#Labyrinth Sequel Discourse | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

veliseraptor · 1 year

Note

Top 5 underrated books you love

oh man see this requires me to judge "underrated" though...challenge, that. but here goes let's see what I can come up with

1. Doctrine of Labyrinths by Sarah Monette. This is the obvious one for me. Out of print fantasy series published at the wrong time my beloved. I mean, admittedly if it was published now the discourse would be a nightmare (if...people read it, maybe it would still be underread), but god I love it so much. I recognize it has its "storytelling flaws" or whatever but this was the first series I read where I felt like the author was putting their hands on my shoulders, looking me directly in the eye, and going "okay, Lise, I'm about to come for you where you live." and then did it.

2. Coldfire Trilogy by C.S. Friedman. It's been a while since I read this one so I hesitated a little over including it, because, you know, "how much can I say I recommend something if I haven't read it in ten years" but part of my problem here is that I've met maybe three other people in my life who have also read it. Maybe if more people started reading it I would actually get around to doing my reread. An early "huh this really feels like it should've been gay, are we sure it's not" book. I'm still not sure it isn't.

3. Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. And Children of Ruin and Children of Memory is sitting on my shelf eagerly awaiting me, but this was the one that kicked it off and I keep trying to recommend it to people, but for some reason "it's about sentient spiders you guys" isn't as compelling a sell as I feel like it is. But it's about increasingly advanced spiders on an evolution fast track building a civilization you guys and also about conflict with the other and all that but. I'm really here for the incredibly fascinating worldbuilding Tchaikovsky does with the spiders.

4. The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks. I really want to at some point ask Ann Leckie if she's read any of the Culture books because...I just feel like there's something there. Not the same, but some kind of connection, and I felt it particularly reading this book. I remember enjoying Consider Phlebas (clearly, I picked up the "next" one in the chronology of this 80s space opera series), but this is the one where I read it and was like. Oh, fuck, you got me. In general I feel like this is a very interesting series worth revisiting - I wouldn't say it's obscure but I feel like a lot of more recent sci-fi/fantasy readers overlook it because "80s sci-fi" has a lot of connotations, deserved or undeserved. I will just say that I'm picky about my sci-fi and this one got me.

5. I went back and forth for a while about what to put here but I think I have to say A City of Saints and Madmen by Jeff Vandermeer, because I remember when I started seeing Annihilation and its sequels take off going NOW YOU GUYS FIND HIM (pleased and exasperated) and that book was my intro to his work. And I still in some ways like it (and his other earlier work) more. But just in general if you are into New Weird stuff, or enjoyed his more recent work, I recommend going back and looking at his older stuff, too. I happen to know that after being hard to find for a while FSG is now reprinting those books.

BONUS: I can't actually say Lymond Chronicles is "underrated" as such because it has a very devoted following and a whole crop of authors talk about it if you start looking, but still. The devoted following is not actually huge. And I love it very dearly.

#conversating #anonymous #sometimes i read things #top five meme

39 notes · View notes

punkcardiganlife · 5 months

Text

In London 1577, Henry Bynneman printed a book titled "The Gardeners Labyrinth: Containing a discourse of the gardeners life, in the yearly trauels to be bestovved on his plot of earth, for the vse of a garden : with instructions for the choise of seedes, apte times for sowing, setting, planting, & watering, and the vessels and instruments seruing to that vse and purpose : wherein are set forth diuers herbers, knottes and mazes, cunningly handled for the beautifying of gardens : also the physike benefit of eche herbe, plant, and floure, with the vertues of the distilled waters of euery of them, as by the sequele may further appeare. Gathered ovt of the best approved writers of gardening, husbandrie, and physicke." and written by Dydymus Mountaine [aka Thomas Hill]. As the title suggests, the book is about gardening, with extra notes about uses of medicinal plants, and compiles the work of nearly 30 authors of antiquity, including Cicero and Galene.

The title page has the signature "John Edwards of Stanstie" on it, but it is difficult to know which John Edwards the signature belongs to, since there are far too many persons in the area with that name and most of them are related. Stanstie (today spelled Stansty) is a town near Wrexham in the county of Debingenshire in the northern part of Wales.

