#the way peter pan is set in london

[maximumwobblerbanditdonut]

Colin Firth, filming Lockerbie and embodying Dr Jim Swire, 88, in Glasgow as he sported Jim's famous 'Lockerbie: The Truth Must Be Known' badge. 📸 © Wattie Cheung

Sky drama and Peacock “Lockerbie”.

It's not the one original series "Lockerbie," about the 1988 flight disaster. Sky and Peacock began filming in Scotland in February and BBC, Netflix and MGM started programming in March.

The cast members in Lockerbie Colin Firth (The King’s Speech, A Single Man, The Staircase) join Catherine McCormack (Slow Horses, Temple, Lucan) to play Jane Swire opposite Firth’s Dr Jim Swire.

Known as the Lockerbie bombing and the Lockerbie air disaster in the UK, it was described by Scotland's Lord Advocate as the UK's largest criminal inquiry led by the smallest police force in Britain, Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary.

The five-part series, featuring Oscar-winning actor Colin Firth, is based on the tragic Lockerbie terror attack on 21st December 1988 when Pan Am flight 103 from London to New York exploded over the Dumfries and Galloway town, killing all 259 on board and 11 residents.

Colin Firth, will play Dr Jim Swire, a doctor who lost his daughter, Flora, in the 1988 tragedy. Writers also took inspiration from Jim's book, The Lockerbie Bombing: A Father's Search for Justice.

In the wake of the disaster, Dr Jim Swire (Firth), is nominated spokesperson for the UK victims’ families, who have united to demand truth and justice. Travelling across continents and political divides, Jim embarks on a relentless journey that not only jeopardises his stability, family and life, but completely overturns his trust in the justice system. As the truth shifts under Jim’s feet, his view of the world is left forever sullied.

Colin dyed his hair a whitish shade of grey to match Jim's and wore a tartan tie. 📸 © Wattie Cheung

Firth was seen on the set of the new drama in Linlithgow, which will close several roads in the east end and city centre during the filming. Colin was spotted in character and has taken on the role of Jim, 88, the father of one of the 270 victims of the 21st December 1988 Lockerbie bombing.

At the back of Colin's briefcase was a drawing of Jim's daughter, Flora Swire, who was on her way to the US to spend Christmas with her boyfriend when Libyan terrorists blew up the plane.

The real Jim (pictured in 2015) became famous after the bombing for his relentless lobbying towards a solution for the difficulties in bringing suspects in the original bombing to trial 📸 © PA

The series is based on the book The Lockerbie Bombing: A Father’s Search for Justice by Jim Swire and Peter Biddulph – as well as other sources.

Lockerbie bombing, The new drama, Flight 103: Film crew in Linlithgow to work on, have been spotted in Glasgow as filming begins in the city. Road closures are in place as filming kick starts.

A film crew is currently filming in Linlithgow working on a new TV series based on the Lockerbie disaster.

Linlithgow is situated between Edinburgh and Glasgow, to the south of the Firth of Forth and on the edge of Linlithgow Loch. Linlithgow Palace, Stewart residence, birthplace of Mary Queen of Scots, and rest stop between Edinburgh Castle and Stirling Castle.

It had been noticed for its similarity to the original Pan Am Flight 103 which exploded over the town of Dumfries and Galloway, 40 minutes into its flight from London to New York.

@getty Images

Scottish playwright David Harrower (Blackbird, Knives in Hens) is the lead writer. Maryam Hamidi (Vigil) is guest writer on an episode. Additional writing comes from Jim, Kirsten and Naomi Sheridan.

BAFTA Award-winning Otto Bathurst (Peaky Blinders, The Winter King) is lead director. Jim Loach (Save Me) will also direct an episode. Gareth Neame and Nigel Marchant are Executive Producers for Carnival Films. Sam Hoyle is Executive Producer for Sky Studios. Additional Executive Producers include David Harrower, Otto Bathurst, Liz Trubridge, Jim Sheridan, Kirsten Sheridan and Oskar Slingerland.

A true story with an Academy Award®-winning actor Colin Firth not to be missed 📍

#Lockerbie #ColinFirth #DrJimSwire #book #TheLockerbieBombing: AFather'sSearchfor Justice #SKY #Peacok #truestory #bombing #CatherineMcCormack #Linlithgow #Scotland #PanAmflight103 #DumfriesandGalloway #disaster #filming #newdrama #FloraSwire #JaneSwire #series #Libyanterrorists #plane #LockerbieairdisasterintheUK #policeforce

A release date for the series hasn't yet been set.

Posted 6th March 2024

#Youtube

[ageofevermore]

PETER LOSING WENDY

SUMMARY — she was a shadow for so many years, but eventually she found her way back home to you. only, it wasn’t as easy to leave dreykov behind as she expected

WARNINGS — mentions of abuse, mentions of the red room, a complicated hurt/comfort situation but lots of love for yelena

AUTHORS NOTE — no gender or specific pronouns are used for r, so image what you’d like!

After a while, the people we love who we lose begin to feel like shadows. They begin to feel like sunshine on a spring morning. They begin to feel like maybe, just maybe, they were never really there to begin with.

The person she wanted to be lives inside of you. The innocence and the childhood that was stolen from between her fingers like loose threads in a friendship bracelet lived vibrantly across the streets of Ohio. In your home, in your art, in your life, you carried those two sisters around with you like they were shadows stitched to your soul, like Peter Pan in Wendy’s window, like a night of flight across London to an island of eternal youth. Like a shadow, you knew she was there, but you couldn’t touch her, you couldn’t feel her, you couldn’t climb the fence that separated your backyards and watch her nose scrunch in a mischievous grin. All you could do was remember her. Remember macaroni and cheese, remember backbends and swing sets, remember bioluminescence. You never forgot her.

When she knocked on your door, dirt smeared across her cheeks, hair falling into her face and out of the braid that met the middle of her back, rips in her pants, blood on her hands… oh, you’ll never forget the sight of her. It was almost cinematic, flashes of the girl she was and the woman she is now; back and forth the two images crossed over your vision, reminding you that for twenty years she was a shadow. She must’ve been on your front steps for minutes, nervously picking at her cuticles, waiting for you to let her inside– to let her back into your life.

Weeks had passed, and Yelena was only slowly beginning to become acclimated to the world without mind control and abuse. She was timid, silly, a sarcastic wrench in your side at all times. She was so different, but exactly the same in all your favorite ways. She still loved macaroni and cheese, she still loved fireflies and comedy movies. The four year old girl you knew still lived inside her, but there was somebody else to get to know too; somebody else who was just a shadow stitched to Yelena’s side.

You were in the kitchen, cleaning up the remnants of dinner when Yelena came barreling in, dripping wet from the shower she’d taken minutes prior. Her blonde hair had gotten longer since she’d been here– been home, and you wished you could say it suited her well, but even she would disagree. The little girl who had loved her hair, who twisted it into braids and ponytails and colored it with sidewalk chalk to be like her older sister, was now a woman who hide herself in it, who hated braids, and hated ponytails, and cried into your chest about everything that had poisoned the well since her capture.

“Cut my hair.” She didn’t give you anytime to process what she’d requested, turning back to the bathroom where she waited. You threw the rag onto the counter, dragging your damp hands down your pants.

You found her in the bathroom, sitting on the closed toilet seat, staring down a pair of scissors in her hands. She looked to be deep in thought, too far away in her thoughts to hear you approach, so you watched her from the doorway. Leaning against the wooden frame, you crossed your arms over your chest. She was still just a shadow. All the progress she had made, leaps and bounds, had still only resulted in a few moments of clarity. Your poor girl was lost in trying to separate her past and present.

“Lena?” You knocked softly when you watched her wipe a tear from her cheek. She sniffled, standing up from the toilet and offering you the scissors. She avoided your gaze, she avoided your touch. She was sinking deeper and deeper into herself. “You want me to cut it.”

“It makes you beautiful.” She muttered so harshly, her voice didn’t sound like her own. You’d never heard this amount of venom drip from her words, so sharp it felt like a slash against your weakest spot. “It makes you his. It makes you HIS! So he can drag you! So he can- so he can take everything away from you! We are all the same! The same braids, the same clothes! He took everything from me! He took everything!” She collapsed in on herself, crumbling to the floor, but not before you slammed the scissors onto the counter and pulled her into your chest.

“Hey, hey, honey. Honey. Yelena. Look at me. Look at me, there you go.” You ease her into your arms, pressing your back against the cabinets beneath the sink, not bothering to shift away from the handles digging into your back. “Your hair is yours, Yelena. It belongs to you. You belong to you. Do you hear me? Do you hear me, honey?” Your heart was breaking into millions of tiny pieces on the floor of your bathroom, tears falling down your cheeks and tickling your lips but you paid it no attention. The only thing you cared about was Yelena. The only thing you could think about was how she didn’t see herself the way you saw her. Despite it all, she needed you now, she had been strong for so long, for so many cold and lonely months and years. She didn;t need to be strong anymore. You could be strong for her, for as long as she needed. The childhood she never had, the compassion and empathy, the kindness and comfort, you would give it all to her in a heartbeat. You would be the one to finally allow Yelena to be human. To let her have bad days and hard nights, and not let it define her further. “You wanna cut your hair? We can do that. We can do that. But, we can do it for you. We can do it because you have the choice to choose. You have the freedom to do whatever you want.”

“I don’t want to feel his hands on me anymore. I don’t want to remember all of the lives I took.” She wept like a child and you let her. You held her on that bathroom floor for hours, you walked her to bed that night and held her all the way through, you didn’t let her go once. For once, somebody let her be human. For once, you think she saw herself as something more than a Widow.

