#twenty first century heroine | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

homomenhommes · 1 month

Text

THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY

based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more … March 19

1821 – Richard Francis Burton, legendary British explorer, diplomat and author (d.1890); a swashbuckling English explorer, translator, writer, soldier, orientalist, ethnologist, linguist, poet, hypnotist, fencer and diplomat. If we left anything out it's hard to imagine what it might be . Burton was known for his far-flung and exotic travels and explorations within Asia and Africa as well as his extraordinary knowledge of languages and cultures. According to one count, he spoke 29 European, Asian, and African languages.

Burton's best-known achievements include traveling in disguise to Mecca, making an unexpurgated translation of The Book of One Thousand Nights and A Night (more commonly called The Arabian Nights in English because of Andrew Lang's abridgment) and the Kama Sutra and journeying with John Hanning Speke as the first white men guided by the redoubtable Sidi Mubarak Bombay to discover the Great Lakes of Africa in search of the source of the Nile.

Burton's writings are unusually open and frank about his interest in sex and sexuality. His travel writing is often full of details about the sexual lives of the inhabitants of areas he travelled through. Burton's interest in sexuality led him to make measurements of the lengths of the sexual organs of male inhabitants of various regions which he includes in his travel books. He also describes sexual techniques common in the regions he visited, often hinting that he had participated, hence breaking both sexual and racial taboos of his day. Burton, together with Forster Fitzgerald Arbuthnot, created the Kama Shastra Society to print and circulate books that would be illegal to publish in public. Many people at the time considered his Kama Shastra Society and the books it published scandalous.

Allegations of homosexuality followed Burton throughout most of his life, at a time when it was a criminal offense in the UK. Biographers disagree on whether or not Burton ever experienced Gay sex (he never directly acknowledges it in his writing). These allegations began in his army days when General Sir Charles James Napier requested that Burton go undercover to investigate a male brothel reputed to be frequented by British soldiers. It has been suggested that Burton's detailed report on the workings of the brothel may have led some to believe he had been a customer.

Burton was a heavy drinker at various times in his life and also admitted to taking both hemp and opium. Friends of the poet Algernon Swinburne blamed Burton for leading him astray, holding Burton responsible for Swinburne's alcoholism and interest in the works of the Marquis de Sade.

1850 – Octave Thanet, aka Alice French, American novelist, born (d.1934); One of the most popular novelists of the late 19th century, Octave Thanet is no longer read, and with good reason. Her stuff is irredeemably dreadful by any standard. (In one novel, for example, the heroine falls in love with a young woman and proceeds to tell her so, nonstop, for twenty-two pages, not counting heaves and maidenly emotion-laden sighs.) For 50 years, Thanet, a 200-pound, six-footer, lived together with petite Jane Crawford at their mansion "Thanford" (Thanet/Crawford).

1925 – The Virginia Supreme Court reverses the sodomy conviction of a man who had been found drunk in bed with his head on another man's stomach and with the other man's penis in his hand.

1930 – Charles Rowan Beye, born in Iowa, is a classical Greek scholar and author, noted for many texts on ancient Greece, including Odysseus: A Life. More recently he is known for his autobiography My Husband and My Wives: A Gay Man's Odyssey

Beye's budding homosexuality emerged when he was in junior high, enjoying a limited menu of sexual adventures with mostly straight boys. The local Episcopal priest informed Beye's mother that her son's name was scrawled, along with a sexual slur, on a men's room wall. Mother promptly dispatched her wayward son to a psychiatrist who — counter to almost every other psychiatrist in every work of gay literature ever written — turned out to be a compassionate man. The shrink simply counseled the 15-year-old Beye to be more discreet.

My Husband and My Wives: A Gay's Man's Odyssey is the memoir Beye looking back over eight tumultuous decades at the complications of discovering at puberty that he is attracted to other men.

By age 21, he had never slept with a woman. Nevertheless he married his first wife, Mary, living happily, until Mary suddenly dies of a freak heart condition a few years later. Beye remarried and fathered four children — all along maintaining his core identity as a gay man and enjoying an abundant sex life with both gay and straight men, described in great fleshy detail in the autobiography.

The ordeal of remaining true to what his libido tells him is right, in the midst of a disapproving and sometimes hostile society, is one side of his story. Another was the impulsive decision he made as a young adult to marry a woman who fascinated him. This led him into entirely unanticipated territory. He found himself suddenly a husband, a widower, a groom for a second time, and, finally, the father of four children and grandfather of six, though throughout it all, he never abandoned his erotic involvement with men.

Perhaps most extraordinary is the story's happy conclusion: Charles Rowan Beye's wedding in 2008 to the man who had been his companion for the previous twenty years.

1938 – Daniel Curzon, born Daniel Brown, is a novelist, playwright, educator, and writer of etiquette manuals for gay men.

He is the author of Something You Do in the Dark, first published in 1971 and which may be considered as one of the first gay protest novels. It is the story of a gay man's attempt to avenge his entrapment by a Detroit vice squad police officer by murdering him.

Curzon has written other novels, including The Misadventures of Tim McPick (original title: Queer Comedy), From Violent Men, Among the Carnivores, The World Can Break Your Heart, Curzon in Love, The Bubble Reputation, or Shakespeare Lives!, and What a Tangled Web. His non-fiction books include The Big Book of In-Your-Face Gay Etiquette and Dropping Names: The Delicious Memoirs of Daniel Curzon. This last was described by Ian Young in Torso as "ferociously honest and very funny" and by Philip Clark in Lambda Book Report as "a blunt, hilarious, page-turning ride that is...impossible to put down."

Curzon edited and published the early homophile magazine "Gay Literature: A New Journal" in 1975 and 1976. The magazine included poetry, fiction, literary reviews, essays, photography, and short plays. Curzon's own written work sometimes was included. Curzon contributed articles for other magazines such as "Gay Times" in 1976 and "Alternate" in 1978.

He is also a prolific writer of one-act plays. Seven volumes of his Collected Plays have been published as POD books through BookSurge. His plays have also been performed at such theaters as Theater Rhinoceros, New Conservatory Theater, New City Theater, Above Board Theater, as well as at the Fringe Festival in San Francisco and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Curzon, who is openly gay, is currently a retired professor of English.

1963 – Gary Ferguson, a specialist of French Renaissance literature and culture, is the Douglas Huntly Gordon Distinguished Professor of French at the University of Virginia. From 1989, he taught at the University of Delaware, where he held the Elias Ahuja Professorship of French from 2012-2015. He graduated from St Chad's College, Durham University, receiving a BA with first-class honours in 1985 and a Ph.D. in 1989.

He is the author of Mirroring Belief: Marguerite de Navarre's Devotional Poetry, Queer (Re)Readings in the French Renaissance: Homosexuality, Gender, Culture, and Same-Sex Marriage in Renaissance Rome: Sexuality, Identity, and Community in Early Modern Europe, as well as of numerous articles dealing in particular with questions of gender and sexuality, women's writing, devotional literature and the cultural history of religion.

1978 – Garth Greenwell, author, grew up in Louisville, graduated from high school in Michigan, did his undergraduate work at SUNY Purchase, got his masters from Harvard, and somewhere along the way was classically trained as an opera singer, which he credits with giving him "a sense of the physicality of language."

In 2009 he moved to Bulgaria where he teaches at the America College of Sofia and where he found gay cruising spots that reminded him of Kentucky in the 90s. Those places and the local men "were nearly identical in their expectations and mores" including "a secrecy and shame about them."

His life there is the basis of his novella Mitko. Describing a nameless American in a nameless foreign city and his creepingly complex relationship with a hustler named Mitko, it was a finalist for Publishing Triangle's debut fiction prize and for a Lammy. A perennial favorite, the book garnered multiple mentions on the queer lit polls in 2011 and 2012.

In its article, "Of LGBT, Life and Literature," the Sofia Echo credits Greenwell's publications with bringing much needed attention to the LGBT experience in Bulgaria and to other English-speaking audiences through various broadcasts, interviews, blog posts, and reviews.

1991 – (Gary Michael) Garrett Clayton is an American actor and singer. He is known for portraying Tanner in the 2013 Disney Channel movie Teen Beach Movie and its 2015 sequel Teen Beach 2, and other film, television, and stage roles.

Clayton was born in Dearborn, Michigan. He began acting at Crestwood High School in Dearborn Heights, Michigan, performing in many of the drama club's productions. He later attended Oakland University, where he studied musical theater.

In 2010, he made appearances on Days of Our Lives and Shake It Up. In December 2012, he appeared in the Lifetime movie Holiday Spin, co-starring Ralph Macchio, as Blake, a rebellious teen forced to live with his father after his mother is killed in a car accident.

He was cast in 2013 in the role of Tanner in Disney's musical Teen Beach Movie, playing a cool but vacuous surfer who is "a mix between Frankie Avalon and Link from Hairspray". The film was directed by Jeffrey Hornaday and was filmed in Puerto Rico and was first broadcast in July 2013.He had a recurring role in the latter half of the first season of The Fosters. In 2016, he portrayed gay porn star Brent Corrigan in the film King Cobra, with James Franco and Christian Slater, and played the role of Link Larkin in the NBC television broadcast of Hairspray Live! He starred as Brady Mannion in the horror-thriller film Don't Hang Up, which was released in theaters in February 2017. Also in 2017, Clayton appeared on stage at the Pasadena Playhouse as Luke alongside Al Pacino and Judith Light in a six-week run of Dotson Rader's play God Looked Away, about the later life of Tennessee Williams.

In 2018, while speaking about why he chose to appear in the film Reach, Clayton revealed he has been in a long-term relationship with another man, Blake Knight. In January 2019, Clayton announced that he and Knight had become engaged a year prior.

1988 – Freddie Smith is an American television actor. He is best known for his character Sonny Kiriakis, the first openly gay contract role on the daytime soap opera Days of Our Lives. He also briefly portrayed Marco Salazar in the new franchise of 90210 aired on The CW.

Freddie Smith was born in Ashtabula, Ohio. He grew up as an only child but is very close with two of his cousins. Smith "lived and breathed basketball" until his senior year in high school when a friend suggested he take a theater art class. After high school, Smith moved to Los Angeles, beginning his acting career in 2008 appearing a cameo role in the paranormal series Medium playing a senior boy.

On January 9, 2011 it was reported that he had joined the cast of The CW series 90210, in a recurring role as Marco, a gay soccer player who would become involved with Teddy Montgomery (Trevor Donovan). He appeared in 5 episodes of the third season including the season finale. On July 17, 2011 The CW announced that Marco would not return in season 4 as Teddy's boyfriend, having broken up with him over the summer.

Besides 90210, he took up the role of Jackson "Sonny" Kiriakis in Days of Our Lives, the first openly gay contracted character in the hit daytime soap opera (Ryan Scott had previously played the non-contract, openly gay role of Harold Wentworth between 2000 and 2003). Smith's character would become romantically involved with Will Horton, played by Chandler Massey, garnering immense popularity with fans and becoming the show's first same-sex supercouple (commonly referred to by the portmanteau "WilSon").

