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#Do I put them with my other history books or next to the literary works they wrote or on their own little section again

whetstonefires · 1 year

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oh hang on so Oliver Twist as a book is largely about child labor, right.

like the commonality between the workhouse, the abusive apprenticeship, and the pickpocket gang is that Oliver is being exploited. for his labor. and Fagin's gang while crossing the line into illegality and therefore in some ways the most dangerous is also the most pleasant of the three.

and ofc which i have underconsidered until now, child labor was fully legal at the time and a major political issue--the 1833 Factory Act had only just recently outlawed employing under-nines on the factory floor, or working 9-13 year olds more than 9 hours a day, and 13-18 year olds more than 12.

it was a struggle to enforce and it was controversial.

so. Fagin's gang replicates that factory owner-child laborer relationship on a tiny, illicit scale, where the kids are taking all the risks and doing all the work and he's getting most of the profit, and it's not fair, but oh he's giving them food and a place to sleep and wouldn't they be worse off without him? (they would is the thing. but does that make it okay?)

with the goal of this being that next time Dickens' milquetoast middle-class readers encountered an argument for the benevolence of a guy employing child labor to maximize his profits they might go, hey! that's not true, he's just like that crook Fagin!

but of course this kind of political messaging works best when it can't be too readily clocked as such--if Fagin was obviously a stand-in for a respectable capitalist, a lot more of the readers would be comfortable excusing him.

which is why he's Jewish, and why the text belabors that point so obsessively--antisemitism is being used as a lever to discourage the public from identifying with Child Labor Exploiting Guy and to characterize his desire to accumulate wealth at the expense of others as greedy, selfish, and illegitimate.

i could never quite figure what the point of using that stock character in that context and so emphatically was. especially after learning that, having had it extensively explained that it was harmful to actual Jewish people to go so hard on this in such a popular novel, Dickens was like 'oh my bad' and walked it back a bit.

because in that case the antisemitism obviously wasn't an end in itself? but if it was incidental flavor, why so much?

but as a screen for his political agenda, it makes sense. using judaism to code an antagonist's profit motive as illegitimate had a long literary history already, but in this case Fagin was already manifestly a criminal so it was like. why.

anyway this isn't about justifying charles dickens' artistic choices that even he somewhat regretted. it's a bit about how easy it can be to fail to put together context even when you have all the pieces, especially at a remove from our own lived experience.

and a bit more about how the tools we use for political ends should be carefully inspected. no matter how ordinary and unremarkable they seem when we pick them up. because we might be missing different historical context due to being embedded in it.

#hoc est meum #antisemitism #writing #charles dickens #oliver twist #child labor #factory act of 1833 a watershed event in labor history #i did not really consider how much in 1837 Normal People #did not necessarily think that child labor was bad #so i failed to recognize propaganda to that end lol #seinfeld is unfunny etc #fagin #the alienated minority #literature

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jon-withnoh · 1 month

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many congratulations on completing nie wirst du!!! what a ride 🎉🎉

for writer's ask -

🕶️ - what helps you concentrate when you write?

📗 - do you want to write something outside of fanfiction? if so, what about?

🐇 - do you write for yourself, for others, or both?

🥳 - why did you start writing fanfic?

Thank you!! And thank you for the questions :)

What helps you concentrate when you write? A couple of things! I can do a drabble in between other things or even sneakily write one at work, but for longer prose or poetry what helps most is knowing I have a sufficient amount of time set aside for writing. I also write best in liminal spaces, especially trains. Airplanes are okay too because I don’t like flying and writing is a great distraction. Other things that help in no particular order: sufficient food and hydration, white noise (my current favourite is ocean waves), having done some stretches because I always have back pain, my adhd meds, and knowing I don’t have anything urgent I need to be doing instead.

Do you want to write something outside of fanfiction? If so, what about? I am a writer irl though I don’t give many details on here. I’ve mainly been writing poetry for the last couple of years, but fic has actually given me an entry point back into prose. As a rule, I love writing about the different ways humans connect with each other (or don’t) and the way our bodies move in relation to each other. I also enjoy delving into complicated relationships.

For you write for yourself, others, or both? Both! I write for myself in that I’ve always had a need to write. It helps me be a person in the world to have that creative output and play around with words in a way I wouldn’t get to do otherwise. Fic’s been playing a large role in helping me adjust to a full-time job and still feel vaguely fulfilled in life. Poetry has been very cathartic in the past and has now become a way for me to delve deep into that fun experimentation with words and the way they appear on the page. But I’ve also always known that I want my writing to be read. Whether it’s here on tumblr, over on Ao3, in literary journals and anthologies or, one day, in a full book of my own, I like putting my writing out in the world and having people read it. What I like even more is when people actually want to talk to me about it or when I find friends through reading each other’s work. So yes to all three. I write to feel fulfilled, I write to bring others writing they might like to read, and I write to have some of that feedback come back to me.

Why did you start writing fanfic? There are two answers to this. When I was about twelve, I wanted to write but didn’t really have a concept of what made original work original work. I started a few fics for different fandoms and finished none of them. I also started a short story around that time that ended up turning into a novel I worked on for over four years. Looking back it is of course slightly embarrassing to read my writing from back then, but at the same time, I’m still so proud that young me persevered over so many years and finished a whole book. And I’m glad knowing younger me always had a place to go to in their head if life was a lot. As for Rebecca fic — I saw the musical in Vienna and it changed me. I didn’t expect it to, I didn’t even realise it had done so after I left the theatre, but when I woke up the next day something “had changed within me” (ha!). I spent my seven-hour train journey back home listening to the Stuttgart cast recording, devoured the book, read most Rebecca fics on Ao3 and was appalled to find that there were very few finished fics that gave either the narrator or Danny a happy ending. I was also in that strange liminal place between finishing university and getting a job, so I had a lot of free time and a lot of creative energy waiting to be tapped. Then I started writing Was Wird Aus Uns and was met with so much excitement, enthusiasm and kindness that the rest is history. Now it’s just become a beloved part of how I spend my free time.

#rebecca das musical #my fic #Ask games #thank you for the questions!

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saint-starflicker · 9 months

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what did you think of the secret history? (Also all the things tagged tsh are so not tsh related it’s so sad)

Despite being upheld as a sort of Dark Academia media originator, I did not get as keen a sense of a sort of "aha, so THAT's where everybody else got that from" in the same way that sword-and-sorcery fantasy can't escape The Lord of the Rings, or Regency romances can't escape Jane Austen.

This is a good thing, though, that TSH...hasn't really been imitated? This despite all the—what I think is—false advertising associated with its successors. TSH can't be mistaken for a clichéd form of something that it was the earliest example of...unless I've been reading the wrong books this whole time 😂

It's definitely the most aesthetic in that there is so much more care and dawdling over the descriptions than I usually find, and it meanders around the narrator's memories. Reading TSH was really an immersive experience on a sensory level alone, and for that I kept thinking they don't make literature like they used to.

I also gave up on trying to hang on to every line as though it's a clue to something I had to put together before the end because of that. While I have looked up reader theories about which character was most likely to be misrepresenting what because of so-and-so motives that the narrator wouldn't consider, or the theories of what really happened that the characters misunderstood, and all of that adds to how many layers of meaning and analysis this text had, but what I was more into was the general mood of a slow creeping something through all the coziness of finding new friends and visiting their fancy houses (which was probably on purpose on the author's side of things.)

When it comes to an exercise of reading between the lines, TSH gives ample opportunities to do that, while at the same time the parts of my brain that turns a fiction novel into a movie did not have to work as hard because this book was telling it what to imagine more clearly than most others.

I think I could pick up on some gallows humor, and I get why some lines become fandom in-jokes, but for me it wasn't laugh-out-loud then-instantly-feel-bad-for-laughing sort of dark humor.