#yelena belova #yelena belova angst #yelena belova hurt/comfort #yelena belova fluff #black widow #yelena belova x platonic!reader #yelena belova x reader #yelena belova x gender neutral reader #yelena belova x you

[springdandelixn]

Secret Serenade

Loki x F!Reader - University AU

Summary: As you strum your fingers on the guitar and sing your heart out, you’re unaware of how the lyrics begin to bleed into your best friend.

Warnings: Fluff, some curse words here and there, a middle finger is thrown, secret pining,

Another fluffy Loki fic for you all! Comments and thoughts are very much welcome. Some squealing probably. Reblogs are highly appreciated since it will help scatter my story more though your likes will be dear to me as well. I hope you guys enjoy this quick piece 💚 

Unbetaed so may be sloppy but yeah lmao and here’s the song that inspired this fic.

As the sun sets over the horizon, you and your friends begin to gather around Thor and Steve as they build the bonfire.

Summer is almost over the new semester is upon you all. Thor pitched the idea of spending the last week of summer together after he and Loki got back from Asgard. You stayed in New York, telling your parents that you’ll be going home for Thanksgiving instead, and spent your summer reading in advance for your courses for the next semester. 

It was your original plan but Natasha can be very persuasive when she wants to be, dragging you to the beach and going to frat parties. She and Wanda even convinced you to go Upstate with them to support Wanda in meeting Vision’s mom. 

Wanda almost fainted on the car ride and it only made the trip even more exciting. 

The warmth of the fire surrounds you. Keeping the summer breeze at bay as you get cozy on your spot on the blanket. You then turn your head and smile when Loki sits beside you, offering you the open bottle in his hand, taking it, and gulping down a good amount of the chilled alcohol. 

“We never got to catch up when I came back.” He says and you chuckle as you lean against your palms.

“Well, Thor dragged us all the way here since you guys landed.” You grin, nudging your shoulder against his. “Why? You missed me?” You tease and you try your best to tamp down the blush forming on your cheeks when he says, “I missed you even as we were saying goodbye at the dorms.”

You’ve been nursing a crush on Loki since the day Thor introduced him to the group. He moved to New York to attend the same university as his brother after graduating high school in London and spending a year at the University of Westminster. You think it’s because of the accent that got you hooked on him in the first place. You always had a thing for British boys. But as you got to know him better, your crush on him only grew even more. 

He’s quiet. Unlike his brother who is always booming around like he has a megaphone built in his stomach. He usually keeps to himself but eventually gets out of his shell when he has a drink or two. The memory of him cheering by the speakers of Thor’s frat house comes to mind. His first-ever frat party and you saw the wild side of the silent one in your group. 

But it’s your shared love for books that has brought the two of you closer. Immediately designating each other as study buddies when exam week is fast approaching. Meeting in the library or at your dorm, studying for the classes that you both share, and sometimes, he reads to you the poems you have to memorize for your literature course, reciting the rhymes back to him. 

It was when you found out about his love for William Shakespeare. Your heart beating hard against your chest when he would randomly recite stanzas to you and you’d have to guess which one of the famous poet’s works it was. A game you both created to help you in class. You mostly got it right but at times, you would succumb to listening to him instead and admitting defeat. 

You did settle on being his best friend. And you bask in how he treats you compared to the others. Your favorite beverage always on the ready when you both schedule a study session. How he always asks you if you’re going to the party Thor or Steve or Sam is throwing. Even going to a Halloween party last year in matching costumes. You went as Tinkerbell and he as Peter Pan and god you wanted to pounce on him when you showed up at your dorm with his hair dyed red and the green tights hugging him in the right places. 

But still, you kept your feelings at bay. Deciding to not dwell too much on the what-ifs and maybes and enjoying each time you spent with him. You know he would be a great boyfriend, you’ve had a taste of how sweet and doting he can be but overall, he’s an amazing friend and you can’t imagine your life without him by your side. 

“Ayo, Tink!” Sam calls out and you groan at the nickname he’s made for you ever since that Halloween party. “Wanna play us something?” He asks as he holds up a guitar. 

“I didn’t know you play,” Loki says as he looks at you, giving him a wide smile as you take the guitar from Sam, your friends clapping in excitement as they gather closer to the fire. 

“There’s a lot of things you don’t know about me, Loki Odinson.” You chuckle and adjust yourself on the blanket, propping the guitar on your thigh and humming as you think of a song to play. 

Then it hits you. The song you keep listening to when you’re studying with Loki. Blasting in your earbuds as you give him subtle glances, admiring his profile as he focuses on the book in his hand. 

Clearing your throat, you strum on the strings to test them out before setting your fingers on the chords and begin playing your secret song to him.

Kiss me, out of the bearded barley Nightly, beside the green, green grass Swing, swing, swing the spinning step You wear those shoes and I will wear that dress

You smile when your eyes land on Vision and Wanda, his arm around her as he holds her close, her head resting against his shoulder while his head sways along to your song.

You’ve always envied their love but you were one of their biggest fans when it came to their love story. How they both confessed their feelings for each other when Wanda thought Vision was dating Natasha. You were there when it happened. Going completely sober when you heard Wanda drunk crying in front of him while Natasha stood aside and watched, rolling her eyes as she pushed Vision to console your friend. 

Oh, kiss me, beneath the milky twilight Lead me out on the moonlit floor Lift your open hand Strike up the band and make the fireflies dance Silver moon's sparkling So kiss me

You strum your heart away, glancing at your side to see Loki looking at you with an expression of surprise. You nudge him lightly as you continue on the second verse, your eyes focusing on the fire in front of you yet your mind drifting to all the times you sang the song in your head, serenading Loki secretly and hoping the lyrics would bleed into him and kiss you by surprise. 

So kiss me

You sing the final line of the song and give the side of the guitar a light tap. You’re about to hand the guitar back to Sam but yelp in surprise when you feel someone grab your face. The instrument slips from your hold and your eyes grow wide when Loki pulls you into a kiss. 

Is this real? You ask yourself, your heart pounding hard against your chest as he keeps your lips connected. Then you see his eyes open, blinking, confusion surrounding his green orbs and when you feel him slowly pulling away, you grab hold of the neck of his shirt to pull him back, your other hand reaching for his wrist as you slowly move your lips against his. 

A mix of gasps and cheers, even a whistle, echo in your ears but you give them no mind. Your arms move to wrap around Loki’s neck as he wraps his around your waist, pushing yourself closer to him as he deepens the kiss. Your heart almost to the point of bursting as you relish in the feeling of his soft lips and how he easily dominates the kiss, a moan slowly leaning your lips when you part them and welcome his tongue in your cavern. 

“Yo! That’s enough!” You hear Steve call and laugh when someone throws a jacket at the both of you, breaking the kiss only to grab the garment and toss it blindly back at your friends.

“Damn! I didn’t know we were here to watch some live porn.” Sam teases and you raise your middle finger at him, laughing when he raises his back. 

“You owe me fifty, Wilson,” Natasha calls and your eyes widen in surprise at the redhead seated beside you. 

“You were betting this would happen?” You ask, feigning shock. 

“I knew it would happen. It was just a matter of time.” Natasha smirks.

“You guys couldn’t wait til Thanksgiving?” Sam groans as he tosses a bill Natasha’s way, looking curiously at Vision when Sam hands him a hundred.

-

“Since when?” You whisper against Loki’s cheek as he holds you closer to him, sitting on his lap, the world around the both of you forgotten. You don’t have to clarify what you’re asking. You can already sense that Loki knows what it is. 

“Bucky’s frat party.” He answers just as softly, feeling his hand caress the side of your waist. “I was going to ask you out on a date but Vision got me too drunk, saying I needed the liquid courage but I ended up—”

“Throwing up on my shoes.” You giggle and reach over to poke his cheek hard. “I couldn’t get the smell out for a week.” 

“I did offer to buy you a new pair.” He grins and tries to bite the tip of your finger. “How about you?” You feel his hand rest at the base of your neck, pulling you down to have you lean against his shoulder. “Since when?”

“Midterms.” You say with surety. “You were helping me memorize that one Shakespeare poem.” Loki looks at you with wide eyes and you chuckle at how he looks. “What?”

“You mean, if I asked you out during the frat party, you would have said yes?” You shrug your shoulders and laugh when he tries to tickle you, wrapping your hands around his wrists as you try to stop him. “Tell me.” He whines and you nod, grabbing his face and grinning wide.

“I would have said yes even after you threw up on me.” You lean over to give his nose a gentle bite before pressing a chaste kiss on his lips. “I would have said yes even if you didn’t ask me.”

“Then I guess your answer is yes if I ask you to come home with me on Thanksgiving?” He asks. 

“Wrong.” You grin up at him when he looks at you, his eyebrows knitting together. “My answer is no. I’m going home on Thanksgiving.” You hum as you snuggle closer to him, closing your eyes as you bask in the sounds of the waves and the faint chatter of your friends around you. “I promised my parents.”

You feel his chest rumble as he hums, his hand gripping your waist tightly and you gasp when he lays you down on the blanket. You open your eyes and blush when you see him so close to you, the tip of his nose running along the bridge of yours before he places a kiss on the tip. 

“Then I guess your answer is yes if I ask to go home with you on Thanksgiving?” He rephrases his question and you laugh, reaching up to run your fingers through his hair. You already know that this will be your favorite thing to touch on him.

“Yes. A million yeses.” You smile and close your eyes when he leans down to kiss you once more. 

“Jesus Christ, guys!” Sam exclaims and you laugh as Loki pulls away to look at your friend. “If you guys wanna fuck, just do it in the rocks or something. Please.” 

Loki smirks as he looks down at you again, and you press a palm against his face to stop yourself from swooning. “You want to go to the rocks?” He teases. 

You giggle and move to run your hand through his hair once again. “Just kiss me.” You say softly and close your eyes as he presses his lips against yours.