2010 – Billy Merasty receives Manitoda's Order of the Buffalo Hunt. Merasty (born 1960), is an Aboriginal Canadian actor and writer of Cree descent.Merasty was born in Brochet, Manitoba, Canada. He is the ninth of fourteen siblings born to Viola and Pierre Merasty, and a grandson of Joe Highway, a famous caribou hunter and champion dogsled racer; and related to playwright Tomson Highway and dancer/choreographer/actor/director René Highway.

He moved to Toronto at the age of 18 in search of René Highway, who was then working for the Toronto Dance Theatre. At the age of 23, he launched his acting career after graduating from the Native Theatre School for aspiring First Nations artists. He then worked for the Native Earth Performing Arts for a long period.

Merasty has worked extensively on the stage and films as an actor and has written one play, Fireweed, produced in 1992. His second play, Godly's Divinia, is in development.

In 2010, Merasty received the Order of Manitoba (Order of the Buffalo Hunt) in recognition for his many years as an Aboriginal role model from Manitoba. At the time he was the lead actor in Where the Blood Mixes, winner of the 2009 Governor General's Award for drama. The play tackles Canada's painful history of residential schools and "the '60s scoop", referring to the adoption of First Nation and Métis children in Canada between the years of 1960 and the mid-1980's, through the experiences of one family and their community.

His stage credits include appearances in Tomson Highway's The Sage, The Dancer and the Fool, Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing and The Rez Sisters, Daniel David Moses' The Indian Medicine Show, Lanford Wilson's Rain Dance, Marie Clements' Copper Thunderbird, Kevin Loring's Where the Blood Mixes, Steven Cole Hughes' Ghost Dance and David S. Craig's The Neverending Story.

In 2012, he performed the role of Gloucester in an all-aboriginal production of William Shakespeare's King Lear at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, alongside a cast that also included August Schellenberg as Lear, Tantoo Cardinal as Regan, Jani Lauzon in a dual role as Cordelia and the Fool, and Craig Lauzon as Kent.

Reflecting on his life, Merasty said, "I've always been open. Although a lot of people have told me not to be so gay if I want to be an actor, that it will limit me. I know that it has, but I'm not limiting myself, it's other people who limit me"

22 notes · View notes

haveyoureadthispoll · 2 days

Text

The novel that lit the Japanese publishing world on fire: From a breathtaking up-and-coming writer, a twenty-first century Catcher in the Rye that brilliantly explores toxic fandom, social media, and alienated adolescence. Akari is a high school junior obsessed with "oshi" Masaki Ueno, a member of the popular J-Pop group Maza Maza. She writes a blog devoted to him, and spends hours addictively scrolling for information about him and his life. Desperate to analyze and understand him, Akari hopes to eventually see the world through his eyes. It is a devotion that borders on the religious: Masaki is her savior, her backbone, someone she believes she cannot survive without--even though she's never actually met him. When rumors surface that her idol assaulted a female fan, social media explodes. Akari immediately begins sifting through everything she can find about the scandal, and shares every detail to her blog--including Masaki's denials and pleas to his fans--drawing numerous readers eager for her updates. But the organized, knowledgeable persona Akari presents online is totally different from the socially awkward, unfocused teenager she is in real life. As Masaki's situation spirals, his troubles threaten to tear apart her life too. Instead of finding a way to break free to save herself, Akari becomes even more fanatical about Masaki, still believing her idol is the only person who understands her. A blistering novel of fame, disconnection, obsession, and disillusion by a young writer not much older than the novel's heroine, Idol, Burning shines a white-hot spotlight on fandom and "stan" culture, the money-making schemes of the pop idol industry, the seductive power of social media, and the powerful emotional void that opens when an idol falls from grace, only to become a real--and very flawed--person.

#book: idol burning #author: rin usami #genre: contemporary #genre: japanese literature #genre: literary

17 notes · View notes

luciality · 4 months

Text

shes dark academia shes cottagecore shes indie sleaze shes a londoner shes from the countryside shes a fairy queen shes goth shes punk shes preppy shes yuppie scum shes a chav shes literal nobility shes a horse girl shes a cat lady shes a pirate shes a drunkard shes a smoker shes a mean old lady shes literally twenty three shes over a thousand years old she knits she sews she cant cook to save her life she plays bass shes got a tongue piercing she lives in a cottage in the woods shes a witch shes catholic shes anglican shes a witch she is a disney princess shes an evil stepmother shes a loli shes a milf shes an old maid shes a massive bitch shes secretly kind shes got a stiff upper lip shes never cried in her life shes a massive crybaby shes traditional shes a feminist shes a girlboss she's dysphoric shes a dyke but shes so so normal shes basically a nun shes a bookworm shes tired of reading briefings and memos dont talk to her until she's had her morning cuppa she hasnt been relaxed in centuries shes an unmedicated bipolar queen she needs a hug don't touch her or she'll slap you she needs some heroin she sometimes forgets what century it is shes five feet tall english isnt her first language shes a prey animal shes a tiny bunny rabbit shes a lion shes an apex predator shes an introvert shes a mean girl she loves to tend to her garden she misses her mother she wishes she were closer with her sisters she does everything she can to push them away she has no friends she loves her friends she loves being alone her biggest fear is being alone

#shut up luci #the waifu #alicecore #iggycore

23 notes · View notes

arashikohedervary · 28 days

Text

As much as I love Ed and Stede I literally like any member of the Revenge Crew better, so here are five more background character that have deeper personality than the Atlantic Ocean:

Spanish Jackie: Is she Jackie? Yes. Is she Spanish? No. The perfect combo. She's the strong female character every media needs. Having her own pirate bar, kicking out everyone and everything she doesn't like is the best life anyone can ever have. At this point if she asked me to marry her I'd gladly be her twenty second spouse.

Karl: One minute silence for the memory of Karl please. I think everything has been said about him already. Good friend, navigator, great husband, loyal companion. Rest in peace Karl.

Olivia: Imagine being the cool heroine who - after her husband not coming home - finds his best friend, learns how he died, helps to avenge him and then stays and fills the position he used to be in. I think she doesn’t get enough credit. More 👏 love 👏 for 👏 Olivia.

Fang (Kevin): Man, look at that jawline! I cannot believe he haven't been sketched before. I really like about him that even in those first few episodes where he was supposed to be a scary big guy he just looked like a big marshmallow. (*in Spanish Jackie's voice*: but I love me a marshmallow.)

Ivan: the guy is the kind of man who goes like 'I don't like drama' but then literally brings popcorn. I'm in love with both him and his axe, fight me about it but I think it's an underrated weapon. Also, I will not stop missing him. It hit so hard to hear that he died, I won't forget the way he was always there for Fang. Love🖤

Archie: I almost forgot our crew-quenn. Excuse me, she isn't 'the new guy', she is the most badass person you'll see in this century. And man, somebody get her a snake! I think she misses her days in the snake cult and it would be just cool addition overall.

PS: Do not worry, my (as it turns out very-very long) Izzy essay is coming along.

#our flag means death #our flag means gay #ofmd #ofmd spanish jackie #spanish jackie #karl the seagull #olivia the seagull #ofmd fang #ofmd ivan #crew of the revenge #ofmd archie

8 notes · View notes

pinkacadessays · 9 months

Text

Twilight as a Spiritual Successor to Dracula

She's a problematic queen, but she didn't deserve the flack, and neither did the teenage girls having fun...

In the year 2005, Stephanie Meyer published what would become a teenage girl’s favourite fantasy novel, and a teenage boy’s favourite punching bag: Twilight, the first book in what would become a four-book, five-film saga, and then go on to add two more books to the series. Twilight, though much beloved by its target audience was criticised for many reasons, but the most pertinent being that it was a far-cry from the expectations held by fans of vampire fiction… but is it? Although certainly it has its differences to the vampiric standards set about in nineteenth century gothic horror, there are many aspects of it that can be seen as twenty-first century mirrors to the ancestral tradition epitomised by Polidori, Le Fanu, and, as discussed in greatest detail here, Stoker.

In analysing the first novel of the Twilight Saga, simply Twilight, there are a great deal of similarities to be seen in how the character Bella Swan interacts with the world of the supernatural, as well as the mutable parallels that can be drawn between Edward Cullen and various aspects of Dracula. The connections range from the oft-mocked as lacking vampiric qualities in Twilight, to the oft-overlooked romantic qualities of Dracula as percieved by the very audiences who suddenly became experts on the genre in order to antagonise Meyer and her work.

Now, though, it has become even more apt and timely to discuss the nature of both Dracula and Twilight and how they compare. Twilight had a resurgence in the last few years in the form of Twilightcore aesthetics on TikTok and Tumblr, and with Dracula Daily being two months into its second year, it is more than fitting to reexamine the connection between what is considered the quintessential vampire media and the mid-noughties laughing stock as herein lies the attempt to prove that maybe they’re not so diffrent after all.

Isabella Marie Swan Cullen

Let us begin with our gothic heroine Bella Swan, and her position as Twilight’s answer to Jonathan Harker.

Bella’s connection to Jonathan starts from the very opening of the book as she relays her personal thoughts in first person. Her narration reflects the epistolery style of Dracula, mimicking Jonathan’s personal journal as the internal and emotional conveyance of both characters’ experiences comes immediately to the forefront.

Even the way Bella and Jonathan narrate bare similarities in their styles.

Taking as an example one of the most iconic lines from Twilight, the lines that even made it to the blurb, Bella relays: “about three things I was absolutely positive. First, Edward was a vampire. Second, there was a part of him- and I didn’t know how dominant that part might be- that thirsted for my blood. And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.”

The above mirrors the following passage from Jonathan’s journal from th 16th May:

“Of one thing I am glad: (…)As I look round this room, although it has been to me so full of fear, it is now a sort of sanctuary, for nothing can be more dreadful than those awful women, who were—who are—waiting to suck my blood.”

Firstly, as Bella begins with “about three things I was certain” in her analysis of Edward, Jonathan, in his analysis of his encounter with Dracula’s brides begins with “of one thing I am glad” as the first similarity in their narative patterns. Next comes their assesment of fear, as Jonathan describes his room as a “sanctuary” from the vampiric, and Bella’s second thing of which she is certain is that Edward thirsts for her blood; that phrasing also mimics how Jonathan thinks of the brides as “dreadfcul” and “awful,” and as “waiting to suck [his] blood.” The verbs “thirst” and “suck” both conjure an animalistic and dangerous image that relays the power of the vampires over their victims, but also has a sensual implication- more on that later.

Similarly, the first chapter brings both characters to the start of the metaphorical journeys, of course, but also the literal journeys into the unknown, leading to the danger of the vampiric. Jonathan’s is across Europe to Romania, with his description of his journey further and further East featuring the descent into the chaos of the trainlines, beginning his journal entry for 3rd May with “Left Munich at 8:35 P. M., on 1st May, arriving at Vienna early next morning; should have arrived at 6:46, but train was an hour late.”

Jonathan’s necessity to comment relays how affected he is by his new environment, even already a few days into his trip, emphasizing how different his life gets before he has even encountered the Count. Conversely, Bella is leaving the chaos of her scatterbrained mother Renee and travelling with the semi-professional baseball player Phill, for the stability of her dad Charlie, the Chief of Police in the small town of Forks, Washington. Bella muses on the drizzle, stating that when she’d arrived in Washington, it had been raining, and noting that “[she] didn't see it as an omen — just unavoidable.” She also mentiones comedically that “she'd already said [her] goodbyes to the sun.”

