#plotting my emigration

[indignantlemur]

My sleep deprived brain wants me to drum up a AU plotline of Émigré where Dagmar arrives much, much later in the timeline and maybe hanging out on DS9 being, like, an author or something because linguistics was too hard to get a job in such an oversaturated job market and writing doesn't need fancy qualifications anyway.

And maybe she's actually pretty decently successful at writing murder-mysteries and horror, and it gets her a small, dedicated, but slightly unhinged cult following?

Maybe her books under a generic penname are very popular in non-Terran markets, and there's at least one kinda abnormal Cardassian fan who knows entirely too much about her daily schedule and sends her plot suggestions based on his public/military service records.

And there could be Romulans and shenanigans? Maybe? Certainly there are a lot more Romulan characters to work with in canon than there are Andorian...

#Dagmar as a hapless author running from one social disaster to another #Dagmar left unattended on DS9 #Dagmar causing problems mostly on accident #This plot bunny is going to live in my brain rent-free forever now #emigre by indignantlemur

[rassicas]

Return of the Mammalians Log.exe, retranslated

There’s a handful of differences between the ENG and JP version of the secret final Alterna Log, Log.exe. Much of it is fine, but there’s a few things in the localization that I think are...not great. I’ll talk about it at the end I reused some of the wording in the localization that I thought was close enough to the JP, and some of it I rewrote. ok translation under the cut

Return of the Mammalians There were those of humankind who gave up on the desolate Earth. They placed many surviving animals in a cold sleep, put them on a spaceship- the Ark Polaris- and set it off into space. The mission: to search for a new planet to replace the Earth.

The Polaris had a smooth voyage...until it reached the edge of the solar system. It was at that point that debris struck the vessel, damaging its navigation system. The crew was able to turn the ship around and and head back toward Earth, but the effort was in vain-there was not enough fuel to attempt a landing. The Ark Polaris drifted in Earth’s orbit for over 10,000 years.

Eons passed. The once-stable orbit of the Polaris decayed over time until the ship found itself in the inescapable pull of the Earth's gravity. All the humans and animals aboard perished, save one. Bear #03, an experimental subject who had retained consciousness within his cold hibernation, miraculously survived. For 12,000 years he had been thinking, dreaming of the planet he would emigrate to. From this, he gained a very high level of intelligence.

Upon waking, Bear #03 discovers that he had not landed on a new planet at all. He was back on Earth. An Earth dominated by marine life, with not a single mammal in sight.

In the course of his search for a single fellow mammal, Bear #03 used navigational equipment from the wreckage of the Ark Polaris to discover Alterna, located deep within the Crater. Its inhabitants had gone extinct, but upon examining the facilities, he discovered that the thoughts of humanity were burned into the liquid crystals covering the inner walls of Alterna. Thus, Bear #03 repaired Alterna's facilities and began researching the crystals...

This research bore fruit when Bear #03 compounded some of the liquid crystals with his own fur. The experiment created an entirely new substance capable of transforming any living creature into a mammal. As the only surviving mammal, He decided it was his job to restore mammals to the Earth. He aimed to mammalianize all life by using Alterna’s rocket to spread Fuzzy Ooze from the sky.

Bear #03 set out to gather Golden Eggs, indispensable in both the creation of the Fuzzy Ooze and for launching the rocket. For this, he took on the name of Mr. Grizz and founded Grizzco Industries.

Thanks to the assistance of unsuspecting Inklings and Octolings, Bear #03 secured a massive quantity of Golden Eggs. He was ready to take the final steps to set his plan in motion...

My comments:

-The “plotting and dreaming” line bugged the hell out of me, because “plotting” has some connotation of an “evil long term plan”, and Grizz had no motivation to carry out his mammal restoration plan until AFTER he woke up. The JP version is more clear about what he was dreaming about, and it doesn’t sound as evil. -the paragraphs about Grizz discovering Alterna and Fuzzy Ooze are interesting in how they’re a bit different from the ENG version. Not a fan of the “mammalian paradise!” line I thought it sounded kind of like a idiotic cartoon supervillain there. I mean he kind of is and his plan fucking sucks, but the original line makes his motivations sound a bit more reasonable-taken-to-an-insane-extreme rather than just cartoonishly insane. JP Grizz sounds more level-headed and deep in thought. -I invite you to compare the second to last paragraph, as the changes in this part are what inspired me to retranslate this. The localization left out the crucial information that the eggs are rocket fuel, and instead added in some fluff about ORCA being not-so-omniscient that wasn’t present in the original.

#splatoon #splatoon 3 #mr grizz #return of the mammalians #mr. grizz #splatoon translations #rotm

[bettsfic]

goooood morning betts! do you have any advice for developing a better grasp of syntax and comfort with sentence complexity? like, REALLY long sentences. i admire the prose of writers that can enfold clause after clause without sounding structurally repetitive; one of my writing pet peeves is when the same sentence structures are used over and over. a lot of my own sentences tend to be shorter and "to the point", and i think getting better at longer ones would help my prose to be more flexible.

in very loose rhetorical terms, this is called hypotaxis (compared to parataxis). what i would do is pick up Lydia Davis's translation of Swann's Way (Proust), open it up to any random page, and pick a really long, meaty paragraph. read it. read it again. then transcribe it either by handwriting it or typing it out. give yourself the physical sensation of creating the sentences you admire most.

repeat with Woolf, Nabokov, Henry James. any book, any paragraph. you don't even have to read the whole book, in fact it's probably better if you don't, if you read it divorced of the tension of the plot.

i actually did this recently with a passage from The Ambassadors:

“What I hate is myself—when I think that one has to take so much, to be happy, out of the lives of others, and that one isn’t happy even then. One does it to cheat one’s self and to stop one’s mouth—but that’s only at the best for a little. The wretched self is always there, always making one somehow a fresh anxiety. What it comes to is that it’s not, that it’s never, a happiness, any happiness at all, to take. The only safe thing is to give. It’s what plays you least false.” Interesting, touching, strikingly sincere as she let these things come from her, she yet puzzled and troubled him—so fine was the quaver of her quietness. He felt what he had felt before with her, that there was always more behind what she showed, and more and more again behind that. “You know so, at least,” she added, “where you are!” “You ought to know it indeed then; for isn’t what you’ve been giving exactly what has brought us together this way? You’ve been making, as I’ve so fully let you know I’ve felt,” Strether said, “the most precious present I’ve ever seen made, and if you can’t sit down peacefully on that performance you are, no doubt, born to torment yourself. But you ought,” he wound up, “to be easy.”