Taglist: @mochie85 @stolenlucifer @michelleleewise @rmoonstoner @muddyorbs @javagirl328 @lucylaufeyson3 @huntress-artemiss​ @ariacraigggg​ @silverfire475​ @lonadane @123forgottherest​ @catalina712 @lokiprompts​

#loki #loki odinson #loki x reader #loki x reader fluff #loki x female reader #loki x you #loki fanfction #loki fanfic #mcu au #coconut bun stories #loki au

[not-wholly-unheroic]

Alright so I considered making this into a nice, long essay-style post but my thoughts aren’t really that organized so I’m just gonna do a sort of bullet point list on some of the little things about Spielberg’s Hook that I absolutely love.

Hook’s Costume & Cabin

Spielberg heard that Hook canonically resembles Charles II and went all out with it! Hoffman’s Hook, more than any other, looks like a gentleman straight out of the 1700s—the glorious red and gold coat, the fancy buckled shoes, the long curled wig tied with with ribbons and bows. The detail that went into his costume is amazing and I love how beautiful it is.

Everything about this Hook is over the top. Like royalty, he refuses to step down from his “throne” above the crew without Smee literally rolling out the red carpet for him. It’s very clear this Hook revels in finery. I mean look at his cabin. The man has not only the standard trappings of any 18th century nobleman’s home but even a miniature model of the island and a dang fireplace!

Is this ridiculous opulence in any way practical for a pirate? Absolutely not. Is it 100% accurate for Hook’s aesthetic and personality? Heck yes!

Neverland Bleeding into Reality

In stories like Peter Pan where there is both a “real world” setting and a magical realm, it’s always fun to look for little Easter eggs tying the two together so the audience is never quite sure how much is real and how much is imaginary. Neverland seeps into life in London in several places in this film. For example, on the plane, the voice that comes over the PA system and announces, “This is your Captain speaking…” is actually Hook himself—Dustin Hoffman.

Then there are some shots like this one, where Tootles, hearing Nana bark in the yard, recognizes that Hook is back. You probably noticed the ship in the bottle which is a replica of the Jolly Roger but did you catch the teddy bear?

Presumably we are looking at John’s top hat and glasses and Michael’s teddy bear from the original trip to Neverland…but if that wasn’t already meta enough, this same teddy bear shows up again later in the burnt out remains of the home underground when Peter is remembering why decided to grow up.

And this one might be a stretch but…early on in the film when we are getting a look at the pirate ship, we see a broom head beside a bottle that Tink is hiding behind.

Later, near the end of the film when Peter wakes up in Kensington Gardens and hears what he believes is Tink’s jingling, we see it’s actually Mr. Smee (Or is it?!) sweeping up some glass bottles that are clinking together.

Play-Acting and the Metaverse

Speaking of meta…this film has so many nods to the original. There’s the opening play with Maggie in the role of young Wendy, the painting of Hook in the dinghy that graces the bedroom wall, the latch on the window in the shape of the iron claw, Granny Wendy reading from the novel, and the whole Great Ormond Street Hospital scene. It’s nuts. (And by that I mean I love the attention to detail.)

But more than that, the entire film is set up like a sort of play. For example, when Peter arrives on the island, he is wrapped up in the sheet/parachute and his first view of Neverland is revealed when he pokes a hole in the sheet with his finger and begins ripping it apart. He’s literally parting the curtain for the audience here.

And everybody in Neverland is playing at being someone they are not. Tink plays dress-up and is very briefly the woman of Peter’s dreams—the woman she wishes she was but knows she really isn’t. Rufio is playing at being a fierce warrior who doesn’t need any parental figure—until he lays dying in Peter’s arms and admits that he wishes he had a father like Pan. And when the wig comes off, Hook—who in his usual attire comes off as an intimidating and dashing pirate captain—is reduced to little more than a pitiful old man who is past his prime.

Even Neverland itself is set up like the background one might see during a set change in a play with a giant compass rose and map lines visible in a flyover shot.

Hook and Pan’s Role Reversal

Another really intriguing aspect of this film to me is the way it totally flips the original on its head. Peter, who in the original is the fun, mischievous boy who steals away the Darling children, has become the workaholic adult who has no time for childish nonsense. That much is rather obvious but what is a bit subtler is that Hook’s role is somewhat reversed too. In most versions of the original, Hook and Mr. Darling are played by the same actor—Hook being a sort of fictionalized counterpart to Wendy’s rather serious and sometimes hotheaded father. Here, Peter has taken on the role of Mr. Darling as the “boring” adult and Hook, after stealing the children, becomes the “fun” father figure—to Jack, at least.

Theme of Belief

Last but not least, there is the theme of “believe hard enough and it will come true.” Much like in the original, flight requires belief for it work and the Lost Boys’ imaginary food is only actually filling if you believe it’s there. But what’s interesting to me here is that it isn’t just positive things that one seems able to believe into existence in this Neverland. For a long time, I thought Hook’s death in this version of the story was a bit of a cop-out. It seemed like having the (long-dead) crocodile come back to end Hook’s life was simply a way for the writers to avoid having Peter get his hands dirty. But then it occurred to me…if belief could brink Tink back from the point of death, why couldn’t it bring back the crocodile? Fear is an incredibly strong emotion that can often make the most rational among us have very strong irrational beliefs… I have now come to the conclusion that, in the moment when Hook heard all the clocks going off, his fear level was so amped up that he actually believed he was going to die the way he always thought he would—gobbled up by the giant ticking crocodile—and in a land of make-believe where anything is possible, that belief was strong enough to bring the crocodile back from the dead just long enough for it to do exactly what the captain expected it to. Ironically—and perhaps sadly—if this is the case, Hoffman’s Hook sealed his own fate.

So…I guess all of that is to say that while Hook may have its flaws, I love the research that went into the film. It’s clear that a lot of love for the original and a lot of effort went into the filmmaking process and that definitely gets some major brownie points from me.

#Captain Hook #captain james hook #james hook #hoffman hook #hook 1991 #captain hook dustin hoffman #steven speilberg #speilberg hook #robin williams

[lover-of-the-starkindler]

Prisoner of Zenda (1979)

Anthony Hope’s novel The Prisoner of Zenda is either the formative influence of the tropes I adore or one that manages to hit the sweet spot of most of them, and I’ve long said that MGM should do a shot for shot remake of their 1930′s version of the story, kind of like a ‘draw it again’ meme because it would be a lovely example of changing cinematography and filmmaking philosophy (and we also have the 1950s version to compare).

After watching the loosely adapted version with Peter Sellers I had a few thoughts, some snarky remarks, appreciation, and a laugh count...

Opening: !!!LANDSCAPE!!! PRETTY! not quite so enthusiastic about the king in the balloon, though, since he’s drinking and presumably about to meet his end. 

YIKE--oh, okay, wine cork through the bag is maybe funny and not the disaster I was envisioning at this point. ....and, nope, not amused by the irony of the actual death.

I’m having flashbacks to The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood; ah-ha, it IS Black Michael (who is a red-head, and not quite as charismatic as Prince John, though that may be a deliberate choice to have Michael overtly tyrannical) and here’s Rupert of Hentzau who is pretty. Pretty annoying, that is, and it seems Black Michael agrees. 

And here are Sapt and Fritz going to retrieve their prince from London... it’s interesting that the prince is expensively dressed, but the count is well dressed. If only the count had chosen his wife with the same care he bestowed on his wardrobe, we wouldn’t have to sit through this flirtation and mayhem in the club. Points to the count for his casual exit of the fountain after leaping in with his clothes on fire; and a point to Sapt for his use of a non-flaming pan and a cuspidor, the exits are the best part of the sequence.

Ah, we meet the cabbie with his uncanny resemblance to the prince. Sapt has a BRILLIANT idea. He and Fritz try to convince the cabbie to come to Ruritania--ooh, an actual laugh for Sapt and Fritz’s improv on the skills of the coachmen they’ve met. Poor Fritz, he’s really not cut out for this. ...and I call that the cabbie is talking about his horse right away; am I supposed to know that so that the dialogue is funnier? Either way, I’ll give it a hah, and kudos to the cabbie for looking after his business partner.

The count is back, and looking snazzy in a morning suit. Pity he runs into the cabbie who has no patience for a duel among gentlemen, and so the count is left without satisfaction. 

OOOOOH Fritz, you are not subtle in setting up the decoy. :/ On the bright side, the cabbie is a nice guy and the people at the station are going to have a lovely favorable impression of their new king. The cabbie is also confused by Fritz’s show of protocol, which is probably good for another hah. 

There’s a moment where Fritz realizes that he may not actually survive the attempt on the decoy’s life, and he swallows and takes his lumps bravely. What a cinnamon roll. Someone get this boy a new job. Or a better king. The cabbie takes the reins and wields his whip like an action hero! (DID RUPERT JUST GET TOSSED IN THE DITCH? HA! TAKE THAT RUPERT!)

SCENERY!!! CASTLE!!! NICE!!! But we have the spoiled prince to contrast with the cabbie and he doesn’t come off well. The staff are mildly confused when they meet the cabbie, and the cabbie is Suspicious and Demands Answers. We have a Discovery that there is Another (half-brother, that is, which explains the resemblance) and a kidnapping which is more cringe than comedy, which is sad because we were doing drama decently. Sapt convinces the cabbie to continue playing decoy.

Rupert taunts/flirts with Antoinette de Maubin. She slaps him. He backs off. Creepily.

OOOOOH Black Michael and Rupert have NICE uniforms for the coronation. And... aw, it’s the count again. And he’s in a snit.

Did we HAVE to mock the clergy? It’s sad, since we have a solemn moment when the cabbie is crowned.