Saying her goodbyes to the sun show the stark contrast of her home in Arizona to the drizzly small town for which she is bound.

Ultimately, both characters are approaching the new and diverse from their comfort zones, with Jonathan studying the cultures, albeit somewhat disparagingly, of Eastern Europe with fascination at their differences to England, and Bella’s incomprehension at the constant rain away from sunny Arizona.

Both Bella and Jonathan are alone in the world of the other, isolated from the world they know, and completely unaware of the darknss their respective new frontiers are hiding. This puts them in the perfect position to be victims of their respective vampires.

But they are not entirely alone.

On his journey to the castle, Jonathan is approached by many locals during his stay in Romania most notably including the old woman who ran the hotel in which he stayed the night of 3rd May, who knowing what could await Jonathan at Dracula’s Castle, wept for his safety and “taking a crucifix from her neck offered it to [him].” Although Jonathan would still face all the horrors at Castle Dracula’s disposal, the crucifix- and the kind act of bestowing it upon him by the old woman- kept him safe.

In much the same pattern, while Bella’s human friends in Forks never learn the truth of what lies just under all their noses, members of the Quilleute tribe are a great aid to Bella’s discovery that something is afoot with the warning that “The Cullens don’t come [to La Push beach].” It is from members of the tribe that she learns of the legend of “the Cold Ones,” and begins the research into what Edward is, leading to her uncovering the truth.

Finally, it is their positions in their respective stories that marks them as parallels, and shows that Bella is Jonathan’s spiritual succesor. Jonathan Harker and Bella Swan are both the gothic heroine of their stories, taken in the night by monsters into the world of the supernatural, and helpless to its allure, as well as caught up in the inescapable romance of the mysterious.

The blog halfmystic.com in positing what a gothic heroine was gave the following line: ”she will have simultaneously multiplied and withdrawn, a hundred women into one, a single woman fragmented in the shards of the memory and tragedy to come.”

Neither Jonathan nor Bella are the same after their adventures in the world of the vampires, with both of them having rushes with death before the last pages of their books are turned.

Jonathan starts his journey as a non-believer in the supernatural, a good, sensible, upstanding member of the Church of England, and of society. He states in the very first entry “I read that every known superstition in the world is gathered into the horseshoe of the Carpathians, as if it were the centre of some sort of imaginative whirlpool.” “Imaginitive” diminishes the notions that any of these “superstitions”are anything more than old wives’ tales, and though he seems to find them interesting, as noted by his memo to “ask the Count,” which is of course also a foreshadowing to his own fate, he does not initially believe in any of what he may have heard before the 3rd May. But by the 29th June, he is a quivvering mess, crying out onto the pages of his journal: “I came back to my room and threw myself on my knees.”

He has truly “fragmented,” his former self shattered, and he has become a manifestation of the “tragedy to come” in his dramatic linguistic tendencies.

Bella also can’t comprehend the mysteries of Edward Cullen, baffled that one being could be as fast and strong, comparing him to superheroes as she cannot fathom him. However, at the beach, when a member of the Quilleute tribe says “The Cullens don't come here,” Bella’s mind starts turning, and while she’s already found Edward to be beyond her comprehension, that line triggers her imagination truly, as Jacob Black tells her the stories of "the cold ones,” which pricks Bella’s ears. halfmystic.com also describes that “a gothic heroine moves slowly, then faster, lured away from any semblance of safety by that quiet promise of something new.”

Bella’s journey from intrigue to a full-blown deep-dive into the supernatural starts slow, but soon after her encounter with Jacob and his friends from his tribe, Bella ends up committing a great deal of time and energy into researching online, “lured way from any semblance of safety by that quiet promise of” knowledge, no matter how dangerous.

All in all, Bella is not only Jonathan’s spiritual successor as a gothic heroine, but as a character, a reimagined Jonathan Harker who explores a new world of mystery, with Bella walking in his footsteps, only to step even further by entering fully into the romance of vampirism… though that is not to say that Jonathan’s tale is not one of romantic daliances with the undead.

More on that later, as first, we must explore how Bella’s paramour Edward fits into the Draculaic parrallel.

Edward Anthony Masen Cullen

Edward Cullen is more mutable than his love interest. Where I immediately saw parallels between Bella and Jonathan, Edward’s position changes in relation to the characters of Dracula. He is the gothic hero to Bella’s heroine, but is also the most direct source of Bella’s danger. Therefore the key comparisons for Edward are of course his fellow vampire Count Dracula, and equally Mina Murray, who acts as Jonathan’s hero.

Beginning with the obvious, Dracula is a parallel for Edward, not merely as a member of the same species, but in their role in their respective stories in many aspects. To get the mentioned obvious out of the way first, the nature of their species as marked out by both Stoker and Meyer bare similarities to one another.

Firstly, key characteristics of Edward’s vampirism, and vampirism in general in Twilight, are laid out by Bella as she researches various myths from around the world, including the Romanian Varacolaci , a powerful undead being who could appear as a beautiful, pale-skinned human,” and “the Slovak Nelapsi , a creature so strong and fast it could massacre an entire village in the single hour after midnight,” all of which are traits that Edward has exhibited, though he may not be as inclined as Bella is to call himself “beautiful.”

Now how does this compare to the vampirism of Dracula?

Firstly, while, unless one has an interest in “long white moustache[s],” it is unlikely that Dracula himself is invisionable as “beautiful,” his oft-called brides, however, most certainly are. Two are described as having “piercing” eyes, and the third “as fair as fair can be,” much like Edward, and then Stoker’s language becomes so very romanticised as Jonathan describes her has having “great wavy masses of golden hair and eyes like pale sapphires.” Most beautiful indeed.

As a brief note, they are often described in terms relating to precious stones: “sapphire eyes,” “teeth that shone like pearls,” and “ruby lips.” Edward is often also associated with precious stones as, among the many shades of yellow used to describe his colour-changing eyes, “topaz” shows up with great frequency.

Next, Dracula’s strength is commented upon in the very scene in which the brides are also introduced, as Jonathan describes his “strong hand” with “giant’s power,” and the “fierce sweep of his arm.” Moreover, it is noted that Dracula carried Jonathan back to his room, just as Edward carries Bella to the nurse’s office, with Bella noting that it was “as easily as if [she] weighed ten pounds instead of a hundred and ten.”

And what of speed? Edward’s penchant for speed even translates to his desire to drive fast, stating “I hate driving slow,” even though Bella points out that they’re still going 80 miles per hour. Dracula similarly must travel at high speed to disguise that there are no servants in his castle, and even the other passengers on the 5th May entry reference Burger’s Lenore, “’Denn die Todten reiten schnell’— ("For the dead travel fast.")”

Edward is not exactly the same breed of vampire as plagues the Carpathians, and also makes a point of debunking certain myths that reference Dracula. Bella asks about “sleeping in coffins,” and why she’s seen him in the day, and he simply responds with a monosylabic “myth,” though eventually expands after some probing. Nonetheless, there aren’t as many differences as naysayers would believe.

Moving onto Dracula as a guide into the world of the supernatural, and Edward as his successor in this role. Dracula picked the wrong victim, as it is Jonathan who eventually becomes Dracula’s demise, and had he not exposed Jonathan to the world of the supernatural, he may have succeeded in his evil schemes. Jonathan knows truly what Dracula is, and knows that he is a being of destruction that he wants to stop. In his 30th June entry, Jonathan refers to Dracula as a “being,” implying his monstruousness, and has inferred that Dracula’s plan is to “for centuries to come […] satiate his lust for blood, and create a new and ever-widening circle of semi-demons to batten on the helpless.”

Jonathan states that “[t]he very thought drove [him] mad,” and that desperate insanity in Jonathan’s tone expresses truly the determination he has to move against the “vile” Dracula.

Meanwhile, Edward is equally catalystic, inviting Bella to meet his coven, which gives her powerful friends and enemies alike, but does not cause the demise of either party, instead leading to both parties gaining greater allyship beyond the story of the first book. Her interactions with the Cullens are friendly, with Alice “kiss[ing] [her] cheek” as an introductory greeting, and Jasper’s gift for empathetic manipulation rendering Bella with a “feeling of ease.” It is clear that these two especially will be friends of Bella’s as time passes,a contrast to Jonathan’s interactions with the vampiric, and yet a comparison to how he engages with the rest of what Tumblr affectionately calls “the Drac Pack.” Jonathan interacts with Dracula with rightful loathing one might have for a captor, but with Mina and everyone else as friend.

Moreover, both Dracula and Edward represent another realm to which Jonathan and Bella have little connection: Aristocracy.

Jonathan seems not to be poor by any means, and as a newly-qualified solicitor, he is likely in a reasonably secure financial position, but he is not an aristocrat. And it is Dracula’s introducing Jonathan to the world of aristocracy that emphasises the imbalance of power between Jonathan and his host, aiding his fall to victimhood. Actually, in one of the earliest interactions that Jonathan has with the count on the 7th May, Dracula speaks of how is status will not be percieved in London as it is in Transylvania, but he emphasises that “[he is] boyar; the common people know [him], and [he is] master.” He then almost immediately asks Jonathan about the house he shall be moving into in London, pulling Jonathan into the role of servant, as a reminder that, at least while they are here, the Count is Jonathan’s superior. The Count is in control.

Bella also is not particularly liable to have had financial struggles in her seventeen years of life, but she too is contrasted to Edward and the Cullens and their flash cars, the least flash of which is Edward’s own Volvo. But Carlisle Cullen spent some time among the vampires known as the Volturi, as described to Bella by Edward in Chapter Sixteen. While little is detailed about them in the first book, Edward notes that Carlisle“greatly admired their civility, their refinement,” giving a ghosting of an implication of the Volturi’s status that becomes imposing and dangerous as the Twilight Saga continues. While Bella is not the victim of the Cullens, or, indeed, the Voluturi, by this point in her journey into the supernaturl, she is in the position of an outsider in another way, which puts Edward in such a powerful position by contrast to her, and comparison to the Count.

It goes without saying that the Volturi read as a direct nod to the regal Dracula in his mysterious European castle. Of the three leaders, Bella’s narration describes them as “two black-haired, one snowy-white.” The dynamic of their coloration is a parallel to the brides also, as well as alluding to Dracula himself with their having the title of "Nighttime patrons of the arts.” Dracula’s love of the “sweet music” of nocturnal creatures is similar in tone.

It is through this wealth and power that the idea of Jonathan and Bella as victims of the vampiric, as it is with this wealth and power that Dracula and Edward can exert a control over their respective victims. The powerful and dangerous Dracula in his isolated castle where anyone else would fear to tread but the unknowing Jonathan, alone in the country in which he is a stranger; the rich and aristocratically-connected Edward who drives fast cars, and his only undoing being Bella herself, the one person whose mind he cannot read.

And it is on that note that the connection to characters other than the villain exists deeply within Edward’s parallels to Dracula.