the first time i did an exercise like this was in a workshop with Claire Messud, who printed out a copy of a single paragraph of Sebald, from The Emigrants i think. and we spent an hour and a half dissecting it word by word. at the time i was irritated by it; i thought it was a pedantic exercise. but it wasn't. it helped me learn how to close read, and i've more or less made a career out of my ability to do that.

for those who don't subvocalize when they read, i think reading aloud is important so you can internalize the rhythm of sentences. if you do subvocalize (most of us who learned to read via phonetics subvocalize when we read, which means we "hear" the words in our heads; those who learned to read without phonetics or before phonetics had been introduced to them can just take the meaning of the words in mental silence), start snapping out the rhythm when you find a good phrase or clause. i mean physically snapping. using the above example, "interesting, touching, strikingly sincere" -- find the emphasis of each word: INteresting, TOUCHing, STRIKingly sinCERE. if you repeat it over and over, it starts to become a song. you can hear the drumbeat in it.

and then you have the alliteration of "quaver of her quietness" and "the most precious present." and the paratactic "that it's not, that it's never, a happiness, any happiness at all, to take." and then there's "the wretched self." i don't have a rhetorical device for why that's such a banger, it just is.

if you transcribe a couple hundred sentences that you really admire, then take the time to comb through them and pick out what's beautiful about them, your writing will definitely improve. it's worth it to develop the habit of close reading everything you find beautiful.

#writing advice #prose #style #voice #rhetoric

[athingofvikings]

Intro Post: Who I Am And What I Write

So this is overdue, but I figure that I should finally get around to it; I have an older, half-finished version... somewhere in my drafts on here, and well... I stopped looking for it and started over, just to give you an idea of how deep in there it's gotten.

So!

Hi, I'm athingofvikings, aka Joe, aka The Evil Authorlord as dubbed by my readers. I've been in fandom for close to 20 years, and for the last seven or so, I've been primarily in the How To Train Your Dragon fandom. I was a substitute teacher in the US, and have since emigrated to Germany, as my spouse is a German national. These days, I'm studying German, trying to decide if I want to try to teach again in the German school system, and trying to get my own writing career off the ground.

As for fandom, my then-fiancee, now-spouse introduced me to the first HTTYD movie during the Parental Introduction Visit in 2016; my first comment after finishing the movie was, "Cute, but not historically accurate."

A month later, I was preparing for NaNoWriMo 2016 when the plot bunny bit down.

"But what if it was historically accurate?"

So that's the core plot concept for my eponymous fanfic, A Thing Of Vikings. I take the first HTTYD film, anachronisms and all, and drop it as a Real Life Event in our history, and proceed to write it as an Alternate History, with the movie being the point where the timelines diverge.

And boy do they diverge, because, in a time when the most advanced military tech on the planet is Greek Fire, a small Norse tribe up in the British Isles suddenly has a fire-breathing air-force.

I do my best to keep to historical accuracy, even as I also borrow judiciously from other fictional media to patch holes in the historical record and add to the narrative as I need them, and since I'm a Leftist and my primary fictional source material is a movie made for children, there's a distinct progressive bent to the story itself, and I make no apologies for that. And since I'm Jewish, I also have a Jewish subplot that has made many people very happy, and made a number of bigots absolutely furious to almost ludicrous extents, which I consider to be a positive on both ends. (There was a period where some reactionaries with a fondness for Alt-History were recommending my story to others of their ilk just to troll them, which, well...)

And, of course...

I explore what would happen if humans suddenly have access to the capabilities of dragons in the context of the medieval era--what flight, the ability to breath fire, shedding fireproof scales, and more--will do to human society... especially as one of the main characters is a certified technical and engineering genius. To say that I have fun with the Mundane Utility aspects is an understatement.

I hope that you're intrigued, and if you are, you can find the fic on AO3 here (currently on lockdown to registered users only; I don't fancy my work being scraped for AI training sets).

#a thing of vikings #httyd fanfiction

[iiyarada]

Okay @hateweasel fine. I will say my thoughts.

Putting this under a cut because it's a LONG post.

Renault has been in Bonnard's house since 7, he says so himself, everybody knows this. He is a victim of Bonnard's grooming just as Gilbert is, he was raised by Bonnard (which is, side note, terrifying to think about!)

It's also commonly known that Renault is the son of a farmer in Southern Italy. In the 1870s, when Renault wouldve been taken by Bonnard, Italy was going through a HUGE Agrarian Crisis, many farmers ended up landless or their plots grew smaller and smaller, causing low income across farming communities throughout Italy. In 1900 many emigrants were actually driven off their own land. Renault's family was dirt poor, RENAULT was dirt poor, and he was taken in by a rich man who gave him a luxurious life even for that of a servant. To a 7 year old, that's everything. Bonnard is not only a father figure (again, terrifying to think about) but is ALSO the man who "saved" Renault from poverty.

On top of that, Renault is canonically described as Bonnard's "favorite disciple" (it says this in an art book), he's complimented and showered with praises by him, he's given attention and is told he's someones favorite, and he has been since 7 years old.

Now for all of that to be taken away because some guy shows up in YOUR house? Suddenly this stranger is the favorite and you're left behind? That's going to hurt! None of this is Gilbert's fault, nor is it Renault's, all of the blame falls on Bonnard. But Renault can't blame Bonnard because, to Renault, he can't be a bad guy, he was that one that saved him! He's not a bad guy, GILBERT is the bad guy here! (He's not, obviously, but Renault has been groomed into the mindset that Bonnard can't do wrong, even though he very much can and very much does).