Black Michael: How is this even possible? Rupert what did you do? Rupert: I swear I had nothing to do with this.

Flavia, love, what did you do to your hair? Oh, the 80s. I see. XD

It’s a bit out of place for the cabby to use the orb as a bowling ball, but I’ll grant it a laugh.

Now this is interesting. Zero effort is made to sell a cabbie/Flavia romance, and when she sees the difference between the prince and the cabbie he starts to tell her the truth right then and there and only Sapt’s swift intervention puts it off. And in every other interaction between the two they’re very honest and even kind to one another which is highly refreshing given how petty and cruel the other characters are.

Count: 1 wacky outfit, 1 horrible attempt at murder by croquet ball, 1 misfire. Props for dramatic tension, though?

The prince tries to convince Black Michael to let him go. What a poor little pathetic excuse for a man. Like, I think we were supposed to laugh when the prince rated his butterfly collection higher than the treasury or crown jewels, but, really, that’s just so sad. 

Plans are made for a double or triple cross; the major players meet at an abandoned windmill and, okay, having both sides pick a chicken for their ‘secret signal’ that all is not well is good for a laugh. Sapt and Fritz bumbling around does their characters no favors, alas. The night scenes here are BEAUTIFULLY lit; there are some wide shots that look more color-graded, but if there’s a light source the contrast is lovely. (So is Rupert’s red silk shirt he wears as he defends Zenda against the escape/rescue attempt.) The cabbie gets to call Rupert on his annoying habit, and Rupert grins as if, yes, he knows EXACTLY how much it drives everyone up the wall.

And then Rupert decides to play chaotic evil and switch sides.

YIKE--oh. Black Michael is only pinned to the wall, unharmed, not impaled through the throat. (is it on the viewer or did they really set up those scenes for the letdown/irony of the worst not happening??) Anyway, we have a fight scene that doesn’t hold a candle to a well done sword fight--or even a well done ‘bonk everyone on the head with random objects while other people fight’--and then we have an ending where the prince goes back to his gambling with the count’s wife at his side (poor count--but also, wow does that woman have poor taste) and the cabbie gets to be king and marry Flavia and hey! his horse gets to pull the bridal carriage and the cabbie gets to drive! Happy endings all around!

Or at least, what this movie considers to be happy endings.

#the prisoner of zenda #rabbit trail reviews

[fandom-fae]

okayy so i just finished watching that new disney peter pan remake (“peter pan and wendy”) (also spoiler warning btw-) and honestly. i liked it actually- like the pacing was a bit weird/kinda too fast imo and i’m not a fan of the ending (but to be fair that’s just bc i generally don’t like the ending where the lost boys leave neverland but peter doesn’t so that one isn’t the films fault), but other than that i think it was really good and fairly well made tbh. i would’ve liked some more musical numbers- like the two pirate sea shanties are okay and i don’t wanna complain but damn there’s so much music potential for a story like this tbh. like you could’ve had a song where peter pan actually sings or wendy (im ignoring the lullaby bc i want a song actually about her yk?) or maybe even a duet with them!!!!! i had hope for new music but well meh.

anyway!!! i loved almost all the visuals in the movie and the instrumental background music was really good too! i liked that it was very obviously inspired by the background music of the original tbh!! and i liked the casting tbh, i actually think all the actors did pretty good jobs !!

and the special effects were really good imo! like- not to compare this to the 2003 peter pan movie, but in that older one i always kinda cringed when characters flew around bc i just idk didn’t like how fake it looked- like obviously that’s bc of technical or budget (or both) limitations but still idk- but this time i actually rly liked the way they did the flying for the most part, especially in the scene where they flew to neverland. i also think the set design was really good!!

AND!!!!! i like how literally every aspect (except for the ending lmao) that i disliked in the animated movie was changed- like tinkerbell isn’t blinded by jealousy anymore, the native characters (or well in this case character, since tiger lilly was kinda the only plot relevant one) aren’t such flat caricatures anymore and hook didn’t act so unbelievably ridiculous yk? also i generally just like how well tinkerbell and wendy and tiger lilly got along tbh, because in the older film as we all know they were written in a almost misogynistic way tbh with the way they were reduced to jealousy so much yk? except for wendy kinda but eh. this modern version is SO MUCH BETTER at that, like i don’t think there was any scene where any of the three were really jealous at all unless i missed something lol.

like idk i just like it. it’s definitely different from the original story and from the older movie but not in a necessarily worse way. its similar enough to be familiar and nostalgic but different enough to have its own charme yk? like its no carbon copy and that’s a good thing because it doesn’t try to be and it doesn’t need to be. it humanised almost every character more (even though the pacing again was kinda not ideal lol but it was still enjoyable)!!

i just think it would’ve been good for the movie to have some more transitional scenes or to drag some moments out longer tbh. like there was no moment in my opinion that was really too long, which is good, but there were a few that i think should’ve been longer tbh. it felt not like the movie was rushed but like the viewer was rushed through the plot yk? like there weren’t really any moments to dwell on a situation or to let it sit, except for when wendy was swept onto that beach and when she walked the plank. those two moments were imo well timed. but like especially that scene in james’ peter’s room could’ve handled a few more moments, or the scene before peter left london again when he was talking to wendy yk?

anyway uwu the cinematography was rly well done too imo, and i definitely liked the fight scenes and that scene when they all arrive in neverland :3 and the set design was very good too !!! i also think i liked all the costumes except maybe wendy’s and hook’s jackets cuz like idk, they’re fine but i’m not vibing with them lol. anyway yeah sjdkdjkdjdk- peter pan’s and tinkerbell’s outfits were really good tho imo. and tinkerbell in general was rly good!! idk the actress’ name but she did a great job and whoever did the casting for this whole movie also did great !!!

#af least those sea shanties are kinda bangers lol (at least as far as live action movie music goes) #fandoms #moi #peter pan #peter pan and wendy #disney #movies #idk if that’s actually a tag i use or will use but eh #hab eh den überblick über mein tagging system verloren von daher eig eh egal lul weil i mean was soll’s yk? anywayyyyyzzzz #at* not af lol #i just wish they wouldve changed the ending tbh lolol because like yeah #idk im just not a fan of the idea of all of peter pan’s friends leaving and him STILL going back to neverland. AFTER HE LITERALLY JUST #ADMITTED THAT HE DID MISS HIS MOM AND ALL THAT LIKE BROOOOOO #ugh i wish wendy couldve convinced him :/ #anyway whatever this was WENDY’s movie anyway and she was fine. also i kinda like how hook and pan seemed to get along at the end after that #talk that they had during the last fight bc tbh that’s rly wholesome #and idk i like it #talk to me abt this pls and thx <33 #gakdbdkhdksjjd

[thegirlwhostayedyoung]

She is a young girl from London with a lifelong appreciation for the stories of Peter Pan, a flying boy from the isle of Neverland. Her veneration for these tales manifested in a desire to stay young forever—a dream that was nearly realized when she and her younger brothers, John and Michael, embarked on a fantastical adventure with Peter Pan himself.

Wendy is an English girl living in London during the Edwardian era. Throughout her childhood, she lived with her parents, George and Mary, her younger brothers, John and Michael, and their dog, Nana, who doubled as their nursemaid.

Wendy is an imaginative, mature, and very maternal young lady. She loves to care for John and Michael and often tells the story of Peter Pan. Though her imagination is vivid and praised by them, her storytelling was initially looked down upon by their cantankerous and serious father, George, who found her stories and childlike nature to be immature and ridiculous and voiced his desire to have her abandon her childhood as soon as possible to prepare herself for eventual adulthood. Because of this, she grew a fear of growing up and found comfort in the stories of Peter Pan and Neverland.

Being the eldest child of a middle-class family of the era, Wendy served as a heavy influence on John and Michael, specifically in regards to their love of Peter Pan and his lore. She would regularly tell them stories of his various adventures in the supposedly fictitious island of Neverland, most notably the stories of his battles with the villainous Captain Hook. To most people, he and the stories surrounding him were nothing more than a childish fantasy. To Wendy, John, and Michael, however, the legends of him were all too true, and his stories were used to maintain the fun and whimsy of their childhood.

Nevertheless, upon visiting Neverland for the first time, Wendy ironically found her maturity and motherly instincts surfacing and growing. During her brief time, yet life-changing experience on the island, it became a more prominent part of her character as all the adventurous events unfolded. This led her to finally accepting the fact that she will inevitably become an adult one day. Even so, she didn't allow this revelation to destroy her wondrous imagination.

One night, a shadow came to the nursery window and took her away to Neverland again. She thought it was Pan's but she was wrong. It acted independently. The following morning she returned home after realizing how Neverland wasn't such a happy place anymore. The Shadow also let her return home because it wanted to take a boy instead of a girl. She worries through tears that it will take John or Michael away and she will never see them again. That night, after Mary tucks them in for the night and leaves, they try to prevent it from coming but they are unsuccessful. The shadow is about to kidnap Michael but she tells it to take her instead. It agrees and she left her home forever. After returning to Neverland she became the shadows prisoner. Due to imprisonment on Neverland, Wendy never aged and she never got the chance to grow up.

The years passed and her brothers never gave up on her and looked for a way to set her free. Wendy is eventually freed from Neverland and reunited with her brothers. Together they returned to London, where she's still learning how to act in this modern world.

{~ a mix of all of Wendy's appearances and my own touch, german preferred, still in progress ~ any ideas? ~}

#userfakevz #fakevz

[grits-galraisedinthesouth]

Worldwide Privacy Tour #EasterEggs

Harry the Lost Boy

Meghan plotted for Disney & won a "Peter Pan." It's not a coincidence that South Park compared Harry to Strat's Lost Boy character. The musical premiered in the UK (2017) & then Toronto. Meat Loaf actually relocated to London during his career and was quite happy in the UK.