Finally I might regret admitting that I didn't love the characters or plot/pacing. I understand that the central cast are human train-wrecks-can't-look-away messed-up, and there are so many well-thought-through fan interpretations about why they are like that, and there's so many details that make them ordinary people that are also living train wrecks and I don't read that often either. The way these characters are constructed, detailed, set into motion and development is a master study. The characters themselves, though, I sense that I won't be rotating them in my mind for the next several years. (Sometimes that doesn't happen, I don't really know why.) Around the funeral scene, I didn't exactly get bored but I started to wonder if there was a point to all this.

I find it recommended as "a whydunnit not a whodunnit" mystery but I think it's neither. Its character-driven thematic layers keep me categorizing TSH as literary fiction (that just so happens to take place at a college and involve murders.)

#dark academia #The Secret History #ask box

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inquisitorius-sin-bin · 2 years

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🥺🤡🛒✨👀 for the fanfic asks

Thanks so much for asking!

🥺 Is there a certain type of moment or common interaction between your characters that never fails to put you in your feels?

Pining, that really does it for me. Knowing that two characters want each other but can't have each other due to their circumstances. ESPECIALLY when they have a moment where they allow themselves to slip and revel in their connection, knowing it can necessarily only be temporary.

🤡 What's a line, scene, or exchange you've written that made you laugh?

So both NAJ (the protag from Whiskey and Teeth) and MXW (the protag from Canto Bites) have a Western flair to them and that comes with some kind of corny, teasing jokes. But I do enjoy writing them. Like the, "what are you, some kind of inquisitor?" and "is that a lightsaber?" *is obviously a lightsaber* "no I'm just happy to see you." So if you enjoyed that, look forward to more of that.

I also snickered to myself every time I wrote HRH (protag from Studied and Praised) thinking something along the lines of, "I've got this, I'm poised, Heir to the Empire" and then immediately crumbling because the Inquisitor did something totally benign like look at them and say 2 words. They just could NOT handle having a crush.

🛒 What are some common things you incorporate in your fics? Themes, feels, scenes, imagery, etc.

Ohh SO many! I really like to play with balancing attraction and repulsion, there's something to me really naughty and sexy about knowing you should be scared, reviled, angry, etc, and instead finding yourself attracted, aroused, enamored. NAJ was a little scared and a lot thrilled by it. HRH was initially repulsed but then found beauty in the features they initially reviled. MXW has loving adoration for the Inquisitor, but is also viciously angry with him.

I've also spoken about this before, but I enjoy interpreting the Inquisitors as a sort of "Dante's Inferno" type literary demons. They commited the ultimate sin and are damned forever, and their mission is to tempt others into damnation with them. They are suffering, and yet their respite is to drag others to the dark side and to the Inquisitorius to suffer with them. I'm not religious, but I live in a very deeply Christian place and grew up with people not allowed to celebrate Halloween or read that book series about Witchcraft and have to drive past stuff like this on a regular basis:

(Maybe he already has, oh ho!)

Anyways, that deep-rooted cultural tradition has kind of left a mark on me and it's DEFINITELY a part of the works. Temptation to the dark side, the heros being punished for their one flaw or sin, burning/flame and devil imagery, etc.. But I hope it isn't to the point of being offensive, that certainly isn't my goal.

✨ Give you and your writing a compliment. Go on now. You know you deserve it. 😉

Aw thanks! Let's see, I've been out of the game for a long time, and I'm really excited people like these works! I'm really happy to have finished something, and boy ohh boy, when I am writing them and when I am reading back over them 🥵. But also! I think even though the purpose, at the end of the day, is to write self-insert porn, I think I do so in a way that tells a compelling story and hopefully makes the reader feel like they have a role and a place in this universe too!

👀 Tell me about an up and coming wip please!

So Canto Bites... typically my writing goal is to get 1000+ words written in a day, but I can only get about 500 a day for this piece because it is really emotionally heavy. MXW stands for Mx. Wrath. They're our first protagonist that has a previous history with the Inquisitor. They are a Horse Girl (gender neutral). And yeah, everything about this is pretty personal for them. This one will probably be my most trigger-heavy work, but I don't write non-con so none of that. Just like, on the darker side of things. I'll try to balance with something lighter next, but this one does really excite me!

Also, my previous two works were based on characters/scenarios I had really worked heavily with in the past so I had a really well-developed world for them. MXW is totally new. Well, they're based on a previous rendition of themselves, but that rendition was same premise but totally different circumstances, different mood, emotions, etc. So basically, I'm working through this scenario for the very first time! Which is doubly exciting for me.

#thanks again!

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briankeene · 1 year

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Hail Saten 6.0

In 1997, I started a weekly email newsletter called Jobs In Hell. This was in the prehistoric days of the internet, when things like email newsletters were pretty much unheard of. That first year, I charged $10 for an annual subscription. The next year, I raised it to $20. By our fourth year, the newsletter had over 6,000 subscribers. Jobs In Hell featured a weekly mix of news and market listings for horror writers, artists, editors, and others working in the field. Again, this was in the early days of the internet. It wasn’t like you could just Google those things, and social media didn’t exist yet, save in the form of message boards. Jobs In Hell became the main source of news for people in my industry and field. In addition to news and markets, we featured interviews, regular columns and all sorts of other content. We also featured my weekly editorial column, which was titled ‘Hail Saten’. Spelling Saten with an ‘e’ was intentional, inspired by an angry fan letter that featured the same misspelling.

Jobs In Hell – and more specifically Hail Saten – put me on people’s radars long before I’d published my first book. It even went on to win a Bram Stoker Award. But eventually, it got to be too much for me. I wanted to be a writer, rather than a newsletter editor, so I sold the newsletter to Kelly Laymon, daughter of author Richard Laymon, and I focused more on writing.

But I enjoyed writing non-fiction, and so I turned Hail Saten into a Blog which was also called Hail Saten, and just like the former newsletter, it was started when most people didn’t even know what a Blog was.

Eventually, the Hail Saten Blog essays were collected into four books — Sympathy For the Devil, Running With the Devil, The New Fear, and Leader of the Banned. All of those except for the latter have recently been reprinted (and that final volume should be reprinted before year’s end). It’s also probably worth noting that, much like Jobs In Hell, the first Hail Saten book — Sympathy For the Devil — also won a literary award.

Sympathy For the Devil chronicled the very early years of my career, and concluded with the sale of my first novel, The Rising.

Running With the Devil focused on the success that followed that sale — the seemingly “overnight” transition from beginning writer to bestselling author. As I said in the Foreword to that collection, it was a book about an author in his thirties who began to believe in his own press, and his own myth, and who finally got to be one of the superheroes he read about as a kid, and who was devastatingly unaware of his own arrogance or his potential to do harm, as a result.

The New Fear chronicled the fallout of that arrogance, and ended with the initial emergence of something that would soon change the entire world – social media. The book showed how those early days shaped and molded the horror genre and publishing into what it is today.

The online horror space of Sympathy For the Devil and Running With the Devil was dominated by internet message boards such as Shocklines, Masters of Terror, The Red-Light District, and The Other Dark Place. All of them played a big role, as did two author message boards which – back then –absolutely dominated the industry: Warren Ellis’s Forum and my own Brian Keene Message Board. Both of those sites boasted thousands of users, and full-time paid moderators and staff, and both helped kickstart many careers in this business, and lead to some marriages and a few children being conceived. But eventually those message board collapsed in on themselves like dying stars because of the growing rise and eventual dominance of social media. Those same factors ultimately led to the closure of the Hail Saten Blog, as well, which is what Leader of the Banned chronicles.