Okay now, when it comes to this scene! The Renault stabbing scene. I think it's fairly clear that Renault doesn't ACTUALLY want to hurt Gilbert, Gilbert himself says afterward that Renault was scared and that his grip was weak and shakey. The initial thought of stabbing Gilbert with the knife is a thought that Renault DOESN'T want, he wants to get rid of Gilbert, sure, but he doesn't want to hurt him.

He's scared of his own thoughts of hurting Gilbert.

In the actual fight scene between them, Renault puts Gilbert in a chokehold (once again, described by Gilbert as weak and shakey) amd there's some sculpting tool on the ground. Renault's plan is that Gilbert will grab the tool to stab RENAULT in self defense.

In Renault's mind, if HE gets hurt by GILBERT, then Gilbert will have to leave and Renault will get attention from Bonnard again, because he was the one who got hurt. This is a drastic way of thinking but it also makes sense if you're a victim of grooming and believe you're at risk of losing the only person you can trust (Bonnard is not trustworthy at all, please keep in mind that Renault has been manipulated since 7.)

That doesn't work. Obviously. And Gilbert stabs himself in the arm instead, leading Bonnard to believe that Renault really did stab him, which results in Renault being given a bloody nose by Bonnard.

Side Tangent: That scene makes me so so sad not just because it shows how Bonnard is physically abusive to his servants, including the one he deems his "favorite" but also because Renault is still willing to forgive Bonnard afterwards. He still goes out of his way to make sure BONNARD is okay instead of himself even after he was hit by him. It's incredibly sad but also, unfortunately, realistic to how people in similar situations to Renault will act. It's just really sad.

Btw, Bonnard only stops hitting Renault when Gilbert steps in and says thet he was the one who stabbed himself because APPARENTLY one bloody nose wasn't enough.

Renault doesn't hate Gilbert, they actually seem to get along pretty damn well after the stabbing scene. They start planting flowers together and Renault tries to protect Gilbert from Auguste when he shows up, even calling Gilbert a member of the household ("I will not let you take a member of this household by force!"). From the few panels we get to see of Renault and Gilbert's dynamic, WITHOUT Bonnard getting in the way, they act a bit like brothers. (I've made a post on how Renault acts like am older brother before and how he probably picked that hp from his OWN older brothers). We just don't get enough of Renault and Gilbert together for them to actually build upon that relationship, because of course, Bonnard and Auguste get in the way again.

THEY are the villains here, they are the ones that want to hurt people, the ones who made Renault and Gilbert so reliant to the point that they become irrational and scared if their abusers - who happen to be the people that raised them- show signs of leaving.

If the roles were reversed, and Renault was the one to run away and live with Gilbert, and Auguste began doting on Renault and ignoring Gilbert, I 100% believe Gilbert would've reacted in a similar way Renault did. That's why they're parallels to one another.

TL;DR Renault doesn't want to hurt anyone, he just wants to be loved, and the person who "loves" him, just so happens to be an abusive creep who's manipulated Renault in having to rely on him for everything. His actions come from a place of fear, not hatred. Fear of losing his parental figure, fear of losing the place he lives in, fear of losing someone that "loves" him, the fear of losing everything.

This entire rant is kind of messy and I apologize for that, I just wanted to write but I didn't plan in advance I was just winging it, point is:

Renault Agricola I will always defend you 🫡

#I could go on about the implications of Renault being an SA survivor #which i'm 99% sure is the case #and im not just saying that as a random headcanon im saying that as an SA survivor myself #But I was trying to make this post about the stabbing scene specifically #BUT i digress. Maybe I will post that eventually or maybe i will keep it to twitter #Renault is so important to me you guys have no idea #kaze to ki no uta #kazeki #風と木の詩 #renault agricola #muu says shit

[saneijeijei]

If you can't use a minor character for the plot, just create a new one.

Actually, this Cookie appeared because of the need for one of my fanfic-oneshot.

Glace Cookie is a naive girl, pampered by the luxury that her parents surrounded her with. She has lived in the Cream Republic all her life. Her parents are members of the Coffee and Milk clan who emigrated to the Republic from the Dark Cacao Kingdom during the events of Dark Flour.

#cookie run kingdom #crk oc #cookie run kingdom oc #crk #fanart #picture #oc #original character #cookie run #cr kingdom

[danjaley]

The French Revolution from children's perspective - Some historical background

My current plotline is rather strictly dictated by economic considerations: I'm trying to show the French Revolution with the limited cast of a Sims-story. So it was only logic to take the children's perspective, who are kept away from the mass-riots. Now I don't actually know about direct sources about the French Revolution from children's perspective. It would be a great research-topic, but I don't speak enough French for that.

However, I had some great inspo in my PhD project. These are some more works of Christoph von Schmid, whose story The Mute Child I adapted as an autumn-special 2022. He was a catholic priest in rural Germany during the 1790s and when he started writing for children from 1810 onwards, he made the fate of French refugee children one of his main subjects.

I actually researched about that topic before: German priests played a central role in helping French refugees. Lots of them were clergy themselves, and then the village priest was often the only person who spoke any French at all. I do know sources from the clergy's perspective, and some of them sounded really traumatizing.

Schmid's stories are all centred around religion and morality. And he knows better than to confront his young audience with anything downright cruel. In the end, the lost child is always reunited with their family, thanks to their faith and good deeds. On one level, the Revolution provided a perfect background for this, because in Biedermeier times it was much rarer for upper- and middle-class children to get lost. On another level - although Schmid rubs this in comparatively little - there's also the subtle message that trying to abolish monarchy will have dire consequences.

(Title-images digitized by the Bavarian State Library: 1, 2)

In Der Kanarienvogel (The Canary Bird) a family gets separated on their flight. Mother and son end up in Switzerland, father and daughter in Germany, each supposing the other group to be dead. They find each other again because the son teaches the father's self-composed gospel song to a canary bird. The bird gets stolen and sold in Germany where the father and daughter recognize the song.