Edward is as mentioned, a parallel also to Mina Murray, as both are the gothic hero to their respective heroine. Beginning with Mina, Tumblr user incorrectsmashbrosquotes, in frustration at adaptations of Dracula percieved not to do Mina justice vented “Gimme an adaptation where Mina loathes this pestilential demon with every fiber of her being.” I agree with this sentiment, as this is the Mina that I too see, and also the Mina that Edward reflects so brilliantly when Bella is in danger at the climax of the novel. Before the chase from the hunters has truly begun, Edward is described with animalistic rage, as Meyer’s language associates him with a non-human wilderness as he “roar[s] in frustration,” and “hiss[es],” exhibiting the traits of a Mina Murray “driven to stamp out this stain upon the world [that Dracula is] as her husband [Jonathan] is,” just as incorrectsmashbrosquotes desires. As Edward saves Bella from James’ venom, Bella notices “[his]doubt was suddenly replaced with a blazing determination,” reminding me instantly of incorrectsmashbrosquotes’ final assessment: Gimme a Mina with all the fury of Hell behind her.

Edward is not just the spiritual successor to Mina, but has moments of being the adaptation across centuries that Mina deserves.

A Comparison of Relationships

Moving onto how these characters interact, we see that there certainly are parallels to Bella and Edward’s romantic dynamic with how Jonathan interacts, of course with his fiancée and later wife Mina, but also how he interacts with the vampires.

Bella and Edward’s relationship builds through mystery to romance, and touches on a ghosting os sexual desire. The earlier stages of their knowing each other emphasize a forbidden allure that Edward associates with Bella, creating a romantic allure from the inherent temptation of forbiddance. When simply inviting Bella to sit with hi at lunch, Edward says"I decided as long as I was going to hell, I might as well do it thoroughly.” Engaging with Bella is seen as sinfully tempting to him, as though it is she who is the supernatural temptress, and not he who is the dangerous creature. Yet, after only a few more sentences are exchanged in that same interaction, he says “But I'm warning you now that I'm not a good friend for you.”

Even early on, this is a forbidden relationship, tempting like the devil to Adam and Eve, as referenced with the bright red apple in Edward’s hands on the classic cover of the novel.

Jonathan is fed temptation as quickly by the count when he asks on the 7th May entry if he may enter the library as he wishes, and he is told in response:

“You may go anywhere you wish in the castle, except where the doors are locked, where of course you will not wish to go. There is reason that all things are as they are, and did you see with my eyes and know with my knowledge, you would perhaps better understand.”

There is extensive detail which is inherently intrigueing, telling Jonathan that he may go anywhere but where he will not wish to go… it is an intrigue, a tantalising temptation that, like is discussed earlier, moves in on him slowly and then quickly, all at once. On th 15th May, Jonathan’s intrigue has been amused so that, as soon as the count leaves the castlehe relays that he “thought to use the opportunity to explore more than [he] had dared to do as yet.”

Despite Edward’s warnings, Bella is still interested in pursuing at first friendship with Edward and then romantic relationship, just as Jonathan is only tempted to explore once he knows he is not to.

Finally, contact is breeched, entering into a sensual engagement between the parties. Dracula finds his emotions overwhelming, and as Jonathan cuts himself shaving, he describes the Count’s eyes “[blazing] with a sort of demoniac fury, and he suddenly made a grab at [his] throat.” Though through rage, Dracula is overwhelmed by one form of passion or another, marking the beginning of a short-lived pattern of behaviour wherein rage compels contact. Edward, however, has his movements constrained by fear- not of Bella, but of what he might do to her, afraid he might cause trauma as his literary ancestor caused to his own mortal counterpart- as he tentatively takes Bella’s hand, saying to her: "That's amazingly pleasant, the warmth." He is unused to this sensation after almost one hundred years without it, astounded by it. Edward and Bella are so aware of their own differences to one another that touch between them is a remarkable thing, reinforced with their first kiss as Bella’s narration notes: “And then his cold, marble lips pressed very softly against mine.”

While Jonathan never overtly kisses Dracula, the next instance of Dracula’s rage fuelling physical contact between them to address has a significant twist of implied lust underscored. After Jonathan’s encounter with the brides, Dracula rescues him from them, announcing:

"How dare you touch him, any of you? How dare you cast eyes on him when I had forbidden it? Back, I tell you all! This man belongs to me! Beware how you meddle with him, or you'll have to deal with me.”

Firstly, the repetition of “dare” highlights his rage beyond his own comprehension. Secondly, he is possesive over Jonathan as he cries “this man belongs to me,” marking him not just as Dracula’s personal victim and prey, but implying a sexual element to the relationship given the nature of Jonathan’s interaction with the brides. It brings to mind one of Twilight’s most famous quotes: “you are my life now,” which Edward says to Bella as they negotiate the terms of their own intimacy. Dracula and Edward’s possesiveness over Jonathan and Bella respectively has an inherit implied sexuality through their possesiveness, and through the conflicting emotions that charge their tactile encounters. From Jonathan’s perspective also, the touch is repulsive yet enticing, as he says “[he] shuddered as [he] bent over to touch [Dracula], and every sense in [Jonathan] revolted at the contact,” which is overflowing with negativity and revulsion, and yet this is the moment where he has to touch Dracula in order to gain his freedom from him. Conversely, Bella yet again refers to Edward’s touch as cold as “his cold lips pressed against [her] skin” as he saves her from the venom of her attacker James. Yet again, this is a moment in which the touch is described with the negative connotations of the cold, but Edward is saving Bella- moreover Bella describes the pain of the venom as like “fire” and the cold is welcome.

The touches between both dynamics are undesirable and yet tantilising, like a forbidden love. It is a lust that no involved party dares at first to admit. And as Bella and Edward confess their attraction to each other from as early as Bella’s admittance in the prologue, Dracula also reminds the brides that “[y]es, [he] too can love; [the brides] [them]selves can tell it from the past,” dragging involuntarily the notion of romantic love back into the conversation even between him and his latest victim Jonathan. In much the same vein, pun most definitely intended, Edward calls out desperately for Bella after finding her attacked, repeating her name ten times before he can help her, emphasising the desperate emotion.

And what of Jonathan and Mina?

With the comparison of Edward to Mina, we see the other side of his relationship with Bella. While the Dracula connection represents the physical and dangerous aspects of Edward navigating his feelings for Bella, his parallel to Mina shows the insity with which he cares deeply and tenderly for his delicate, too-human mate.

Mina’s heroism comes largely from her initiative, organisation, and intelligence as she rallies the group together, but a significant ammount of what makes her admirable is the way in which she cares so compassionately and selflessly for the sickly Jonathan in Transylvania.

On the 19th August when Mina finally receives news from Jonathan, she immidiately makes her plans to rush to him, even when Sister Agatha has warned she may needed away from home for some time as Jonathan is deathly ill. Mina watches over him and tends to him with the aid of the nuns which brings to mind how Edward watches over Bella.

We see that he watches her sleep, as Bella narrates that she “(…) drifted to sleep in [Edward’s]cold arms,” and the next morning she discovers that he has stayed with her and receives the realisation with great joy. Later, when Bella is in the hospital and the following interaction occurs:

"Bella."He stroked my face anxiously. "I'm not going anywhere. I'll be right here as long as you need me."

Like Mina is to Jonathan, Edward is a comforting presence to Bella and is dedicted to her care. Mina is there as quickly as she can be, setting off straightaway to be at the side of the man she loves. Edward is not only Bella’s saviour from James, but he also provides the comfort she needs by being there for her as she recovers from the ordeal.

With both of these relationship dynamics, what is seen is kindness, gentle care and comfort, and one party being willing to look after the other, embodying the tradtional vow of “in sickness and in health,” and showing one of the key aspects of both how Jonathan views Mina and how Bella views Edward: heroic, angelic, and comforting.

By comparing Mina to Edward, we see another interpretation of what the highest form of intimacy is between Mina and Edward, and their respective lovers. For the comparison between Edward and Dracula, touch- particularly sexual touch- is the apex of the illicit engagement between Dracula and Jonathan, and between Edward and Bella. But by seeking comparative aspects between Edward and Bella’s relationship to Jonathan and Mina’s another aspect of a relationship dynamic such as these is brought to the fore: not base, carnal desire and the intimacy of knowing another’s body, but the emotional and intelligent desire and deep intimacy of knowing the other’s mind.

Edward is established to be able to read minds in Port Angeles after saving Bella from unsavoury characters when she is separated from her friends. When he takes her to dinner, he says that he “heard what [the attackers] were thinking,” and Bella narrates her description of how his face contorts when he remembers their vile thoughts, relaying “he growled, his upper lip curling slightly back over his teeth.” Edward uses this ability to protect Bella, saving her from them in the nick of time.

Similarly, Mina, as she approaches the full throws of vampirism can be used as a sort of pendulum to hunt Dracula as she has developed a kind of psychic connection to him. On the 29th October, Dr Seward’s journal notes of how Mina, under hypnosis, has revealed that Dracula is being brought upsteam. On the 2nd November, Van Helsing uses hypnosis again to establish Dracula’s current position via Mina yet again.

Both Edward and Mina can use their vampiric telepathy for the good of others, especially for the protection of those they love, yet both of them share the same blockage to their gifts as neither can read the mind of their significant other. Edward has “one exception” to his gift, as implied to Bella in Port Angeles, and Mina’s connection to Dracula under hypnosis seems to be limited to that specific connection and under those specific conditions.

In order to discover the untimacies of their significant others’ minds, Edward and Mina both have to investigate beyond the use of their supernatural gifts. Edward and Bella talk and try to figure each other out, Bella as a mortal who cannot read minds, but Edward as a vampire who has only one mind he cannot read- the one he wants to read most- which places the knowledge of the mind on almost a higher level than the carnal knowledge of a body.

Edward and Bella make a habit of taking it in turns to ask each other questions to work the other out like a puzzle, and Mina uses her talents as a stenographer to piece together the journals and newspaper clippings and doctors’ logs that have been gathered over the months since Jonathan went to Transylvania, giving special importants to the diary of Jonathan himself.

Jonathan does not trust himself with the journal anymore, as revealed when Mina arrives in Budapest to take care of him. However, he trust her with the deepest intimacies of his most horrified mind. As if to emphasise the high pedestal on which intellectual intimacy is put in their relationship, Mina seals the journal with wax, promising not to read them unless she has to for Jonathan’s sake.

Mina and Jonathan’s relationship is one of trust, represented by the gift of Jonathan’s innermost thoughts, and Mina choosing not to read them unless she has to. Similarly, Edward has no choice but to respect Bella’s boundaries, and so Bella slowly opens up to him as they get closer.

It is the intimacy of knowledge of the mind, and the trust that comes with that.

Conclusion

For over a decade, Twilight has received flack, as have the girls who read it and watched the films, especcially from those who believed the vampires were neutered and that Twilight was too far-removed from the classics of the vampire genre. But by comparing it to the quintessential vampire novel Dracula, we see that Twilight has direct comparisons to the classics, as well as deep connections to one of the most revered contributions to the genre from over a hundred years before its publication.

Twilight acts as a far truer spiritual successor to Dracula than was believed by many, and contributes greatly to the vampire genre, earning its place rightfully.