In the same year the book was published, John Edwards of Stanstie (d. 1635) built an estate house called Plas Issa, and it’s possible that this book was bought for a library there or to facilitate the creation of a garden. His second-eldest son, also called John Edwards (b. 1612), was a court physician to King Charles I of England, and may have made the majority of the annotations in the book, since they primarily appear next to the parts about the medicinal uses of plants. There was a prominent family in the same area of Wales with the name Middleton, and Edward Howell Middleton could have gotten ownership of the book through this connection.

It is not clear how this book made its way to the National Agricultural Library or even the United States in general. The NAL doesn't have any information on the provenance of the book beyond that it was acquired sometime in the 1900s.

One of the most interesting parts of the book (in my opinion) are the "knottes" or knotted gardens, which were gardens planted in complicated and intricate designs. Below is an example of a few of these designs, which I am telling myself would not be something that I would be able to maintain in my yard, no matter how pretty it looks.

#rare books #special collections #old books #gardening #yes this is for a class assignment

6 notes · View notes

jarethsconcubine · 4 years

Note

“don’t get me started on” + THE LABYRINTH REMAKE. if u want.

Oh, MAN, ok SO-

It’s clearly such a cash grab, they’ve been drawing this thing out since Bowie passed. But then that project dropped just what- this year?? And I and a I’m sure many other fans were so hapoy to hear about that and all the sudden it’s happening again????? Like??? Aaaaaaaahhh??????!!!!! Not only that but articles are coming out with runors of a CGI BOWIE??!! How disrespectful can you get? He’s been dead for FIVE YEARS!! Too soon! Say what you want but it’s.too.soon. Not to mention how GROSS these articles are, they way they fixate on David Bowie/Jareth’s “sexual nature” like ewwwww!!!? Even more disrespect. And this is JIM’S! And Froud’s, and Terry Jones’s, I could keep going on and on! The people who created this (btw Bowie had a lot to to do with the Jareth you see on screen, he was a completely different character before and not for the better imo) are not even working on it bc most are literally dead!! And poor Jennifer Connelly, Hollywood is sexist and ageist so who knows if she’ll even get to be there (I think she looks amazing for her age, that woman is amazing). And I love the mystery behind this film (comics and manga excluded bc I have my own opinions on those) which makes for good theorizing and fanfiction! The gods only know how much this is gonna screw things up. Not everyone ships Jareth and Sarah so it wouldn’t be fair to longtime fans if they had to sit through that with this sequel.

The only way- I do mean ONLY- that I could be happy with a sequel is if there is no Jareth and no Sarah. Hell, no Toby either! Let’s focus on Hoggle, Ludo, Didymus, the goblins! I’d love to learn a bit about them! I adore puppetry with all of my heart, all of my favorite films encorporate puppetry in some way. I was so happy with The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, maybe this could be like that! But it liekly won’t, y’know why? This film thrives off of Bowie’s image, off of Jareth. Whether you like it or not, that’s the truth. Which character appears on t-shirts more, who has more action figures?? We all know why that is. And for those reasons, this sequel won’t happen unless Bowie’s face is there to sell it. And for that, I dispise it.

This was a good ask, I needed to say that.

#Labyrinth #Labyrinth Sequel Discourse #David Bowie #Asks #i rlly did need this!#Jennifer Connelly #Jim Henson #it’s my opinion though a lot of ppl are happy abt it too #i’m happy for them

41 notes · View notes

frumfrumfroo · 4 years

Note

What are your favorite movies and TV shows outside of SW? I’m looking for new things to watch since SW was so disappointing

My tastes are pretty eclectic, so I will stick to just things that are either similar to sw or are in the reylo-esque romance wheelhouse and have happy endings:

Chuck. It is a goofy, light-hearted action-adventure show with extremely endearing characters and a very prominent central romance (seriously, heavy romance and there is a lot of payoff for it, you will be FED- it's kind of slow burn but also shockingly NOT slow burn, they are deep into it pretty much immediately). The main couple is the classic Stoic Badass gradually softened by an innocent they have to protect who is a liability in battle but full of the Power of Heart. Chuck is The Heart btw. He is of that vanishingly rare male Beauty (of B&tB) type. He's incredibly generous and open, Sarah is prickly and closed-off. It is Quality. Very much a gender-swap of your typical cliche anime couple lol. I would recommend stopping at the mid-season finale in season 4, because it's downhill from there. The beginning of season 3 is very rough, but it's definitely worth it to stay for the back half, imo. There are several great endings to choose from before things go to shit, so we don't need to talk about the finale. Probably the most tonally similar to SW thing possible without being high/space fantasy. More humour, more silly, but definitely has a spiritual kinship. Has the best THE BEST 'secret revealed' scenes I have ever seen in anything. If you're into that and were hoping for that in ep IX, you need to watch Chuck.

The Shop Around the Corner. 1940 romance/drama film. You've Got Mail is a remake of it. Jimmy Stewart being profoundly adorable, Frank Morgan (aka the Wizard of Oz), various amusing side characters, and an absolutely deathless double blind 'secretly in love with the workplace nemesis' plot that can and probably has been a great reylo AU.

Mirromask. Fantasy/coming-of-age film. Touted as a 'spiritual successor' to Labyrinth by the filmmakers (one of whom is Neil Gaiman) and let me tell you, that is extremely apt. Beautiful, magical, laden with symbolism and Mask Discourse, and has a great ship. I quote it regularly.

Speaking of which, I'm sure you've seen Labyrinth? If you haven't seen Labyrinth, drop everything and watch Labyrinth.

Legend (the Ridley Scott director's cut, not the theatrical cut). Sumptuous fairy tale, runs on proper fairy tale logic, stunning to look at and overall captivating. Tim Curry. Tim Curry as a lonely tragic lord of darkness who tries to seduce the heroine and has drippingly overwrought monologues.

Howl's Moving Castle. Fairy tale adventure/romance film. Beautifully animated, has the ending you want.

The Silence of the Lambs. Thriller/drama film. Actual masterpiece. Use it as a gateway drug to read the books and rejoice that Clannibal is canon and it is spectacular. Just SotL and Hannibal, you don't need to read the other two. Stan Clarice Starling and revel in that ending. Most triumphant 'villain'/heroine ship of all time (he is not technically a villain but for shorthand's sake).

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Terry Gilliam 1988 fantasy/adventure film. THE TRIUMPH OF IDEALISM OVER CYNICS I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH HOW HEALING IT WAS TO WATCH AFTER THE TROS BULLSHIT HIT. Jonathan Pryce's spiritual villain is basically Chris Terrio and it is cathartic to see imagination and sentiment conquer him.

Sabrina. 1995 romance film. Modern fairy tale with Harrison Ford. Rejecting what you thought you wanted all your life for the thing you actually need, growing up but still believing in magic, beautiful character development across all the leads. Could be (and is irrc) a fantastic reylo AU.

The Scarlet Pimpernel. 1934 adventure film. High romance, secret identities, play-acting, people who aren't at all what they appear to be, falling in love with your own spouse, Big Heroism, guile and wit and audacity. It makes me do little kicks like a happy baby. This is one of the 3-5 films constantly tied for my favourite film of all time. There is a good quality rip free on youtube. Watch it and fall in love with Leslie Howard (this is possibly my favourite acting performance of all time).

Oh, related note. Pygmalion 1938 or My Fair Lady. (The musical is based on this film and borrows from it heavily, including its much more romantic ending compared to the original play.)

The Mummy. 1999 action/adventure/romance film. Very tonally similar to sw. A fucking great time, A+ characters.

EVER AFTER. 1998 romance film. The flawless and perfect and best ever Cinderella adaptation. This is the most satisfying film in history, maybe, the ending is so good it is amazing it exists. Also, it has Richard O'Brien being slimy. Huge selling point. Grapples with identity and stewardship, is brilliant.

Fruits Basket. drama/romance anime. I haven't watched the new version yet, but it's following the manga so I know the story. The original anime didn't do the whole plot (because they caught up with the source material) but it's wonderful and I still recommend it. The central ship is (spoiler.........) a B&tB type where we eventually discover the main love interest both feels like a figurative monster and turns into a literal monster. He has an incredible speech about his relationship with people's fear, it makes me weep. I called the endgame from the first episode and always thought it was obvious, but there is a red herring love triangle dynamic. It's really not annoying, though, because it is a red herring. (I hate love triangles)

I am Dragon. Russian monster romance film. Beautiful, simple fable with a really great heroine.

