Welcome to the Sin-agogue
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1. “Raven” was an occasionally-encountered name for a girl in the contemporary period, and “Ebony” would be at least recognizable as a name. The other elements of this name are flatly atypical.
2. During this part of the War Period, this character’s hairstyle would not be considered shocking, but it would be viewed as garish and nonconformist.
3. A contemporary music performer known for a melancholy style of music and a gothic and dramatic aesthetic. The title of the work probably comes from one of her songs. However, her aesthetic and attitude has little in common with that in this work, being much more conventional and less garish.
4. A member of the contemporary band “My Chemical Romance”, also notable for a “gothic”, melancholy, and macabre aesthetic
5. i.e. the speaker considers him to be handsome and attractive; despite the pornographic material later in this work, the word “f_______” is here used only as an expletive.
6. Vampires as romantic figures had been increasing in popularity over this period, with a trend away from malicious monsters towards seductive but more benevolent figures, romanticized by their capability of being terrible.
7. Strangely, despite the characterization of this character as a Satanist, “witch” should here be characterized as having meaning similar to “wizard” and not “idolater”, “sorceress”, “maleficar”, or other practitioner of what we today recognize as “witchcraft”. The background material to this work constantly faced accusations of being satanic by an uneducated reactionary public to whom the difference between technology, wizardry and witchcraft was not meaningful (”witch” was sometimes even considered a female equivalent to “wizard”!), which completely failed to diminish its popularity.
8. It is important to understand that “goth” as an aesthetic, counterculture or subculture had a completely different meaning in the contemporary period than it does today – what remains similar is the love of the melancholy, the macabre, the dramatic, the romantic, and contempt for conventionalism. In the mid-to-early-late War Period, “Gothic” people were associated with contempt for morality, certain types of sexual display (usually of a shocking and sometimes fetishistic type), various forms of concupiscence, and a fairly significant connection to the occult and even to outright Satanism, though the latter was all but universally an affectation (this is true of most Mid War Period satanism). See contrast on p 321, The Gothic Movement In the Catholic Church. Moreover, the “gothic” aesthetic as described by this character is a stunted and over-the-top form that has also been corrupted by the counterculture-commericalism that was universal in the Late War Period.
9. A clothing store mostly specializing in counterculture-commercialized and faddist apparel. Critics accused it of being a mercantile vulture that fed by turning more honest and vivacious countercultures into fads.
10. It was almost unheard-of for women in the Mid or Late War Period to wear corsets, but they appeared in the Gothic subculture (which itself heavily borrowed from sources such as Victorian-era clothing, including mourning dress). However, what Enoby is describing is probably not actually a true corset, but a “corset top”, which is essentially a laced bodice. Either would be worn with neither chemise nor overblouse.
11. Probably a nondraped skirt that barely passes her wrist.
12. Hose, stockings, or tights in the form of a wide-open mesh
13. Probably not actually military issue boots; these were tall, heavy black leather boots with lacing all the way up.
14. This character’s outfit would be considered inappropriate for school in the Late War Period, but not shocking to Late War Period mores except by its garishness.
15. Originally meant students at a university-preparatory school; with the extremely high percentage of students seeking to attend university in the Late War Period, this came to mean a subculture of young people who adopted a highly conventionalistic and professionalistic attitude and sought admission to the prestigious and traditionalistic universities in the Eastern United States, often without academics being their true passion. Such people were often viewed as social climbers and sometimes attracted contempt from both their less-professionally-oriented peers and from those who were true intellectuals.
16. Also known as “giving the finger”; a very rude gesture in the War Period as it is in ours.
18. This phrase went through considerable popular memetic mutation (as did the entire tract): “It was _______ <weather> so I felt ________. A lot of _______ stared at me. I ________ them.” See extra material 34c.
17. I.E. “How are you today?”, “how are you feeling?” as a greeting.
do you think the writer of My Immortal lives in quiet pleasure knowing what they’ve brought into the world cannot be killed nor can they be held accountable
The slow horror of this post, of realizing:
1. First, that this is about My Immortal, fairly obvious from the start. Okay, meme time.
2. Second, that this is characterized as a future English literature class’s textbook footnotes a la our time period’s school texts of Shakespeare works, which, haha, seeing that framed as if this future literature class would be so far removed from our understanding of culture as to need these notes and yet would still be in a literature class formatted similarly to ours, especially combined with the idea that My Immortal would be considered typical “literature,” that’s funny, right?