#essay #pink academia #pinkacademic #pink academic essays #twilight #twilight saga #twilightcore #count dracula #dracula #dracula daily #jonathan harker #mina murray #bella swan #edward cullen

22 notes · View notes

emmalovesfitzloved · 5 months

Note

Tell me a few things you love about Wessa!

Ahhh another ask from my fav Shadowhunter blogger! Wohoo! These are the first two things that comes to my head. But there are MORE ;)

Their dark academia aesthetic

The Dark academia aesthetic of their relationship. Now while this may come across as superficial, its more then just "loving books". It's the chaise and adventure they find in books that they then live by in their real lives. How they challenge each other in a conversation and insider jokes they share tethered in the novels they consume. Let the other rant about their favourite things and celebrate novels that invite the reader into more journeys beyond just their own. And the way they talk about characters, morals and plots as experiences and people they know almost intimately. How their choice of words matters, and they are economical about their feelings. Dark over light academia bc London is a dank dark city ahaha. And they feel well deep rather than feather light.

Their timeless love

Somewhat still related to novels, but I feel like what Cassandra Clare did with Wessa was the melting pot of all our favourite literary tropes/heroines in classical literature. Which gives it a sense of timelessness and makes them feel like they are 'endgame'.

I wrote previously that Tessa is the perfect blend between Jane Eyre and Elizabeth Bennet. She retains Jane Eyre’s contemplativeness, slight shyness, physical features, dry sarcasm and strong sense of self-actualisation. But also Elizabeth’s wildness, snappiness, boldness, passionate love and will for happiness, all without the arrogance that came with Austen’s heroine.

Meanwhile Will's darker side reminds me of Mr. Darcy in how he pushes those he loves away. John Thornton from North and South who is set in his ways slightly stalkerish (i'm a sucker for the stalker trope sorry not sorry) Will retains the mystery of Edward Rochester, where there is more depth to him that meets the eye and heck even Tessa says at one point that his mood swings remind him of the treacherous Heathcliff. Most of all he reminds me of Alexander from The Bronze Horseman (which only came out in the 90's but technically it came out before TID and is already considered a classic). Alexander and Will overlap in how they sacrifice their love and longing for a greater peace (War and to not upset a family) all for the love of their other one. They are deeply flawed and challenge the reader on their tolerance for forgiveness .

“I love you. I’m blind for you, wild for you. Sick with you. I told you that our first night together when I asked you to marry me, I am telling you now. Everything that’s happened to us, everything, is because I crossed the street for you. I worship you. You know that through and through…” (The Bronze Horseman)

“Alexander, you broke my heart. But for carrying me on your back, for pulling my dying sled, for giving me your last bread, for the body you destroyed for me, for the son you have given me, for the twenty-nine days we lived like Red Birds of Paradise, for all our Naples sands and Napa wines, for all the days you have been my first and last breath, for Orbeli- I will forgive you. ” (The Summer Garden).

And you find you can, because their love and longing for their partner is almost holy and like a religion to them. Those we love the most, hurt us the most, but in turn, they are also those who deserve the most grace and Mercy. If not for them, then for who?

"You are not the last dream of my soul. You are the first dream, the only dream I ever was unable to stop myself from dreaming. You are the first dream of my soul, and from that dream I hope will come all other dreams, a lifetime’s worth." (Clockwork Prince).

This, coupled with the stakes of their relationship then as a unite (and also separately) echos a timber that reminds me of the setting we find in 19th century Russian literature (but with an HEA tysm CC my heart can't take it). This tragic longing we see in Anna Karenina where any choice Tessa makes she looses something in the same breath. The high apocalyptic war torn feel of War and Peace alongside the feeling of doom you get right at Chapter 1 in Clockwork Angel like we did in Crime and Punishment, when Raskolnikov kills a man, and it's all downhill from there.

Conclusion

CC wrote these two with the aim that they remain true to the history of their time, but blended it in with fresh modern air for us to be able to relate to and TRULY succeed. Who knew a historical romance about two book lovers could escalate so highly in the ranks? Now while they are so high up in the ranks of GOAT-ed couples in literature, they aren't without their flaws. Mainly not bc of the narrative or the character's choices but more to do with CC's discontinuation of their story linearly past TID. But that's a different ask for another time and tbh, that's where I seek out lovely fanfictions like the ones you create in order to fill in the blind spots CC didn't fill.

Thank you for this ask! I hope this was worth the read ILY @ibrushmyteeth-donttellanyone♡

Artistic Credit: Cassandra Jean

#ask #Wessa #Essay #essay on wessa #TID #The Infernal Devices #Shadowhunters Essay #Cassandra Clare #I WANT MORE WESSA

12 notes · View notes

dirty-pretty-jackal-s · 5 months

Text

How The Libertines got it together to make their fourth album

More than twenty years after spearheading England's latest rock n roll revolution, Pete Doherty and Carl Barat tell Rolling Stone UK about the genesis of All Quiet on the Eastern Esplanade, their upcoming fourth album.

By Nick Reilly

“We were in a glass studio at the top of a hill in the middle of a hurricane,” recalls The Libertines’ Pete Doherty. “All these birds kept getting confused and flying into the glass. There was a full-on eagle flying straight into it and, in the middle of all this, the Queen’s funeral was on the telly. It was quite apocalyptic really.”

Scenes like these, which occurred when Doherty and bandmate Carl Barât decamped to Jamaica for a writing trip in late 2022, feel perfectly representative of the way that The Libertines have existed for the past 20 years: constantly teetering on the thinnest of precipices between success and unparalleled chaos.

When the group first emerged at the turn of the century, they were the poster boys for England’s latest rock’n’roll revolution, a direct answer to the New York indie scene that was exploding across the pond, spearheaded by The Strokes.

But wherever The Libertines went, turmoil followed. The group became slowly fractured, in large part due to Doherty’s much-publicised battle with heroin addiction, before splitting in 2004.

Nineteen years later, it’s a very different state of play for the Likely Lads. Doherty has been clean of hard drugs since 2020, while the group — which also consists of bassist John Hassall and drummer Gary Powell — are readying themselves for the release of their fourth album All Quiet on the Eastern Esplanade in March next year.

The follow-up to 2015’s Anthems for Doomed Youth is, according to Barât, the sound of a band in the most harmonious part of their career to date. “Our last album was a snapshot of The Libertines in disarray, whereas this album reflects The Libertines when we’re not like that,” Barât tells me. “There’s more harmony at the moment, which is useful for a band, innit. Things had drifted off at some point, but now I think they’re nicely back together again.”

One listen to the new record and it is immediately clear what Barât means. The ramshackle charm of their early work is back once more, but it’s tempered with a sense of reflecting on their here and now. Lead single ‘Run, Run, Run’ is a classic Libs back-and-forth between Doherty and Barât, but it also homes in on the idea of being a “lifelong project of a life on the lash” — something these two forty-something musicians can more than relate to.

“It’s autobiographical. It’s about us, it’s about time, and it’s about the world moving on and you know, not knowing if you’re running towards something or away from something,” Barât says.

It’s also helped by the fact that The Libertines have their own bonafide HQ down in Margate too. The album was recorded at the Albion Rooms, the studio and hotel that the group set up in 2019. “We were all there living together. First at the Albion Rooms and then at this place in Normandy, where I live,” says Doherty. “It felt like a collective, but we became this little unit, on a mission to get this album done.”

Now, it’s over to Pete and Carl to share the whole story behind All Quiet on the Eastern Esplanade.

We’re speaking hours after ‘Run, Run, Run’ was released. How do you feel now that the first Libertines song in eight years is out there?

Doherty: I’m fucking excited. Not that I was never not excited about things we’ve released, but you hear this one on the radio, and it really hits what we call the sweet spot. It hits with a precision that you might compare to a guided missile, though in the current climate it might not be appropriate to talk about guided missiles. But look, I’m proud of the lads. We’ve hit the back of the net, and I’m over the moon.

Carl, you said recently that 2015’s Anthems for Doomed Youth never felt like a proper Libertines album. Why was that and why does this record feel like a proper album?

Barât: It does feel like I’ve given that album a kicking, but I do love it. It was just a snapshot of the Libertines in disarray, whereas this one is a snapshot of us not in disarray. Which is just lucky timing and helpful when you’re making an album, innit?

Doherty: I just want to say one more thing about ‘Run, Run, Run’. We reached a point late on where we only had nine finished songs, and we were scratching around for a brand-new song when Carl pulled that one out and played it. I just said, “Where have you been fucking hiding that?!” He wasn’t sure about it and whether to hide it, but we ended up recording it in two days straight. We have these weird, sacred moments where we play each other the songs we’ve come up [with], and we’re never sure what everyone else will think. Carl was unsure about it, but I said we had to record it the minute I heard it.

There’s been a fair bit of drama in your own friendship too over the years. Where do we find Pete and Carl in 2023?

Barât: I feel like being together and doing what we do without any distractions has naturally brought us together. We’ve got so much in common, and we’ve shared so much, and our chemistry together is unchanging. At this time, we’re in the best possible place I think we can be.

The business side too? This sounds like a different Pete to the one of old…

Doherty: Yeah, well, we’re looking to commercialise things ’cos we need to keep the Albion Rooms ticking over if we want to keep the venue and studio going. That’s hard work as we get a lot of young bands in to help them out. We’re not turning over a profit, but we’re staying afloat, which is exactly what we wanted with the Albion Rooms. And with energy prices being what they are too, I wanted to build a wind farm at the Albion Rooms.

A wind farm?!

Doherty: Yeah! I wanted to get a mini wind farm put on our studio extension, so I had the idea to put a small turbine on the roof. But you’re not allowed to do that, which for me doesn’t make any sense because surely that’s what we’re looking to do, isn’t it? For people to be self-sustaining and using renewable energy. We should get every street to have its own mini turbine. But the council in Margate wouldn’t let us do it.

It sounds like you’re living a more Zen existence in 2023…

Doherty: We used to live in a squat in Albion Road in Stoke Newington, and I was always amazed by this fella who used to live in a caravan out the back who ran the squat. We used to call him Delvin the Wizard, and he’d generate the power for his caravan on a converted exercise bike. I always thought that was amazing. It had never occurred to me before [that] that side of society existed. People who just wanted to break free from the system or live off-grid. But it’s actually quite simple, and it’s even more so the case now. We’ve got the technology for it, solar panels and wind turbines. So yeah, I’m all for a fucking green revolution, me. But a proper one, to put the power back in the hands of the people and to let them pedal their own fucking power! Why not? It makes perfect sense.

Pete, this is the first Libertines album you’ve made since becoming clean of drugs in 2020. How has the process changed in that sense? Less shambolic, I imagine?

Doherty: I just never used to enjoy being in the studio. I never really tried to spend too much time in there. It was always a question of having the songs ready, recording them, and then pissing off, to be blunt about it. I had better things to do; I wanted to score. But this time around, the songs weren’t ready, so I had to be there with Carl and the boys, finishing off the ones we have and then writing others together.

