What?” Sam looked at you with a raised eyebrow.

You just shook your head, he dropped you in front of the venue but you were going to have to walk a ways since he was still trying to be inconspicuous. You heels clicked loudly against the ground as you tried to move quickly, but you slowed down as you got nearer to the groups of people milling around in the still August warm air out in front. A few peoples eyes turned towards you as you walked up the stairs and for a second you lost yourself in a fantasy of being some wealthy starlet walking the red carpet, but it lost its thrill when some douchy way too slick looking man stepped directly in front of you.

“Why hello beautiful, a woman like you, its a shame that your going solo to an event like this,” he grabbed your hand, and you tried to hide your revulsion at his sweaty palms.

“Well, I am actually meeting someone inside,” you tried to pull away but his grip tightened and you were about to punch him when you felt a hand slip around your waist from behind.

The smell of aftershave had you recognizing the person immediately and you were able to replace the fake smile with a genuine one at the save, you turned away from the jerk who had suddenly let you go and kissed the jaw of the man next to you.

“There you are, I was missing you sweetheart,” Dean said without missing a beat clearly able to play whatever role necessary to get the bad guy, even if it meant your boyfriend.

You leaned against him, “I know sorry I’m late, you know how us girls get when we have to dress up.”

Giddy as the man slunk away into the thrown open double doors, you released Dean, “ok, so what’s the deal any idea who it is?”

His eyes were unfocused, he was looking at you but it was obvious he wasn’t hearing you, you snapped in front of his face trying to get his attention.

“Wait, what?”

“Do you have idea who the demon is, you know the one we are here to stab?”

“Uh yeah I think so, he is going by Rex Tanesbourne.”

Demons these days were always coming up with the most ridiculous names, you thought to yourself, clearly your exasperation showed.

“I know I thought it was a little much too.” Suddenly he looked down at the ground, and you thought maybe he was blushing but you ignored it because you couldn’t figure out why he would be.

The flush of his face wasn’t the only thing you were noticing. His hair was smoothed, and the tux he was wearing had him looking even more like a movie star than usual, it suited his defined features and made him look even broader in the shoulders. When he looked back up, you had an overwhelming urge to run your hand over his face, but you squaring yourself you looked front and started to head inside. When he wrapped himself around you, you turned up to face him but he was looking inside and you felt bummed realizing it was all about playing some part for the case.

It was pretty easy to spot the demon, you did your whole routine without skipping a beat, giving a sob story about your boyfriend and how you were sure he was cheating on you and that you would give anything to be prettier than the girl you thought he was seeing. You could almost see the red eyed son of bitch drooling at the thought of getting another soul, but you told him you needed privacy and to meet you behind the building. From there it was wham bam and a quick stab from Sammy and the guy was out of business.

It had been a weird night and you were ready to get home, and to get a break from Dean and this playing pretend boyfriend gig because it was starting to make your heart ache. When you tried to follow after Sam to get back in his ride you felt a hand stop you.

Sam turned back to where you and Dean were standing together a few yards away, “I’m going to take y/n back with me, no worries Sammy,” Dean called and Sam just shrugged and got in the car.

Watching his lights speed off you felt a little distraught, it was too hard to have Dean pretend to want to hold you and looking at you like you were something special, only to go back to just being friends and you had been hoping you could a least buy yourself a few more hours of pretending things were different. Still you walked followed Dean back to the front of the hall where the valet would have brought up the car, you tried adjusting your dress a little, brushing off any dirt from the scuffle out back before you were back in front of all the people leaving but this time people were too engrossed in their own affairs to pay any attention to you or Dean.

Dean opened the passenger door which you thought it was a little weird, the case was done there was no reason for him to pretend to be anything anymore, “thanks,” you muttered as you slid in.