Indeed, if the Hail Saten series can be viewed as a bird’s-eye history of horror fiction from the birth of the internet up through the arrival of social media (and it indeed can), then it is fitting to note that within a few short months of the final essay in Leader of the Banned, (which culminated in me closing up shop on that old Blog) that entire online space that had been chronicled in these four volumes was gone. Just utterly gone. Instead, the community began to move to Livejournal, MySpace, and these then brand-new start ups called Facebook and Twitter.

That was in 2008.

Now, nearly 15 years later, here at the tail end of 2022, social media is fragmenting, and those brand new start-ups called Facebook and Twitter are dinosaurs staring up at the approaching comet and raging against their inevitable demise. And thus, communities are fracturing, and heading for multiple parts unknown — TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Reddit, Tumblr, Goodreads, Discord, Mastodon, Slasher… the list is endless.

But me? I’ve grown tired of social media. At age 55, I have neither the time nor the energy nor the inclination to spend half my day cross-posting on fifty different social media platforms just to reach my readers who have been scattered to the winds by all these changes. So, instead of looking to the future, I’m going to look to the past. I’m going to rebuild my own communal space — a place where we can find each other and talk to one another again.

Step one is this new Blog.

Step two will be the online forum to follow.

Going forward, my social media will slowly begin to simply mirror the information posted here on my website. My interactions nd conversations and writing will move to this space, and to my weekly free Newsletter and daily Patreon. No more will I give my content to a slew of online social media platforms who give me nothing in return.

Like Peter Gabriel, I’ve kicked that habit. Shed my skin. This is the new stuff. I come dancing in. If you show for me, I’ll show for you.

I will show for you…

Hail Saten.

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phantom-le6 · 2 months

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Ramble of the month February 2024: 90’s MCU phase 5 – transitioning from Secret Wars to Infinity Wars

Having spent much of last month and a fair bit of this one working on submissions to literary agencies for my autism book, this month’s ramble and the one for next month took a bit of a back seat, and as such I’ve still not been able to vary myself away from delving further into my hypothetical Marvel and DC film universes. Apologies to anyone who, like me, were hoping to vary things more. However, hopefully what we cover in this ramble and the next will make up for it, and as April will be Autism Awareness time, I can guarantee something different for then.

By this point, I’m sure readers don’t need as much of a recap on what these posts to do with my 90’s-based MCU are about. Long story short, I’ve done what the meme makers don’t; looked at the comic book and real-world history of Marvel from that era to create an actual 90’s based MCU instead of putting 90’s actors into a present-day MCU. However, as we’re into a fifth phase and well past the 1990’s, we should at least quickly review phases 1-4 first.

Phase 1:

1992: Fantastic Four, Hulk, Iron Man

1993: Thor, Spider-Man, Ant-Man & The Wasp

1994: Captain America: Fantastic Four 2, Iron Man 2

1995: X-Men, Avengers, Daredevil

Phase 2:

1996: Spider-Man 2, Thor: Land of Enchantment, Silver Surfer

1997: Hulk vs Wolverine, Fantastic Four: Doomsday, Iron Man 3

1998: Captain America: Society of Serpents, Daredevil 2, X-Men 2

1999: Avenger 2, Spider-Man 3, Doctor Strange

Phase 3:

2000: Fantastic Four: World War III, Thor: Ragnarök, Daredevil 3

2001: Hulk: Rise of the Leader, X-Men: Fall of the Mutants, Avengers: Under Siege

2002: Doctor Strange 2, The Captain, Spider-Man 4

2003: Captain Britain, Fantastic Four: Enter the Negative Zone, Ghost Rider

Phase 4:

2004: Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Secret Wars: Part I

2005: Excalibur, Defenders, Ghost Rider 2

2006: X-Factor, Secret Wars: Part II, Heroes For Hire

2007: Namor the Submariner, Doctor Strange 3, Iron Man: Enter The Mandarin

As discussed in previous rambles, phase 1 was all about establishing the MCU and its characters, phase 2 was about the expansion and development of the continuity, while phase 3 was mostly about many characters and teams losing, being put on the back foot and so on. Phase 4 then covered Secret Wars, which temporarily deprived Earth of some major MCU heroes to put them through a real alien war, and in the process also allowed some other heroes to come to the fore. Phase 5 then becomes about following on from some of those plot threads while beginning the set-up for this MCU’s version of the Infinity War. So, let’s quickly show you the phase 5 slate and then get right into the details of these would-be films.

Phase 5:

2008: Spider-Man 5, Fantastic Four: Unthinkable, Ms Marvel

2009: Elektra, Black Panther 2, Defenders 2

2010: X-Men: Proteus, Spider-Man 6, Ant-Man 2

2011: Silver Surfer 2, Avengers vs X-Men, Ghost Rider 3

Spider-Man 5 (2008) Directed by Matthew Vaughan

Peter Parker/Spider-Man = Wil Weaton

May Parker = Marg Helgenberger

Flash Thompson = Ben Affleck

J. Jonah Jameson = J.K. Simmons

Joseph "Robbie" Robertson = Denzel Washington

Betty Brant = Parker Posey

Ned Leeds = John Barrowman

Eddie Brock = Wentworth Miller

Randy Robertson = Taye Diggs

Harry Osborn = Ryan Phillipe

Mary-Jane Watson = Alison Hannigan

Herman Schultz/Shocker = Patrick Muldoon

Felicia Hardy/The Black Cat = Elisha Cuthbert

Roderick Kingsley/Hobgoblin = Michael Keaton

Quentin Beck/Mysterio = Nathan Fillion

Captain Jean DeWolff = Jessica Biel

Detective Stanley Carter/”Sin Eater” = James Marsden

In the first three Spider-Man films, we built up to Peter befriending the Osborns and dating Gwen, only for the Green Goblin/Death of Gwen story arcs to play out in Spider-Man 3. The fourth film then gave Peter a clash with the Sinister Six as he struggles to come to terms with Gwen’s death. Following Secret Wars, Peter now has the alien costume, and so film 5 is basically the alien costume story arc. Sounding a little too much like the Raimi/Maguire Spider-Man 3? Trust me, it’s not like that and for two key reasons. Firstly, I’m not trying to shoe-horn Venom in for the third act, just set him up for another film. Second, I’ve chosen Wentworth Miller of Prison Break and The Flash fame to play Eddie Brock, and that’s far from being our only change.

In this film, Peter’s occupied trying to stop a series of illusion thefts being committed on behalf of a new “kingpin”, who turns out to be the Hobgoblin, while also having to track down a notorious serial killer called the “Sin Eater”. As the alien costume influences Peter ever more, the question becomes less will he stop all the criminals, but rather will he become one. Matters are further complicated when costume thief Black Cat begins seducing Spider-Man and the alien costume pushes Peter to accept this despite his relationship with Mary-Jane. The film culminates with a chance clash with the Shocker revealing the alien nature of Peter’s costume, forcing him to finally fight it off. Eddie Brock gaining the symbiote is then handled in a credit’s scene.

Direction-wise, I picked Matthew Vaughan as he’s a proven superhero film director due to his work on X-Men: First Class. He’s the fourth director to take a hand on Spider-Man solo film in this hypothetical MCU, with John Hughes having directed the first two, and 3 and 4 being handled by Frank Darabont and Martin Campbell, respectively.