It was touch and go for a while for those first few weeks because we were trying to get into the pattern of living together — on top of each other. But fortunately, we were all in the same space and we really wanted to get it done. The most difficult part was the lyrics. We’d put the lyrics off until it became this mad blur of broken typewriters, I think we went through about six of them.

Barât: What’s that old saying? A fair day’s work for a fair day’s reward. We eventually managed to get around to that.

There’s a social urgency on this record, unlike other Libertines albums too. There’s the image of what it’s like to be a refugee in Brexit Britain on ‘Merry Old England’.

Barât: For me, we’ve always written about escape, and maybe there’s been a change in how we’ve embraced the world. But there’s definitely still an escapist element too, because we’re centring songs around Margate, which is where we’re ultimately based.

You’ve always discussed this feted ideal of Albion in your songs, which is an Old English name for Great Britain. How would you describe Albion in 2023?

Doherty: It’s many things. It can be two twins sat at home watching an old clip of a Libertines video, and their dad going, “Who’s this? The local pub band?” It’s a taxi driver short-changing a tourist. It’s a taxi driver being really kind to a tourist. It’s a little feeling in my stomach. It’s hard to describe it, but it’s a sense of homeliness, a recurring theme you’ve always come back to.

youtube

Pete, what’s an average day like for you in 2023? You seem to be living what seems like a rural and idyllic existence.

Doherty: I don’t know. Mind your business. My wife always complains when I say too much about our life. We’re trying to build a life for ourselves, and I just keep my head down really. I’ll walk the dogs in the forest, look after my new baby, watch a bit of telly. Do a bit of writing. I’d be lying if I said it was all perfect, but that’s we’re doing. Living it together and trying to build a life.

You both went to Jamaica in 2022 for a writing trip. How much of it was writing and how much of it was trying to strengthen your friendship?

Doherty: People thought we were off to Jamaica to just drink loads of rum, take loads of coke and go round on paddleboards. It wasn’t like that at all. We genuinely got our heads down to make some decent tunes and thought we had done, but when we got back it was all over the place.

Barât: Some of the stuff we recorded there did end up on the record. We had to have that trip because we weren’t necessarily ready to be full Libertines again, and we needed to go somewhere really far away. Why not pick somewhere really beautiful while you’re at it?

It seems like you’re both in a really good space, then. Was there ever a point over the past 20 years when you didn’t think you’d get here?

Barât: I’ve had a lifelong battle with depression of my own, to be honest with you. Pete’s problems didn’t help, but I always did my best to be supportive and understanding because we all have these problems and were never able to name them. Whether it’s depression or addiction, but I’ve had a lot of chaos and my own problems.

Doherty: It’s taken some absolutely unearthly skills for me to be standing here. Well, not standing, but slouching. I think I’ve been pretty on my toes, to be honest, dodging bullets. I’m full of holes [points to needle marks in his arms] but the bones are just about holding together. I’m battle-scarred and stumbling, but still here.

Pete, how often do you think about your friends that weren’t so lucky? You were close friends with Amy Winehouse.

Doherty: It’s quite difficult for me to talk about. Both Amy and Alan Wass [Doherty’s friend who died of a heroin injection], I listen to their music most days. So, I do think about it all, but I’d rather just not say offhand comments. My heart breaks when I think about some things, and this is just one of them.

But ultimately though, there’s a sense of harmony in The Libertines at the moment?

Doherty: Yeah, and the Albion Rooms has been a huge part of that. There’s no better feeling in the world, for me, than just sitting there in the gloom of an afternoon as some young band rolls up. They really believe in what they’re doing and getting out their guitars, tuning up and going through their songs while the low Margate sun shines through. I just love that. That’s what it’s about, and it just takes me back because they were the best moments for me in our early days. Just getting our guitars out and making a proper bit of noise.

#the libertines #carl barat #carlos barat #peter doherty #rolling stone #interview #all quiet on the eastern esplanade #new songs #videos #john hassall #gary powell #Youtube

7 notes · View notes

prettyboysdontlookatexplosions · 2 years

Text

liberal arts major brain: while the modern reader may find it jarring that a heroine so full of vim and so enamored of shorthand and lady journalists as mina would distance herself from the New Woman, a few things bear keeping in mind. first, mina is intelligent and passionate and in her own very protestant way ambitious - she desires above all else to be useful - but she is also very much a normie, and joining the project of expanding the roles permissible for women to take has always required a greater comfort with being part of a cultural vanguard than most people have. we lose something important in our understanding of our history as women and as feminists if we forget how much boldness was once required for nearly every liberty which now we take for granted, and we lull ourselves into the same kind of arrogance that so endangers the cast of this novel if we assume that we are now at last so perfectly empowered that there are no rituals of gender to which we cling out of familiarity and fear, regardless of the story we’ve woven for ourselves about our preference and our choice. truly we ought to hope, every last one of us, that our metaphorical granddaughters will look back at some ordinary feature of our lives and think it hopelessly regressive, and wonder how even smart independent women could have found it acceptable. in some ways mina is every woman with a college degree and a job who isn’t a feminist, she just believes in equal rights, and who would never (contrary to mina’s later prediction about the New Woman!) dream of being the one to propose; she’s my mom, who raised me to be and call myself a feminist and who also literally would not allow me, even after a screaming match in the nordstrom shoe department, to go to my own prom in flats. it’s a mistake, and a misogynist one, to read the attachment of women to gendered norms as inherently revealing of their individual attachments to the constraints of womanhood rather than as a reflection of the genderless human resistance to breaking cultural taboos in the specific context of one of the fundamental organizing hierarchies of basically all human societies, including ours right now, and certainly including victorian england.

second, while the New Women represented an expansion of women’s liberties and possibilities, patriarchy over time has proved durably adept at ensuring that such evolutions always come with a cost. any rallying cry can be coopted into an ideal, and any ideal can be sold; as well as being both scorned and praised, the New Woman could be advertised to, and she was. her radicalism could be eroded as her image was diffused beyond the political and artistic circles in which she arose, and that image could be received by ordinary women as a standard to emulate or fail to live up to. it has been observed that if you trace the course of women’s rights and freedom from the first wave of feminism to the present day, you find moving in tandem with that progress a shifting series of expectations that the modern woman is asked that meet, goalposts keeping her ever at a distance from being permitted simply to exist. you can see this even just in the realm of fashion: as women’s clothing became less restrictive, the demands of bodily self-policing imposed on and internalized by became more so, as new beauty norms rose to prominence, often rebranded as health (thinness) or hygiene (hairlessness) or, in the twenty-first century, self-care (twelve-step skincare routines). it’s interesting that in this, the first and more negative mention of the New Woman, this is the aspect that mina seems to be referring to: the reason she imagines the New Women would look down on her and lucy is not their lack of worldly ambitions or interest in homemaking for their husbands - it’s that they eat too much!

and that’s what i find particularly interesting about the way the New Woman is first invoked in this novel of all novels: she is presented as a creation of modernity distinguished by her disciplined appetite, in a story about a creature from centuries past made terrifying by his monstrous appetite. i’m fascinated by that - by the fact that it would feel logical to me, from my smug vantage point in the future, for stoker to reinforce the virtuousness of his heroes by granting them some kind of bodily asceticism to stand in contrast to dracula’s defiling maw and even renfield’s obscene tastes, but he didn’t see it. it makes it feel, to me, like the novel is not against appetite but against its perversion - and while it’s obvious stoker and i would have rather different definitions of what counts as perverse, that categorical distinction feels significant as part of what has made it possible for me to become sincerely emotionally engaged in this book across our palpable and wide gap in sensibilities and ideology. it’s fine, in the world of the novel, for mina and lucy to have their capital “severe tea” and stroll lazily home on vacation. that’s a small thing, but not a meaningless one, i think.

dumbass brain: damn i can’t believe bram stoker literally said Real Women Have Curves

#dracula daily

116 notes · View notes

daywalkers-fic · 3 months

Text

12. why the 1880s?

something about this decade really sings to me. I find in particular, nearing the end of the nineteenth century, so much was happening on around the world in terms of arts, politics, technology, colonization. world events and global news don’t personally reach the day-to-day lives of the everyday folk, but they are an important part in gauging what life, thought, and society was about—what things were important then and now?

basically for myself, reminding me of notable things that occured during the 1880s—some thematic, some of relevance to context and characters, and the rest just ?? interesting and/or wild?

cocaine is a hot new cure for everything and anything. perscribed, sold in foods and more. heroine introduced as a lesser-addictive substitute for morphine…

lots of developments in fields of psychology; many experiments and happenings; Freud starts his work 1886.

1880-1914 had +twenty million immigrants to the United States: Germany, Ireland, England, China had the most arrivals.

William Dorsey Swann, the first self-proclaimed drag queen, organizes a series of drag balls in Washington, D.C. 1880-1890s.

Jack the Ripper claims his “first” victim in 1888 White Chapel, London. big scare.

Sherlock Holmes first appears in Arthur Conan Doyle’s A Study In Scarlet as part of the British magazine’s Beeton’s Christmas Annual in 1887.

Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson is published in 1886. Gothic fiction, drawing from emerging fields of science and psychology. & Treasure Island was published earlier in 1883 by him too!

Mark Twain drops The Prince and the Pauper (1881), Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889).

Bel-Ami, Guy de Maupassant’s second novel is published in 1885. about a man who seduces and manipulates high society French women in the French colonies for power and wealth. MOVIE WAS ADAPTED IN 2012 STARTING ROBERT PATTINSON LOL

western European art movements very romantic and swirly and pretty: Monet, Debussy xoxo.

meanwhile, African American ragtime music becomes the “pop” music across the pond here.

North Dakota (1889), South Dakota (1889), Montana (1889), Washington (1889) become states.

train segregation laws flag beginning of Jim Crow; Civil Rights Movement of 1875 voided, making discrimination in private is not illegal, and prohibiting state intervention to personal or commercial segregation. l*nching continues throughout the south. slavery may be over on paper, but indentured labour is legal.

1882 infamous O.K Corral gunfight.

Gold Rush continues, all over the world—South Africa, to British Columbia, to California, to Argentina, to Russia-China borders.

centuries of American “Indian” wars continue.

American Dawes Act of 1887 granted American government authorization to regulate indigenous lands, including creating and assigning and enforcing reservations.

Sitting Bull’s 1883 speech of the atrocities experienced at the hands of white American settler colonists.

Canadian Pacific Railway 1881-1885. foreign labourers were hired to do a lot of heavy, dangerous, unwanted work. in America, more than 100,000km of tracks were laid by majority Chinese, Irish, Scandinavian workers.

America’s Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and Canada’s Chinese Immigration Act of 1885 was officiated, enforcing law of a Head Tax to be paid for every Chinese person entering North America. over the course of the next couple of decades, the fee of $1,500 was doubled to $5,000 was increased 500% to $25,000 in today’s currency—per person. this had devastating and lasting impacts on generations and societies of Chinese living both overseas and already in North America. propaganda at this time created many racist myths that persist today: there are too many Asians, they are taking our jobs, (the men) are gross and effeminate and a threat to (white) women, they shady and scheming people. these were the first and only major federal legislation to explicitly suspend immigration for a specific nationality in American and Canadian history. (I study Asian Canadian history, I can go on about this all day)

Tong Wars (1883-1913) had Chinatown gangs and factions in violent street wars across America, San Fransisco to New York.

large, targeted, and repeated anti-Jewish rioting (pogorm) and antisemitism rampant throughout Imperial Russia, 1881-1882 had more than two hundred anti-Jewish events alone. Jews continue to be racialized and othered.

fuck ton of colonization happening in Africa and the Middle East, Southeast Asia. Berlin conference 1884-1885 literally chopped up Africa to distribute to European powers.

