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@alana-k-asby 😍😍😍

Barcelona

#stained glass #current wip #wizard prison

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The (Tarnished) Silmarillion

Full-leather fine binding of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Silmarillion. The Two Trees are surface-gilt on the cover in metals that will tarnish, so over time the book will literally reenact their destruction. However the one fruit and flower that became the sun and moon are surface-gilt in gold and palladium, and will stay bright.

The edge decoration, sprinkled gilt and palladium over gouache, depicts the fate of the silmarils: “one in the airs of heaven, and one in the fires of the heart of the world, and one in the deep waters.”

The titling is done in palladium with finishing tools that I made myself, because I couldn’t pass up the chance to use Feanorean letters to title the book where Feanor is one of the central characters.

(longer post about the binding here, written when I originally bound it)

#thematically significant binding <3 #bookbinding #the silmarillion #tolkien #jrr tolkien #art #this is beautiful

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“And all the wounds that are ever gonna scar me For all the ghosts that are never gonna catch me”

(insp.)

#band of brothers #generation kill #the pacific #hbo war #😭😭😭

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🍁 autumn-dreamin 🍁

#we will not think about autumn #summer is coming #just enjoy the spring

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About Greta Gerwig, Little Women, and Narnia

Greta Gerwig should not be in the Narnia realm at all. As anything.

The Narnia stories are inseparable from Christianity. Greta Gerwig is a Unitarian Universalist. This means she, in her own personal life, doesn’t believe in the saving work of Jesus Christ, which is a core belief of Christianity, and a core theme in Narnia. Everything in the Narnia books hinges on this, from the character motivations to the structure of the fantasy world to the way the magic in Narnia works.

Additionally, the women in Narnia do not adhere to post-modern or even antique feministic values. They are celebrated for their love and tender-heartedness and faith, all of which require self-sacrifice. Aravis of The Horse and His Boy starts out a proud warrior escaping an arranged marriage and ends up a humbled lady of Archenland court marrying the Prince. Susan Pevensie is at her best when she’s tender-hearted and at her worst when she doubts and becomes more concerned about her own identity than others. The school that Eustace and Jill go to in The Silver Chair is derided for it’s feministic views. By contrast, modern feminism is opposed to self-sacrifice, and that is the kind of thing Greta Gerwig demonstrates belief in throughout all of her works.

Am I saying that no person who isn’t a Christian or some type of conservative when it comes to feminism can ever work on Narnia? Absolutely not. I’m not saying that. Lots of people on the Walden Media Narnia movie (the first one), which was great, were not Christians and did not believe in the saving work of Christ. But they stayed faithful to the source material, even if they didn’t believe in the source material themselves. So the story retained it’s autonomy and power.

Greta Gerwig can’t do that. She has already demonstrated that she does not know how to make a story that hangs on to it’s integral source material if she, herself, doesn’t agree with that source material. She can’t be objective, and therefore, she can’t be faithful to what Narnia is.

How do I know that? Little Women.

I don’t care if you liked the Little Women movie by Greta Gerwig. I don’t care if the acting was “amazing” and I don’t care if Timothee Chalamet and Florence Pugh are great in it. I said exactly what I said. Greta Gerwig made a great movie—but she made a terrible adaptation of Little Women.

It was not Little Women. She made changes to Little Women. What changes, you ask? Changes to the specific pieces of the source material that did not reflect Greta Gerwig’s personal views.

That’s the cardinal sin for directors of adaptive stories or remakes—to make changes to the core themes of a classic tale, because you don’t agree with those core themes. That’s called mutilation, not “updates.”

Here’s how she did it in two major ways in Little Women:

She cut out Jo’s humble response to Friedrich’s gentle rebuke of sensation stories, and replaced it with a feministic self-pitying outburst from Joe and s borderline apathetic, cool piece of feminist advice from Friedrich. That takes all the continuity out of it and warps the characters. That scene is so pivotal in the book. It’s Jo, respecting a man who is much older and excellent in character than any other she’s ever known, and feeling immediately humbled by him calling her out. She’d never have responded that way if Laurie called her out. They would have argued. But this scene was supposed to show what Jo needed from a future romantic partner. She needed someone she respected, someone who could be wise and gentle—two things Laurie is not. She needed someone who would help her take her eyes off of worldly success and herself, and onto eternal benefits to mankind, specifically, the effect her stories might have on children. His gentle, respectful, wise love (and the love of characters like Beth) turns Jo from a self-absorbed writer into a selfless mother, like her own Marmee.