3. Third, that by “the War Period/the Late War Period” they mean us, and the implications of that name for the time period added to the idea that so much culture from this time period has been wiped out and would be totally unfamiliar to the students of this class, and oh. Oh, that’s not… that’s not funny anymore.
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True
Husband’s grandmother was Elmo.
My father in law is named Kermit.
You do still occasionally see guys named Bert, or sometimes even Ernie. You can meet a guy named Harry and nobody’s first thought on hearing his name is going to be Herry Monster. But Grover, Kermit, and Elmo are now forever the Muppet characters and nothing else.
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i’m tired of historical dramas trying to spice things up with sex scenes instead of giving the audience what they really want which is excessively long scenes of noble women being dressed in sumptuous and period accurate layers by their attendants with gratuitous shots of the era-appropriate fastenings and lacings being done
And long panning shots of historical buildings and locations that still exist, but bustling with activity back in another time period
Don’t forget: explaining what the politics and leading philosophies of the time period actually are
And artisans! Cooks! Clothiers! Craftmasters in the middle of the painstaking process of creating works of art to adorn the world the nobles inhabit. Beautiful embroidery and intricate feasts.
And armour that hasn’t been scoured down to its base metal thank you Victorians.
Period appropriate food being prepared with seasoning! Different recipes based on seasonally available produce! Preservation methods! Fast food stalls in bustling cities!
(via athingofvikings)
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I see posts go by periodically about how modern audiences are impatient or unwilling to trust the creator. And I agree that that’s true. What the posts almost never mention, though, is that this didn’t happen in a vacuum. Audiences have had their patience and trust beaten out of them by the popular media of the past few decades.
J J Abrams is famous for making stories that raise questions he never figures out how to answer. He’s also the guy with some weird story about a present he never opened and how that’s better than presents you open–failing to see that there’s a difference between choosing not to open a present and being forbidden from opening one.
You’ve got lengthy media franchises where installments undo character development or satisfying resolutions from previous installments. Worse, there are media franchises with “trilogies” that are weird slap fights between the makers of each installment.
You’ve got wildly popular TV shows that end so poorly and unsatisfyingly that no one speaks of them again.
On top of that, a lot of the media actively punishes people for engaging thoughtfully with it. Creators panic and change their stories if the audience properly reacts to foreshadowing. Emotional parts of storytelling are trampled by jokes. Shocking the audience has become the go to, rather than providing a solid story.
Of course audiences have gotten cynical and untrusting! Of course they’re unwilling to form their own expectations of what’s coming! Of course they make the worst assumptions based on what’s in front of them! The media they’ve been consuming has trained them well.
(via athingofvikings)
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I remember thinking Astrid was getting set up to be chief the first time I watched HTTYD2. Still kinda bummed that didn’t happen. Hiccup’s character arc is good but I’d have liked him where Valka is now: kind of a dragon general/advisor to the chief. Still power + responsibility but not exactly in his father’s footsteps.
I guess to parallel, Toothless could be “an alpha” rather than “the alpha” so it’s not implied that he’s the leader of literally every dragon on the planet.
VALKA WOULD HAVE BEEN AN INCREDIBLE VILLIAN LIKE WE COULD STILL HAVE DRAGO BUT FOR HER TO KILL (or let fall to his death/ambiguously explode whatever) TO SHOW HER DESCENT INTO ANTAGONIST
The whole B plot of HTTYD2 demonstrates that Astrid would be a great chief!
and that hiccup would be a great feral dragon warrior -
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Shouldn’t have put the new year in the middle of winter cause then everyone expects you to get your shit together in january. Of all times
Thank you Judaism
Thank you Judaism
(via whimperandabang)
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I once handed an ant to a Frenchman.
Excitedly, he said "for me?"
Hang on I gotta check something
Okay yeah that’s funny
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Fuck it, post lamb stew slow cooker recipe
How high was I last night?
How much lamb stew did I want to make??
1,814¾ lbs of Lamb????
>960 cups beef broth
>2 bay leavesthe unfathomable power of bay leaf
(via peregreen)
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