Ludwig der kleine Auswanderer (Louis the Little Emigrant) is set in a German village where a group of French aristocrats passes through in great haste. They accidentally leave little Louis behind, who gets adopted by a family and tutored by the village-priest. Some villagers are rather xenophobic, and there's a legal squabble over some gold-coins sewn into Louis' jacket. Later he makes himself useful, as war breaks out and there's an injured French soldier to be nursed. Louis, being French can translate for him. In the end Louis' mother finds him again, through hearing about the lawsuit. Everyone gets rewarded or punished for their behaviour.

I also drew some inspiration from Die Himbeeren (The Raspberries), but this doesn't have a good picture to show and may be the most spoilery of the three plots...

* * *

A completely different point is that in my B.A. years I worked for a Jewish museum and helped with research about Jewish children fleeing to Britain. From the British perspective, the Revolution- and Napoleonic wars are often compared to the Second World War, one of the points being the arrival of refugees. Although these were different historical situations, I wanted to show some of the trauma that came with public order turning against one, losing ones home and making a fresh start in a foreign country in wartime. I think that might have been similar to what the French children felt.

#mcc4-1 extras

[filmografo]

series intro - BIRTHPLACE

genre: space opera, sci-fi, litfic (a bit)

status: drafting / “outlining” book 2/3.

pov: third person limited, present tense.

tropes / themes: the unbearable weight of mortality, the terrifying realization of Want, space lesbians, growing up / apart / back, lgbtq+, exes to rivals to whatever it is austrakit are currently, found family, finding oneself, (space) war era, ambiguity, subjectivity, capital p Pining (+ more tba)

summary: After finding out her ex-girlfriend is training a ten men crew for what is essentially a suicide mission to map a planet Earth that’s been left behind, Kit Nikon desperately tries to give her life a new meaning.

tags (more TBA): #: birthplace #[we] have the sun in common

Space station gardens, neon green & blue, roots taking place, the smell of damp earth, bright unflickering lights, starfighters, healing bruises, hands against cold metal, sea water, warm sunshine, home in the valley of someone else’s ribs.

characters:

nalkita “kit” nikon (23 - she/her?) | 🌱

emigrate, novo amor

de selby (part 1), hozier

glossover, afternoon bike ride / lowswimmer

strangers, ethel cain

austra andante (23 - she/her) | 🌊

repeat until death, novo amor

i wouldn’t ask you, clairo

the end of love, florence + the machine

there’s nothing left for you, mitski

excerpt:

To know something is to be in constant battle with it: the plaguing of a garden, trying to disinfect a never-healing wound. Being near Austra, hands dripping with blood that never belonged to either of their bodies, means Nalkita has to fight against her own humanity, fight against desire. Close up her throat so the words I wish you would, Lieutenant don’t come out, raw and real. Kit understands so little about herself and knows Austra so much — the feeling of her expressive eyebrows against a fingertip, the weight of every responsibility she carries. Who is she to add another sandbag to Austra’s already aching shoulders but a soldier, a sinning one, at that? Refusing to give up on something that was never hers to begin with.

rambles / more about the series under the cut! :D

this was born from a fanfic/short story i wrote 2 years ago when i wasn’t ready to face what came after the events of what is now book 1 of the birthplace series. i took inspiration from novo amor’s birthplace album, which re-enlightened me about the meaning of “home”. i still hold it extremely close to my heart and will forever.

for book 1 of this, “astro-garden”, the journey kit goes on is extremely personal, quite lonely, quite difficult. titles never meant something to her until austra got one. there’s not much i can say except kit is a firecracker of a person and she’s going to need a lot of luck (she’s strong, she’ll manage)!

book 2 “roots in infertile soil” is as chaotic as i can possibly make a book. there’s more pining (for reasons...), more action, more drama... the characters are all a joy to write and flesh out, and the mercury ii crew are the type of found family that i’ve always loved to read about <3 i’ll introduce each and every one of them with tags in the near future so stay tuned for that!!! :)

book 3 is still in its early earlyyy development stages but hopefully i’ll have something cool to say about it sooner rather than later !

feel free to ask me about anything birthplace-related seeing as this is the only project i am currently (actively) working on!!! i would love love loooove to chat more about secondary characters, locations (the spaceships are Alive), discuss the plot / themes more in depth, etc!

i will be making a taglist with everyone who wants to get updates from this (i'll post more abt that later!) so send me an ask if you’d like to join it :D !

thank you for reading this (kinda long?) intro post for my silly little still unwritten novels hehe! i hope to hear more from u soon

#: birthplace #austra #nalkita #writing wip #wip intro #my writing #writeblr #writerblr #scifi #space opera #lesbian #woooo its here!!!! #will likely be talking abt this series for a long time #cuz im a slow writer!!!! #but!!!!! #i am soooo excited to tell everyone everything abt it #excited to reenter the writing community on here <3 #i love them.. little lesbians #austrakit #[we] have the sun in common

[boo-cool-robot]

Everything I Watched This Year

I have watched the most movies this year of my life, which is still so few that I can fit them all into one tumblr post, so here they are in approximately chronological order (along with TV shows). I almost exclusively watch visual media with other people, and they're often the ones picking. Favorites get an asterisk (*), and this does not include rewatches.

*Fallen Angels (Wong Kar-Wai): Five loosely connected lonely people chase imagined versions of each other around the Hong Kong nightscape. I didn't go into a plotless arthouse film expecting it to be extremely funny, but it is. He Zhiwu (my new tumblr icon!) deserves to be up there among the deranged autistic blorbos of all time.

What We Do in the Shadows (Showrun by Paul Simms and Stefani Robinson) [First half of S4]: If you're on tumblr you probably know the premise already. I was disappointed that after S3, which felt like a build to huge shifts in the characters and status quo, S4 felt like a walkback. Don't remember much else about it other than crying laughing at the sequence where they try to get baby Colin Robinson into private school.

Brokeback Mountain (Ang Lee): Everyone knows what this movie is already. It's well-made and solid, but it wasn't anything that exciting for me. I expected it to be more striking. Love the 70s home production design in that one scene though, and that kiss truly is good.

