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#mari’s 200 event!

slavghoul · 1 year

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Hello, I prepared some statistics to give you a short overview of Ghost's amazingly successful 2022. It is based on data I collected between 22/12/2021 and 22/12/2022.

The big Ghost event of 2022 was of course the release of the band's fifth album, IMPERA.

Since March 11, it has sold nearly 500,000 copies, won the American Music Award for Favorite Rock Album and received a Grammy nomination for Best Metal Performance ('Call Me Little Sunshine').

Within the first week of its release, the album reached #2 on the Billboard 200 (ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States) and ranked in the top 20 best-selling albums in 19 countries across the world:

#1 in Sweden, Austria, Germany, Finland, Spain

#2 in US, UK, Belgium, Norway, Netherlands

#3 in Australia, Canada

#5 in Switzerland, Ireland, France

#7 in Poland

#8 in Hungary

#12 in Denmark, Portugal

#20 in Italy

IMPERA is Ghost’s best charting album to date.

On YouTube, the band amassed a staggering 260 million views. 840,000 people subscribed to the channel this year, which makes up 42% of all current subscribers.

5 most watched videos on YouTube in 2022:

Mary On A Cross (Official Audio) – 32 million views

Call Me Little Sunshine (Official Music Video) – 15 million views

Square Hammer (Official Music Video) – 11 million views

Mary On A Cross (Live in Tampa 2022) – 8.2 million views

Spillways (Official Music Video) – 6.8 million views

On Spotify, the band amassed 1,285,625 new followers. That’s around 61% of all followers since the band appeared on the platform.

5 most streamed songs on Spotify in 2022:

Mary On A Cross - 193,709,473 streams

Call Me Little Sunshine – 41,108,589 streams

Square Hammer – 29,720,042 streams

Dance Macabre – 26,494,053 streams

Spillways – 24,910,870 streams

It goes without saying that the viral success of Mary On A Cross on TikTok brought in a lot of new fans this year, but the magnitude of it becomes even more astonishing if you look at numbers.

On this graph, I marked a few events that resulted in a noticeable spike in the number of monthly listeners on Spotify, including the approximate time when MOAC began to gain traction on TikTok. As you can see, nothing, not even the release of a new album, gave the band as much attention as the 3-year old song suddenly raising in popularity on one single platform.

Between end of July and beginning of October, the number of monthly listeners on Spotify skyrocketed from 2.5 million to 12 million. This is a 380% increase.

Although the numbers have been in decline since then, it appears that for the past month they have stayed at a steady 9 million. As of today (Dec 22, 2022) the exact number is 9,110,996. Exactly a year ago (Dec 22, 2021) the number was 1,999,951. A hefty 355% increase in only a year.

Some other milestones and fun facts:

On June 7, Cirice, Dance Macabre, and Square Hammer were all certified Gold by the RIAA for sales of 500,000 units in the USA. Following the viral success, Mary On A Cross was also certified Gold on November 20.

The band's most liked post on Instagram this year was a video of Papa throwing the first pitch at the White Sox game (273,241 likes).

The episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live where Ghost performed Call Me Little Sunshine was watched by around 1.3 million people.

In September, Ghost reached over 12 million monthly listeners on Spotify and was the 450th most streamed artist globally - that's 450 out of over 11 million!

As of today with over 1.6 billion accumulated streams Ghost is one of the 1,000 most successful artists on the platform of all time (currently #808).

On September 11, Mary On A Cross peaked at #1 in the Viral Hits chart on Spotify in 54 countries across the world.

It was also the highest charting Swedish song on the platform in 2022, peaking globally at #31.

At this point I think it’s safe to declare that Ghost’s global success reached unprecedent heights this year and even allowed them to officially join the ranks of mainstream artists. With all of the above, 70 completed shows this year and many more to come in 2023, and with media of the likes of The Wall Street Journal proclaiming Ghost “the next generation of arena stars,” it looks like that the band is well on the way to become one of the biggest rock acts of this century. Not bad for a side project started by one Swede in his bedroom somewhere in Linköping.

Let us hope 2023 will be as devilishly good!

#the band ghost

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rwuffles · 2 months

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pt: doll-themed names and pronouns. @/dwllie's 200 event. end pt.

♰ ⠀ — ⠀ DOLL-THEMED NAMES & PRONOUNS. @dwllie's 200 EVENT.

dolleine

antoinette

dolly

sweetheart

dollface

bennett

evette

luciana

blush

marie-grace

maryellen

corinne

lanie

francie

doll / dolls

do / doll

dolly / dolly

blush / blushes

dress / dresses

pretty / pretties

touch / up

display / displays

play / plays

show / case

showcase / showcases

showcase / showcased

dress / up

ball / joint

plastic / plastics

wooden / woodens

marionette / marionettes

#✚ the infant god 。#✚ names & prns 。#names #name list #name ideas #name suggestions #pronouns #pronoun list #pronoun ideas #pronoun suggestions #neopronouns #neopronoun list #neopronoun ideas #neopronoun suggestions #dwllie200

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sgiandubh · 8 months

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Pecunia non olet

When the Roman emperor Vespasian reinstated Nero's very unpopular tax on the distribution of urinals' waste, sometime around 70 AD, his son and heir, Titus, complained about it, thinking it was vile and disingenuous. Vespasian shoved a golden coin under his nose and asked the young fool if he still felt offended about it. Pecunia non olet - money doesn't smell, son. This very gold comes from, well, urine. Live with it.

I once comforted a whole orphanage, in Moulmein, Burma, for three weeks, with about 500 well-spent US dollars, at the local bazaar and shops. From rice to fruits to the strange, exuberant vegetables of the Tropics, meat and eggs and chocolate, and for good measure, aspirin, band-aid, antiseptic wipes, notebooks, pencils, socks, shoes, Tshirts, skirts and trousers. Filled three rickshaws with all the boxes and bags and went for it. The St Joseph orphanage was run by five formidable Anglo-Indian nuns, who took care of about 40 children, aged 5 to 16, whose parents died in the horrendous floods that followed the Nargis cyclone, in 2008. They had nothing. When they asked me who I was, I honestly told them it did not matter. Non nobis, Domine, non nobis.

Make no mistake. I am not a saint. I smoke like a chimney and swear like a drunken sailor and sometimes have to professionally, elegantly lie, because such is the nature of my job. I am cynical and short-tempered and yes, less impatient now than at 20. That day in Moulmein will always shine bright in my mind and in my heart for its absurd joy. And also for the feeling the real generosity was not mine, that day, but theirs.

Last week-end, about 200 women I would probably find perfectly insufferable paid from 2000 to 5000 US dollars each, to meet and greet and fawn and take #silly pictures with three guys who happen to be part of the cast of a certain TV series. With only one of them, in reality, but let's not trouble the waters. Apparently, they had a good time. I am not sure about the guy: he's not exactly the Svengali type. I very much doubt that this event will go down in history. It was as good as it gets, with the people it could attract. Entitled? Maybe. Sad? A bit, if you ask me. But above and beyond all of this, it was transactional. I pay, you drop by. I pay, you take a pic and smile. I pay, I ask a stupid question. I pay, we have a dram. For our mutual benefit.

I have no idea if these people maxed out their credit cards to be there. In theory, this is all about disposable income, cash that can and will be well... disposed of, somehow, whether it's a horrendous pair of mauve shoes or the last gadget or hey, a meet and greet. If I were Marie Kondo, I'd even dare say that parting with cash brought them joy.