Fantastic Four: Unthinkable (2008) Directed by Roland Emmerich

Reed Richards/Mr Fantastic = Tom Hanks

Susan Storm (Richards)/Invisible Woman = Meg Ryan

Johnny Storm/Human Torch = David Spade

Ben Grimm/Thing = Bryan Cranston

Alicia Masters = Heather Graham

Agatha Harkness = Angela Lansbury

Victor Von Doom/Doctor Doom = Goran Višnjić

Hauptmann = Ronald Guttman

Nick Fury = Tommy Lee Jones

Black Bolt = Pierce Brosnan

Medusa = Elizabeth Hurley

Crystal = Dina Meyer

Gorgon = J.G. Hertzler

Karnak = Alexander Siddig

Triton = Orlando Bloom

T'Challa/Black Panther = Chadwick Boseman

Namor McKenzie/The Submariner = Christian Bale

Barbara "Bobbi" Morse/Mockingbird = Rebecca Romijn-Stamos

Jericho Drumm/Brother Voodoo = Doug E. Doug

Having had the Fantastic Four directed by Leonard Nemoy (films 1-2), Steven Spielberg (films 3-4) and Ridley Scott (film 5), this MCU closes out their share of films under the stewardship of Roland Emmerich, notable for such films as Independence Day, White House Down and Midway. This film adapts the events of the storylines ‘Unthinkable’ and ‘Authoritative Action’, but leaves the events of ‘Hereafter’ to the comics and begins introducing the Infinity Stones. Since non-comics fans and fans who haven’t read those stories won’t get those references, let’s do a quick summary.

In the comics, Doctor Doom turned to magic for an attack on the Fantastic Four, which resulted in Reed and Sue’s son Franklin being taken to hell, and the team having to storm Latveria to get him back. During the incident, Doom scarred Reed before being dragged into hell. Afterwards, Reed seized control of Latveria to dismantle Doom’s arsenal and craft a permanent prison for Doom, one in which Reed would serve as warden. However, when the rest of the team tried to stop Reed, Doom somehow began to possess each in turn, ultimately forcing Reed to kill Ben Grimm just to stop Doom. The events of the Hereafter arc involved a trip into the afterlife to bring Ben back, in the process healing Reed’s scars.

In this film, Franklin is kidnapped and taken to a demon dimension, and Sue leads a rescue team comprised of her, Ben Grimm, Brother Voodoo and the Black Panther to save Franklin while Reed and Johnny attack Doom, aided by the Inhumans and Namor the Submariner. The attack seemingly defeats Doom, after which Reed leads the F4 to Latveria, seizing control of the nation. Fearing Doom is somehow influencing Reed, Nick Fury of SHIELD intervenes along with Mockingbird, Voodoo, Namor and T’Challa, only for the seemingly captured Doom to begin telepathically controlling the other F4 members. Ultimately, Reed manages to force a feedback that wipes Doom’s mind, but in the process, Ben Grimm dies as he does in the comics. With Ben’s death, the Fantastic Four decide to step back from hero work, becoming a think tank called the Future Foundation.

The bulk of the film’s cast is from past films, with the only new addition being mystical nanny Agatha Harkness, played by Angela Lansbury in better keeping with the comics version of the character. As for the Infinity Stone I mentioned, that would be the mind stone, which Doom uses to control the various F4 members until Reed works out Doom is channelling the stone’s power and creates the feedback.

Ms Marvel (2008) Directed by Gates McFadden

Carol Danvers/Ms Marvel = Melissa Joan Hart

Michael Barnett = Brian Krause

J. Jonah Jameson = J.K. Simmons

Frank Gianelli = Rory Cochrane

Tracey Burke = Kate Mulgrew

Tabitha Townsend = Kyla Pratt

Lynn Andersen = Amanda Seyfried

Mystique/Raven Darkholme = Connie Nielsen

Rogue = Anna Paquin

Avalanche = Alessandro Gassmann

Fred J Dukes/Blob = Vince Vaughan

Pyro = Hugh Jackman

Irene Adler/Destiny = Sally Field

When it comes to trying to tackle Carol Danvers in films, one story that’s yet to hit the big screen is the story of her downfall against the X-Man Rogue back when Rogue was part of Mystique’s Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Indeed, the 90’s animated series of the X-Men is the only adaptation to handle this, and they did it by neatly sidestepping some disturbing backstory. Long story short, there was a story arc in the Avengers comics around the late 70’s/early 80’s where Carol (then codenamed Ms Marvel) was mind-controlled and raped by an extra-dimensional being so he could be reborn in a body compatible with Earth, then after fast-growing to adulthood, his presence caused a bunch of time disruptions. When Carol then agreed to go with this being, the Avengers made no effort to prevent this.

When Chris Claremont wrote Rogue into Avengers Annual 10 and showed Rogue rocking Carol’s powers, the question that came to be asked was why Carol hadn’t sought out the Avengers upon returning to Earth, and the answer was made clear. The team hadn’t shown any real concern for Carol during her strange accelerated pregnancy, and then let her go off with a blatantly mind-controlling rapist from another dimension. As such, telling the story of Carol clashing with Rogue and the Brotherhood should never be an exact re-telling. Claremont’s story in Avengers Annual 10 was as much about correcting what the writer of the main comics at that time had written, and with film adaptations, you’re better off just taking a different path entirely.

In this case, we’re showing Carol working as an investigative journalist for a Daily Bugle-owned women’s magazine, who uses the Ms Marvel identity to tackle crime where needed. This is based on her original run in the comics, so we have Jameson borrowed from the Spider-Man films while using the magazine staff from the comics for supporting roles. As for the villains, roles from past films like Mystique and Pyro are combined with newly cast actors to give us our second MCU Brotherhood. The film draws in a mix of acting talent, with Melissa Joan Hart reprising the role of Carol Danvers, and Trek alumni Gates McFadden directing the film. McFadden has played the mutant Plague/Pestilence for three X-films before this and has some directing experience, making her a good choice for this project.

Elektra (2009) Directed by Roxann Dawson

Elektra Natchios = Leonor Varela

Stick = Scott Glenn

Stone = Sigourney Weaver

Kirigi = Daniel Henney

Frank Simpson/Nuke = John Cena

Matsu'o Tsurayaba = Hiroyuki Sanada

Kwannon = Kelly Hu

Turk Barrett = Gary Dourdan

The story of Elektra following her death in Daredevil is one Fox didn’t quite get right, in large part because they tried to incorporate plot elements and tropes that didn’t tonally fit with the character. Having used two Daredevil films to set her up before giving the character a one-shot solo film, I think the best thing is taking those bits out. Instead, we get the Hand going after the Chaste with Elektra in the middle, and when Elektra proves more than they can handle, they bring in the pill-popping assassin known as Nuke. It’s a straight-up martial arts action film initially, but then becomes a more Punisher-like action film when Nuke comes on the scene.

Trek alumni Roxann Dawson takes the helm because she’s one of the few women I know of that would be directing anything back around this time. Considering that films with female leads are often better handled by female directors, it makes sense to try and make this the case wherever possible. The cast is either retained from past films of picked to be more comic-accurate. Case-in-point, picking American actor Scott Glenn to play Stick rather than English actor Terrence Stamp.

Black Panther 2 (2009) Directed by Tim Burton

T'Challa/Black Panther = Chadwick Boseman

Shuri = Tatyana Ali

Ramonda = Alfre Woodard

T'Chaka = Courtney B. Vance

W'Kabi = Chiwetel Ejiofor

Okoye = Nia Long

Zuri = Joseph Marcell

M'Baku = Idris Elba

Nakia = Lupita Nyong'o

Monica Lynne = Kerry Washington

Baron Macabre = Sterling K Brown

Jerome Beechman/Mandrill = Joaquin Phoenix

Nekra Sinclair = Toks Olagundoye

Kevin Plundarr/Ka-Zar = Chris Hemsworth

Shanna O'Hara = Scarlett Johansson

Zaladane = Jolene Blalock

Everett Ross = Martin Freeman

In Black Panther 2, T’Challa becomes allied with Ka-Zar of the Savage Land when it turns out his hidden jungle in Antarctica houses a cache of Vibranium to rival Wakanda’s. Most would-be Vibranium hunters baulk at trying to gain the Antarctic variety due to the dinosaurs, but soon both nations are threatened when the woman-controlling mutant Mandrill, his adoptive sister Nekra, the Savage Land priestess Zaladane and Wakandan criminal Baron Macabre team up. Due to the inclusion of some of these villains, I opted to switch from Tim Story to Tim Burton from a directing stand-point. This film also features a change of role for a couple of real-world MCU alumni.