*Velvet Goldmine (Todd Haynes): A reporter tracks down the truth of a rock star gay affair that sparked his own queer coming of age. Dreamy, gorgeous, and I could not describe the plot scene to scene if you paid me. Just a really lovely film to experience for me, someone who had latent and unnamed transgay feelings as a teenager about the concept of "emo boys kissing."

Phantom of the Paradise (Brian De Palma): Phantom of the Opera-inspired drama about a songwriter getting revenge on the predatory producer that ruined his life. Total delight of a campy melodrama.

Kamikaze Girls (Tetsuya Nakashima): A delinquent and fashion-obsessed scam artist strike up a lesbian-tinged unlikely friendship. This movie is bananas. Way more stylistically experimental than I'd expected--there's a sequence of the protagonist's birth, people just float offscreen sometimes, the townspeople constantly turn to the camera and advertise for the megamart they buy all their clothes from, etc. A really really surprisingly fun watch.

*Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury (Hiroshi Kobayashi and Ryō Andō) [First 6 episodes only]: Optimistic young pilot of a war machine that she may have an illegal psionic connection with goes to space high school and is promptly drawn into political plotting via accidentally getting gay engaged to a corporate heiress. Highly enjoyed the parts of it I saw - great action sequences, fun character drama, and just enough political substance. Not as weird as Utena, which it's inspired by, but can be brutal where necessary. I should watch more!

*In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar Wai): Two Shanghainese emigrants in Hong Kong discover their spouses are cheating and embark on a tragic affair of their own. God, this movie deserves every bit of praise it gets. I gasped out loud multiple times at the gorgeousness of shot compositions. Top notch acting, gorgeous colors. This tends to be a movie pitched as being about a repressed love affair, but it's also a movie about the positionality about being middle class colonial subjects and the relationships they have with the world. This gave me so much to chew on after I watched it.

Happy Together (Wong Kar-Wai): Two Hong Kong expats living in Argentina have a toxic gay relationship trapped in a tiny apartment. This one felt very opaque to me, and it is allegedly an allegory for Hong Kong being returned to Chinese rule after British colonialism, which I absolutely do not have enough background to really get. Wong is a great director though, and I constantly think about the sequence of the main character seeing the abusive ex walk into the club, beat while he finishes his drink, and then he breaks his bottle off and goes in to screams.

Bound (The Wachowskis): A lesbian handyman falls for a woman married to an abusive mobster that they plot to rob. The first 45 minutes were very enjoyable as a lesbian heist film. Unfortunately, once the gunshots started the torture scenes became so stressful for me to watch that I sweated through my shirt. (I also had Covid).

#hey did you know tumblr has a character limit? #because I hit it in this post #long post

[nanowrimo]

Writing Descriptions, Perseverance, and Other Words of Advice from Legendary Authors

One of the best ways to grow as a writer is to learn from others. Today on the blog, Olga Stal has compiled great advice from 4 legendary authors that will hopefully energize your writing spirits and give you new tools and tricks to try!

Octavia Butler–Read Often, Write Often, and Forget Talent

Octavia Butler was a science fiction author and penned many award winning novels, like Kindred, Patternmaster, and more. She is an example of persistence. In childhood she struggled with dyslexia, but that didn’t stop her from becoming a writer. Here are 3 pieces of advice that she recommends to novice authors in this interview.

“I have advice in just a few words. The first, of course, is to read. It’s surprising how many people think they want to be writers but they don’t really like to read books.”

“Write, every day, whether you like it or not. Screw inspiration.”

“Forget about talent, whether or not you have any. Because it doesn’t really matter. I mean, I have a relative who is extremely gifted musically, but chooses not to play music for a living. It is her pleasure, but it is not for a living. And it could have been. She’s gifted; she’s been doing it ever since she was a small child and everyone has always been impressed with her. On the other hand, I don’t feel I have any particular literary talent at all. It was what I wanted to do, and I followed what I wanted to do, as opposed to getting a job doing something that would make more money, which would make me miserable. This is the advice that I generally give to people who are thinking about becoming writers. It’s certainly not a matter of sitting there and having things fall from the sky.”

Agatha Christie–Writing Gripping Mystery, Writing Descriptions, and Removing Distractions

Secondly, I’ll talk about the queen of mysteries, Agatha Christie, author of the famous Murder on The Orient Express. Her detectives fascinate me because it's hard to guess who the killer is.

How did Agatha create her novels? Work on the novel began with the development of intrigue. Then she inscribed the crime in the interior (in an apartment, house, plane or train), then a detective was connected, then the investigation proceeded in a logical direction. Agatha clearly planned her works down to the smallest detail. Dialogues, interiors, landscapes, descriptions were carefully and meticulously laid out. When she sat down to write, she used the "closed door" technique, leaving all worries and distractions to fully immerse herself in her book. 

If you are looking for a great example of precise and vivid descriptions, pick up an Agatha Christie book and take notes on how she does it! Also try the closed door technique and see if it works for you.

Milan Kundera–Writing With Purpose and Philosophy 

Milan Kundera is the author of many novels, one being The Unbearable Lightness of Being. In my opinion, Kundera is an example of human resilience. When he was 39, Soviet troops occupied the Czech Republic. His life collapsed. He survived the occupation and emigration. At 46, he had to start all over again. And he started. 

While reading his novels, I noticed a few moments.

Notably, his characters are philosophical. Each of them are driven by their ideological beliefs, and think deeply about the philosophical implications of their actions. Kundera doesn’t describe the human body as a perfect, unattainable ideal. The character’s body may have some shortcomings, but the hero does not see those imperfections as inhibiting, limiting, or disappointing. 

In his "The Art of the Novel" Milan Kundera outlined several interesting positions:

The writer must show not what he feels;

The plot should revolve around the central theme;

History and philosophy should be presented in doses, to understand the characters and the logic of their actions.

The character should be endowed with a worldview; 

It is necessary to write concisely, immediately throw the reader into the story and characters, so that the reader immediately understands the essence of the novel;

Write to survive a moment of ecstasy. 

