I am always posting comments weeks late because reasons, so I usually don't, but I had to say that reading this literally gave me chills? Because I am a massive, massive nerd. And the difficulties of the small farmer + suburban/urban growth + technological advances that mean more people can be fed with less actual human labour + Tolkienesque nostalgia for the passing of a way of life that was unsustainable in the long term + the expansion of the middle class = the resultant changes, good and bad both, to the economic and ecological landscape, and how not all bad things are unequivocally bad for everyone, but vice versa for the good things, and ...wow, I articulated that really badly. Because it's basically a master's thesis that I tried to fit into one paragraph? But I'm pretty sure it's been written already, I just have to find it. And then write an article for the Toast about it? Because I can't be the only one fascinated by misbegotten nostalgia, yeah? Okay, done ending sentences with question marks because I have to go to class.
The Blue Castle is still my favorite LMM, even above Anne (gasp shock horror I know!) and so much about this article explains aspects of Valancy's life, feelings, and decisions. It even has the despair over predestination that drove Abel Gay to alcoholism. It's really quite fascinating and illuminating.
Late as always, I just wanted to say thanks so much for this! I'm one of the only (half) Koreans in my Korean language class, and I'm also one of the few people there who isn't learning the language because I listen to k-pop and watch k-dramas? And it makes me feel a little weird and isolated sometimes. And finding an entrance into an unfamiliar music genre can be daunting. This post is a really awesome intro for me, and I really appreciate that you address some of the things that can make a feminist go "enh" without shying away from them, or defending them, while still allowing for the art to have merit.
Well, for the record, one of the (many) reasons I have not to become a parent is because I have the same personality as my mother, and she was kind of a terrible mother. (She also didn't have much of a choice; my sister and I were both accidents.) However, on the other hand my sister, who has a very different personality, does want children. So I'm not sure whether that proves or disproves anything.
and if I were another dog I could bark at you and then you'd pay attention to me and maybe bark back, we could have a whole conversation about smells or something but instead I'm looking at you while you think about squirrels or food -- omg how am I in unrequited love with a dog what is my life
I wonder this EVERY TIME I read the books. (which is a lot, you guys.) But I think maybe Collins didn't want to then have to deal with the whole, uh, rape issue in the arena then as well, because ... yeah. It is mentioned in the books that the boys in the arena don't grow beards, like, at all, so my head-canon is sexual-urge-repression-hormones. If your tributes can't get it up then you don't have to worry about filming 12-year-olds having either consensual or non-consensual sex for everyone at home to watch. Ugh.
Oh man, I'm in. I've never played Settlers but I've always wanted to. If there's an email list going, add me in at aderynrising at gmail.com!
wait wait wait there are pro-trepanning sites?! ... of course there are. UGH HUMANITY.
...unless you legit become like, a shaman afterwards. Because that would be boss.
I can't believe I'm the first person to bring up Caitlyn R Kiernan's The Red Tree. Creepy trees, writers, lesbians, unreliable narrators -- it's like it was written for the Toast/this post.
Ugh, yes, cars are such weird, liminal spaces, somehow they are perfect for crying. Where would people have crying jags before cars were invented? Out on the moors?
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