As the impala roared to life and began to pull away from the lights of the building you busied yourself by gazing out the window. Watching as the buildings thinned out and trees started to crowd in to take their place, he had turned on some music when you had started driving but it struck you as you were zoning out that it wasn’t typical for him,

They say that the road Ain't no place to start a family Right down the line It's been you and me And lovin' a music man Ain't always what it's supposed to be Oh, girl, you stand by me I'm forever yours Faithfully

You pulled yourself away from the moon, to look at Dean, even though he turned back towards the road the minute you had started to turn towards him you knew he had been looking.

“This is pretty sappy Dean, Journey, I mean come on.” You were hoping that teasing him might get rid of the weird vibes that had been hanging between the two of you since you had gotten in the car, you didn’t want to just be friends but you couldn’t stand being nothing but awkward.

“Nah, this song is all about true love and I own it.” He didn’t take his eyes off the road.

You shoved him playfully against the shoulder, but he stopped you from pulling away, “hey, I was only kidding.” You tugged your hand but he held you firm, then you felt the car slowly as you pulled off onto the shoulder.

There was a yellow cast of light over him as he turned in the seat to face you, it was from the full moon you had been lost in earlier, and you noticed that he still was holding your hand. When he reached toward you and tangled his hand in your hair you pulled back out of surprise and he dropped you.

“Ummm, no offense Winchester but you are kind of freaking me out,” you tried to joke again.

“I’m sorry.”

His flatness was concerning, it was so unlike him, so this time you reached out to grab his face, forcing his eyes to meet yours, “Dean what is going on?”

He covered your hands with his own, “you look so beautiful tonight, I just wanted to tell you that.”

“Like in a friend way?” What was happening? You thought to yourself.

He moved his face so close you could feel his breath on your face when he spoke next, “it isn’t new or anything you are beautiful all the time, every day I see you and I think I am so lucky I just get to be near you but tonight,” he pressed his eyes closed, “I saw you walking up those stairs in that dress and,” he traced a hand over the slinky material covering your leg, “it was like every fantasy I ever had about a normal life with you was coming true.”

When he opened his eyes again you felt like they were piercing through you, it was too hard to find the words to tell him how happy you were. Instead you just closed the gap between the two of you and felt the way his lips melted against yours. The kiss wasn’t filthy but there was something in the way he moved his lips in time with yours and slid his tongue inside exploring your mouth that when you finally pulled away left you gasping a little.

He smiled, in that sly charming way that made you weak-kneed, “glad to know you feel the same.”

“Come on and get me home I think we have something we need to finish.”

The tires screeched as he sped back down the road, clearly someone was excited.

#dean x reader #dean x you #spn #spn reader inserts #spn fluff #spn fanfiction #deanxreader #my writing #request filled

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benrleeusa · 5 years

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Thoughtful look into prison abolitionism (and prison history) in theory and practice

The New York Times magazine has this week's must read under the headline "Is Prison Necessary? Ruth Wilson Gilmore Might Change Your Mind." The piece is a profile of a noted prison abolitionist along with a broader discussion of prison history and prison abolitionism. I heartily recommend the terrific lengthy piece in full, and here is an extended excerpt:

Prison abolition, as a movement, sounds provocative and absolute, but what it is as a practice requires subtler understanding. For Gilmore, who has been active in the movement for more than 30 years, it’s both a long-term goal and a practical policy program, calling for government investment in jobs, education, housing, health care — all the elements that are required for a productive and violence-free life. Abolition means not just the closing of prisons but the presence, instead, of vital systems of support that many communities lack. Instead of asking how, in a future without prisons, we will deal with so-called violent people, abolitionists ask how we resolve inequalities and get people the resources they need long before the hypothetical moment when, as Gilmore puts it, they “mess up.”...

In the wake of the Enlightenment, European reformers gradually moved away from corporal punishment tout court; people would go to prison for a set period of time, rather than to wait for the punishment to come. The penitentiary movement in both England and the United States in the early 19th century was motivated in part by the demand for more humanitarian punishment. Prison was the reform.

If prison, in its philosophical origin, was meant as a humane alternative to beatings or torture or death, it has transformed into a fixed feature of modern life, one that is not known, even by its supporters and administrators, for its humanity. In the United States, we now have more than two million incarcerated people, a majority of them black or brown, virtually all of them from poor communities. Prisons not only have violated human rights and failed at rehabilitation; it’s not even clear that prisons deter crime or increase public safety.