Louise May Alcott–Success When Least Expected

Louise May Alcott is the author of perhaps one of the most iconic novels in Western Literature: Little Women. From the age of seven she kept a diary, where she wrote down about her feelings, impressions, ideas. She kept them, later reread them, found interesting moments, and recycled them in novels and stories. In her early career, she wrote spicy novels to make a living, though she condemned it later on.

Alcott was actually reluctant to write Little Women. She didn't think it was a great idea. She was surprised by its success and critical acclaim. This is a great lesson on believing that what we want may come when we least expect it. Therefore, writers, don’t give up!

As for Alcott's craft, she created interesting, distinct characters. Each of them has its own characteristics, preferences, hobbies, thoughts. They aren’t confused with each other, each of them has a bright persona. She pays a lot of attention to each character. Moreover, women in her works are depicted as strong and creative personalities. Also in her novels, Alcott realistically depicts life. 

Olga Stal is from Ukraine. She loves writing novels, reading and creating something new.  She runs a blog on Instagram (@olga_stal_ ), where she writes reviews of books, shares her writing experience, and talks about Ukrainian culture, art, history, prominent figures.  She also writes articles for various projects.

#nanowrimo #writing advice #am writing #by nano guest #olga stal #descriptions

[tankgotstuckinthecircusgate]

for the art ask thingy you reblogged, mayhaps 8, 12, and 17? (don't feel pressured to do them all)

ty for question! there will be a lot of text below bc i like to talk about my art or myself😭 i'm an egocentric😭

8. What do you like most about your own work? It's hard to say, because i criticize myself a lot or treat my art like idkkk things i have to do while i'm still alive?? like creating (anything) is literally the meaning of my life so my work to me it's kinda like a "vacuum the apartment" item in to-do list. you vacuum your apartment, delist it, and then forget about it forever but if to think a little deeper it's hmm i like the style in which i’m drawing rn, though i’m still not really happy with it. but this whole styling thing is super hard to me after years of academic art 💀 if im super tired my hands automatically draw something realistic and this really upsets me bc i don't want to draw realistic things :( i don't post many original art here, but i love the sense of freedom it have, that i’ve worked very hard for and still working on it! like replacing "how to do it acceptably?" with "how i want it, how i feel it and how to do it honest" in my mind. honesty and sincerity are the most important things in my life, work, people etc. there are many problems with this now because of the russian laws and autocracy, which has long been more like totalitarianism. i have a hard time saying and doing what i think, constantly having to go around/come up with metaphors/not putting something out there at all, even changing ideas and plots. it disgusts me, i hope i can emigrate in the next two years or so, freedom is a key value for me and ok if to be more abstract, i like the fact that I draw/etc for myself, i.e i create something that i lack in this world. every time it gives me a feeling of satisfaction (though it doesn't last long) that "there! at last I see what i wanted, what i craved to see". i.e actually i work from "i don't like what there's rn, i want to see it differently, I want to do it other way". as if the store didn't have clothes in your size and and you'd have to sew your own

12. Show your favourite drawing from this year

i realize that this question implies one drawing, but idc and will show several instead of just one :^) the first drawing that comes to mind is this! well it's not exactly a drawing ofc but still. it's one of 54 illustrations for the play "the shadow". i love this work very much (text here says "your country is like every country in the world" in different languages, and on the color block the phrase is "it's all so mixed up", it's quotes from the play)

and three more illustrations for the same play! best part of this year in terms of art is probably that i finally got into lettering. although it's not lettering in the classic sense here, like these lettering aren't meant to be readable, i just think the letters are very pretty:^)

and the last one. this fanart turned out to be very important for me! i drew it some time after my diploma and finally for the first time in a long time allowed myself to loosen up and not think about what others will think. thanks to this art i realized in which style i wanna work:^)

17. What inspires you?

almost anything tbh. movies, books, theater, songs, science, news, colors, clothes, people, whatever in personal projects, it's usually a reflection on current events/experiences talking to people and their stories inspire me a lot on a more simple level: music/songs. i believe that any visual composition is music (even Kandinsky wrote about it and he himself considered his abstract works as painted music). So rhythm, intonation in songs and other things inspire me af. i always make playlists for every big project im working. it's not even about the lyrics of the songs, it's about the vibe/mood they give. (i had an exhibition this summer with illustrations for "the shadow" and like i put a disco projector there and made a 6 hours playlist 😭 bc all the illustration were based on music (and i hate exhibition snobbery, pseudo-intellectualism, and in general when people consider themselves superior to others. i also think that looking at pictures without music is boring) aaaaand i'm also inspired by the words themselves? (you can notice in the pictures above, haha). sometimes by the meaning they carry, sometimes just by the way they look. and the letters inspire me bc that, again, is music to me. the rhythm, the plasticity, the contrast. i just love letters ahahh

thanks again for the question and hope it was interesting! have a good day/night/morning/etc ! 💞

#girl when she got a chance to talk about herself: 📢📢📢📢

[indignantlemur]

Writing process question: With a story as long and involved as Emigre, do you have a master plot plan with an idea of where things will go all the way till the end, or are you sort of making it up in sections as you go? Or somewhere in between?

Hello! I started out, some 12 years ago, with a nebulous plot idea and a bunch of characters with a broad idea for an actual story in the background. I knew where I wanted my characters to go, the big scenes I wanted to write, and I had only a vague notion about the ending.

That worked for me for the first little while, but then my computer died and I lost my vague guideline notes. After that I was completely lost and totally disheartened. Regrettably, this coincided with some very unpleasant happenings in my personal life, and ultimately I ended up stopping my writing entirely.

Since returning to writing, I've salvaged all of the plot points I can recall and I've actually sat down and written out a point-for-point roadmap. I've patched as many plot holes as I can with this roadmap, tried to account for all of the characters that have been mentioned even once, and have a very thorough accounting of what happens from now until the end of the story. This has actually been hugely helpful, and I find it a lot more productive than my old, off the cuff method of writing.