"My love, I will do anything for your privacy."

Before the album Bat Out of Hell was released, Steinman worked on a musical of that storyline that was called "Neverland" at the time.

Steinman has said in interviews that a version of the Peter Pan story inspired some of the songs on the 1977 album Bat Out of Hell, and that is the connection between this musical and the 1977 album.

RIP Meat Loaf - I'd do Anything for Love

I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)

"Written by Jim Steinman(1977), and recorded by Meat Loaf with Lorraine Crosby. The song was released in 1993 as the first single from the album Bat Out of Hell II.

The last six verses feature a female singer who was credited only as "Mrs. Loud" in the album notes. She was later identified as Lorraine Crosby. However, she does not appear in the video, in which her vocals are lip-synched by Dana Patrick."

"After 35 years, it still sells an estimated 200,000 copies annually and stayed on the charts for over nine years, making it one of the best selling albums of all time."

"Meat Loaf promoted the single with US vocalist Patti Russo. " 

"Michael Lee Aday (born Marvin Lee Aday, September 27, 1947), known by his stage name Meat Loaf, is an American hard rock musician and actor. He is noted for the Bat Out of Hell album trilogy consisting of Bat Out of Hell, Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell and Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster is Loose. Bat Out of Hell has sold more than 43 million copies worldwide."

"Strat: the eccentric and forever (18) eighteen year old leader of 'The Lost', a group of teenagers whose DNA froze at eighteen (18) causing them to remain young forever. He falls in love with Falco's daughter, Raven. He and 'The Lost' live in abandoned subway tunnels below the city of Obsidian."

"Bat Out of Hell: The Musical (promoted as Jim Steinman's Bat Out of Hell: The Musical) is a rock musical with music, lyrics and book by Jim Steinman, based on the Bat Out of Hell album by Meat Loaf. Steinman wrote all of the songs, most of which are from the Bat Out of Hell trilogy of albums (Bat Out of Hell, Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell, and Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose). The musical is a loose retelling of Peter Pan, set in post-apocalyptic Manhattan (now named 'Obsidian'), and follows Strat, the forever young leader of 'The Lost' who has fallen in love with Raven, daughter of Falco, the tyrannical ruler of Obsidian."

"Steinman has said in interviews that a version of the Peter Pan story inspired some of the songs on the 1977 album Bat Out of Hell, and that is the connection between this musical and the 1977 album."

"Before the album Bat Out of Hell was released, Steinman worked on a musical of that storyline that was called "Neverland" at the time."

I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)

And I would do anything for love

I'd run right into hell and back

I would do anything for love

I'll never lie to you and that's a fact

But I'll never forget the way you feel right now

Oh no, no way

And I would do anything for love

But I won't do that

I won't do that

Anything for love

I would do anything for love

I would do anything for love

But I won't do that

I won't do that

Some days it don't come easy

Some days it don't come hard

Some days it don't come at all

And these are the days that never end

Some nights you're breathing fire

Some nights you're carved in ice

Some nights you're like nothing I've ever seen before

Or will again

Maybe I'm crazy

Oh, it's crazy and it's true

I know you can save me

No one else can save me now but you

As long as the planets are turning

As long as the stars are burning

As long as your dreams are coming true

You better believe it!

That I would do anything for love

And I'll be there till the final act

I would do anything for love

And I'll take a vow and seal a pact

But I'll never forgive myself

If we don't go all the way tonight!

I would do anything for love

Oh, I would do anything for love

I would do anything for love

But I won't do that

No, I won't do that

I would do anything for love

Anything you've been dreaming of

But I just won't do that

Somedays I pray for silence

Somedays I pray for soul

Somedays I just pray to the God

Of Sex and Drums and Rock 'N' Roll

Some nights I lose the feeling

Some nights I lose control

Some nights I just lose it all

When I watch you dance and the thunder rolls

Maybe I'm lonely

And that's all I'm qualified to be

There's just one and only

The one and only promise I can keep

As long as the wheels are turning

As long as the fires are burning

As long as your prayers are coming true

You better believe it

That I would do anything for love

And you know it's true and that's a fact

I would do anything for love

And there'll never be no turning back

But I'll never do it better than I do it with you

So long, so long

And I would do anything for love

Oh, I would do anything for love

I would do anything for love

But I won't do that

No, no, no, I won't do that

I would do anything for love

Anything you've been dreaming of

But I just won't do that

But I'll never stop dreaming of you

Every night of my life, no way

And I would do anything for love

Oh, I would do anything for love

I would do anything for love

But I won't do that

No, I won't do that

[Girl:] Will you raise me up?

Will you help me down?

Will you get me right out of this God-forsaken town?

Will you make it all a little less cold?

[Boy:] I can do that!

I can do that!

[Girl:] Will you hold me sacred?

Will you hold me tight?

Can you colorize my life?

I'm so sick of black and white...

Can you make it all a little less old?

[Boy:] I can do that!

Oh, oh, now I can do that!

[Girl:] Will you make me some magic

With your own two hands?

Can you build an emerald city

With these grains of sand?

Can you give me something I can take home?

[Boy:] I can do that!

Oh, oh now, I can do that!

[Girl:] Will you cater to every fantasy I got?

Will you hose me down with holy water

If I get too hot?

Will you take me places I've never known?

[Girl:] Will you cater to every fantasy I got?

Will you hose me down with holy water

If I get too hot?

Will you take me places I've never known?

[Boy:] I can do that!

Oh, oh now, I can do that!

[Girl:] After a while you'll forget everything

It was a brief interlude and a midsummer night's fling

And you'll see that it's time to move on

[Boy:] I won't do that!

No, I won't do that!

[Girl:] I know the territory, I've been around

It'll all turn to dust and we'll all fall down

And sooner or later, you'll be screwing around...

[Boy:] I won't do that!

No, I won't do that!

Anything for love

Oh, I would do anything for love

I would do anything for love

But I won't do that

No, I won't do that

Anything for love

Oh, I would do anything for love

I would do anything for love

But I won't do that

No, I won't do that

#revenge #tom bower #like a spare #spare us #crazy in love #south park #worldwide privacy tour #bat out of hell the musical #easter eggs #neverland #modern day tragedy #waaagh #Youtube

[likealittleheartbeat]

[Scholar Jacqueline] Rose’s Ph.D. thesis, and the work that followed, about Peter Pan and childhood, was finding admirers. “It was groundbreaking,” the novelist Ali Smith, then a lecturer at the University of Strathclyde, said. “Nobody was writing about literature like this.” Childhood purity and innocence, Rose suggested, was an adult fabulation. Children’s literature was structured by adult desires, actual childhood having been colonized by our fantasies of it. In later years, Rose seldom returned to children’s literature, as such, but the interrogation of innocence became a lifelong project.

...

Starting in the late nineteen-eighties, a decisive shift occurred for both her and [her sister] Gillian. The sisters, as well as [cousin and prominent director] Braham Murray, then an artistic director of the Royal Exchange Theatre, in Manchester, found that their work was drawing them toward the Holocaust. Gillian, a scholar of German idealism, had immersed herself in the Holocaust theology of Emil Fackenheim; Braham, at his Manchester theatre, set a production of “Macbeth” in a Nazi death camp. Rose was defending Sylvia Plath’s controversial use of Holocaust metaphors. “I realize now that the three of us had been brought to this topic as a way of engaging a mostly unspoken part of our family history—on this, the lines that were running, strangely and unconsciously, between the three of us were clear,” Rose told me. “But there was something more.”

Murray, she said, was “blurring the ethical contours of history by forcing the prisoners to perform—through Macbeth’s burgeoning and finally uncontrollable violence—the reality of the evil to which they as Jews were subject.” And then, Rose says, there was Gillian’s “not unrelated plea that Auschwitz should not become sacred, its victims ideal innocents, its perpetrators unthinkable monsters. Nor should it be seen as absolute, unrepresentable—a horror which can only therefore be countered by an equivalently absolute act of redemption by the Israeli nation-state.”

Rose describes herself not as an anti-Zionist but as a critic of Zionism, a reader of Zionism, focusing on the nationalist movement’s insistence on its own innocence. She warns against letting victimhood—best understood as an event, something that befalls a person—become an identity. In the context of Zionism, as in the context of feminism, she has said, we “need to be endlessly vigilant in not allowing victimhood to become who we are.”

Such statements have brought swift, sometimes violent censure. The novelist Howard Jacobson based a character on Rose in his 2010 Man Booker-winning novel, “The Finkler Question”: Tamara Krausz, an academic and an “ashamed Jew” who “never appeared in public looking anything other than an executive of a fashion consultancy, at once businesslike and softly feminine.” Finkler, the protagonist, fantasizes about slitting her throat. Recently, Rose’s insistence that feminists have everything to learn from trans women alienated some former comrades. “I lost friends,” she said.

Rose’s suspicion of all notions of innocence ran through even her later reflections on South Africa’s struggles to make itself whole after apartheid. She adopted a Freudian perspective on the impossible ideals of truth and reconciliation, on the paired sainthood of Nelson Mandela and vilification of Winnie Mandela. “Why do we expect, in situations of political injustice, that virtue will accumulate on the side of the oppressed?” she wrote in the London Review of Books, her regular outlet. “At the very least, Winnie Mandela does us the favour of demonstrating how misguided that belief is. Why, then, do we rush to divest the downtrodden of the ethical ambiguity that must be everyone’s birthright?”

Parul Saghal, "How the Writer and Critic Jacqueline Rose Puts the World on the Couch" in the New Yorker

#aanglove #the way these varied themes tie into so many things atla explores #and specifically with the air nomads and aang's character arc #atla

[libraryofjoy]

Books read in June 2023:

Queer City by Peter Ackroyd. Nonfiction. This book traces evidence of queer people in London from the Roman period to the present day. Since a lot of the available evidence is legal records, many of the narratives in this book are violent or tragic. CW: explicit sexual content, including sexual assault.