Following an incarceration boom that began all over the United States around 1980 and only recently started to level off, reform has become politically popular. But abolitionists argue that many reforms have done little more than reinforce the system. In every state where the death penalty has been abolished, for example, it has been replaced by the sentence of life without parole — to many people a death sentence by other, more protracted means. Another product of good intentions: campaigns to reform indeterminate sentencing, resulting in three-strike programs and mandatory-minimum sentencing, which traded one cruelty for another. Over all, reforms have not significantly reduced incarceration numbers, and no recent reform legislation has even aspired to do so.

For instance, the first federal prison reform in almost 10 years, the bipartisan First Step Act, which President Trump signed into law late last year, will result in the release of only some 7,000 of the 2.3 million people currently locked up when it goes into effect. Federal legislation pertains only to federal prisons, which hold less than 10 percent of the nation’s prison population, and of those, First Step applies to only a slim subset. As Gilmore said to me, noting an outsize public enthusiasm after the act passed the Senate, “There are people who behave as though the origin and cure are federal. So many are unaware of how the country is juridically organized, and that there are at least 52 criminal-legal jurisdictions in the U.S.”

Which isn’t to say that Gilmore and other abolitionists are opposed to all reforms. “It’s obvious that the system won’t disappear overnight,” Gilmore told me. “No abolitionist thinks that will be the case.” But she finds First Step, like many state reforms it mimics, not just minor but exclusionary, on account of wording in the bill that will make it even harder for some to get relief. (Those convicted of most higher-level offenses, for example, are ineligible for earned-time credits, a new category created under First Step.) “So many of these proposed remedies don’t end up diminishing the system. They regard the system as something that can be fixed by removing and replacing a few elements.” For Gilmore, debates over which individuals to let out of prison accept prison as a given. To her, this is not just a moral error but a practical one, if the goal is to actually end mass incarceration. Instead of trying to fix the carceral system, she is focused on policy work to reduce its scope and footprint by stopping new prison construction and closing prisons and jails one facility at a time, with painstaking grass-roots organizing and demands that state funding benefit, rather than punish, vulnerable communities.

“What I love about abolition,” the legal scholar and author James Forman Jr. told me, “and now use in my own thinking — and when I identify myself as an abolitionist, this is what I have in mind — is the idea that you imagine a world without prisons, and then you work to try to build that world.” Forman came late, he said, to abolitionist thinking. He was on tour for his 2017 Pulitzer Prize-winning book, “Locking Up Our Own,” which documents the history of mass incarceration and the inadvertent roles that black political leaders played, when a woman asked him why he didn’t use the word “abolition” in his arguments, which, to her, sounded so abolitionist. The question led Forman to engage seriously with the concept. “I feel like a movement to end mass incarceration and replace it with a system that actually restores and protects communities will never succeed without abolitionists. Because people will make compromises and sacrifices, and they’ll lose the vision. They’ll start to think things are huge victories, when they’re tiny. And so, to me, abolition is essential.”

The A.C.L.U.’s Smart Justice campaign, the largest in the organization’s history, has been started with a goal of reducing the prison population by 50 percent through local, state and federal initiatives to reform bail, prosecution, sentencing, parole and re-entry. “Incarceration does not work,” said the A.C.L.U. campaign director Udi Ofer. The A.C.L.U., he told me, wants to “defund the prison system and reinvest in communities.” In our conversation, I found myself wondering if Ofer, and the A.C.L.U., had been influenced by abolitionist thinking and Gilmore. Ofer even seemed to quote Gilmore’s mantra that “prisons are catchall solutions to social problems.” When I asked him, Ofer said, “There’s no question. She’s made tremendous contributions, even just in helping to bring about a conversation on what this work really is, and the constant struggle not to replace one oppressive system with another.”

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douglasacogan · 5 years

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Thoughtful look into prison abolitionism (and prison history) in theory and practice

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