So, for example, I'll usually set up something like this:

Bulreeng Taal: Dagmar and Thelen go to the local festival. Mixed results. INCLUDE:

A. First Vrath-Thelen encounter, goes poorly ; "I just wanted to talk to her and walk her home -because I thought she was in danger- and I was an idiot. I forgot how words worked and came off like an ass." B. Differing reactions to Dagmar, nice positive feels and disappointing negative reaction C. Draw from [inspiration 1] and [inspiration 2] for the festival but keep it alien! Figure out colours/themes, traditions, lore! D. Themes of healing and moving on/letting go throughout E. Enemies-to-loves starting vibes? See if it fits. F. Dagmar and Thelen have a conversation about boundaries, Tha’an/Sannev politics, and making an effort. Establish bestie-dom! IMPORTANT SUBPLOT INFO: Plant seeds for Dagmar/Thelen, maybe Vrath/Thelen where applicable but don't break the chapter for it

2. Date with Shral! (NOTE: Same day as BULREENG TAAL.)

A. Shral and Dagmar chat; expand upon dynamic, emphasize themes of calming and settling each other. B. SHRAL LAUGHS. Great maple syrup heist, ridiculousness. C. Constellations and lore! Write up a draft of a creation story, figure out themes and tidbits. Contrast the Star Thief with the Great Maple Syrup heist? Skip if it breaks the flow. D. Dagmar's gear failure - look up details for hypothermia, cold shock, and reactions to sudden, extreme temperature drops. Make it realistic. Gear fails gradually, a little at a time, before abruptly cutting out. E. If it fits, revisit intimacy between Dagmar and Shral. Consider realistic hesitation and reasons for caution - for Dagmar especially. Work with limitations from that perspective. F. Character development point: Shral is more open during intimacy, versus closed off and stoic otherwise. Contrast important! G. Ruin an arbiter's day, drop hints about Shral, make Dagmar oblivious. INCLUDE: yellow flash, identification cards, autopilot. “What’s wrong, Esheth? You look like you’ve seen a sea spirit.” / “I think I pulled over an Am Tal operative for speeding today.” / “...Oh shit.” / “It gets worse.”

The important thing about setting up my notes this way is not to hold them up as hard and fast rules but as guidelines. Sometimes the dialogue I'd like to include doesn't quite work, or the scene progresses more organically if I skip a bit here or leave some exposition for later on.

Currently, I have the entire story mapped out until the end, with two story arcs to complete and a bunch of additional chapters as well for various bits of lead-up, lore, exposition, and development. I also have about a dozen side stories tentatively mapped out in a similar fashion, too!

Cheers, and thanks for the ask! <3

#ask box #writing process #emigre by indignantlemur

[acetonitril]

20 questions for fic writers

Between bouts of scientific sexting, IKEA shopping, and emigration counselling, @urmomsonfire tagged me to do this. Thank you! And let's go.

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

22

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

68,121 with special mention to the fact that I wrote 47,952 of them this year, the rest in the last five

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Currently Top Gun, mostly Tatort before that

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

all in bad taste

the sight of you leaves me weak

(toi et moi) dans la nuit on trouvera

And Everything Is You

chat with you, baby (flirt a little maybe)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Always! One reason being that I think everyone who takes the time to leave a comment at least deserves a thank you. But I also just love the interaction with people in the comment section. I love how people can write entire essays down there and are willing to discuss it all with you and want to hear extra info and thoughts on your fics. I'm doing all this for the interaction, I think.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Nichts unversucht gelassen Dich zu hassen which no, will never have a second part thank you very much

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I don't quite know how to quantify happiness but dare I say big boy, come on 'round? It's the fic with the latest stage in a relationship and basically shows that you can still be happy and sappy even after years of marriage and it's about the changes you experience and accept as you grow old together, which qualifies as happy ending I think.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I can't remember that I ever have.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Me? Smut? Noooo. (The gay kind. The somnophilia kind.)

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I haven't actually written any crossovers and I'm personally not a huge fan of them but there was a time when I was determined to write a Star Trek TOS/Tanz der Vampire crossover. It never worked out because I didn't find the time to do it due to unexpected changes in my life.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I translated one of my fics once but I wouldn't count that. The translation was part of the process and is also really bad.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

throwing A Look in Someone's direction No. I have not.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

If I had to pick one ship for the rest of time than probably Spirk. Maybe Victorian bachelors Holmes and Watson because they're hilariously codependent.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I don't know of that counts but I probably won't ever finish the Nachspiele series (if you care). I'm like 40 episodes behind and don't think I'll ever get back into it enough for me to care.

I also have a Hangster WIP which basically had the concept of telling their story through the years, including their first time and epic breakup and getting back together, through songs Bradley plays to Jake on a bar piano. But there were details I couldn't quite figure out so I abandoned it.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I think I'm good at visualising stuff for myself. I don't know if that translates to my writing/characterisations though. Also overthinking.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

First lines, last lines (or endings in general, knowing when to stop), titles. Plot. Not getting distracted but that's a general problem of mine.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

As in "incorporating dialogues with lines of another language into a fic"? I don't mind it when it's well done and adds to the story but I can't see myself doing it (maybe for the train fic).

19. First fandom you wrote for?

I'm going to take the very easy out here and say Tatort.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

This might surprise some of you but toi et moi! If, and I say IF, the cave fic turns out the way I want it to, that might be a strong contender, too, but it's also just really self indulgent, so.

No idea who has been tagged already but tagging uh @theinsouciantknitter, @perishablealex, @wordsonamission

#tagged

[canmom]

Animation Night 159: Armitage III

Good evening animation devotees! It is once again Sunday, the day of animation.

Apologies for the late start this evening. It’s been tricky to run everything while I’m in Glasgow, but on the other hand, tonight’s subject comes at the suggestion of my wonderful host. Since it’s so late, no lengthy intro today... by my standards, anyway x3

So, 1995 was a big year in anime. Ghost in the Shell happened. The story behind it is fascinating and I barely told any of it back on AN39. Production I.G. had recently come into existence, the synthesis of anime studio I.G. Tatsunoko  and the Headgear collective, which had come together on the Patlabor movies. It managed to bring all its elements together to create a really novel synthesis of all its elements: deeply atmospheric, exceptionally animated, and with enough of the crazy autistic passion of Shirow’s manga shining through to give it a dimension missing in the drier Patlabor movies that came before. It became a reference point for just about anything even vaguely in the vicinity of cyberpunk to come...