Irish nationalist efforts to push forth Home Rule bill of sovereignty is defeated in British Parliament. Irish are not “white”, they are “othered” in Europe and in Americas.

use of photographic film pioneered by George Eastman, who started manufacturing film. his first camera (Kodak) was ready for sale in 1888.

Thomas Edison gets lit in New York 1883 with first electrical power station. next several year sees major cities being lit up with street lamps and public lighting with the science and works of a Nikolas Tesla (1886-1893).

hell of a lot more inventions in the works and patents being claimed. Hertz and radiowaves, Bell for telephone services.

“Between the years of 1850–1900, women were placed in mental institutions for behaving in ways the male society did not agree with”

way too much history to cram, obviously. here are some keywords for further research oki

prison industry / spiritualism / opium epidemic / irregular and uneven “modernizations” in rural vs. urban areas / class and poverty gaps / morality scares, checks, comparisons, gaps / new businesses and gadgets, products, tech to help with anything / fascination of the (colonial) Other; side shows, “freak shows” and other human zoos

#update #victorian era #1880s #1800s #1880s history #update: research #writing research #drugs cw #lynching cw #inventions #technology #gold rush #ref: poc history #ref: indigenous history #ref: black history #ref: queer history #ref: womxn history #ref: research #american history

5 notes · View notes

spaceshipkat · 1 year

Note

Hey Kat! So i'm reading CCity right now and there's a really weird passage about wraiths and aging being seen as a punishment, or at least something terrible:

"Vainer wraiths switched [bodies] often, usually at the first sign of aging", and "It had been Micah’s punishment for her rebellion: to trap her within this body [...] For two hundred years, Vik had been contained, forced to weather the slow erosion of the body, now plainly visible: the thin lines starting to carve themselves around her eyes, the crease now etched in her forehead above the tattoo’s twining band of thorns."

First my reaction was to shrug it off as a lore thing for the race of wraiths, despite SJM's usual tendency to equate beauty and youth to righteousness as seen in TOG and Acotar, but then I thought about it more and... It's kinda sad.

Through the narration in this passage, she equates wanting to look young to being vain and judges others for it, but isn't it what she's doing herself? Her heroines are all young and pretty women, while the antagonists and old and ugly (or at least deceptively so) women. I found it particularly apparent in Throne of Glass with the majority of cast being women, and the opponent/foes being older like Amarantha and Darrow. There's no one older who is good right from the start.

It's a bit worrying that, even within what can be described as wraith culture in CCity, SJM looks so scared of aging and growing old. It is by all means a natural process, but in so much instances she makes it appear as something terrible in her lit, even though she's also aging (being 36 years old now in 2022). But it's so... sad. She's not going to stay an Aelin-wannabe elf girlie forever, and she will be 40 in 4 years— which is by no means old, but it's not 20 you know? I don't know if she's so sucked up by her own works and the general YA tendency to have 16-20 years old heroines, but I hope she can make peace with that even though our culture isn't going to do so anytime soon.

(by the way i'm not counting the rowans and other people who are 2000 years old since they all look like instagram models but that should be obvious)

remember in hoeab where Bryce and Danika talk about wanting to make the Drop at age...ah fuck, lemme go look in my copy, standby.

Twenty-seven was the ideal age to make the Drop, they’d decided together, after years of mercilessly judging the various immortals who marked their lives by centuries and millennia. Right before any permanent lines or wrinkles or gray hairs. They merely said to anyone who inquired, What’s the point of being immortal badasses if we have sagging tits? Vain assholes, Fury had hissed when they’d explained it the first time.

this just kinda proves yet again that sjm is at least partially aware of what she writes and yet writes it anyway. i'm 28, and i can safely say my boobs haven't sagged, i don't have "permanent lines or wrinkles or grey hairs" yet, but even if i did it's not a bad thing? i got pissed off when my little sister, who is 23, was invited by her coworker (who is in her late 20s or early 30s, i believe) to go get botox bc my little sister is twenty fucking three and there is no reason for her to get botox yet. or ever. i get SO pissed when people talk about aging like it's a bad thing. my knees aren't great anymore, through a mixture of chronic pain and perhaps being almost 30, but that's just part of being alive!

if there's one thing sjm should learn from haunting antis' blogs, it should be that aging isn't a bad thing and to treat it as some villainous step on the path of life is just feeding into a beauty standard that exists to hurt everyone, no matter what they look like.

sometimes, though, it's very clear that sjm writes the characters she does to live out some kind of fantasy she's never been able to experience. and like, fine! so many authors do that! but don't try to stuff her misguided beliefs about aging (amongst other things) down everyone's throats. keep your misguided beliefs to yourself ffs (her books blah blah but as soon as they hit the shelves her intention no longer matters and the words have to speak for themselves. the message they're sending is very much Aging Is Bad)

#ask #anonymous #anti sjm #anti hoeab

20 notes · View notes

mermaidsirennikita · 4 months

Text

ARC Review: Never Blow a Kiss by Lindsay Lovise

3/5. Releases 1/23/2024.

Vibes: plucky meets growly, "Miss Scarlet and The Duke", mystery, and Grace Callaway but make it tamer

Scrappy widow Emily Loverton is recruited into a spy network of governesses who make it their mission to collect secrets about the ton's elite. However, she runs into a snag when she catches the attention of the wealth and self-made Zach... just as he's on the hunt for a killer.

So. This did genuinely remind me of Grace Callaway (albeit with a lot less heat, though this is sexy and open door) which is always a good thing. The heroine is sassy and fun, the hero is like "oh my God woman will you just sit STILL" which is also enjoyable. But, and I hate to say this because I really dislike when people nitpick over this... it does have a very modern feel. To the point that even for me, it was a little much. And it really isn't so much Emily's job, or the vigilante stuff, and it obviously wasn't the sex. It was something in the writing style.

Which is why I think this will totally appeal to a ton of people. It just didn't quite work for me.

Quick Takes:

--Emily and Zach do have a really fun little interplay this is very romcom-y, and that's good because there is actually some pretty dark content here. Aside from the, you know, murders, Emily has a bit of a tragic backstory, and a really shitty past with her late husband. There's a bit of "relearning to love" in all of that, as well as a solid amount of "teaching her that sex can be healthy and fun", which I always like. I feel that Lovise treated the abuse with a gentle hand, but if that does trigger you, be on the lookout.

--I really appreciated that Emily and Zach aren't aristos. It's actually kind of rare to find a historical in which neither one of the leads is a true blueblood. It added to a sense of like.. understanding between them. And it made Zach hotter, for the record.

--What I really couldn't get into, like I said before, was the true modernity of the dialogue and writing. At points, it really felt like I was reading about a pair of twenty-first century leads, and I truly, REALLY hate to say that because it is one of my least favorite, often inaccurate critiques of historical romance novels.

But Emily and Zach do go back and forth with some pretty "today" verbiage. There are descriptions that just feels so incredibly... now. I don't want to give away too much, but there was a moment when the term "butt cheeks" was used... And look dude. I'm not a historian. For all I know, that was used at some point in the nineteenth century. Never say never. However, that took me out of the entire scene, (and I'll be honest--I don't super love that phrasing in contemporaries either because it does feel pretty immature to me, but that's a taste thing) and I couldn't really stop thinking about it for the rest of the book.

I actually don't know how much I blame the author for that, though? To me, it kind of read like she was trying her best to write a good historical romance with some mystery (and in a lot of ways she succeeded) but perhaps was not... enmeshed in the subgenre? Which is okay! I don't think you need to be an expert on the history of historical romance to write a solid historical. But I do kind of have questions, and at the end of the day that issue really could've been handled by an editor that was like "let's make this sound a little more antique". Easy fixes, honestly, but noticeable to the reader.

--All this being said, if you enjoy a fun, fast-paced (because it is very fast-paced) romance with some mystery, this could definitely work for you. I can see MacLean fans who want something a little less mired in the historical enjoying this. I can see people who like Grace Callaway but want something lower heat enjoying this.

The Sex:

That said, while this isn't high heat, I wouldn't call it low heat either. There are some good sex scenes (aside from that one word choice). I really enjoyed reading Emily learning about oral sex. To me, there's a real guilty pleasure to a "widow knows some sex but not good sex" book, and this did that well.

While it wasn't for me, I don't want to suggest that Never Blow a Kiss was bad. With a few tweaks, I think it could be a lot stronger. That said, there is an audience for this, and I'm sure they'll get a kick out of it.

Thanks to Netgalley and Forever for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

#romance novel blogging #arc reviews #netgalley #book reviews #romance novels books #books

3 notes · View notes

twenty-first-century-ki-laila · 1 year

Note

Explain your url like its a movie plot you can use your mutuals as characters if you like, tag 5 people and send them the ask

So I did this in response to you tagging me. But it ended up being a story kinda thing.

But now I'm doing it the proper way.

My URL is the story of a very delusional girl. Who lives in her own bubble and thinks that everything is good and she'll be good in the future, but then her bubble pops. Little dove has to go through life, which isn't anything like she imagined. And she is terrified of everything. So she finds her solace in imagining love stories in her head where she is the heroine. She is a hopeless romantic and dreams of falling in love one day, which she assumes will put an end to all her miseries. But she forgets that she lives in an era when finding someone willing to do the bare minimum is quite tough. And finding her dreamy lover who will take all her problems away is out of question. So as she slips into the reality where she finds herself strangely alone as her demons feed on her brains in this decomposing world full of rotten hearted people. She is the Laila of the twenty-first century. The Laila without a Majnu. Laila living without her beloved Qais.

#ask reply #tumblr asks

13 notes · View notes

isfjmel-phleg · 1 year

Text

So you know that heroine from a classic children's book? The one who is loud and outspoken, constantly mouths off to everyone, exhibits performative acts of championing the downtrodden, communicates with her friends almost entirely through insults and sarcasm, is a devoted writer looking for the drama in everything, dresses in boys' clothes, rails against corsets, defies convention at every opportunity simply because it's there, sneers at religious beliefs, swears for the shock factor, and in general thinks and acts like she's from the twenty-first century despite living in the 1860s?

You probably were not thinking of Mary Lennox. I wouldn't. But that's basically her characterization in A Secret Princess (a recent YA mash-up of Burnett's three best-known children's books).

#random personal stuff #all the other characters were misrepresented too #but this characterization was the most egregious #Mary like Jo is an unconventional heroine who therefore tends to get traits that she doesn't actually have projected onto her by the fandom #in the name of girl-boss-ification or something #Mary starts off as prickly and difficult and stubborn but she's also pretty withdrawn #she's not particularly snarky and she's not all about deliberately defying convention #and her worst traits are not seen as admirable! she is in need of character development and that's a good thing!#she's a more interesting character for it #(and no - 1860s isn't a mistake - the book is actually set then despite all of Burnett's books in question appearing 20-50 years later)#(full commentary later but I did not care for this book. at all.)