Defenders 2 (2009) Directed by Stephen Sommers

Dr Stephen Strange = Johnny Depp

Namor McKenzie/The Submariner = Christian Bale

Bruce Banner/Hulk = John Cusack

Silver Surfer = David Wenham

Valkyrie = Diane Kruger

Kyle Richmond/Nighthawk = Josh Duhamel

Patsy Walker/Hellcat = Mena Suvari

Wong = Will Yun Lee

Clea = Keira Knightley

Jericho Drumm/Brother Voodoo = Doug E. Doug

Dr Anthony Druid = Mark Strong

Daimon Hellstrom = James Van Der Beek

Dr Tania Belinsky (Belinskaya)/Red Guardian = Beatrice Rosen

Dr Arthur Nagan = Julian McMahon

Dr Jerold "Jerry" Morgan = Stellan Skarsgård

Ruby Thursday = Alyssa Milano

Harvey Schlemerman/Chondu the Mystic = Stanley Tucci

Shuma-Gorath = Geoffrey Rush

The Defenders, Marvel’s superhero non-team, return for a second instalment at this point, and I’ve picked Stephen Sommers as director based on him directing a live-action GI Joe film around the same time. In this film, the few routinely active Defenders learn via immigrant Russian doctor and superhero Red Guardian that a team of scientists called the Headmen have stolen the Reality Stone from AIM in an effort to seize world power for themselves. Allying with Namor the Sub-Mariner, the Defenders seek to stop the Headmen while Clea joins with Brother Voodoo, Dr Druid and Daimon Hellstrom to try and bring back Doctor Strange from the extra-dimensional limbo he sacrificed himself to in Doctor Strange 3. At the same time, the Silver Surfer seeks the Hulk. The whole team then comes together when the Headmen open a portal for Shuma-Gorath, in the process transforming into their strange comic-style appearances.

Everyone from Dr Druid on down in the cast list is new. As for why we’re skipping over the original male Red Guardian and focusing on the second female iteration for this MCU, there’s two reasons. First, the second female iteration served as a Defender in the original comics, and second, these MCU rambles are focused on the main film continuity, which in this version of the MCU is strictly cinematic. TV shows, while allowed as tie-ins, are optional content, and while I’d happily allow a TV show to dive in on Black Widow and some other characters, I think a film was and is a bit much for a character with so little solo comics content.

X-Men: Proteus (2010) Directed by LeVar Burton

Storm/Ororo Monroe = Halle Berry

Polaris/Lorna Dane = Jeri Ryan

Wolverine/Logan = Tom Cruise

Peter Rasputin/Colossus = Henry Cavill

Remi LeBeau/Gambit = Zachary Levi

Cyclops/Scott Summers = Patrick Swayze

Jean Grey = Milla Jovovich

Warren Worthington III/Archangel = Neil Patrick Harris

Beast/Hank McCoy = Alec Baldwin

Robert Drake/Iceman = Michael Weatherley

Banshee/Sean Cassidy = Liam Neeson

Dr Moira Mactaggert = Olivia Williams

Mystique/Raven Darkholme = Connie Nielsen

Rogue = Anna Paquin

Avalanche = Alessandro Gassmann

Fred J Dukes/Blob = Vince Vaughan

Pyro = Hugh Jackman

Irene Adler/Destiny = Sally Field

Professor Charles Xavier = Patrick Stewart

Kevin Mactaggert/Proteus = Iain De Caestecker

Joseph Mactaggert = John Hannah

Rahne Sinclair/Wolfsbane = Bonnie Wright

Danielle Moonstar = Selena Gomez

Jubilee = Chloe Bennett

Everett Thomas/Synch = Christopher Massey

Douglas Ramsey/Cypher = Devon Bostick

With the third X-Men film Fall of the Mutants having split the X-Men up, and a combination of the Secret Wars duology, Excalibur and X-Factor films following events for the divided team, this fourth X-Men film is intended to reunite some of the scattered team into a new whole. It also gives Rogue her defection from the Brotherhood following the events of Ms Marvel. In this film, Moira Mactaggert’s son Proteus emerges as a dangerous mutant and begins a rampage across to Scotland. With Excalibur unavailable, X-Factor is summoned while the X-Men pursue Mystique’s Brotherhood to Scotland. The two teams meet up and reunite when they find Professor X is also with Moira, having been recuperating on Muir Island since being released from a SHIELD hospital (this is set-up over end-credit scenes for Fall of the Mutants and X-Factor).

Direction-wise, the X-Men have been handled initially by Jonathan Demme and then Jonathan Frakes in films bearing their team’s name, while Excalibur was helmed by Christopher Nolan and X-Factor by LeVar Burton. For this film, I’ve put Burton back in the director’s chair. Casting-wise, I imagine same fans will be perplexed by my choice of Chloe Bennett for Jubilee. This is because Bennett is of a mixed ancestry that includes having a Chinese mother, and while the ideal is always to try for exact representation from the comics, there aren’t many actresses active in Hollywood around the time of this film with even one parent of Chinese descent, let alone two.

As such, the question becomes which do you compromise; Jubilee’s racial background or her nationality? My choice, compromise slightly on racial background and bring in some plot threads relating to prejudice against people of mixed race. Quite honestly, characters of mixed race are among those groups under-represented in film and TV, so if I have to compromise, let me at least try and do so in a positive way.

Spider-Man 6 (2010) Directed by Matthew Vaughan

Peter Parker/Spider-Man = Wil Weaton

May Parker = Marg Helgenberger

J. Jonah Jameson = J.K. Simmons

Joseph "Robbie" Robertson = Denzel Washington

Betty Brant = Parker Posey

Ned Leeds = John Barrowman

Eddie Brock/Venom = Wentworth Miller

Randy Robertson = Taye Diggs

Mary-Jane Watson-Parker = Alison Hannigan

Flash Thompson = Ben Affleck

Felicia Hardy/The Black Cat = Elisha Cuthbert

Sha Shan Nguyen = Grace Park

Captain Jean DeWolff = Jessica Biel

Anne Weying = Michelle Williams

Principal Harrington = Viggo Mortensen

Lance Bannon = Hayden Christensen

Gloria "Glory" Grant = Candice Patton

In the sixth of our Spider-Man films, and the last to both start and end with Peter Parker wearing the webs, we showcase Peter and MJ preparing for their upcoming wedding, but the pair are stalked by Eddie Brock, who has now joined with the Venom symbiote and seeks to make Peter’s life hell. He attempts to manipulate the Black Cat into being his co-conspirator as well, preying on her jealousy after the symbiote-free Spider-Man resists her seduction. The story ultimately culminates in Venom trying to force Peter into a no-win situation where he has to choose who to save; Mary-Jane or Felicia. Matthew Vaughan returns to direct, and we get a few extra supporting cast members in lieu of the various villains of Spider-Man 5.

Ant-Man 2 (2010) Directed by Peyton Reed

Hank Pym/Ant-Man = Michael Douglas

Scott Lang/Ant-Man II = Paul Rudd

Maggie Lang = Judy Greer

Cassie Lang = Joey King

William Cross/Crossfire = Ethan Hawke

Taskmaster = Jeffrey Dean Morgan

Alex Gentry/Porcupine = Nick Offerman

Janice Lincoln/Beetle = Naya Rivera

Having left Ant-Man alone in terms of solo films since phase 1, phase 2 marks a return for Hank Pym, who by this point has been out of action since a mental break-down forced him to retire. Now of sound mind again, he tries to deal with tech thief Crossfire, who steals the prototype for a new, more aggressive variant of the Ant-Man suit, the Yellowjacket. However, Hank’s old suit is not safe to use as it clashes with his neuro-chemistry, risking more mental break-down. Even worse, it’s been stolen. In tracking down the Ant-Man suit, Hank encounters desperate divorced father Scott Lang, who stole the suit to get money to cover his daughter’s medical treatment.