And Evangelion happened. The impact of Anno’s unification of psychological drama, body horror, conspiracies and robots is maybe even greater. Even beyond its direct aesthetic influences, or inspiring the word moe, its sekaikei plot became a template for anime stories in all sots of genres. I wrote a bunch about Eva back on AN18, but of course there is so much more to dive into.

Tonight our subject is another cyberpunk robot story from 1995, a project of AIC - veterans of the world of OVAs. They’re behind the invention of hentai anime with Cream Lemon in 1984 (AN69), they made the iconic 80s robot ova Bubblegum Crisis, and at the start of the 1990s, they were the place where The Hakkenden experimented with the devices that would become the core of 90s animation (AN 122).

Armitage III is another cyberpunk robot-focused anime - but when we say cyberpunk it’s in the literary sense too, with overt allusion to Neuromancer. And also Lovecraft. It’s a Pinocchio-type story about the line between robots and humans, set on a Mars colony which has recently discovered the existence of ‘third type’ robots which are superficially identical to humans and gone a bit nuts about it. ‘Armitage’ refers to protagonist Naomi Armitage, one of a duo of cops who are trying to contain the chaos - but Naomi is herself one of these third type androids. There’s some rather wacky gender shit with Earth having a ‘feminist’ society motivating more men emigrate to Mars, and also robot pregnancy which is a subject rarely touched on in these sexy robot stories.

But also it’s mostly a chance to bask in that 90s anime aesthetic. Like its contemporaries, expect something dark and moody and full of fascinating designs and intricate mechanical animations. Character designs are detailed and volumetric, but there’s also an element of the spiky stylisation of e.g. Gunnm, especially as our protagonist starts to take on some upgrades.

Rather than write more, I think I’d best just hurry up and get the ball rolling while it’s still technically Sunday.

Tonight the plan is to show the four episodes of the OVA. They got compiled into a movie (Poly-Matrix) but I hear it is overly compressed and hard to follow. There’s a sequel, Dual-Matrix, but I generally hear it’s not great and since it’s so late, I’m just gonna watch the original OVA.

We’ll be going live in just a minute at twitch.tv/canmom. I’d love to see you there!!

#animation night

[eros-thanatos89]

thinking about gustavo and max

I've been wanting to write a story for Gustavo Fring and Max Arciniega for soooo long, but I can't seem to wrap my head around the when/how/where/what of it...but I just love them so much and want to explore their relationship and history.

I actually really love that canonically we know very little about Gustavo. He is so menacing, especially because we know so little about him. He's a ghost--Hank even reveals that there's no paper trail of him before he emigrated to Mexico. And sure, that could partially be due to bad record keeping during the turbulent time in Chile of Allende being deposed by Pinochet and the unrest and terror of the Pinochet regime. But...I don't think Hank believes that's the only reason; it's far more likely that Gustavo has changed his identity and is fleeing Chile because he is possibly a war criminal, or implicated somehow in Pinochet's crimes. Hector Salamanca mockingly refers to him as "El gran general" when on the phone in the flash back of Marco and Leonel as boys. So presumably Gustavo was a general in Pinochet's army? In which case, he was most likely involved in kidnapping and torturing leftists and supporters of the Allende regime. Which is terrifying to consider.

But we also know that he grew up very poor. And at some point, generated enough wealth to pay Max's way through his education at the university of Santiago. A prestigious military career would be one way to achieve that type of upward mobility. It's hard to know how ruthless Gustavo was before Max's death turned him into the shell of a man whose only motivation is revenge that we meet in canon. But it's likely that he was willing to get his hands dirty as a soldier in order to climb his way up out of poverty. We know enough about him to know that he had a cruel streak even as a child (the coati story) and that he was patient and calculating, even then. So I can imagine that, to him, the ends would justify the means in terms of being part of an awful dictatorship if it guaranteed his advancement and wealth and security for his loved ones.

I just love imagining him when he was younger and less hardened by the world and the loss of Max. It's fun to imagine them happy together and optimistic on their journey to Mexico, before tragedy strikes.

Gustavo does some truly truly awful and reprehensible things (callously sacrificing Nacho and using children in his drug operation to name a few!) that go beyond the scope and necessity of his revenge plot against the Salamancas and the cartel at large. I think by the point we meet him in canon, he's cut out any remaining scraps of "humanity" and kindness and made himself into a cold revenge machine, willing to accept any collateral damage that may occur as a result. I think even he is probably aware that Max would likely hate this thing he's become. But he can't stop; he's invested too much into it, and his hatred and thirst for revenge is the only thing that motivates him to keep breathing.

Which is why his scene with David in Better Call Saul is so devastating! We get a little glimpse there of a softer side of him, and maybe a different path he could have gone down. Maybe even a little echo of the type of happiness and warmth he had in his life with Max.

Ugghhh. They break my heart!!

#gustavo fring #max arciniega #gusmax #breaking bad #meta

[thebestoftragedy]

@euphonetic tumblr ate my response real bad.

16 and 17 from the book ask:

Overhyped: Solito by Javier Zamora. Memoir about emigrating (illegally/harrowingly) as a child from El Salvador to the US. I was assigned it for a class, so I didn’t know it was a big award winner until after I read. Just horribly, horribly written, completely unbelievable as memoir (exact minute details of literally every hour of every day of a weeks-long journey are recounted, and all dialogue is presented as exact quotation, of stuff the author did 20 years ago). Author is obsessed with pissing and sniffing women’s crotch and ass sweat. One of my worst reading experiences in memory.

Surprisingly good: Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente. I had read a novella by her (comfort me with apples) which I enjoyed so I picked up one of her novels. It had a lot of elements that I normally strongly dislike: a super high concept plot; plot spanning several decades of time; and heavy inspiration from fairytales/folklore. But she’s such a stunningly competent writer that she pulls it all off and it was funny and gross and sexy and moving and smart. I want to read a lot more by her (maybe even her licensed Minecraft novel??) to see what other bizarre material she turns into fun and cool books.