11 notes · View notes

little-lazuli · 9 months

Text

𝚃𝚊𝚐 & 𝚆𝚒𝚙 𝙶𝚊𝚖𝚎

rules: post the name of all the files in your wip folder regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them and then post a little snippet of it or tell them something about it! and then tag as many people as you have wips.

tagged by: the amazing @thelargefrye , mahalo nui loa for the tag 🫶🏽🫶🏽

just a warning, somewhat long with little snippets and summaries for almost all of them, hope y’all enjoy 🤗

tagging: idk that many people 💀 so here’s some of their majesties, @jacksons-goddess-gaia @atiny-piratequeen @spooo00oky and anyone else wishing to play :)

K-pop wips

As I Told You: A whole class of college students and their professors who are meant to be returning home from a field trip finds themselves missing. No one knows where they went. Only to wake up one morning to find the missing folk returned and something off about them (manifest inspired au)

Box: Donghyuck reaches his limit and explodes, unloading like Pandora’s Box

What Do You See? Someone is kidnapping idols. It takes six months and five kidnappings to realize the pattern, as well as who just might be kidnapped next

Out: Jongho is the tenth victim and finds himself surrounded amongst his fellow kidnapped chingus

Outgrown: Donghyuck feels like his members have outgrown him. So why does he find it so hard to do the same?

Fairytale Extended Universe

Sister: Wicked-Witch!Seulgi wants to know where her sisters are, only to find out they are imprisoned in the Emerald City by the Wizard

Theater: Werewolf!Seungcheol and Vampire!Taeyong make common cause in an effort to defeat the Evil Queen

Consolation: Werewolf!Chan (Dino) spends his last minutes imprisoned in the Evil Queen’s castle alongside miner-dwarf!Donghyck and lost-boy!Jeongin before he set to be executed

Poison & Medicine alternate ending

Goodbye Light: Changkyun is unintentionally left at the mercy of foes and villains after a disagreement with his fellow superhero/heroine members

Magical Society Extended Universe: Jongho wakes up in the Joseon Dynasty with magical powers. However, he quickly learns that he isn’t the only one who came from the future, nor is he alone in having magic

Drunk serenade: You drunkenly serenade your bf/gf [insert idol name]

Expire: guard!Jackson hates that he fell in love with the dirty prisoner set to be executed… you (royal au)

Reign: king!namjoon, your husband has been away at war for a while now. Long enough for his political enemies to make a move on you and your/his families. Are you able to protect his reign without him by your side? (Iliad au)

Whirlwind: Assassin!Jisoo’s next target is you

High Tide: Serial-killer!Jennie makes a mistake when she forgets to get rid of the body in yalls trunk, revealing her…. bloody hobby to you once and for all

Acrimonious Garden: You and Rosé have very different perspectives on what it means to save the world

Pain: It wasn’t her fault she was labeled a horrible queen, a cruel queen, an evil queen. Nobody understood Lisa like you did, and that was the problem

starry night: Solar is the captain of her makeshift pirate crew… granted the title pirate is very loose considering it’s the twenty-first century and it’s not royal navies she has to avoid, but rather zombies

The prices we pay: werewolf!chan + werewolf-hunter!you = bad combination

Breathing Melatonin: Chanyeol has sleeping issues. You have a high libido. Do what you want, as you will

Honey Mango: Beekeeper!Mingi cuts a deal with you for some of your best products from your mango farm

Leave Me Lonely: today was supposed to be the day you and Jaebum said I do. Yet all you could do before closing your eyes forever was say, I love you (mafia au)

stay: what was harder, having a secret relationship or having some of [insert idol’s name] members dislike you?

Red Bottoms: Tonight was supposed to be a fun night out with friends. Yet here you are having to call spouse!idol to come and bail you out of jail

Made in the shade: you and hongjoong come from two entirely different worlds (grease au)

convicted: runaway-convicts!exo-sc find refuge with you. A lowly, quiet neighbor in your small town (inspired by the movie Labor Day)

Four Horsemen au (BTS hyung line)

Deranged: the tale of pestilence, a year has gone by since the armies of heaven and hell waged war upon earth. Though demons struck fear in the hearts of humans with easy, the true threat to humanity was those of white wings (jin)

Decimation: the tale of famine, three years into the human genocide, humanity sits on the brink of extinction. Yet aid comes in the most unlikely of forms (suga)

Dominion: the tale of war, the fifth year of the apocalypse is waning. The demons of hell have scurried away, whilst the angels make their final move towards human extermination. Yet, a rude awakening awaits them as the wrath of war awakes (j hope)

Descent: the tale of death, the seventh year of the apocalypse greeted humanity with a kiss. Heaven has fallen and hell has closed their gates, humanity make a resurgence. However, all good things come to the end, death has awoken, and awaits to feast upon all three realms of existence (rm)

Starships: "This foreign exchange program better be worth it" you thought as you signed into your Starship account. All you had to do was spend four hours of your day teaching english to your assigned foreigner whilst you learned a new language from them in return. It would have been easier if you could do this face to face, but N00000o, Ms. Rona decided to have everyone be put into quarantine. Now you had to waste away four hours, everyday, for the next semester, talking on a screen to some guy or gal you'll probably never meet. How ridiculous (college au)

Midnight Misfits: sugar spouse au

Three’s a cloud: jaehyun was flirty and single. johnny was angry and horny. you had an idea aka you and johnny sandwich jaehyun as a way to teach him a lesson

Lunar Kiss: werewolf!Jaebum is reluctant and in rut. You are a human. His human though so…

Luxury: Your whirlwind relationship with up and coming CEO Wonho was sudden, perfect and immaculate. That is until you find out he’s the heifer trying to buy out your entire childhood neighborhood, your home and your job (ceo au)

She’s a monster: You’re trapped reliving the same horrible day again and again. Watching Jackson draw his last breath in horrific and terrifying ways over and over. You didn’t know what the problem was. Until you did. And it broke your heart when you did (Groundhog Day au)

$200 Pizza: you and Changbin rack up a debt you can’t pay, luckily the auntie who runs the shop is willing to let y’all work the debt off for the whole day in exchange

Deep Patience: kyungsoo’s goal in life was your happiness. As such, hearing that you desire to have a kid, he has a plan to surprise you with such wonderful news for your birthday. One problem though… according to his calculations, he only had one day left to enact his plan

Oopsie: Wonho saves the day after you slip in the tub

Twisted dreams: Taeyong notices you acting different after a series of nightmares (ghost au)

Push & pull: Pirate!Mingi is washed ashore a beach village and taken in by you and yours. He looked forward to the day he could repay you for your kindness and seek your hand in that of love. Yet the universe spits in his face as it seeks to exact vengeance for his past in the worst possible way (pirate au)

Haunting: the spirits haunting your house works hard, but Ghost-hunter!Johnny works even harder (ghost harder au)

Well damn: you and soobin, besties who have been tip toeing around some unspoken emotions find yourselves stuck at the tippy top of a unmoving rollercoaster

Walker: Geumhyuck had one job. Watch the kids. You thought he had the job taken cared of. Well if that included him getting stuck in your baby’s walker, then he greatly succeeded

Asoiaf wips

Shades of a Man: Shady Shin, the waterbending gangster of the Republic Triads makes wakes as Dorne’s first ever ice merchant (Lok crossover)

Divine Affliction: Princess Eska of the Northern Water Tribe becomes the High Chiefess of Hardhome (Lok crossover)

Perpetual Storm: Jason Grace, demigod son of Jupiter falls in love in his second life, to a woman named Argella Durrandon. And then Aegon made his landing in Westeros (PJO crossover)

The Apothecary: Lee Fletcher awakes in Westeros and founds a citadel of revolutionary healing (PJO crossover)

The Knight of Floods: Percy awakes in Westeros and rises in ranks of nobility following his defiance of the Lannisters in the War of the Five Kings (PJO crossover)

Webbed Fingers & Cheese: Percy wakes up on the shores of the Three Sisters and works his way into becoming the Lord of the isles (PJO crossover)

Westeros On Earth: the continent of Westeros finds itself attached to Greenland and facing a potential religious persecution and invasion from the superpowers of 1400s Europe

The Lady of Dragonstone: OC Female Baratheon twin sister of Stannis Baratheon who is sentenced to rule Dragonstone following her aid in getting Queen Rhaella and her retinue to escape before her brother’s assault on the island

A Tale of Two Heirs: The love story of Brandon Stark and Shireen Baratheon

From The Depths: Ursula the Sea Witch arrives in Westeros (ouat crossover)

Bitter Work: An earthbender creates a refuge/oasis in Dorne (atla crossover)

Trial At Heart: Drogon burns Jon after he kills Daenerys and takes Jon back in time (time travel fix it)

A Wine A Day: Male OC Redwyne defends the Reach from Euron Greyjoy

Lost Lion: Jaime saves Aegon and Rhaenys, escaping with them to Essos and taking refuge in the Ruins of Valyria itself

The Witch of Harrenhal: Medea of Colchis conquers the Riverlands and learns what it means to be human (PJO crossover)

What if Viserys was competent? No golden crowns for this clown

What if the Rhoynar kept their magic? Waterbending in Dorne?????

What if Jon Snow never joined the Nights Watch Part 2?

Frozen Fires au: Jon Snow, the bastard son of Brandon Stark & Ashara Dayne

Harry Potter wips

Something Blue: Harry gets Fred something blue as a wedding gift

Crossover Idea: Ron and Tonks are blasted out of the sky during the Battle of 7 Potters… the blast has Ron waking up in [insert new world name].

Regards: In retaliation for Ruldolphus Lestrange’s death during the Battle at the Department of Mysteries, Rabastan & Bellatrix attack the Burrow and kidnap Ron

The Black Bastard: An illegitimate child of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black makes his mark on the Wizarding World

The Story of Celesta Prewett: Fabian Prewett’s daughter finally meets her paternal relatives

The Story of Yo Jinwoo: Part fairy-wizard male oc who falls in love with Ginny Weasley, not knowing she’s already in love with the one and only Harry Potter

Vanishing Series

Outtakes: Witch Weekly Issue #6799

Hiraeth Series

Outtakes: The Silver Grimoire - The private grimoire of the silver quartet

Alone: Ron’s sorting

War: Muriel Prewett meets her match in Astoria Greengrass

War Part 2: Ron and Daphne leave the Prewett estate to join the war

Thief: Ron and the quartet are caught by Bill Weasley ditching school to sell the items of the Room of Requirement

Pink: Ron saves Daphne from boiling solution in year two

M.A.D: Tracey explains nukes to the silver quartet

Accident: Theo uses sectumsempra on Ron

Scared: Ron temporarily disappears in the chaos of the 1994 Quidditch World Cup

Lady: Daphne becomes the lady of Greengrass following her parents’ murders

#lazuli writes #tag games 💫#mahalo nui loa for tagging me 🫶🏽#kpop fanfic #asoiaf fanfic #harry potter fanfic

2 notes · View notes