With this film, the aim is to pass the mantle of Ant-Man to Scott Lang in a more comics-accurate manner, while at the same time preserving certain casting that the MCU got right, hence why Pym, Scott and Maggie are all retained from the real MCU. In terms of Cassie, I switched to Joey King as she’s had a remarkably steady record of employment for a non-Disney child actress, and I think she’s a great choice to take up this role for the remainder of this hypothetical MCU. Direction-wise, I figured it best to stick with the choices of the real MCU and go for Peyton Reed, having had to go with Sam Raimi on the 90’s-made first Ant-Man of this MCU.

Silver Surfer 2 (2011) Directed by JJ Abrams

Silver Surfer = David Wenham

Thanos = Josh Brolin

Mentor = Michael McKean

Eros/Starfox = Joel McHale

Gamora = Zoe Saldana

Drax the Destroyer = Dean Cain

Adam Warlock = Chris Pine

Pip the Troll = Peter Dinklage

Nebula = Emma Stone

Mar-Vell/Captain Marvel = Jude Law

Following the events of Defenders 2, the Silver Surfer finds himself drawn into yet more Infinity Stone adventures when Kree hero Captain Marvel and the android Drax the Destroyer come to Earth with Adam Warlock, keeper of the Soul Gem. Hot on their heels are Thanos and Nebula, each of whom has begun to seek the Infinity Stones. Worse still, Mar-Vell is dying of cancer. The film is meant to advance the Infinity Stones plot while also adapting the death of Mar-Vell from the comics, not to mention setting up for the Guardians of the Galaxy to appear in the next phase.

For direction, I’ve picked JJ Abrams based on his Star Trek and Star Wars work making him a decent choice for a space-based hero like the Silver Surfer. In terms of casting, we have a few reprises from past films in this 90’s MCU and from the real MCU. However, some shifts have also occurred, most notably with Drax due to wanting to use his original comics origins over the revised MCU/later comics version. The would-be autistic representation of Bautista and Gunn’s Drax quickly become so much farce, so as an autistic person, I’d just as soon avoid that and go down the android route, thanks very much.

Avengers vs X-Men (2011) Directed by Jonathan Frakes

Cyclops/Scott Summers = Patrick Swayze

Jean Grey = Milla Jovovich

Storm/Ororo Monroe = Halle Berry

Wolverine/Logan = Tom Cruise

Peter Rasputin/Colossus = Henry Cavill

Remi LeBeau/Gambit = Zachary Levi

Warren Worthington III/Archangel = Neil Patrick Harris

Rogue = Anna Paquin

Steve Rogers/Captain America = Brad Pitt

Thor = Dolph Lundgren

Janet Van Dyne/Wasp = Catherine Zeta Jones

Iron Man/Tony Stark = Tom Selleck

Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk = Lucy Lawless

T'Challa/Black Panther = Chadwick Boseman

Sam Wilson/Falcon = Will Smith

Peter Parker/Spider-Man = Wil Weaton

Professor Charles Xavier = Patrick Stewart

Carol Danvers = Melissa Joan Hart

Mystique/Raven Darkholme = Connie Nielsen

Avalanche = Alessandro Gassmann

Fred J Dukes/Blob = Vince Vaughan

Pyro = Hugh Jackman

Irene Adler/Destiny = Sally Field

Frank Bohannan/Crimson Commando = Harrison Ford

Louis Hamilton/Stonewall = James Brolin

Martin Fletcher/Super-Sabre = Peter Fonda

Dr Valerie Cooper = Malin Åkerman

Sebastian Gilbreti/Bastion = Bruce Greenwood

Congressman Rev. William Stryker = Eric Roberts

Forge = Jimmy Smits

There have been two occasions in Marvel comics where the X-Men and Avengers have been drawn into direct conflict, at least using multiple issues of a comic and to my knowledge. The first is the 1980’s mini-series X-Men versus Avengers, where the Avengers attempted to arrest Magneto to resume his trial before the world court, while the Soviet Super-Soldiers sought to arrest Magneto for his actions in X-Men #150. As Magneto was part of the X-Men at the time, this naturally put all three teams at odds with each other. The second occasion was the AvX storyline in which Cyclops, Emma Frost, Namor, Colossus and Magik became possessed by the Phoenix Force, something the Avengers tried to prevent and later combat.

While this film draws on the basic concept of both series, that something sets the Avengers and the X-Men at odds with each other, it’s not about arresting Magneto or issues with the Phoenix force. Instead, the issue is Rogue; her status as a mutant terrorist is used to convince the Avengers to apprehend the X-Men. This is bad timing, as the X-Men are working with Rogue to help restore the mind of Carol Danvers. The masterminds of the plot are rabid anti-mutant politician William Stryker and government advisor Sebastian, who in reality is a new form of sentinel in disguise. Luckily, government advisor and secret mutant Forge is suspicious of Bastion and convinces NSA director Dr Valerie Cooper to set up a contingency plan.

As a result, the film builds to a climax where, after the intervention of Spider-Man ends a major fight between the two teams, Bastion unleashes his prime sentinels. Enter Mystique’s expanded Brotherhood in their guise as community service government heroes Freedom Force, and the stage is set for a truly epic battle. Direction-wise, I opted for Jonathan Frakes to helm this entry, and while many actors are reprising roles from past films, everyone from Crimson Commando on down is new to the MCU as of this film.

Ghost Rider 3 (2011) Directed by Mark Steven Johnson

Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider = Connor Trinneer

Roxanne Simpson = Jessica Alba

Eric Brooks/Blade = Jamie Foxx

Rachel Van Helsing = Cote De Pablo

Daimon Hellstrom = James Van Der Beek

Vlad Tepish/Dracula = Mads Mikkelsen

Lilith = Felicity Jones

Mephistopheles = Jeffery Combs

Phase 5 of our 90’s MCU closes out by bringing Johnny Blaze’s time as Ghost Rider to its conclusion, in a story where Johnny teams up with Blade, Rachel Van Helsing and Daimon Hellstrom against Dracula and his daughter Lilith, who are secretly in league with Mephistopheles. The film is partly an original plot and partly an adaptation of the end of the original Ghost Rider run of comics, though it’s far from being the last Ghost Rider film of this MCU. Just as the comics would have others take up the Ghost Rider curse after Blaze, so too will this MCU move onto those later riders in turn. Having used Tim Burton on the first two Ghost Rider films in this MCU, I’ve picked Mark Steven Johnson who handled the 2007 Nicholas Cage Ghost Rider film to take on this third instalment of 90’s MCU Ghost Rider.

This wraps up our look into phase 5 of this 90’s-based MCU; next month, we’ll cover phase 5 of our alternate DC movie universe. Until then, ta-ta for now.