Can we compare the two moments? Of course not. But both of them are the result of a (hopefully fully aware) choice.

It's been a long while I also chose to never set foot in such places, for such things. Not my circus, not my monkeys.

Stating the opposite is pure hypocrisy and pearl-clutching.

Sunset on the Salween River. Moulmein. Burma. August 2010. Taken by me.

#sag aftra strike

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punkeropercyjackson · 16 days

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Across the Spiderverse rewrite

Said i would do this in a few hours.ALMOST THREE MONTHS AGO.I am sorry,i'm so gods fuckdamn stupid💔💔💔

So a bit of Itsv first:It's an almost perfect movie so not much changed but i'm a firm believer in trans girl Miles so the franchise is called 'Spidergirl:Spiderverse' instead and Gwen cracked her egg in Into,Gwen is black/white mixed latina(dominican),Miles reveals her new name as 'Mirasol' as her last spoken line in it and Peni is shoujo themed instead of the moefication bullshit

The reason for Gwen and Mirasol's cosmic connection in Across is their transfemininity and being eachother's first ever trans girl friend and Mirasol is the reason Gwen managed to finally befriend other black girls in The Mary Janes and they're like sisters.Mirasol's been transitioning for 1 year but no meds were needed as her spider bite gave her her ideal apperance within a few months as it does all Spiderpeople and is pretty much radioactive gender affarming surgeries and hrt

The first few Ghostflower scenes play out mostly the same minus the romantic undertones but Hobie and Margo literally swing in on their city scene because they saw Gwen was gone and got worried so they sneaked off too so they could find her.Mirasol and Gwen nearly fall but Hobie and Margo catch them and then the roof talking scene is Mirasol getting to know the other two-they're The Core Four of the Spiderband and Hobie's first line is also the first thing he says to Mirasol:"Ay,Tinkerbell,you run out of faith and trust?You need a lil pixie dust?"

When they all go back to the Morales residence for Jefferson's party,it's revealed Mirasol did a small fib of Gwen being a 'friend from the web' i.e an online friend who she met and helped her realize she's trans,Margo is passed off as a school friend pretty easily and Hobie dosen't get a label put on him but Jefferson and Rio both think he's a secret boyfriend Mirasol's been hiding and this is why Jefferson dosen't like him rather than because he's a cop(househusband Jefferson au ftw)and why Rio DOES like him because she's so glad her Mija has taste instead of liking altie white boys.So she teases them about it and Hobie dosen't react too much and Mirasol is mostly just embarrased but subtly.There's a short montage of them demonstrating their powers to eachother as they take down random villains after sneaking off again and Gwen and Hobie show off to impress Margo and Mirasol

Straight after this,Peni arrives to tell them about the 50101 sitch and she's shifted to shonen like her world has-It's canon event(Spidergeddon)literally changed the and her structure.She went from sunshine to emo as per canon but it's explored in detail instead of a one-off shot and completely offscreen character development and i'll expand in a bit.When they're on Gayatri and Pavitr's dimension,there's actually no Spiderman yet and we're given a red herring that it's Pavitr but the one who gets bitten is Gayatri to reinforce 'Gwen Stacy dosen't have to be a fridged woman' and 'canon events are bullshit'.65 Gwen has a lot of feelings on this but tries to not make them Gayatri's problem and Pavitr is Spiderladdoo(Spiderwoman!Gayatri)'s guy in the chair.She calls him that after the mission is complete and he says 'I'm her guy in the chair' in a dreamy voice and with a goofy down bad grin on his face like she just called him her boyfriend

We then get to Earth 22191,Margo's dimension that's VR based and has secret post-apocalyptic origins like Hobie's only she knows about and it's a hidden trauma she carries that's revealed to the Spiderband who comfort her,but not before they have lots of gamer fun,including food and dressup game shenanigans,them playing as Gwen is so distracted flirting with Margo that she scores 0 points while Margo scores 200 flirting back and an Animal Crossing knockoff bit where Miausol(Meows)is confirmed and Hobie makes a quip about loving girls who're like cats.14512 is next up and things take a darker turn in tone as they work hard to bring it back to it's former glory with drop ins of japanese-american culture for representation and end up getting the first step to it and Peni violently glitches between artstyles as a magical girl transformation and shonen power up fusion and so she's a literal perfect inbetween inside AND out

And finally:Earth 138,Hobie's more or less home.We get to meet the comics Spiderband and there's lots of fun interactions between all of them as they get an adventure interesting enough to fill a 30 minute cartoon episode,including the reveal Hobie's dad is a deadbeat who bailed as soon as his mom divorced him but kept coming back to cause problems and Hobie dosen't care about him at all because his mom raised so well he dosen't need him but also believes she's been dead since he was 12 and it's revealed she's actually alive and this shocks him to his core with Mirasol being the only able to snap him out of it and he frantically says they have to find her and she promises him to while kissing him so close to his mouth you can't tell it's a cheek kiss at first look and he leans into while shaking as she says,"Hey,hey,hey,it's okay,Peter Pan-We'll get you your Neverland back."Both of Hobie's bands watch these scene wanting to join in but Riri tells them not to,saying 'I think Hobie's wants only one girl.Bout time,never thought he'd find more than zero'

At last:They arrive at Spider Society.Peter B(ft.Mayday)and Jessica greet them at the entrance after the grand reveal scene and there's a comical mix between scolding and wholesome moments and there were also some cutbacks to the Spiderparents between the Spiderkids to see what they got going on normally nowadays and included in this is an explanation of canon events and other Spiderlore that happens at the same time as the Spiderband's as intergenerational juxtaposition.Miguel's anger and reasonings have big buildup and we get to see more of Jessica and Peter B both by themselves,with eachother and with him and the Spiderman 2099 and Spiderwoman casts also get animated debuts in flashbacks.It's made clear Miguel dosen't hate Mirasol,he's just scared of all Anomalies she's causing and his words to her aren't nearly as harsh thanks to this but the fight still happens and he DOES use the word 'Anomaly' to describe her because it's too important in-universe and in a meta sense to the story's point to remove

Gwen also dosen't make up with George as character development but still 'betrays(not really)' Mirasol with the rest of the Spiderband not knowing about it either and that causes tension between her and them,Hobie the most but they still agree to follow her to Earth 42 because they love Mirasol that much.And a description given is 'This movie is for the forgotten Spiderpeople.This movie is also a love story between Mirasol and Hobie and i think that really brings it full circle'

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fire-but-ashes-too · 2 months

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ummm

so apparently some weird planets and stars aligned?? and now I have 200 followers??? what?? how??

jokes aside! (beware of i-have-the-emotional-capacity-of-a-toaster-but-i-still-want-to-get-shit-out) HOW DID WE GET HERE??? thank u sm to literally everyone who clicked on my profile and thought "hey! this looks interesting!" i appreciate all of u a LOT <33

buuuut i feel like i have to do smt?? like i see people do stuff for their 200 and i did my intro post for the 100 followers so idk?? give me ideas yall u chose your torture when u chose to follow me :)

aaand thats it! thank u again smmm!!