Jane Eyre. 1943 Gothic Romance film. It's Jane Eyre, byronic hero x sensible heroine love story with much atmosphere and Gothic drama. I stan this version because I am an Orson Welles fangirl and I'm also not convinced it can be improved upon. Elizabeth Taylor's film debut btw.

Hellboy. 2004 action/adventure/romance film. Defying destiny, reconciling identity, monster romance. The complete package and a great time. Tonally similar to SW and probably thematically closest to it out of this whole list. Don't watch the sequel.

Beauty and the Beast 1987 tv series. Exactly what it says on the tin. Deals with the classic B&tB themes, but in a different way. He's not cursed and will never transform into an ordinary man. The first season is very episodic and 'case of the week', but the second season gets more into character drama. It's dated, but if you give it a chance you can get past some of the cheese factor and it's really a unique experience. Its concerns are SO atypical that it feels like something fandom would make rather than a mainstream network show. It was so massively, insanely popular with women at the time that a record of Vincent (the beast) reading poetry topped the album charts. Also Ron Perlman and Linda Hamilton. Stop at season two. Point of interest: George RR Martin wrote for this show.

Stargate (the movie not the series) sci-fi fantasy about a nerdy guy who accidentally a hero.

Possession. 2009... mystery/supernatural/romance. Okay. This is a whole thing. Lee Pace and Sarah Michelle Gellar. It's based on a Korean film I've never been able to find for some reason, but being Hollywood they ruined the romanticism and nuance of the original in the theatrical cut to make a shitty punative ending. However. If you buy it on dvd and go to the alternate ending (which follows the original story) with around 20 minutes left (scene after Lee Pace's character wakes from a bad dream-go to deleted scenes and select the alternate ending), you will get a very, very interesting character study/thriller/redemption about sincerity within deception, compassion, and a major question about second chances with a positive answer. It's kind of dark and kind of astonishingly idealistic at the same time. The heroine makes a very powerful choice, twice over. It's fascinating. If you're into the conflicted and uncertain period in reylo, the part where he is most ambiguous, and you wanted more of that and much darker shades to it, you might be really into this. Also, it should be noted, there is a MASSIVE height difference and they show it off. The film is flawed (and the seams show on the Hollywood rewrite) but idk, it's fascinating. Shocking to me that they even got to shoot the original ending. It is pretty balls to the wall with its themes on forgiveness.

I would recommend getting into kdramas because there is a wealth of female-gaze tropey amazing content, but always check the ending before getting invested. My all-time fave is the 1st Shop of Coffee Prince, but it's not sw related at all lmao. It has a happy ending with all the elements you'd want, but it's not satisfying in execution, so that's it's major flaw and I find that pretty common with kdramas. One that is maybe more relevant is My Love from Another Star, which has a hero who is a little bit like Ben in personality. The heroine isn't my favourite, though. It does have a decent ending.

Oh yeah- brain fart. Kurosawa films and classic westerns were both very influential on SW. Or you can combine both and watch The Magnificent Seven.

#this somehow ended up a wall of text??? I'm so embarrassed #anyway it should be fixed now #recs #anyway 40s movies are fantastic they used to CHURN OUT rom coms and even the bad ones are entertaining #and they were not in the romance ghetto they had prestige actors and directors #I don't know what happened and why this isn't done now because that shit was profitable #another edit:#I messed up my directions on Possession bc I first saw the alt ending on YouTube from the fridge point #but actually the full thing starts way earlier and covers more of the loose ends than I remembered #so I've fixed that now as well #(because I just rewatched it after writing this rec) and serious SERIOUSLY someone watch this movie and scream about it with me #I can't stress enough how important it is you switch to the alt ending and watch that INSTEAD of the theatrical cut but but but #If you do - OMG the ending is incredible #the coded conversation the subtle optimism #it is a meeting place where we Soft Reylos and the edgier villain/heroine stans can meet in the middle

39 notes · View notes