But Greta Gerwig never wanted Jo to be a selfless mother. She wanted, and I quote, “Jo’s love to be her work, and her romance with Friedrich secondary.” You know why?

Because that’s what Greta Gerwig believes in. Greta Gerwig’s life is her work. Watch any of her movies, you’ll see the smudge marks of that wholehearted belief all over them. She can’t even be objective when the whole point of a character is to make work secondary, as was certainly the case with the character of Jo March. No. She has to twist up one of the best American heroines ever into an automaton of herself.

The second way she mutilated source material is with Amy and Laurie. In the books, Amy and Laurie grow to love each other out of the character deficiencies that they make up for in one another. At the start of their courtship, Amy is ambitious and Laurie is lazy. Amy wants to marry for advantage, and Laurie wants to make much of his spurned love for Jo by giving up on life. And that’s it.

It’s Amy who first wakes up to feeling something romantic toward Laurie, not Laurie, and Laurie is not the first to make a move on her. Laurie does not know he is in love with Amy until well after she knows she loves him. Then, he does not make the first outward advance on Amy. They both come to the same conclusion together; when they do, she does not resist. In Greta Gerwig’s version, he’s back to falling in love with a girl who’s resisting, because that’s where Timothee Chalamet’s emotional acting shines or whatever.

But that’s not the worst part. The worst part is that she adds a feminism speech from Amy, as a reason for her resistance, and she subtracts the scene where Laurie actually proposes. The scene where Laurie proposes, in the book, is so beautiful.

The two characters are in love, they know they’re in love, and neither of them is insecure about it. Amy has learned that she needs a life-partner who knows her and will protect her, like her old home-values did, and not some rich aristocrat or prince. Laurie has learned that he needs a life-partner who can stir him toward change, not through big explosive arguments and hope of conquered affection like Jo, but with gentle love and sheer inspiration, found in Amy.

So, in the most beautiful analogy for courtship that ends in marriage ever, he proposes to her while they’re rowing on a lake. She’s sitting next to him in the middle of the boat, she’s got one oar, he’s got the other, and she says, “How well we pull together, don’t we?” And he says, “so well that I wish we might always be in the same boat. Will you, Amy?” And she says “yes.”

That’s it. No argument. No big, passionate, sentimental explosion like he had with Jo. No wrenched and broken heart-strings. He didn’t have to convince her. She didn’t have to resist. Because entirely without force, and entirely without insecurity, they protected each other’s hearts and came to a conclusion that was based on something so much deeper and more eternal than fleeting passion.

Greta Gerwig cut that out and listened to Meryl Streep and put in another stormy lover’s-quarrel speech from Amy about why she couldn’t be with Laurie because she was in Jo’s shadow, and feminism and marrying for advantage, blah blah blah. It’s terrible. It’s mutilation. It ruins everything the original Little Women had.

it doesn’t matter if she got some of the characters right. It doesn’t matter if she got a lot of the quotes right. It doesn’t matter if all of Act 1 of the movie is mostly-book-accurate. If you change load-bearing themes or character motivations, you show that you can’t be objective and faithful to the source material.

It is fine if Greta Gerwig wants to make a movie about a woman who loves her work more than anything else. It is fine if she wants to make a movie about how women are under-appreciated for their minds and souls, and have characters that go on a journey to prove it. But it is not fine to use someone else’s story to say it. Make your own story, Greta Gerwig.

Oh, you already did? See: Lady Bird? See: Frances Ha? Then come up with something new. Don’t shoehorn your same beliefs into every franchise that is offered to you, like vomiting, then eating the vomit and regurgitating it over and over in new colors. Figure out how to tell someone else’s story in a faithful way, objectively, or else keep your stained hands off until you can clean them up. Especially, keep them off Narnia.

Greta Gerwig makes movies for Greta Gerwig, by Greta Gerwig. She can’t be objective, and for that, she can’t do Narnia. She can’t do it justice, she can’t do it faithfully, because she makes movies for herself, by herself.