some tags! (ily) @no-nightingales666 @holdmyteaplease @moonysfavoritetoast @moonysversion @moon-0f-saturn @eclecticreadss @def-not-kaz-brekker @anne-is-okay @jokrrouttfynn @artemisiamezzanotte @int3r3st1ng @the-teen-writer @imobsessedwiththeatre @rainydance91 @keithbutgay @lookitsaworm @svnflowermoon @mari-is-missing @tobleroneeee @swapmoony1 @finleyforevermore @gu1lty-as-sin @jegulus4444 @moonypdfootprongsimp @secretnameofeverydeath @urbanflorals @rookofthekingom @sea-dwelling-wizard @rmgrey-author @the-stray-storyteller @yesireadbooks @maewrites13 @briannaswords @enne-uni @another-white-void @pinkchaosart @clearcloudlesssky @unmellowyellowfellow @aloeverawrites @amostdelectablescribbler @anulithots @shadow-of-tea-and-tea @regsswimminglessons @stanrendipity @inluvwithremuslupin @waiting-down-the-hall-for-me @gay-for-zoya @rainsleeper @leaskisses444 @scatteredraysofhope + LITERALLY EVERYONE ELSEEEE ADJFAKDJFAKJHF

#<333333333 #33333333 #so many hearts #i have no words #🥹#my heart 🥹#200!#can u beleive it!!#fugflfusagfluah #ok im gonna go now its 1:30 am and i need sleep

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ltwilliammowett · 2 months

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The Legend of the Princess Augusta or the Palatine Ship

The legend goes back to the historic shipwreck of the Princess Augusta at Block Island in 1738. The ship is known from several contemporary accounts and from statements made by the surviving crew after the sinking, which were discovered in 1925 and reprinted in 1939. The British merchant ship Augusta sailed from Rotterdam in August 1738 under Captain George Long and a crew of fourteen, carrying 240 immigrants to the English colonies in America. The passengers were German Palatines who came from the Palatinate, which is why the ship was referred to as the "Palatine Ship" in contemporary documents, which explains the later confusion about the name. The ship was on its way to Philadelphia, from where the passengers were possibly travelling to a German-owned settlement on the James River in Virginia.

The Burning Ship, by Albert Bierstadt 1869

The Princess Augusta's voyage was ill-fated: The water supply was contaminated, causing a "fever and flux disease" that killed 200 passengers and half the crew, including Captain Long. First Officer Andrew Brook took command when severe storms forced the ship off course to the north, where the survivors were exposed to extreme weather conditions and dwindling supplies for three months. According to the crew, Brook forced the passengers to pay for the remaining rations. Apparently he tried different routes to Rhode Island and Philadelphia, but the storms drove the damaged and leaking Augusta to Block Island. She ran aground in a snowstorm at Sandy Point at the northernmost end of the island at 2 p.m. on 27 December 1738.

According to reports, Brook rowed to shore with the entire crew and abandoned the passengers on board. The Block Islanders apparently did what they could to help. They convinced Brook to let the passengers disembark the next day, and later retrieved their belongings when he left them on board. They also buried about 20 people who died after the shipwreck; the Block Island Historical Society erected a memorial plaque at the site of the "Palatine Graves" in 1947.

The authorities took statements from the crew, but what happened afterwards is unclear. Apparently the crew was not charged for their actions, and they and most of the surviving passengers made it to the mainland, from where little is known about them. Two survivors remained on Block Island and settled there. Most reports indicate that the ship was deemed unsalvageable and was forced out to sea to sink. It may have been set on fire to sink it. According to some reports, a woman, sometimes referred to as Mary Van Der Line, was driven mad by her suffering; she was forgotten and sank with the ship, according to these reports. However, no remains of the wreck have ever been found, and there are indications that the Augusta may have been repaired and sent on to Philadelphia.

There is a rich oral tradition of this event, and numerous sightings were reported in the late 18th and 19th centuries. The legend was immortalised by the poet John Greenleaf Whittier in "The Palatine", which faithfully reproduces the traditional story in verse. Which gave the Legend it's name. On Saturdays between Christmas and New Year's Eve, locals still sporadically report seeing a burning ship pass by. Folklorist Michael Bell, investigating the legend, found that almost a year after the incident, two versions of the night's events were circulated.

The Palatine Graves

The Block Islanders insisted that their citizens had made a valiant attempt to rescue the crew, while the New England mainlanders suspected the islanders of having lured the ship to them in order to seize their cargo. Both legends agreed that a female passenger had refused to abandon ship when it sank, and those who claim to have witnessed her reappearance say that her screams were heard from the ship.

Today, a plaque at the Mohegan Bluffs where the ship is said to have run aground reads: Palatine Graves - 1738. Some claim that those who died that night are buried underground. However, Charlotte Taylor of the Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission has stated that no physical evidence has ever been found to support either this claim or the legend itself.

#naval history #naval mythology #princess augusta #palatine light #ghost ship #18th century #19th century #20th century #age of sail #age of steam

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portraitsofsaints · 10 months

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Saint Kateri Tekawitha

1656-1680

Feast Day: July 14

Patroness: Ecologists, Native Americans

Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, known as Lily of the Mohawks was an Algonquin–Mohawk virgin. Born in Auriesville (now part of New York), she was orphaned during a smallpox epidemic, which left her with a scarred face and impaired eyesight. In 1676 she was converted and baptized by Father Jacques de Lamberville, a Jesuit missionary. Shunned by her tribe for her faith, she escaped through 200 miles of wilderness to the Christian Native American village of Sault-Sainte-Marie. Kateri was known for her spirituality and austere lifestyle. Various miracles and supernatural events are attributed to her intercession.

Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase here: (website)

#St Kateria Tekawitha #Catholic Native American #catholic saints #artist on tumblr #ecoliving

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toaster-trash · 10 months

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did I hear Frankenstein comic

*insert drum roll*

Oui Oui Oui that you did (haHAhahah save me)

For anyone who doesn’t know, I do have a work in progress comic adaptation of Frankenstein, all In The Works. Completely by me. (🎶Save me pleeeaase 🎶)

Alright, what are the specifics?

Like I said, it’s going to be a comic adaptation of Mary Shelley’s novel by yours truly, but just with a lot more of my own interpretation of events and characters and the pacing messed around with a bit. Apart from that shenanigans, I will be doing my absolute best not to contradict anything in canon. Basically, it’s mostly a fun passion project of “how would I expand on this story if I got to tell it 200 years later?”

Sounds cool, when can I read it?

I haven’t decided on the platform I’ll be posting on, but I’ll post about it the moment I do. And I’ll just be posting it in chapters as I complete them, and again, I’ll make sure to notify people when I upload them! I’m currently working on drafting and completing the first few pages, as well as working on character designs in more depth and drafting notes and scripts for later scenes and plot points.

All the stuff I’ve posted related to it is under #the modern prometheus comic, so any other information I’ll mention later or forgot to mention here will be under that.