Born Again This Way by Rachel Gilson. Nonfiction. This book is one part memoir, one part spiritual advice. I was planning to read a lot of books relating to Christianity & homosexuality this month, but I got kinda burnt out. Gilson tells her life story as a woman who considered herself a lesbian, then had to rethink her sexuality after becoming a Christian, and eventually married a man; though despite her own story, Gilson is not in favor of conversion therapy. I found myself feeling critical of her sometimes muddled theological statements (there have to be 2 binary sexes because it's... like the Trinity??). This book could use more consideration toward the needs of transgender and gender dysphoric Christians. But it was interesting to see a conservative, complementarian Christian grapple with sexual ethics in an effort to make the church less hostile toward sexual minorities.

Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki. Fiction: fantasy/scifi. This story involves a violin teacher who has to sell her student's soul to a devil, suspiciously good doughnuts, and a family of refugees from a galactic war. This was a lovely queer found family narrative in an Asian-American centered California setting, and the knowing details about playing violin were really believable. CW: explicit sexual content, including sexual assault.

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. Fiction: scifi romance. Two agents on opposite sides of a time war write letters and grow dangerously fond of one another. I'd picked this book up months ago and liked it but wasn't able to finish it. I'm glad I came back to it because it really was well worth reading.

Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and Its Metaphors by Susan Sontag. Nonfiction: cultural commentary & literary theory. Susan Sontag traces the narratives by which cancer and AIDS have been represented in literature and conversation, in contrast to diseases like tuberculosis. This book made me want to read more of Sontag's writing. You know that post about how it's good sometimes to read books that are a little too smart for you? Yeah.

The Nameless Restaurant by Tao Wong. Fiction. This is a cozy little story about a magical restaurant. The dominant food culture in the restaurant tends to be pan-Asian, but the guests are from a worldwide variety of cultures & mythologies. Content warning for occasional adult humor.

La caída de la casa de Usher by Edgar Allan Poe. Fiction. I've been meaning to try more audiobooks in Spanish to practice my listening skills, and this one was available and not too long. I never really got this story in English and I also didn't really get it in Spanish, but I think I did okay at the sentence level! I can't encounter this story without thinking of the musical Ghost Quartet.

Fiction: 4

Nonfiction: 3

Total fiction this year:16

Total nonfiction this year:25

#books read in 2023 #gab tag

[mk-wizard]

Peter Pan and Wendy Trailer: Um...

I just saw the trailer of “Peter Pan and Wendy”... and I would lying if I said I was at a loss for words because I do have words to say. Please hear me out and please really listen to me.

I think the actress who is playing Tinkerbell is lovely and she makes an adorable Tinkerbell. I mean, Tinkerbell is a fairy. Her skin colour doesn’t matter, so in any other fiction, Tinkerbell can be anything the director wants her to be. However, I think DISNEY Tinkerbell should look like DISNEY Tinkerbell. She has appeared in two Peter Pan films, her own films, had cameo appearances and even her own TV series in the Disney-verse. And not just her hair and skin colour. Her personality, her outfit and her shows, pompoms and all, are the complete package. Disney should respect the very character, who is an excellent work of art within herself, they created.

Same goes with the other characters. And as for making some of the “Lost Boys” girls... that’s just plain awkward. I am all for equality, but you’ve got Tinkerbell, Wendy and even princess Tiger Lilly or even the mermaids who are pretty badass. You don’t need to shoehorn in girls into a group literally labelled “Lost Boys”. Heck, even Wendy’s daughter Jane in the sequel was a badass! It’s ok for the Lost Boys to all be boys. That’s the way the story goes. I mean, does anyone complain that in Strawberry Shortcake, the majority of the cast consists of girls?

My impression of this movie is that it’s heart is in the right place, but in attempt to be respectful of the times, it is blatantly ignoring key elements in both the original story and its OWN story. And I am left feeling uncomfortable not because I have a problem with BIPOC representation or gender equality. But because I am all for it, but not when it is done as a means of selling a buck or as what will be used as a guilt card in case you don’t like the movie (which is a total low blow and an insult to everything representation stands for).

In short, I do not like being gaslighted and I do NOT fall for it. I am not rigid, but I am not mush either. I mean, I just said that in any other media, ANY of the characters of Peter Pan could be BIPOC since the setting takes place in London which is a pretty diverse society to begin with and was even back then. What I did say, Disney Peter Pan has character designs that are now a permanent part of the lore and changing them at this point looks weird and like a selling point tactic.

Please don’t hate me. I don’t hate the actors nor do I blame them. If anything, I believe they deserve better too.

PS: If you want to see a version of Peter Pan that is progressive in all of the ways done right, I strongly suggest the underrated gem Hook directed by Steven Spielberg.

#disney peter pan #disney peter pan and wendy #disney sucks #peter pan #wendy darling

[harrystylescherry]

💳💥💳💥💳💥 i would like to see more pls

(but only what your comfortable with)

a taste...

He laughed and started unloading the bags. He arranged everything nicely, despite them not having any napkins or plates. He ripped the bread into even pieces, but paused when he got to the cheese. 

“Jos, do you mind?” He motioned to her phone which was tucked in her lap and she tapped the flashlight back on. 

Out of his pocket came a pocket knife, and Josie felt her whole body tense. She wasn’t afraid of him—if she was, she wouldn’t have gone and he didn’t have that vibe. That being said, knives outside of a kitchen didn’t feel right to her. She had never been around very outdoorsy people and her brothers barely knew their way around a butter knife. 

He quickly set to cutting the cheeses into smaller pieces, while she watched in silence. He traded the knife for the corkscrew and popped open one of the bottles. 

“There.” He said and handed it to her. 

When she took it, her eyes flickered down to the pocket knife that was still in his hand. 

“It was my grandfather’s.” He put the corkscrew away and flipped it over. On the other side of the handle, the initials T.C were engraved into the metal. “Theodore Church. He fought in the war. The second one. But he’s gone now. He passed away a year ago.”

Josie swallowed hard. “I’m sorry.”

“He was great.” Ben rubbed the initials with his thumb. “He lived in the countryside and used to make these big adventures out of camping in his garden. He loved to play pretend. He took me to my first audition, actually. I was twelve and it was Peter Pan.” His smile was wide, but sad. “He was great.”

She couldn’t look at him. She couldn’t see the acceptance. She wasn’t ready. “He sounds wonderful.”

“He was.”

She knew that she was supposed to offer up part of herself then, to divulge some vulnerability that would connect them. 

Josie took a swig from the bottle. 

“Do you use it often? The knife.” She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. 

He cleared his throat, sensing the change in the conversation's tone. “Yeah, more than you’d think, actually. Comes in handy during times like these.”

“Oh, so you have ‘times like these’ often?” 

“No, no,” he smiled and looked down. “I just mean…impromptu adventures, you know?”

“Yeah,” she said even though she didn’t. Josie’s last adventure had been two years ago and even then, she was an exchange student so her experience was pretty meticulously planned. It needed to be, since she still had deadlines and classes to attend. The only thing close to being impromptu was her trip to Nice. It only lasted three nights and she wasn’t supposed to be there alone, but it ended up that way. It ended up meaning more to her than she imagined and after she got over the slight panic of being there alone, she was able to really enjoy herself. 

And now she was back, and the feelings she felt the last time were there but they no longer fit her. That’s the only way she could describe it. She recognized them and tried to feel them again, but too much had changed. The person this place had turned her into years ago didn’t exist anymore. She was waiting again for something new, and she was starting to worry that it wouldn’t come. 

She passed him the bottle and he took a sip. 

“So, London.” She swiped a piece of baguette through the small mound of goat cheese and popped it in her mouth. 

“London.” He repeated. When he didn’t continue, Josie motioned for him to elaborate while she chewed her mouthful. “It’s nice.”

“And yet, you left.”

“I didn’t leave London. I left what was in London. I’ve always loved the city. I’d been dreaming about living there since secondary school. I thought I’d live in the West End–and work there, obviously. Even though that didn’t happen, I still walk through every weekend. I go to the shops on the high street and Borough Market–for a local it’s embarrassing how much I’m there. And I don’t mind the rain, actually. It makes everything smell good.”

He wasn’t looking at her anymore, but picking at a thread on his jeans. Josie could picture it all: the old buildings and windy streets, the fog that greeted her every morning on campus. The way he talked about it made her chest ache. 

“Whatever it was, it was that bad that you were willing to leave a place you clearly love?”

“We’re both running, remember?”

“Yeah, but you know why I’m running. I know nothing about you.”

‘Which makes sense since we’re basically strangers.” After he pulled the bottle from his lips, Josie swiped it. 

She knew he was kidding, thanks to his smirk, but she wasn’t laughing.

#the getaway #i love them omg!!!!!