#fancast #mcu

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spilledreality · 1 year

Text

Bennett, "Sacred & Profane Love"

We took in the county paper, the Staffordshire Recorder, and the Rock and the Quiver. With the help of these organs of thought, which I detested and despised, I was supposed to be able to keep discreetly and sufficiently abreast of the times. But I had other aids. I went to the Girls’ High School at Oldcastle till I was nearly eighteen. One of the mistresses there used to read continually a red book covered with brown paper. I knew it to be a red book because the paper was gone at the corners. I admired the woman immensely, and her extraordinary interest in the book—she would pick it up at every spare moment—excited in me an ardent curiosity. One day I got a chance to open it, and I read on the title-page, Introduction to the Study of Sociology, by Herbert Spencer. Turning the pages, I encountered some remarks on Napoleon that astonished and charmed me. I said: ‘Why are not our school histories like this?’ The owner of the book caught me. I asked her to lend it to me, but she would not, nor would she give me any reason for declining. Soon afterwards I left school. I persuaded my aunt to let me join the Free Library at the Wedgwood Institution. But the book was not in the catalogue. (How often, in exchanging volumes, did I not gaze into the reading-room, where men read the daily papers and the magazines, without daring to enter!) At length I audaciously decided to buy the book. I ordered it, not at our regular stationer’s in Oldcastle Street, but at a little shop of the same kind in Trafalgar Road. In three days it arrived. I called for it, and took it home secretly in a cardboard envelope-box. I went to bed early, and I began to read. I read all night, thirteen hours. O book with the misleading title—for you have nothing to do with sociology, and you ought to have been called How to Think Honestly—my face flushed again and again as I perused your ugly yellowish pages! Again and again I exclaimed: ‘But this is marvellous!’ I had not guessed that anything so honest, and so courageous, and so simple, and so convincing had ever been written. I am capable now of suspecting that Spencer was not a supreme genius; but he taught me intellectual courage; he taught me that nothing is sacred that will not bear inspection; and I adore his memory. The next morning after breakfast I fell asleep in a chair. ‘My dear!’ protested Aunt Constance. ‘Ah,’ I thought, ‘if you knew, Aunt Constance, if you had the least suspicion, of the ideas that are surging and shining in my head, you would go mad—go simply mad!’ I did not care much for deception, but I positively hated clumsy concealment, and the red book was in the house; at any moment it might be seized. On a shelf of books in my bedroom was a novel called The Old Helmet, probably the silliest novel in the world. I tore the pages from the binding and burnt them; I tore the binding from Spencer and burnt it; and I put my treasure in the covers of The Old Helmet. Once Rebecca, a person privileged, took the thing away to read; but she soon brought it back. She told me she had always understood that The Old Helmet was more, interesting than that.

So much for my intellectual inner life. My emotional inner life is less easy to indicate. I became a woman at fifteen—years, interminable years, before I left school. I guessed even then, vaguely, that my nature was extremely emotional and passionate. And I had nothing literary on which to feed my dreams, save a few novels which I despised, and the Bible and the plays and poems of Shakespeare. It is wonderful, though, what good I managed to find in those two use-worn volumes. I knew most of the Song of Solomon by heart, and many of the sonnets; and I will not mince the fact that my favourite play was Measure for Measure. I was an innocent virgin, in the restricted sense in which most girls of my class and age are innocent, but I obtained from these works many a lofty pang of thrilling pleasure. They illustrated Chopin for me, giving precision and particularity to his messages. And I was ashamed of myself. Yes; at the bottom of my heart I was ashamed of myself because my sensuous being responded to the call of these masterpieces. In my ignorance I thought I was lapsing from a sane and proper ideal. And then—the second miracle in my career, which has been full of miracles—I came across a casual reference, in the Staffordshire Recorder, of all places, to the Mademoiselle de Maupin of Théophile Gautier. Something in the reference, I no longer remember what, caused me to guess that the book was a revelation of matters hidden from me. I bought it. With the assistance of a dictionary, I read it, nightly, in about a week. Except Picciola, it was the first French novel I had ever read. It held me throughout; it revealed something on nearly every page. But the climax dazzled and blinded me. It was exquisite, so high and pure, so startling, so bold, that it made me ill. When I recovered I had fast in my heart’s keeping the new truth that in the body, and the instincts of the body, there should be no shame, but rather a frank, joyous pride. From that moment I ceased to be ashamed of anything that I honestly liked. But I dared not keep the book. The knowledge of its contents would have killed my aunt. I read it again; I read the last pages several times, and then I burnt it and breathed freely.

#arnold bennett #herbert spencer

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flotsam-gazette · 1 year

Text

S F Said

TYGER not yet available in USA... but in the meantime, I know book shops such as @BurleyFisher are shipping it to the US...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._F._Said

b.1967. Born in Beirut; origins are "Iraqi, Egyptian, Kurdish, and Circassian." He grew up in London, educated at University of Cambridge. left academia to focus on film journalism for

The Daily Telegraph.

He wrote his first novel, Varjak Paw in 2003, while working as a speechwriter for the Crown Prince of Jordan,

three novels for children thus far. (Varjak Paw, Outlaw Varjak Paw, Phoenix, and now TYGER.

His novels combine action and adventure with themes of identity, difference and belonging.

. . . . . . .

http://www.sfsaid.com/

YOUTUBE: conversation about TYGER, with S F Saïd and Tamsin Roswell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TE-N6OcpFYA

. . . . . . .

Q&A:

https://booksforkeeps.co.uk/article/tyger-tyger-an-interview-with-sf-said/

I think the main reason why it took me so long is I’m just not that good at making things compulsively readable. I have to work quite a lot at it. But it’s the thing I want the most. I want my stuff to feel like it’s reading itself, like it’s not an effort at all. It should not feel literary or highbrow in any way; it should feel like a page-turning adventure you can’t put down. And until it feels like that.

An artist called Frans Masereel, who did an amazing book called The City. I think it’s from the 1920s or 30s, and it might be Berlin or Vienna. It’s a sort of woodblock style, absolutely beautiful. That was a big source of inspiration for the way the city scenes look.

When I read Watership Down at the age of eight, I saw an exciting adventure about rabbits; a kid reading Tyger now will probably see an exciting adventure about a tiger. When I reread Watership Down as an adult, I saw that it was about the big questions of our lives: who are we? Where do we come from? Where do we belong? How should we live? I hope my books are the kinds of books that one could return to at different ages and find other layers or the levels of meaning that might repay a lifetime’s reading. (Maybe that’s another reason why they take a long time to write.)

https://impossible.home.blog/2022/10/16/interview-sf-said-on-tyger/

Boundaries, both spatial and temporal. Midwinter Night is the time between the end of one year and the beginning of the next: a time between times. That’s the time I can most easily imagine crossing the boundaries of reality, and going into other worlds.

I always seem to write stories about powerless characters who discover that they have great powers inside them, and must learn how to use those powers. It’s something that happens in all my books... With each book, I just write the book I most want to read myself – and it just so happens that this is something I always want to see in a book!

I spend years and years of my life trying to make each book the very best it can be. Because children’s books are too important to give it anything less than your absolute best!

https://www.readingzone.com/books/tyger/

SF Said is a genius at using stories as both a call to action and a cry of hope. As Tyger says, there are 'infinite possible histories of the world… the way things are is not the way they have to be'.

Tyger is majestic animal who sets him on a secret quest to open the gates to other worlds. He soon manages to team up with Zadie, a girl from the same ghetto. For success, both of them need to unlock their powers of perception, imagination, creation and revelation.

https://www.lovereading4kids.co.uk/book/20198/Tyger-by-S-F-Said.html

a careful, almost distilled down text that fills the reader with hope.

https://www.achuka.co.uk/blog/tyger-by-sf-said-ill-dave-mckean/

A long review wich gives lots of detail and context, and concludes: "it is important to recognise when some books, and some authors, reach extraordinary heights of excellence. SF Said has done so with this novel."

https://www.chrissoul.co.uk/reviews-2022-47/tyger

Fabulous review

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yellowbg · 2 years

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Phil could stand this no longer

Phil could stand this no longer. With a whoop and a bound (he had just won the long jump in his college sports) he cleared the broad ditch, and alighted clean in the meadow round which they were tramping.