(I’m sorry I immediately grabbed your ask for the self promo my bad)

#gothic lit #classic literature #gothic literature #goth lit #classic lit #frankenstein #frankenstein weekly #frankenstein or the modern prometheus #the modern prometheus comic

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wrishwrosh · 3 months

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the vaster wilds has the typical goodreads problem of all the negative reviews just being “this book was gross and sad and nothing happened :((“ “the prose was stylized and hard to understand”” but as a gross sad stylized prose enjoyer these critiques do not get to the MEAT of all the evils herein present

- the problem of the enlightened protagonist, where a character who has nominally lived in the real historical past until the book begins and yet somehow manages to individually develop a 21st century twitter-educated perspective on colonialism, god, and nature. classic groffism nothing new

- remember that tweet about how hiking is a bourgeois affectation and indigenous people never hiked before colonization. imagine if that was the premise of an entire novel. written by somebody who went to amherst

- another classic groffism is taking a real historical figure about whom almost nothing is known and constructing a history for them that can’t technically be ruled out as impossible given the dearth of records but IS ahistorical, implausible, and kind of stupid while also making sure that the one thing that is concretely known about this person is weirdly and smugly deemphasized in the narrative. in this case the historical figure is “jane” the anonymous teenage girl whose remains were found at jamestown exhibiting signs of butchering. the cannibalism is treated as a twist ending which is dumb as hell and made the pacing insanely frustrating as this was obvious from the beginning to any true jamestownheads in the audience. also the cannibalism of a young woman seems like an obvious place of exploration for a novel nominally about the exigencies of subsistence survival and how hard it was to be a girl in the dark ages before second wave feminism but what do i know. obviously you should just kind of shoehorn it in as a gotcha in the last 20 pages serving as the millionth indication that the bad guys in this narrative are bad and do bad things

- speaking of the bad guys every single character aside from the narrator is a one dimensional paper doll present to essentially speak one of groffs points directly into camera and then vanish in a way that literally made me laugh out loud several times. Some Women Are Vain, Which Is Bad. Some Men Hurt Women And Native People For Fun, Which Is Evil.

- there was a stylistic decision made to not capitalize proper nouns which sure. it makes sense with what the book is trying to do to not capitalize god or english or powhatan. but then it was so inconsistently applied like why is atlantic (ocean) not capitalized but James (river) is. why is god lowercase but Sunday is uppercase. why are all the names capitalized but titles that function as names arent. stop the madness

- a personal nitpick now but i have spent a lot of time kicking around in the area where the book is set and was hoping at least there would be some evocative descriptions of this place that i love. and yet in this book nominally about wilderness there was so little specificity in the depiction of it! this could have been any forest! the specific natural setting did not feel like a tidewater forest! feels like groff wrote it based on a google search of pamunkey traditional lifestyles and a glance at a topographic map

- cant even get into all the reductive and underresearched gender stuff but know it’s there. classic groffism

- finally and most minimally yet perhaps most egregiously groff has yet again failed to internalize a religious worldview in order to write a religious character. this narrator is a change from marie in matrix as we are sternly informed on page 4 that she believes what she has been told about christianity. like once every 20 pages groff remembers that and has her pray or something and then once she has been away from her culture for about 200 pages she realizes god is a lie and that’s the arc. cool!

- why bother! why bother with this setting, this character, this real place and real historical event and real belief system, if you arent going to USE any of it. this should have been a zine about climate change. it should have been like six tweets. if it needed to be fiction (and im not convinced it did) it should have been a contemporary novel and like three things could have been changed. why! bother!

in summary, i went so insane that i googled every single person mentioned in the acknowledgements to see how many were historians or archaeologists or librarians or ecologists or associates of the pamunkey tribe or anyone else who might be assumed to have expertise here and there was: one. illustrative i think!!!!

#ok NO more groff we have freed ourselves from the curse of groff #i could keep and another thinging myself to death here but i will show restraint #last groff book i read i blacked out for a week and when i came to i found a 20 slide powerpoint/screed #bravely limiting myself to a tumblr post this time #histfic #long post #i have to go lie down

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scotianostra · 4 months

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January 9th 1811 saw the very first women’s golf tournament at Musselburgh.

It always puzzles me how, even though they had women’s golf tournaments over 200 years ago, it took nearby club at Muirfield, The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers 228 years to allow Women members.

Anyway on with the story at hand, Mary, Queen of Scots, is noted by some as the first female to play golf., possibly on the very golf course at Musselburgh where this tournament took place. Mary is credited for creating the term “caddie” which was derived from the word “cadets” used by her when referring to her assistants.

The first recorded golf tournament for women only occurred on January 9th, 1811, it was open to local fishermen's wives of Musselburgh and Fisherrow, a neighboring town. The event was organized by the Musselburgh Golf Club and took place on their eighteen hole pitch and putt course. The prize for the winner was a creel and a shawl, with the runner up receiving two handkerchiefs from Barcelona. The event was won by the 'charming Sally’, though other than her first name, her identity is not known.

In 1843 the St Andrews Golf Club was formed in Scotland. Later in 1867 the very first women’s golf club was formed, which was initially formed as The Ladies Club of St Andrews. The club later became known as the St Andrews Ladies Putting Club and is currently known as The Ladies Putting Club of St Andrews. After initial struggles to gain members the club grew to 500 members after its first 19 years.

Women’s golf nowadays is big business, especially in the US, where according to a recent report is increasing the overall prize money payout of its signature women’s championship from $5.5 million in 2021 in 2024 a schedule $116 million in prize money is on offer with a record 10 regular tournaments offering at least $3 million. It's still way short of the men's game though, the USPGA tournament alone had a prize fund last year of $17.5 million, the winner picked up $3.15 million.

#scotland #scottish #history #golf #sporting history

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hueynomure · 2 months

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WIP Reblog Game

Thank you @coffeebanana for the tag! I'm not one for very long fics and/or starting posting plotty stuff if I don't already have most of the fic written out (too high of a chance of having to correct/retcon shit) so I'm adding fics that only live in my WIP folder lol

List the titles your top five priorities for WIP updates (link your fics for new readers!)

An upcoming scene, event, or detail in each fic that you’re looking forward to writing

Bonus: make a poll for your followers to vote on which top 5 WIP they are most excited to see an update on!

Then tag 10 writer friends!

WIP TITLES

Are Hexagon Square Dances a Thing?: Born as a LoveyWeek entry, I got stuck on the very last chapter fml

Uncovering, Unraveling (working title): Imagine Marinette had accidentally outed her Loveybug identity (as in Woven In) to Cat Walker in the (Un)Suited plotline... basically Farewell Gifts but make it smut lol

The Merits of Bagging a Hero (working title): Adrien and Marinette are invited at Alya's and Nino's place for their usual wine&dine night. Everything is going fine, Mari being flustered and Adrien being oblivious as usual - until Alya brings out the topic of hero-specific free passes and the two become inexplicably passionate about who would be the best hero lay between Ladybug and Chat Noir...

Poker Face: Loveybug AU, Cat Walker angst

Heart(s) on Her Sleeve: Companion piece for Poker Face, Loveybug's side of the angst

UPCOMING

Tbqh the biggest motivation for getting this done is getting it over with, which is probably why I've been having so much trouble tackling it lol. I'll just say that I initially intended it to end with platonic Mariwalker buuuuut there may be some smooching hehe

Turns out I'm a SUCKER for scenarios where Cat Walker learns Marinette is Loveybug lol I will have a lot of fun writing the surprise conversation (won't go too much into details bc spoilers) they'll have about his feelings... with Adrien still inside Marinette, both of them deliberately avoiding addressing the fact or doing anything at all abt it lol

This will be 200% crack and I will have SO MUCH FUN writing the most batshit stuff I can come up with. Alya, ever the shit-stirrer, figures out Adrien is Chat Noir halfway through the conversation and spends the rest of the fic basically eating popcorn and fanning that trashfire of a debate lol

Chat Noir is a necessary outlet for Adrien. When Cat Walker has to pick up Loveybug's slack, his energies and enthusiasm are slowly but surely drain until the only reason he dons his mask, the only reason he gets out of bed, is Loveybug's unrestrained and unconditional affection. This can't last - and yet, it's his duty to carry the weight and not let anything show. I'm gonna enjoy writing the pressure building >:3c

There's one phrase to describe Loveybug!Marinette: bracing for punishment. She's too raw with all the Loveybug intensity, she just CAN'T turn into Ladybug, so she just keeps pouring her heart out knowing that at some point, somehow, she will be horrifically punished for it. Just like with Kim. Just like every time she tried to confess to Adrien. But as a hero, the consequences of her mistakes could be... she doesn't want to think about it. She keeps her head low and prepares for the worst, dreading and longing the moment when she'll be forced to wear Loveybug's lovestruck smile again.