[manwalksintobar]

White Shroud (pt III) // Allen Ginsberg

My years of haunting continental city streets, apartment dreams, old rooms I used to live in, still paid rent for, homeless keys didn't work, locks changed, immigre families occupied my familiar hallway lodgings - I wandered downhill avenues lost, money gone, I'd come back home - I couldn't recognize houses in London, Paris, Bronx, by Columbia library, downtown 8th Avenue near Chelsea Subway - Those years unsettled - were over now, here I could live forever, here have a home, with Naomi, at long last, at long long last, my search was ended in this pleasant way, time to care for her before death, long way to go yet, lots of trouble her cantankerous habits, shameful blankets near the street, tooth pots, dirty pans, half paralyzed stubborn, she needed my middle aged strength and worldly money knowledge, housekeeping art. I can cook and write books for a living, she'll not have to beg her medicine food, a new set of teeth for company, won't yell at the world, I can afford a telephone, after twenty-five years we could call up aunt Edie in California, I'll have a place to stay. ''Best of all,'' I told Naomi ''Now don't get mad, you realize your old enemy Grandma's still alive! She lives a Couple blocks downhill, I just saw her, like you!'' My breast rejoiced, all my troubles over, she was content, too old to care or yell her grudge, only complaining her bad teeth. What long-sought peace! Then glad of life I woke in Boulder before dawn, my second story bedroom windows Bluff Street facing East over town rooftops, I returned from the Land of the Dead to living Poesy, and wrote this tale of mind joy, to have seen my mother again! And when the ink ran out of my pen, and rosy violet illumined city treetop skies above the Flatiron Front Range, I went downstairs to the shady living room, where Peter Orlovsky sat with long hair lit by television glow to watch the sunrise weather news, I kissed him & filled my pen and wept. 6:35 A.M. Oct. 5 '83

#poetry #Allen Ginsberg #American poetry #beat poetry #elegy #mothers & sons #Peter Orlovsky #land of the dead #the dead #dreams #dream songs #poems of the city

[joy2paris]

Preempting the big move...

So - I am a born and raised Londoner. I have had two years at university in the midlands and I am about to head to live in Paris for a year in 4 days for my year abroad! It was not compulsory for my course. I decided to opt into doing it. Prepare for a lengthy post: I just want to get all my thoughts and feelings about it out there.

It is truly surreal to say that I will be leaving so soon. To be honest, this whole pre-leaving process has been so stressful to say the least.

Making life-altering decisions that change the course of my future have always had the ability to send me spiralling haha. It happened to me in Year 13 deciding which universities to apply to, what course I was going to do, whether to do a gap year, whether to do an art foundation or not...I have no idea what I want to do career wise and committing to anything specific was too scary.

Also at that period, it just felt like childhood was truly slipping away. Contrary to what I feel is the majority of people's desires, I never ever desired to grow up (its giving Wendy from Peter Pan). I still have this diary entry where I expressed my deep sadness for turning 14. I never even wanted to leave primary school (I loved that place so much). Disclaimer: it is not that I just want to be babied by my parents forever, or anything like that. I am actually a very independent person and very happy being apart from them, as well as being an adaptable person to different surroundings. They also cultivated a space for me to be that way, especially as they are super independent people in their own rights. I don't know, I guess I am just a massive nostalgia merchant. Preserving time constantly spent with friends and the responsibility-free lifestyle was always something I revelled in, which sadly the post-uni life does not allow in the same capacity :( my friends are kind of my life. i love them with all of my heart and spending time with them makes me so so happy. constant laughter but also real sisterhood. we understand each other, look out for each other, uplift each other and have the most meaningful and vulnerable conversations. my friends are my girlfriends man!

Making these decisions also make me think very heavily about my life, my situation, how I see myself etc. I don't want to make the wrong decision. Maybe there is no such thing. It is just important for me to create a life that is at its optimum for me and my wants. For example, I didn't want to randomly pick a uni that only had one element that I liked about it. It was important for me to go somewhere that holistically met my needs - a place that is good for my course, that reflected the urban metropolis energy I love of London without it being London, that had a campus student feel but did not isolate you in an unrealistic student bubble 24/7, that was racially diverse, that would push me but also be a place where I could have fun with people. I considered my decision very carefully.

I also wanted to take a year out before rushing in (postponing graduating was always appealing) and I am so happy I did. I also realised that I would never get the opportunity to do an art foundation for free unless I did it there and then (it's free for 18 year olds), and the feeling of regret is a sore one. My meticulous decision making also went into deciding which art foundation to pick. I asked previous students all of my burning questions, to know what is was REALLY like. And I thank myself for doing that.

I decided to take the plunge and go for the intensive Kingston Art Foundation course over Camberwell at UAL or Ravensbourne. That course also began during 2020, a horrible year I am sure in many people's lives. Mine included. Not only did the course distract me from everything bad that was going on, I felt so excited by all the projects and briefs we were set; I was inspired and pushed creatively in ways I did not know was possible. I feel I also came more into myself with that year out - I loved the restaurant I worked in so much, and by the time I was set to go to uni, I felt ready (covid uni also just sounded awful if you didn't gel with your flatmates).

I loved doing Graphic Design so much. I got emotional making my final project on my foundation because I felt so passionate about it and I was so desperate for it to communicate the way I wanted it to. I've started realising I want to have a career that continues to bring out that kind of emotion in me. I want to move people and create change. This does not even have to be in a humungous way, just still a change that creates an impact or feeling in any way. I feel the same way with English and Philosophy when I come across passages I love (Eng and Phil is my degree. I did English Literature, Art and Psychology for A levels). Recently, A return to my Native Land by Aime Cesaire and Jamaica Kincaid's A Small Place really did this for me, I was blown away. I love the stimulating conversation about the work we are set in my seminars. Maybe a critic is the life for me. Conversations in crits (times where we would review our work with our tutors and peers) on foundation always really thrilled me. Either way, I need to understand this love of mine will happen for me career wise, I just need to keep trying and failing but importantly trying. Not just thinking about these things I love, but continuing to engage with them and understand doing something semi career related is not committing yourself to do that for life.

So, for the most part, I always back myself in the decisions I make, even though it is a harrowing process getting there. This is because, every big decision I have made has turned out to be the best thing for me and represent exactly what I want out of that decision. Most times, I feel, because of the meticulous researching and debating.

That tormenting, debating experience also returned when deciding to do a year abroad, but in its fullest force. Retrospectively, I wrongly avoided thinking about it at all over first year summer. I kept putting it off, as the weight of even the thought of it was too much to withstand. Second year of university began, and I was soon overwhelmed by the joys of an amazing second year house experience and other feelings this new year brought. Yet, the deadline for a year abroad was fast approaching.

As stated, I am a nostalgia merchant, so the idea of parting with my amazing uni friends was hard to swallow. Luckily, two of some of my closest friends will still be there when I return, but even the FOMO I was preempting to experience over the year I would be away was enough to make me reconsider. Second year I didn't even clean my teeth alone: we were always together and it was great (to clarify, we still individually cleaned our own teeth but were just in the bathroom at the same time LOL). Whereas, I will be lodging on the outskirts of central Paris in an airbnb, before living alone in a studio in Paris - I am sure this will be a fun experience in itself, however, still a massive contrast to the very communal second year uni experience I really enjoyed.

In addition, as stated, growing up was something I never wanted to partake in. So, graduating and entering the "real world", a world that I did not know which path to take in, was TERRIFYING. Most people do internships the summer before graduating to have some experience under their belts. Even deciding what to do for this stressed me, as it felt like committing to something for my career. Writing this out now, it all seems a bit silly, as I know there are many people who do not know what they want to do and feel this way, just like me. That is okay. I don't know, these decisions felt worse than the other ones I have previously encountered, because those decisions were not tied to the next step of education, a system I (and others in my boat) have only known. Instead, the world of scary work loomed. This whole thing also made me deep that I am probably more of a perfectionist than I realise, and a commitment-phobe more than I realise.

There were other personal factors too that I felt made me spiral in this time. So all in all, I was in a big crisis about it. I decided to make a pros and cons list. The underlying theme for essentially all of the cons was purely fear. If that was the only thing holding me back, why not just feel the fear and do it anyway?

So, unlike the usual planner me, I decided to take the plunge and not think about all the details. I didn't really have the time to extensively research into every country and every university as I had left it all so late, and also a lot of the time there is bias as to why people like or do not like certain things about a place and what it has to offer. There was no guarantee I was going to get a certain country or anything like that too.

Paris was not intended to be where I ended up. Amsterdam was my first pick, and I initially put Toulouse second as it seemed more appealing place to be as a student. However, I only found out right before I submitted my year abroad application that it was not available for my course. So, last minute, I changed Paris from being 5/6 on my list to 2nd. Although I am a true city girl, for similar reasons for not wanting to stay in London, I felt the same with Paris. I think there are also a lot of opinions about Paris as a place and the people.

Since telling people I am going, all I have heard is, "Parisians are so rude to non-French speakers", "the place smells and it is dangerous". Not to mention, there are very serious issues in the city. Recently, there have been many riots due to the killing of an innocent 17 year old at the hands of the police. It is not a campus university unlike my English one and I will be living alone, not even within university accommodation which is what I am used to. The Guardian also just reported that for the first time ever, the French government are having to fumigate the majority of Paris to prevent the swarm of large mosquitos that are carrying deadly fevers that are taking over LMAO! So it feels scary and new on all levels. I think also, Paris is a place that connotes many images in people's minds just on its mention (city of love etc). However, I have never been someone who romanticises much, or has expectations for much. I know Paris is going to visually be a hybrid of things, which I am used to and also something I will embrace.

The admin trials and tribulations I have endured with the process so far have been a lot. I have had to change universities and courses within the process (now doing law over there!), believed I had a house situation sorted, only for it to fall through and stressfully find somewhere else. As I was scared before doing it, these issues just made me more nervous. I have never felt nerves on this scale before. But I am equally really excited for what is to come, for the people I will meet and the experiences I will have. The growth that I will acquire. As I have grown older, I have loved more and more the experience of meeting new people and finding out about them, talking with them. My extroversion has really increased haha.

I think my main fear is the speaking French thing. I would still be nervous if I was going to an English speaking country, but less so, as I know I would be able to communicate with anyone and everyone. Or even say, with Amsterdam, where everyone speaks English and is happy to do so. As someone who doesn't enjoy the feeling of not being good at something straight away, I am sure living in Paris will teach me a lot. I did French at GCSE, but the way languages are taught in the UK as well as the way we are taught to see languages, is rubbish. All I can say is "Je suis allé au parc avec mes amis" and most Brits expect every country they go to accommodate to English. So, although France is in no way a perfect place or dissimilar to Britain when thinking of its colonial history, I kind of don't blame the French for not adhering to the accommodation of English.