#this #this is why I'm not going to watch it #I'm just gonna keep reading the books

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The Lost Prince by Frances Hodgson Burnett My rating: 4 of 5 stars I was not expecting to be so moved by this story. My co-writer suggested it as some muse-feeding for a particular character we're constructing in our current WIP. I found a copy on thrift books because it is out of print, which is sad. The beauty of this story is found in both the absolute boyishness and its profound loyalty. The boys playing at war, spies, legends, lost princes, and freedom of a country reminded me of many of the boys I grew up with. This book captured all that is best in boys perfectly. It showed exactly what it was that made me a tomboy because this was what I wanted to be around. I loved it for that. It also shows a faithfulness between a follower and leader that is beautiful. I loved that the leader never once turned out to be less than worthy, and I loved that the follower never broke his faithfulness. The hope and joy and steadfastness brought tears to my eyes. This is probably why the book is out of print, it's not popular for things to be right through and through. All heroes must be part villains, all heroes must fall, and all leaders must break the trust of their followers. Loyalty in the face of all is a virtue we no longer hold dear. Looking at this book through Christian-colored glasses, I found my faith strengthened by the concept of a good and long-awaited King who is busy working for the day of his return. The son's trusting and obedient love of his father made me weep. The faithful servants and soldiers counting it their greatest act to "only stand and wait" encouraged my soul. Only word of caution, there is fair amount of strange spiritualistic philosophy built in the story, as you also find in The Secret Garden, so if you are sharing this most excellent book with your sons, which I highly recommend, just be aware. View all my reviews

#reading 2024 #book review #the lost prince #frances hodgson burnett

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I was worried that my hens would be miserable once they moved to the coop because it's in an area of our yard that's dirt. Why did I have such a fear? All they want is dirt. When I put dirt in their brooder, they peck at it, take dust baths, fight over it, and scratch in it. Dirt is their favorite.

My worry was dumb. Lol

Today, I channeled my inner 10-year-old and connected the two brooder boxes that I've been swapping between. Food, warmth, and water on one side. Dirt, grass, and chamomile on the other to play with. Long space to run. This is to help them get more exercise and used to a bigger space before the coop. Sigyn was the first through. I'm thinking she might actually end up the Queen. She's turned out to be the bravest and most aggressive. Astrid, Sif, and Sigyn will all climb in my hand for cuddles. Freya has almostgottent it figured out, but not quite. We'll practice more today.

#chickens #Astrid Sif Sigyn Freya

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Alan Lee - Illustrations from “The Mabinogion” - Medieval Welsh Tales: «Peredur, son of Efrawg»

#art #alan lee

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I kinda expanded my own horizons when I stopped looking at my gifts and talents as only the things in the box of "income earning."

Now, to figure out how to best use them to serve others... that's the challenge.

#homemaking #domestic artist #hearthkeeper #tending hearth and home #lighting the way back home #spilled ink #writing #productivity #gifts #what am I good at? #what do I love?

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#horse #girl #paint horse

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Www.pinterest.com

#homemaking #domestic artist #hearthkeeper #tending hearth and home #lighting the way back home #sunshine and flowers #sunny kitchen #kitchen witch

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#me #absolutely me

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saw a poll about dry/humid heat and like OBVIOUSLY everyone preferred dry heat but. would love to know what everyone considers to be “too hot”

me personally it’s a hard cutoff at 75°F. don’t need anything more than that thank you 🫶🫶🫶

#it gets above 100F here all summer #i would prefer my summers in the 90s #i can't swim if it's only 80 #too cold #i don't mind the heat so much #just wish it didn't last so long

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@sheppardsmckay 🖤🖤🖤

What I'd give for a gif parallel of Elliot refusing Hardison's hug at the end of the Iceman Job and him pulling Hardison into a hug at the end of the Grave Danger Job

#leverage #eliot spencer #alec hardison #i'm not crying you're crying

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Someone wants out, but it's way too cold and wet. Sigyn now loves to perch on top of their water bottle and stare at me.

#chickens #Sigyn

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There is nothing so beautiful as a spring rain when all the wood gets darker and all the greens get greener.

#spring #spilled ink #writer

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Chicken update:: I want fast enough to snap a picture, but I went out to the garage to freshen a new box and came back to Sif proudly sitting on the edge of the brooder.

I'm not ready for them to be able to fly!

Also, when I put my hand down in the brooder, Astrid hops right in so I can hold her. Sigyn and Freya are also thinking they want to be held too. Sif is the only one doesn't want to be held. I'll be working with her this week.

I really want to teach them to follow me around so I can have my little flock behind me in the yard.

#chickens #Astrid Sif Sigyn Freya