Anyone I would have thought to tag Kayla has already tagged, with the excellent exception of @asukiess, so I won't be tagging anybody else! Feel free to join in the fun and consider this a soft tag if you (yes YOU reading this rn) want to tho :3

#wip reblog game

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batboyblog · 6 months

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A Call for Empathy for Innocent Israelis

Open Letter: A Call for Empathy for Innocent Israelis

OCTOBER 19, 2023

To the Editor: Every Tisha B’av, the national day of communal mourning, Jews read liturgy recounting the horrors of our slaughtered ancestors throughout history and around the world. Every year, our blood runs cold rereading accounts of those nightmares. This year those nightmares became real. Earlier this month, the slaughter in southern Israel has matched the brutality of that liturgy: 1,400 people murdered at a concert, in their cars, in their homes, and nearly 200 taken as hostages. These are scenes we never thought we would see. We are heartbroken and disgusted by the shocking lack of empathy on much of the self-professed global left for the innocent Israelis who were murdered and kidnapped, and for the Jews in the diaspora who watched helplessly around the world as the most catastrophic slaughter in our history since the Holocaust was perpetrated. For much of the left, however, this was “resistance.” Furthermore, it was “justified,” as if the Jews murdered in their beds and the closets of their own homes somehow deserved to die. Jews and Palestinians have something in common: the dead bodies commentators around the world either pretend to care about or grotesquely dehumanize were once people we loved. The body count only grows. In the wake of Israeli retaliation the number of civilian Gazan deaths approaches 4,000. We can extrapolate from our own pain, and we recognize the despair and horror haunting Palestinians in and outside of Gaza. Grief should be respected. It would be an expression of gross inhumanity to demand that the Palestinians are only entitled to their grief if they publicly blame the deaths of their loved ones on their leadership. Jews deserve the same respect and the same degree of empathy. The victims in Israel were civilians. They were not “partisans,” merely because they lived within Israel’s borders. Much of the conversation since the dark events of October 7 has focused on distinguishing Hamas “militants” from innocent Palestinians, a distinction that is real and significant. But why does the same distinction not apply to Israel and its people? Why are Jews living in the Jewish state seen as justifiable collateral damage? Those who in any way justify the actions of Hamas should consider the macabre tradition in which their rhetoric falls: the mass murder of innocent Jews in cold blood, justifying this mass murder as necessary policy, and celebrating the bloodthirsty evil that is, that has always been, antisemitism. That tradition reached its apex in the Holocaust, an epochal catastrophe that changed the face of Jewish and world history forever but whose legacy is somehow vanishing by the day. The events of October 7 only underscore how much. Celeste Marcus James McAuley David Grossman Cynthia Ozick Simon Sebag-Montefiore Anita Shapira Leon Wieseltier Simon Schama Michael Walzer Natasha Lehrer Lauren Elkin Robert Alter Etan Nechin Arash Azizi Oksana Forostyna Dexter Filkins Alex Levy Natalie Livingstone David Avrom Bell Elliot Ackerman Anne Sebba Noga Arikha Kati Marton Daphne Merkin Matti Friedman Marie Brenner Elisabeth Zerofsky Names added after publication: Anshel Pfeffer Daniel Mendelsohn Enrique Krauze Nicholas Lemann Ruth Rosengarten Judith Shulevitz

#Israel #Israelis #antisemitism #war crimes #Hamas #humanity

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thebirdandhersong · 7 months

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itinerary for this evening, because I very giddily and gladly flashed my Not Going card for a 200-300 person social event tonight, and finished my homework extra early:

☐ go down to the sea again before it gets dark and listen to the waves (and bring Every Moment Holy and Mary Oliver's Devotions with me!!)

☐ a special good-job-well-done drink >:))) most likely a brown sugar bubble tea, which I have been wanting to try for some time!!

☐ nighttime walk listening to Laufey's new album :)

☐ early sleep!!!

#you don't understand i LOVE having a legitimate reason why i can't attend an event with a bajillion people that i feel guilty about saying #no to without a legitimate reason #i have been to ONE social event today and that's enough for me thankyouverymuch #also!!!!! this is going to be such a fun time :D #idk if i'll do ALL the things because i also want to do the global laufey album listen thing #and nice drinks here (bubble tea/lattes) cost like. 7-10 dollars and i am trying to save money #but we shall see!!!#last year of school log

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shiroselia · 9 months

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Okay since we're now talking about clothing prices and shit, here's my general tips on making money in this game as someone who hit 4 max JS during the western festival due to basically just dailies alone

First: If you don't have time to play, this isn't gonna work, and make peace with that, nobody expects you to get everything you want without spending star coins if you can't play, that might be frustrating but you Will have to live with it, and it's okay to miss out, don't let FOMO ruin your life, if it's an event item it'll come again anyways, it's okay, make peace with missing out

Second: If you don't want to spend star coins, you're gonna have to pick and choose, this is also frustrating but as I said, you're gonna have to, welcome to real life, if you don't wanna spend star coins, you're gonna have to not buy some items, and that's Okay, decide what is most important for you to get and get items in order of how much you want them, Not in order of cheapest to most expensive, cause you wanna save cheaper items for later because those are easier to get, but most importantly, while you have time, make sure you get what you actually want (I say prioritise tack and shirts, because stuff like gloves and shoes just. are not as important, and while it's Nice to have full event sets, it's not at All necessary) I'd also say a good question to ask yourself is what will you actually use, JS grinding for things you're only gonna have in your wardrobe is just. not worth it. So plan and pick and choose and once again don't let FOMO rule your life, it's Okay not to get everything

Okay so here's my general tips for money grinding:

a) You're gonna have to do a champ, 200 JS + 75 JS for the daily champ daily? That's 275 free JS for just doing a champ. And you don't have to win. Just participate. That's a lot of JS and it builds. Actually my generally best money grinding tips is to DO CHAMPS. You don't have to win, but those things Stack Up. You just have to participate, 200 JS is a Lot when you're going for max JS.

b) Silverglade dailies!!! AND ESPECIALLY FRIDAYS. These guys give 70 JS each, and that Builds. It's all about building a stack of JS really. But please do the Silverglade dailies that rotate based on days, and if you're gonna do Any day, Fridays (Vineyard + also a little bit of Goldenhills) are the best.

c) Collect trash for Bonny's daily 80 JS. 15 trash daily isn't that hard, and it's worth it because 80 JS for basically just running around? Good shit.

d) MARY'S LOST ANIMALS. 90 JS per animal? GOOD. You don't even have to do all of them but like. if you wana grind JS, this is where to go.

e) STABLE CHORES. 90 JS per full stable, and we have a lot of stables. Like please do not forget stable chores they're so easy and take no time and they give you a lot of JS. Do stable chores.

f) You have any horses to level? LEVEL THAT HORSE. Leveling is one of the best ways to make money, because 20 JS per race Builds, considering we have like three trillion races. And you'll thank yourself because now you have a horse at lvl 15! And it takes like 2,5 days if you minmaxx and barely over that if you're just like. Hanging about. Like it's fast, if you commit it builds money. Level your horses.

g) Actually if you don't wanna level your horse atleast do the new hillcrest race. That's 75 JS for just finishing it. And you're close to the new hillcrest stable whose stable chores give 150 JS if you remember tip e).

h) Archaeology! Specifically only Epona and specifically only Epona's rare finds. And I think there's a guaranteed rare spawn per area a day so and just getting it gives you 50 JS I think and exchanging those rare finds for items that are Basically made to be sold because it's filler items and ugly clothing Gives you money. Do archaeology.