‘ Why,’ he cried, as a second bound brought him back again to the side of his Venerable friend, ‘ at that rate we should want at least a hundred works, I suppose in ten volumes each, or a thousand volumes in all, cram full of gritty facts of no good to any one. All this week I have been entering in my note-book such bits as this: — “ Ecgfrith marched to a place called the Hoar Apple-Tree. It is not known where this is, or why he went there. He left it the next day, and neither he nor it are ever mentioned again in the chronicles.” What is the good to me of knowing that? ’ he asked, as if a cheeky freshman was likely to put the Reverend iethelbald into a tight place.

‘ Bad, bad! ’ said the tutor, who began to fear that he was wasting his time on Phil, ‘ you will never be a credit to your college if you can make game of “truth” like that ! One would think a young man who hoped to do something would care to know a few true facts about his English forbears a thousand years ago. But the question is not what you care to know, but what you ought to know; and every Englishman ought to know every word in the Saxon Chronicle, to say nothing of the rest daily sofia tour.

Nor is it a question at all about your thousand volumes of history, the bulk of which deal with “periods” that do not concern you at all. Your thousand volumes, too, is a very poor estimate after all. You would find that not ten thousand volumes, perhaps not a hundred thousand volumes, would contain all the truths which have ever been recorded in contemporary documents, together with the elucidations, comments, and various amplifications which each separate truth would properly demand.’

‘ But at this rate,’ said the freshman gloomily, ‘ I shall never get beyond Ecgfrith and the other break-jaw Old- English sloggers. When we come up to Oxford we never seem to get out of an infinite welter of “origins” and primitive forms of everything.

I used to think the Crusades, the Renascence, Puritanism, and the French Revolution were interesting epochs or movements. But here lectures seem to go round and round the Mark-system, or the aboriginal customs of the Jutes. We are told that it is mere literary trifling to take any interest in Richelieu and William of Orange, Frederick of Prussia, or Mirabeau and Danton. The history of these men has been adequately treated in very brilliant books which a serious student must avoid. He must stick to Saxon charters and the Doomsday Survey.’

‘Of course, he must,’ said the tutor, ‘if that is his “period” — and a very good period it is. If you know how many houses were inhabited at Dorchester and Brid- port at the time of the Survey, and how many there had been in the Old-English time, you know something definite. But you may write pages of stuff about what smatterers call the “philosophy of history,” without a single sentence of solid knowledge. When every inscription and every manuscript remaining has been copied and accurately unravelled, then we may talk about the philosophy of history.’

‘ But surely,’ said Crichtonius mirabilis, ‘you don’t wish me to believe that there is no intelligible evolution in the ages, and that every statement to be found in a chronicle is as much worth remembering as any other statement? ’

Reverend Aithelbald dogmatically

‘You have got to remember them all,’ replied the Reverend Aithelbald dogmatically, ‘ at any rate, all in your “period.” You may chatter about “evolution” as fast as you like, if you take up Physical Science and go to that beastly museum; but if you mention “evolution” in the History School, you will be gulfed — take my word for it! I daresay that all statements of fact—true statements I mean — may not be of equal importance; but it is far too early yet to attempt to class them in order of value. Many generations of scholars will have to succeed each other, and many libraries will have to be filled, before even our bare materials will be complete and ready for any sort of comparative estimate. All that you have to do, dear boy, is to choose your period (I hope it will be Old-English somewhere), mark out your “claim,” as Californian miners do, and then wash your lumps, sift, crush quartz, till you find ore, and don’t cry “ Gold! ” till you have had it tested.’

This was a hard saying to his Admirable young friend, who felt like the rich young man in the Gospel when he was told to sell all that he had and to follow the Master. ‘ I have no taste for quartz-crushing,’ said he gloomily; ‘what I care for are Jules Michelet on the Middle Ages, Macaulay’s pictures of Charles 11. and his court — (wonderfull scene that, the night of Charles’s seizure at Whitehall!) — Carlyle on Mirabeau and Danton, and Froude’s Reformation and Armada. These are the books which stir my blood. Am I to put all these on the shelf? ’

#Phil could stand this no longer

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mirelanast · 2 years

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Phil could stand this no longer

Reverend Aithelbald dogmatically

#Phil could stand this no longer

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fashionphotograpybg · 2 years

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Phil could stand this no longer

Reverend Aithelbald dogmatically

#Phil could stand this no longer

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emilyashome · 2 years

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Phil could stand this no longer

Reverend Aithelbald dogmatically

#Phil could stand this no longer

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resurrectionertugrul · 2 years

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Phil could stand this no longer

Reverend Aithelbald dogmatically

#Phil could stand this no longer

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hopegooday · 2 years

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Phil could stand this no longer

Reverend Aithelbald dogmatically

#Phil could stand this no longer

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haudgepaudge · 2 years

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I started this book shortly after my grandma's funeral, which may or may not have influenced my consumptive lens. However, I think even without recent loss this book holds some lovely gems that will impact almost any reader who is interested in spirituality, history, or simply the metamorphoses of ordinary people.

"A Tale for the Time Being" is a wonderful collage of many subjects - ecology, astrophysics, the lure of suicide, teenage trauma, history, and family secrets. Though quite packed in (i.e. long), Ozeki begins her novel with a diary and various accompanied treasures found on a remote Canadian beach by a woman also named Ruth. The book has multiple voices - pieces written by different characters are presented to create a literary quilt that unites the worlds of a secluded novelist, a lonely victimized Japanese-American teenager, and a WWII kamikaze pilot. I appreciated the naturalist tidbits that the husband Oliver sporadically added, the bits of Zen wisdom from the dear great-grandmother and Buddhist nun Jiko, and the very real portrayal of nosy small-town (in this case, island) neighbors that seem to crowd in on Ruth, the present main character.

The main character forever lodged in the past through her diary is Nao, a young school girl recently relocated back to Japan from America. Nao's struggles with bullying, loneliness, a fractured family, and a slow spiral into hopelessness is presented in her own earthy, teenage voice in the most frank way. Perhaps due to culture or her decision to commit suicide, she puts on no airs and presents the world exactly how she sees it, interacting with her family in ways that may even give the reader the same feeling of heartache that her parents at times also feel. Nao takes the reader hand-in-hand as she attempts to maneuver through her father's intense depression and failure, her residency at a Buddhist temple, veiled sexual exploitation, and her ever-present battle with her schoolmates and dignity. Her encounters with the other characters - her father, Jiko, a ghostly uncle - propel her toward her a fate that both the readers (Ruth and yourself) nervously anticipate right to the end.

Ruth, the recipient of the diary has her own somewhat similar struggles. A writer struggling to write a memoir and fresh with the death of her mother, experiences that Jiko would remark on as, "Same thing, not different." It is with Ruth that the spiritual ideas in the book come full circle - two writers struggling with their stories, haunted by the spirits of their loved ones, and advised by the sporadic wisdom of a dear companion. Ruth's fear of her mother's monster, Alzheimers, lurking in the distance, her quiet distress as a novelist who can't seem to resume her next work, her frequent unease while living on the island she was coerced onto mirror the monsters lying in wait for Nao.

As an American, the pieces of the "sky soldier", or kamikaze, experience were also eye-opening. Frequently touting ourselves as heroes, many American often do not encounter enemy or foreign viewpoints of wars we have been involved in. Without becoming accusatory, Ozeki manages to present a side of WWII that some American may have not considered, allowing for thoughtful introspection on individual perception of true good and evil, as well as where we all have landed on the scale.

Though often light-hearted, the novel is full of weighty notions and experiences, ones that will be sure to land gently on the reader for them to consider and hold if they wish. No only was the writing interesting, but the stories and characters never stagnated. I am excited to read other titles by this author.

#lit #book review #booklist #ruth ozeki #a tale for the time being

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