It's weird, France is so close to us geographically that it is probably the foreign country Brits are most exposed to. I have been to France quite a few times - twice with my secondary school, twice to Limoges (Central France) when I was 9 with family friends, Lille for the fleamarkets with Dad, near Normandy and Nice with family and this year I visited a friend doing her year abroad in Grenoble. We also visited Annecy and and a bit of Lyon in that time. Yet funnily, I have only been to Paris once and for less than 24 hours haha. I was 16 with my family embarking on a chaotic inter-railing trip. Paris was our first stop! The place we stayed in was lovely, but the Louvre was shut on the day we were there and everywhere was so expensive for food so we ended up getting Mcdonald's. We did go to a cute funfair and a boat tour along the Seine, as well as seeing some fat rats. So essentially, Paris will feel novel to me on this year as my brief experience with it was interesting to say the least.

I really want to meet warm, genuine and meaningful friends. I am very grateful to say I have encountered that at my current university and before I began uni too. It is a special, special feeling. I believe I am good at discerning the kinds of people who I rate and want to spend my time with versus those who are not.

It feels weird being this level of nervous. But I am proud of myself for taking this step. It really really is out of my comfort zone.

I am excited to experience the art, music, film and general culture there a lot. There are a couple people who I know who have lived out there for a year (mainly friends of friends) and have asked them all for their recommendations. Places like Silencio and Caveau de la huchette are 100% seeing me. I will upload my list on here! I had a radio show over my time at university, which was extremely rewarding. Perhaps I can continue something similar out there. I really want to improve on my decks.

French films are a genre that I love dearly. There is many more for me to see, but currently on my Letterboxd 'Je t'aime' playlist, I have: Girlhood, La Haine, The World Is Yours, The Illusionist, The Intouchables, Portrait of a Lady on Fire etc.

To my comfort, my mum also reminded me that through a lot of this experience I will be externalising a lot - processing the language and the new surroundings, therefore not much time for internalising.

Ahhh, so many emotions! I will miss my dear friends dearly. University has been such an amazing experience so far. However, as my dad said, I cannot compare the experiences as this is an entirely different thing altogether.

I have already learned a lot about myself through this pre-leaving process. Often I feel the need to prove myself to people (when debating for weeks about whether to do it, I felt I could not back down after speaking so extensively to my friends about it, which is not the case. My brother felt I did not have the guts to do it, and I wanted to prove him wrong - but I don't need to). Change is inevitable and you just have to roll with it. Doing something does not commit you to that thing.

Crazy that I will be doing law there too - I feel the country is an interesting place from that law perspective. It was through the recent riots that I discovered that France does not monitor any ethnicity data under the guise that this upholds racial equality. That truly shocked me. All that is new awaits me! Proud of myself! Will report back on here as much as I can.

[watching-pictures-move]

Movie Review | The Curse of Frankenstein (Fisher, 1957)

This review contains spoilers.

So apparently I watched this a couple of years back alongside a bunch of other Hammer Frankenstein movies and didn’t like it very much for reasons that I couldn’t recall (and didn’t note down in a review at the time), so this is going to be one of those reviews where I revisit a movie and try to make sense of my past opinion and figure out how much of my inferred prior reasoning holds with my current review. There are two outcomes possible here. One, I was right originally and I still don’t like the movie. Or two, I’m right now because I like the movie and will forgive myself for my past opinion. They say you win one hundred percent of arguments against yourself in the shower, the same holds here.

Anyway, I liked it more this time around but what I suspect was one of my original reasons, that the pacing wasn’t the tightest, likely holds. While this runs less than ninety minutes, it doesn’t actually rush to get to the monster by any means, and compared to The Horror of Dracula, which I’d seen before and is certainly swiftly paced, this feels comparatively… deliberate would be the kind word, sluggish would be the less charitable. Anyway, at less than an hour and a half, I didn’t find it a challenge to get through this time around.

I will say that I’ve liked but not loved most of what I’ve seen from Hammer and Terence Fisher, as the things I’ve liked about them have always felt like 75% of something I’ve found done better elsewhere. Certainly the movies carry a good deal of style, but it feels neither as rich as the foggy expressionist touches in the Universal movies or as vibrant and decadent as what Mario Bava and the Italians would do in a few years. I did find it interesting how much of the visual style here consists of tableaux that camera pans across, letting us soak in the production design, and I think Fisher genuinely loves the laboratory sets with the strange, complex shapes of the vials and jars and beakers and the intoxicating, sinister colours of the chemicals contained within. The big shock moments, like the monster’s reveal, or a closeup of a bleeding facial wound, are played for maximum impact, with the camera zooming in nice and close. It’s helpful to remember that these were the frontiers of graphic violence before the splatter film proper came into prominence, and you can see how Herschell Gordon Lewis takes a similar tableaux-esque approach while significantly upping the gore factor in Blood Feast.

And it’s perhaps unfair to compare them, but I think Boris Karloff’s take on Frankenstein’s monster is so iconic that I find it hard not to compare other onscreen versions against it. Karloff imbues the monster with a certain humanity which I think is lacking in Christopher Lee’s take. There are moments of pathos, like when the monster stumbles around after a lobotomy like a wounded animal, but his monster is largely mindless, existing less as a character than a prop for Frankenstein himself. (I will say that scene got an unintended laugh out of me. Frankenstein declares "I've started on brain surgery", and then we cut to the monster looking like he had his hair done by Mr. Bean of London.) But Peter Cushing’s portrayal of Frankenstein is where the movie distinguishes itself, depicting him as unambiguously evil, not just breaching ethics in the pursuit of science, but flat out murdering his mentor (who moments ago warned him about the dangers of going too far, which he apparently takes as a challenge), siccing the monster on his mistress when she reveals she’s pregnant and later threatening to have his fiancée killed. This probably plays even better the more familiar you are with Cushing, as you can better appreciate the subtle way he imbues menace into every reassurance. I will say that these things probably make this a less complex emotional experience than the James Whale Frankenstein movies, but there’s enough room for different approaches.

And one last reason I liked this more this time around is the presence of Hazel Court, who I’ve grown to appreciate as a welcome addition to any movie she’s in. Having seen her play gleefully evil in her Roger Corman Edgar Allan Poe movies, it was nice to see her play an outright sympathetic character, and she’s certainly good at it, despite wearing a number of extremely cozy outfits that look like they were made from blankets, on top of the usual bosomy dresses. I gotta say though, the scene where Frankenstein’s friend Robert Urquhart tries to get her to leave is so funny. Urquhart is doing a terrible job of convincing her of the danger she’s in, telling her that she has to leave, but he can’t say why, but it’s because of the experiments Frankenstein is doing, but he can’t say what they are. Just awful. If I were to intervene, I would have happily violated the Victorian Era equivalent of the bro code and presented her with the whole story, been a much better shoulder for her to cry on, abandoned the experiments and whisked her away to safety. The story would not have been a tragedy had I been in his place.

#film #movie review #the curse of frankenstein #terence fisher

[gourmetlong]

Straight on till morning a twisted tale

#STRAIGHT ON TILL MORNING A TWISTED TALE MOVIE#

Wishing/dreaming is an integral part of Peter Pan and one of the reasons why it has stood the test of time: it captures the desire, the longing, the childlike desire to FLY better than almost any other work of fiction. Was this something you always thought about when you watched Peter Pan, or if not, how did this theme come about? They generally seem to be opposite ends of the scale and yet they often intersect or even switch roles in this story. And herself in the process!Īnother key theme that sat with me throughout the book is the divergence between dreams and reality. In the book Wendy literally changes the geography of Never Land-forever-with her stories. The relationship Wendy has with Never Land (in the movie) is intriguing: was she merely reciting events to her brothers that already happened there, that she knew about? Or was she making up stories about Never Land (and Peter Pan) that would then come true? I would say SOTM is less a story in a story than an exploration of the transformative power of storytelling. How do you effectively tell a story within a story? What are the pros and cons of doing so? Storytelling is a key theme in this story. My husband and I have often talked about moving there. In all fairness, though, while it cannot compare (in size, at least) Glasgow has a special place in my heart. We’re taking the kids this spring for their first visit. We know you were born in England – is it really as boring a place as the start of your story suggests? ( Laughs ) You meticulously map out the dreariness of London life in the beginning of the book which wonderfully sets up Wendy’s – and the reader’s – transition from mundane to magic as her journey unfolds. It was instantaneous, brilliant fun-almost as if she wanted a word in too! I’ll be honest about Nana though: those interludes and scenes just jumped onto the page fully formed from my head. Even Nana, the Darling family dog, has more dimension in your story and even has her own interlude! Tell us about the process for developing your characters in your story and what choices you had to make about and for them along the way.Īgain it’s that tightrope between keeping them true to the classic tale while exploring characters’ inner depths. You depict Wendy and Tink as strong, brave women – and I would like to think they have always been – though you give them greater depth and a louder voice than they otherwise have in Peter Pan. It’s actually Wendy! And she deserved to tell it in her own way.

#STRAIGHT ON TILL MORNING A TWISTED TALE MOVIE#

Of course! But if you ask a deeper version of the question: what character changes by the end of the movie, and whose point of view the movie is from, they often grow confused. It’s funny: if you ask a group of children who the main character of the movie is (and I have), they’ll all say Peter Pan. Tell us about what inspired you to write this book from Wendy’s perspective? Speaking of Wendy, we never really knew Wendy Darling until we read Straight On Till Morning.

#Straight on till morning a twisted tale