TLDR: Play the fucking game. If you have the time to play the event, you have time to use the Massive amounts of good JS sources we have. It's gonna be annoying, yes, you're fucked if real life dictates you can't play, but that's just the nature of playing games. And it's not gonna give you Every item, but that's why you don't let FOMO rule your life. Make peace with missing out.

#Hi I heard we're talking economy #sso #ssoblr #Maintagging Ig cause y'know it's useful #Not saying this is the end all be all this is just what I did #Heck I didn't even Do archaeology and it's one of the best quick money grind we Have #And it gave results I didn't use ANY star coins and got like 5 JS items #And it didn't even take me the whole event

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shelleysmary · 2 years

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#austenread22 / persuasion final thoughts

WELL. It’s been an eventful month for this book, hasn’t it? Reading it right after Northanger felt like a nice little bookend, and made it easier to track the evolution of Jane’s writing style over the course of those 14 years. Jane the Author can never help making her presence known, but in Persuasion she becomes mostly invisible and lets Anne take the lead - which is probably why, out of all her canon, those who value the Austen’s wit and momentum find themselves a bit bored by Perusasion’s sedate and more internal tone.

I’ll be discussing points that stood out to me during my reread below the cut.

This is more of a general observation, but something that really jumps out at me is the way Jane opts for plot simplicity in this case, in favor of psychological complexity. Don’t get me wrong - all of her books evince an understanding of human nature, both as individuals and as working parts in a(n upper-middle-class) community. But S&S and P&P juggle the storylines of two sets of sisters, and Emma, as P.D. James pointed out, could have been a detective novel. They are plot-heavy works; the internal goings-on of her characters’ minds must be parsed and funneled through the domestic dramas of Wickhams and Lady Catherines and Mr. and Mrs. Eltons. As readers, we can choose to overlook the nuances and take the storylines at face-value because there is so much there already. This is impossible to do with Persuasion. What actually happens over the course of 200 pages? Anne Elliot’s family is short on money and must let their home to Admiral Croft; they go to Bath, she stays with her younger sister and cousins in Somserset, where she runs into her former fiancé; they visits Lyme; she reunites with her family in Bath, reconnects with her ex, and in the end they get back together. Sure, she has a nefarious suitor - but Mr. Elliot is no George Wickham, and her rival Louisa Musgrove is no Mary Crawford. There are no subplots to hide behind, no ruinous elopements, no potentially disastrous underhanded trickery - we must invest in Anne.

Comparing her works, I’d say Persuasion has the most in common with Mansfield and Northanger Abbey. Though sizable and full of the ups-and-downs which characterize her other, more popular works, Mansfield’s heroine is as internal as Anne - and she is easier to miss because she is reactive as opposed to proactive, dutiful, her will easier to bend in some respects.

As for Northanger, it’s a straight-forward coming-of-age novel, mostly concerned with the changes occurring within its central heroine. We may think of the coming-of-age novel as belonging to adolescents and/or young(er) adults, but I would say Anne is also coming of age during Persuasion. She is no longer young, the door of possibility seems to be closing on her forever, and we find a woman resigned, trying to find contentment with her situation in life. She isn’t old, exactly. But the bloom of her youth has passed, and like Catherine, she finds herself in an in-between - albeit with the wisdom acquired through age and life experience.

Like Northanger, the subplots are kept to a minimum, and like Northanger and Mansfield Park, Anne has (virtually) no independent fortune and so is dependent on the goodwill of others. But she is old enough to moderate that dependency, at least on an emotional level. She gets to place boundaries and abide by them; she gets to choose to whom and what she owes a duty.

Now jumping into the actual meat of the novel... I was reminded of Emma during one of our introductions to Lady Russell. I remember noticing how Emma Woodhouse was raised in the belief that to be loved, she had to be perfect. She had to live up to the ideal of being the leading lady in Highbury. Lady Russell, on the other hand, loves best those who adhere to her counsel. Of Elizabeth, we are told: “She [Lady Russell] had never received from her more than outward attention, nothing beyond the observances of complaisance; had never succeeded in any point which she wanted to carry, against previous inclination.” Unlike Anne, Elizabeth Elliot is too proud to fall under her persuasion, and Captain Wentworth, having no ties of affection, owing nothing to Lady Russell, not sharing her “value for rank and consequence, which blinded her a little to the faults of those who possessed them,” committed, during his courtship of Anne, the cardinal sin of not being deferent. “He was brilliant, he was headstrong,” we are told, and “Lady Russell had little taste for wit, and of anything approaching to imprudence a horror.” This last bit, “imprudence,” comes after a description of Wentworth’s confidence, his belief in his own abilities and his own good luck, his assurance that life will always work out in his favor. These are the qualities, I’m sure, that allow him to rise in rank and fortune, even after being disappointed in love. It is why Admiral Croft and his military friends admire him. It is also why Lady Russell and every Elliot except Anne seems to disdain him.

Sir Walter’s hatred for social climbing is as insufferable as it is hilarious. He has a bone to pick with the Navy, “first, as being the means of bringing persons of obscure birth into undue distinction,” and also because the exposure to the elements turns men ugly.

“He had frequently observed, as he walked [in Bath], that one handsome face would be followed by thirty, or five-and-thirty frights.”

And when he’s informed that Admiral Croft is coming to Bath for his gout, he greets the news with an exclamation that never fails to make me laugh out loud - “Gout and decrepitude!” - when earlier in the novel he had declared Croft the best-looking sailor he had ever come across. If given the choice between becoming dirt poor and losing his title, or losing his hair and giving in to “gout and decrepitude,” I’m honestly unsure as to which, in Sir Walter’s eyes, would constitute the lesser evil.

The subjectivity of perceived motives is constantly at play in the relationship between Wentworth and Anne. She believed herself “prudent, and self-denying” in giving him up, partly for his own good; whereas Wentworth believed “she had given him up to oblige others.” “It had been weakness and timidity,” and as a result, “her power with him was gone for ever.” In conversation, he declares “it is the worst evil of too yielding and indecisive a character, that no influence over it can be depended on.” Here, he displays a rigidity to match Lady Russell’s, except in a different direction, and we can imagine how painful it was for Anne during her original courtship to be caught between these two strong personalities, both having full conviction that they are right and that Anne must relent and see things their way, that choosing one would necessitate giving up the other.

Anne thinks Wentworth must have been “either indifferent or unwilling” to reconcile with her. “Had he wished ever to see her again, he need not have waited till this time.” Which, we later learn is actually true, so she’s not being self-pitying or imagining something which isn’t true. It is, lol. He admits to having been proud and resentful, so I think it’s fair to say that Anne’s perceptive powers are a little (a lot) sharper than his.

