-
On your trip back, take the time to learn the Babylon 5 mantra:
1x18 - A Voice in the Wilderness: Part 1
-
We know that canonically, by the Third Age, there mortal stories about Galadriel, telling of the creepy elf-sorceress whose powers are unknown and undefined. That those who enter her woods do not leave again the same.
Personally, I suspect elves have the same ideas, they’re just not stupid enough to say them out loud because she might hear. Yes they’re currently in Imladris and she’s in Lothlorien, what’s your point?
Like, I really feel like it’s important to note how utterly alien Galadriel would be and feel to pretty much everyone else by the Third Age. Even other elves.
The most obvious difference would be that she’s looked upon the trees, but I also think the fact that she was born and raised in Aman is… actually probably a big deal?
Like: she grew up near the only direct source of light in her time, and much of the food she was eating was probably blessed by Yavanna, Vanna, or one of their Maia. The men in her family, Turgon and Maedhros most famously, are notably tall. Galadriel herself is described as ‘no less tall than’ her husband Celeborn in lord of the rings. I take this to mean they’re the same height but… the wording doesn’t technically rule out her being taller? She could be a damn giant.
And she’s the only elf who we know looks visibly Vanya. Elrond, the only other named elf who we know had Vanya heritage seems to take after his mother (probably, at least in coloring). Even if there are other elves with some Vanya looks kicking around by the time the fellowship roles up pretty much all of the elves any of them would have seen would be some combination of Sinda, Silvan, and Noldor. We know that canonically her coloring is quite different from these, with her hair being closer to Vanya gold than Teleri or Noldor colorings. It’s not clear exactly how different these groups are in appearence, but it could be dramatic. Certainly, her hair is… ya know… kinda a big deal. In the books. Just a bit.
Basically, she is tall, stunningly gorgeous in a deeply unfamiliar way, powerfully magical in a way no one else in middle earth is and her eyes are fucking glowing because of the treelight. She learned magic from the Middle Earth equivalent of a minor god and she’s at least somewhat telepathic.
Everyone with any sense is afraid of this woman.
-
-
Above the Fold: My Current Headline
Above the Fold: My 1980s Mystery Featured at New York Comic Con
Quite a bit has been happening this summer, including a ton of travel out west to California. But the biggest was the release of Above the Fold, my 1980s mystery with romantic elements set in Manhattan and starring Trisha Connell, my punk rock crime reporter. My elevator pitch was “punk rock Lois Lane in 1980s New York City.” I…
-
….the Iliad doesn’t have anything explicit, or even implicit, about our heroes having sex. Patroclus and Achilles sleep in the same tent, but the narrator tells us that each of the men has an enslaved woman at his side. I felt I had to respond to the reader’s possible expectations and possible disappointment in two ways. One was to discuss the Patrochilles relationship fairly extensively in the introduction and notes, and make clear the ways that it’s taken absolutely seriously, and is at the emotional heart of Achilles’ narrative arc. In the introduction, I also discuss the fact that the Iliad doesn’t treat sex as a measure of closeness or love—so the fact that the poem doesn’t tell us that Achilles and Patroclus had sex is in no way a sign that they’re less than everything to each other. The characters who do have sex in the Iliad—Helen and Paris, Hera and Zeus, and various warriors with the enslaved women whom they regularly rape—are not exactly doing so out of “love.”
Within the translation itself, I knew that I had to convey the profound intimacy and love of Achilles and Patroclus; the reader or listener has to understand on a deep emotional level that Patroclus is Achilles’ person, and that without him, he is all but dead himself—and he also knows that his death is at least partly his own fault. You, the reader or listener, should feel his devastation.
“My friend Patroclus, whom I loved, is dead.
I loved him more than any other comrade.
I loved him like my head, my life, myself.
I lost him, killed him…. “
By the time you get to Book 18, if you don’t feel the full horror of that moment with your whole being, I’ve failed.
Excerpt from Enduring Epics: Emily Wilson and Madeline Miller on Breathing New Life Into Ancient Classics on Literary Hub
-
-
THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR (1947) dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz
(via b-a-n-d-e-r)
-
At first Netflix said, come write for us. We’ll save your cancelled shows and write about whatever niche story you want. Our algorithm says people will watch it!
Then a few years later they said, regardless of our promises or contract obligations we are cancelling shows after two seasons without telling anyone. Turns out no matter how loved a show is, we get less subscriptions after the second season.
How many subscriptions did we bring you? Netflix won’t say.
So writers started writing two season shows. Just give us two seasons, Netflix. Like you promised.
Then Netflix said, oops sorry! Turns out your show didn’t premiere at #1 and the views in the first day weren’t what we wanted so we’re cancelling your second season.
What were the numbers? How many people watched our show? Netflix doesn’t say.
Then, they did something extra special. They started taking shows and splitting their first season into two halves. Inside Job was not two seasons. It was one season split in half.
Oops! Sorry! The second half of your first season didn’t do as well as the first half, so now your show is cancelled!
Why? How many people? How much money? These companies are making cash hand over fist and they refuse to tell people the truth: people loved your show. Loved it. But some corpo exec wanted an infinite money making machine. Do you know how long shows are in production for before you watch them? Years. Like, 5+, even 10+ years. And Netflix gives it less than a week before they decide whether you’re getting cancelled.
Support #WGA Support #SAGAFTRA
Reblogging for solidarity, and because it reminded me to cancel my sub.
Fight with your wallets, if you have nothing else. If you’re not watching it, cancel it. That goes for everything you’ve subbed.
Support WGA and SAGAFTRA
-
“The themes of faith and forgiveness were worthy of a theologian. Are you sure there isn’t something you’d like to tell us?”
Never shoot pool at a place called Pop’s. Never eat food at a place called Mom’s. The difference between horses and humans is that they’re too smart to be on what *we’ll* do.
And I have lost people. Too many people. Lost them to chance, violence, brutality beyond belief; I’ve seen all the senseless, ignoble acts of “god’s noblest creature.” And I am incapable of forgiving. My feelings are with G'Kar, hand sliced open, saying of the drops of blood flowing from that open wound, “How do you apologize to them?” “I can’t.” “Then I cannot forgive.”
As an atheist, I believe that all life is unspeakably precious, because it’s only here for a brief moment, a flare against the dark, and then it’s gone forever. No afterlives, no second chances, no backsies. So there can be nothing crueler than the abuse, destruction or wanton taking of a life. It is a crime no less than burning the Mona Lisa, for there is always just one of each.
So I cannot forgive. Which makes the notion of writing a character who CAN forgive momentarily attractive…because it allows me to explore in great detail something of which I am utterly incapable. I cannot fly, so I would write of birds and starships and kites; I cannot play an instrument, so I would write of composers and dancers; and I cannot forgive, so I would write of priests and monks and minbari….
– JMS, creator of Babylon 5, in the usenet/GEnie comments
