HTDC is my absolute favorite piece of elder scrolls fanfiction. just reread it for the 3rd time and i am as in love with it as i was the first two. it has so much amazing characterization and genuine love for the world it is written about.
i am especially fond of iriel's battle with addiction (it just feels real, when a lot of people don't treat that sort of thing with seriousness) & the beautiful writing in the segment where he contracts corpus. tysm for writing it <3
Thank you so much for sending me this, it means a lot. I hope the universe gives you something wonderful very soon!
AO3 should have an Annotation Mode where you can click to view all of the author's commentary and thoughts about certain parts of the work. A little comment that says "I spent five hours researching vintage radio mechanics for this and didn't even end up using it" or "this is an ancient Hebrew literary technique!" would make my day
“I want you to do this with me for one month. One month. Write 10 observations a week and by the end of four weeks, you will have an answer. Because when someone writes about the rustic gutter and the water pouring through it onto the muddy grass, the real pours into the room. And it’s thrilling. We’re all enlivened by it. We don’t have to find more than the rustic gutter and the muddy grass and the pouring cold water.”
— Marie Howe, Boston University’s 2016 Theopoetics Conference (via mothersofmyheart)
I ask my students every week to write 10 observations of the actual world. It’s very hard for them.
Ms. Tippett:
Really?
Ms. Howe:
They really find it hard.
Ms. Tippett:
What do you mean? What is the assignment? 10 observations of their actual world?
Ms. Howe:
Just tell me what you saw this morning like in two lines. I saw a water glass on a brown tablecloth, and the light came through it in three places. No metaphor. And to resist metaphor is very difficult because you have to actually endure the thing itself, which hurts us for some reason.
Ms. Tippett:
It does.
Ms. Howe:
It hurts us.
Ms. Tippett:
You naming something.
Ms. Howe:
We want to say, “It was like this; it was like that.” We want to look away. And to be with a glass of water or to be with anything — and then they say, “Well, there’s nothing important enough.” And that’s whole thing. It’s the point.
Ms. Howe:
It’s the this, right?
Ms. Howe:
Right, the this, whatever. And then they say, “Oh, I saw a lot of people who really want” — and, “No, no, no. No abstractions, no interpretations.” But then this amazing thing happens, Krista. The fourth week or so, they come in and clinkety, clank, clank, clank, onto the table pours all this stuff. And it so thrilling. I mean, it is thrilling. Everybody can feel it. Everyone is just like, “Wow.” The slice of apple, and then that gleam of the knife, and the sound of the trashcan closing, and the maple tree outside, and the blue jay. I mean, it almost comes clanking into the room. And it’s just amazing.
Ms. Tippett:
In some basic level, what they’ve done is just engage with their senses.
Ms. Howe:
Yeah, and have been present out of their minds and just noticing what’s around them, which is — we don’t do. And again, not to compare it to anything. They’re not allowed. And that’s very hard for them. And then on the fifth or sixth week, I say, “OK, use metaphors.” And they don’t want to. They don’t know how. They’re like, “Why would I? Why would I compare that to anything when it’s itself?” Exactly. Good question.
So then you think, why the necessity of a metaphor? Why do you have to use a metaphor now? Not just to do it to avoid it, but to do it to make it more there. And it’s very interesting.
The words and silences we live by. The rituals that sustain us. The poetry of ordinary time.
tamriel rebuilt has my fucking back when it comes to altmer.
it doesn't matter how much eso hates them and how boring nothing they make them, tamriel rebuilt has vindicated my thoughts on this historically sea-faring sea-focused sea-dependent civilization.
(the inside of a docked altmer ship. lOOK AT THE COLOURS)
you can't see it because the labels don't heckin show up in my screenshots, but everything (bowls, plates, utensils) is labelled as made from NACRE.
do you know what nacre is? IT'S MOTHER OF PEARL. IT'S THE INSIDE OF SEASHELLS. HELL FUCKING YES.
i'm going to spell it out, ahem. this environmental storytelling (like morrowind's base game showing the relationship dunmer have with bugs/chitin/their arthropod wildlife) shows how close the altmer are with the ocean. Making everyday dishes and utensils out of mother-of-pearl/seashells, finding them used everywhere and not just for special ocassions/the rich paints a very particular picture about altmer culture that makes fucKIN SENSE with their history and geographical location.
i fucKIN KNEW ALTMER WERE SUPPOSED TO BE CLOSE TO THE SEA. none of this fuckin golden feather tolkien elf bullshit eso got from oblivion's aylieds and skyrim's shenanigans, no. Altmer are just as wonderfully fantastical as dunmer: they have their own distinct culture and civilization that's heavily informed by the land and life around them. Y'know, LIKE ELVES.
finally some good food ;__;
oh yeah and their ship looks completely different from other boats. For one, it's heckin pink-ish and painted with curly patterns on its sides. In a world where most ships/boats aren't' visibly painted at all, just the dull browns of their wood.
you can sorta see it here. sorry for the lack of focus, i thought for sure i took more screens of this ship.
here you can see its fancy railings. yay!
anyways, good stuff. love it love it. brings joy to my ocean-starved elf-loving heart.
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