One of Persuasion’s most famous lines: “She had been forced into prudence in her youth, she learned romance as she grew older.” I think in my earlier readings I took this to mean that prudence and romance exist in two separate spheres, but this time around I’m inclined to believe that Anne learned to stack romance on top of prudence. It isn’t that she gave up or lessened the degree of her prudence; it’s that maturity taught her that one can be romantic and prudent. It’s the Catherine Morland/Dashwood lesson - one must learn to moderate emotion with reason. Like Elinor, experience has taught Anne the importance of letting her heart lead some of the time, and I imagine the pain of disappointed love has worked in her a softening effect. At the very least, she takes special notice of the dynamics between married and courting couples. “She always watched [the Crofts] as long as she could, delighted to fancy she understood what they might be talking of.” She becomes a voyeur of happy (happier?) families, and this is a result of not having one of her own.

It sets my blood boiling in a Mansfield way reading the way Anne is treated by her father and sisters. After letting Kellynch, Elizabeth agrees that Anne should go to Mary instead of accompanying her and their father because “nobody will want her in Bath.”

“Nobody will want her” seems to be the motto for Anne’s family dynamic, and it’s just so sad finding passages in the novel that illustrate how important it is to Anne to feel useful, how she equates usefulness with a greater chance of being loved. She believes that “to be claimed as a good, though in an improper style, is at least better than being rejected as no good at all.” And really, having her capableness acknowledged is the least anyone can do. At Lyme, immediately after Louisa’s accident, everyone is a mess without her guidance! “Anne, Anne,” cries Charles, “What is to be done next? What, in heaven’s name, is to be done next?” Um, idk guys, maybe call a doctor? In the aftermath Wentworth says “...no one [is] so proper, so capable as Anne,” and “the remembrance of the appeal [that she should stay with and tend to Louisa] remained a pleasure to her, as a proof of friendship, and of deference for her judgment, a great pleasure.”

Anne has been so used to having her opinions overlooked, her worth ground into dust, that being admired for her good sense and judgment among the Uppercross set is like a dreamy Hawaiian vacation. By no means is that party without its faults. But it is such an overdue pleasure, seeing Anne acknowledged, especially after sentences such as these, which are specific to her playing but which I contend apply to Anne in general: “She had never, since the age of fourteen, never since the loss of her dear mother, known the happiness of being listened to, or encouraged by any just appreciation or real taste.”

I think it’s important to really dig into these details about Anne, to really imagine her life as an unwanted member of her family. A lot of Austen’s heroines have to battle this foundation of trauma, actually. Even Elizabeth Bennet is her mother’s least favorite child. They all deal with it in different ways, and Anne’s method for coping sheds so much light on her character, her motivations, the reasoning behind her actions. Consider the way her mind works when she starts associating with the Musgroves: “With the prospect of spending at least two months at Uppercross, it was highly incumbent on her to clothe her imagination, her memory, and all her ideas in as much of Uppercross as possible” in order to “become a not unworthy member” of the party. Anne Elliot has trained herself from a very young age to enter a room and assess the ways to optimize her usefulness. She “clothes” her imagination. She is a chameleon, in her own understated way, and once she is aware of the role she is to play on any given occasion, the role becomes her anchor. It gives her purpose; it bolsters her resolve.

Take, for instance, the occasion when Lady Russell and the Elliots ignore Captain Wentworth at a party: “Elizabeth had turned from him, Lady Russell overlooked him; [Anne’s] nerves were strengthened by these circumstances; she felt that she owed him attention.” And she pays it - she gives Captain Wentworth his due regardless of awkwardness or difficulty or his hot-and-cold demeanor towards her. She identifies her duty, and once it is done, once she has had the reward of discovering that Wentworth doesn’t seem all that cut up over losing Louisa, she “[gives] herself up the demands of the party.”

Anne uses this process of tempering her feelings using her logical mind quite often. She’s a quintessential introvert, requiring time on her own to sort out and make sense of what she’s observed and the emotions that arise in her. She judges Wentworth’s behavior “from her knowledge of his mind.” And of her own, “she ha[s] some feelings which she [is] ashamed to investigate” when she begins to suspect Wentworth’s returning affections. She wants to believe, but she is disturbed that she cannot “understand his present feelings” and trying to make sense of them, imagining what a second chance might look like after thinking that possibility was gone, “occupie[d] and flurried her too much to leave her any power of observation.” She completely overloads, and these are the moments which make us - as readers - want to yell in all caps!!!! If we have invested in Anne, if we have believed in her as a heroine as potentially compelling as a Lizzy or an Emma, this is where that pays off.

Comic relief of the moment: Anne wishing Benwick would moderate his feelings and read less poetry 😂 (Sidebar: what would Marianne Dashwood make of Captain Benwick? 👀)

Want some more clownery? Wentworth inwardly swearing that Anne has no more power over him in the same chapter, in the same page I believe, as this: “Anne Elliot was not out of his thoughts, when he more seriously described the woman he should wish to meet with. ‘A strong mind, with sweetness of manner,’ made the first and the last of the description.”

In actuality, Wentworth has no damned idea what he’s talking about. The concept of strength is also discussed quite a bit in Perusasion, using Anne and Louisa, and to a different extent, William Elliot, as different modalities of strong-mindedness. “I am determined I will” is a line of Louisa’s, and I think it sums up her character quite well. Anne and Mrs Croft consider her fall in Lyme as “the consequence of much thoughtlessness and much imprudence,” and it is very hurtful to Anne to feel herself wanting in Wentworth’s eyes over a matter upon which she believes herself deeply misunderstood. Stubbornness is not strength in Anne’s book. Before his treachery is known, she describes Mr Elliot as “never run away with by spirits or by selfishness, which fancied itself strong feeling.” Clearly, Anne has Louisa in mind when she is thinking this, and on another occasion, she defends Benwick to Admiral Croft when he relates his engagement to Louisa: “She...only meant to oppose the too common idea of spirit and gentleness being incompatible with each other.” Anne knows what people think of her. Here, she reminds of me Jane Eyre, who famously said, “Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain and little, I am soulless and heartless?” Anne has a whole world inside of her, a strong mind and strong feelings, and though, like her playing, she has had to content herself with pleasing only herself, not counting on others to give her love and validation, she would like to be valued. She would like to be loved. And this is why the loss of Wentworth hurts so much, because Wentworth recognized her from the start. He saw her worth; he fell in love with her, not because of her usefulness, but because of who she is as a person. “Once so much to each other! Now nothing!” “...There could have been no two hearts so open, no tastes so similar, no feelings so in unison, no countenances so beloved.”

And so, to win back Anne, Wentworth has to learn “to distinguish between the steadiness of principle and the obstinacy of self-will, between the darings of heedlessness and the resolution of a collected mind.” Anne is not weak. She did not break her engagement because Lady Russell was too strong. Anne broke it because she considered it best. Because her instinct is to do what’s best regardless of the cost. Like Fanny Price, when she is certain of being right, she will withstand all kinds of social displeasure. Anne herself tells us within the narrative that she ended things with Wentworth because the cons outweighed the pros. And then we get to meet her old school friend Mrs Smith and we see with our own two eyes what her future might have been like, how dire is the situation of a woman alone in the world after making the wrong choice of husband. Anne is not a coward, Anne was not being overly cautious. Anne was being prudent, employing that good sense no one of her acquaintance can deny. Is it romantic? Maybe not the way Wentworth sees it. But Wentworth is a man, a man of a particular kind of character. He will never fully understand Anne’s reasons, but Austen herself never doubts them.

Let’s circle back now to one of my favorite Austen Tropes - the dysfunctional family. We’ve already established that the last member of Anne’s family to truly love her was her deceased mother. Her father is a vain snob, and because he is a vain snob, the only daughter he pays attention to is Elizabeth. Elizabeth is beautiful and very much like him, which I’m sure is catnip to a narcissistic personality. The other object of their contempt is Mary, who didn’t marry as well as she could have and is thus unworthy of their attention. Mary is without Anne’s good sense, and so she is often jealous, competitive with her mother-in-law and constantly meddling in Louisa and Henrietta’s prospects. Despite this, I feel quite sorry for Mary and I don’t dislike her, not the way I dislike Elizabeth. Anne serves a big contrast here as well. She observes the marital happiness of the Crofts and the Harvilles; sees the bond of friendship between the admiral, Wentworth, Harville, and Benwick; observes the imperfect but warm contentment of the Musgrove family... and “though she sighed as she rejoiced, her sigh had none of the ill-will of envy in it.” To a number, they are all her inferiors in class and station, yet “how much more interesting to her was the home and friendship of the Harvilles and Captain Benwick, than her own father’s house in Camden Place, or her own sister’s intimacy with Mrs Clay.” She values people for who they are, their character, their treatment of others, and ergo she rejoices in their joy. She doesn’t resent their triumphs. Even when she believes Wentworth’s marriage to Louisa is a done deal, she thinks of Uppercross and imagines it full of “all that was glowing and bright in prosperous love, all that was most unlike Anne Elliot!” Maybe she’s being a little maudlin and self-pitying here, but she never lays the blame on Louisa’s door, never besmirches her as a woman. So, no, Anne is not blind to the follies of others, and she does smile to herself, does remark upon the ridiculousness of her acquaintance, but only in the privacy of her own thoughts, and never to the point of endangering her ability to be civil and proper and all that she ought to be, socially. That isn’t Anne’s way. A woman who has spent her life being subjected to throwaway comments like “Oh, she’s nothing!” knows all too well the power and effect of words.

One of my favorite moments in the novel is when Elizabeth and Sir Walter enter the Musgroves’ room at the inn in Bath and everything goes silent. “Anne felt an instant oppression, and wherever she looked saw symptoms of the same.” Not only does this prove how truly annoying Elizabeth and Sir Walter are, but it’s nice to have Anne’s feelings confirmed by those around her. She isn’t imagining it - her dad and sister are that bad.

Sir Walter is probably the Austen character most concerned with appearances. He spends a lot of lines judging the looks of both men and women, which is why I think it’s no small detail that Anne grows in beauty throughout the course of the plot. Though she’ll never be as attractive as her older sister, we are told that Wentworth once thought her pretty, that he was surprised to see her looks so changed since their last meeting. She goes from looking frail, like a wilted flower past its bloom, to “improved in plumpness and looks.” Regaining hope of Wentworth and the making of new friends - friends who respect and have real affection for her - has done it, and when she becomes certain of Wentworth, when she is sure that his affections still lie with her, “her eyes were bright and her cheeks glowed; but she knew nothing about it.” Her happiness, Austen says, is from within, and it is made of sturdier stuff than mere youth and unlined skin. Even a woman past her bloom may still grow into beauty; all she has to do is find her own definition of happiness. (Meanwhile, the sycophantic Sir Walter and Elizabeth Elliot will always find themselves an oppressive nuisance despite their good looks.)

Now we move into the plot of Mrs Smith, who rightly said, “There is so little real friendship in the world!” In her, we see one of Anne’s possible futures, a future not uncommon for 19th century women who have fallen out of favor through poor widowhood. Unlike the Bateses in Emma, Mrs Smith has no one to help her until Anne, and her situation is truly uncertain. Nevertheless, Anne observes in her an “elasticity of mind” which Anne also possesses - emotional resilience, as a modern psychologist would say. They have a “disposition to be comforted, that power of turning readily from evil to good, and of finding employment which [carries them] out of [themselves].” Even if she hadn’t reunited with Wentworth in the end, I have a feeling Anne would be okay and Mrs Smith would somehow find a way to continue making it through. Their inner strength is consistent, steady, not overtly optimistic, but reliably practical. Still, through Mrs Smith we have the reminder that Anne (and any woman, really) is wise to be cautious in matters of marriage and love.

Interestingly, despite being snobs themselves, Lady Russell and Mr Elliot do not find fault with Anne for maintaining a friendship with Mrs Smith. On the occasion of Anne’s declining a dinner invitation, and being curious as to what transpited in her absence, her “greatest interest must be, in having been very much talked of between her friend [Lady Russell] and Mr Elliot; in having been wished for, regretted, and at the same time honoured for staying away in such a cause.” Again, we see how much Anne wants to be valued. We also see that in the Scale of Snobbery, Elizabeth and her father are on a whole other level. (Or, it could just be Elliot being a scheming sneak.)

On the subject of Elliot being a scheming sneak, Jane Austen never makes us feel we should condemn Anne, or any of her heroines for that matter, for being fond of male attention. Anne is flattered by Mr Elliot’s interest, until he refuses to take a hint. And she does turn over in her mind the prospect of being of use to her family, and of reclaiming her dear mother’s position as mistress of Kellynch Hall. But ultimately these inducements aren’t enough to make her act against her conscience - which is the same thing she did with Wentworth the first time around. The truth is, she knows she can’t trust William, and she knew it before Mrs Smith reveals the truth of his plan to weasel into the Elliots’ lives to ensure Sir Walter wouldn’t marry Mrs Clay. Anne has always “felt that she could so much more depend upon the sincerity of those who sometimes looked or said a careless or a hasty thing, than of those whose presence of mind never varied, whose tongue never slipped.” Austen herself is wary of appearances. All of her villains are outwardly charming, they all hide their bad intentions underneath the kind of facade that is valued by society at large - good looks, flattery, wit. Our human propensity to fall for such trappings is what makes us ignore the value of a Fanny or Anne, what makes us unwilling to unlock the great goodness found in men like Darcy and George Knightley. Anne is such a skilled reader of people that even when she couldn’t pin down what was wrong, she knew something was. She listened to her gut, she was not guided by either Elliot’s persuasions or Lady Russell’s - though she admits that she might have been induced, I choose to believe that Anne would have stuck to her guns.

Austen makes interesting commentary through Anne and Mrs Smith during this discussion of Mr Elliot. Anne says, “In marrying a man indifferent to me, all risk would have been incurred, and all duty violated.” It seems to me that while Jane condemns mercenary marriages, she does acknowledge uneven unions - the love match is the ideal, the purest form of matrimony, but financial considerations mean that in a lot of cases, marriages will occur between people not in love. And it isn’t the not being in love that Austen objects to, it’s the contracting of marriage for the wrong motive, or marriage where one or both parties is being deceitful. In either case, it is the woman who has the most to lose, and so marrying a man indifferent to her would not only be morally wrong to Anne, but it would also put her in the position of most risk.

Before I bring this eternal compilation to a close, I would like to share two more of my favorite bits of dialogue, the first courtesy of our beloved Captain Fred:

“Now I have done,” cried Captain Wentworth. “When once married people begin to attack me with,—’Oh! you will think very differently, when you are married.’ I can only say, ‘No, I shall not;’ and they say again, ‘Yes you will,’ and there is an end of it.”

MOOD.

And another Laugh Out Loud moment, brought to you by Elizabeth Elliot:

“I really cannot be plaguing myself for ever with all the new poems and states of the nation that come out. Lady Russell quite bores one with her new publications. You need not tell her so, but I thought her dress hideous the other night. I used to think she had some taste in dress, but I was ashamed of her at the concert. Something so formal and arrange in her hair! and she sits so upright! My best love, of course.”

....all I can say to that is -