sing out, louise

bread for all, and roses too. often thinking about 18th-century england

[glintglimmergleam]

imagine bridgerton if eloise had a gun

[pointnclick]

Thank you for coming to my this

[girl-blorbo-polls]

What’s your girl blorbo most likely on the way to?

Heaven

Hell

Valhalla

Reincarnation

Ghost

She’s always been dead

She’s immortal

Other

Remaining time: 6 days 21 hours

[glintglimmergleam]

Anyway this weekend I finished Class by Jilly Cooper on @tobermoriansass's rec, which is a fascinating trainwreck of racism and classism circa 1979 England, and extremely extremely useful for understanding both the id of the upper middle classes and the social positioning of various brands and locations. It is in places very funny.

But holy shit! The use of slurs! Some I hadn't even heard before! They really let you just print any old thing, huh.

[glintglimmergleam]

You can also take it on faith that in the 2010s a cozy British mystery show almost never has the black or brown immigrant man be the Murderer of the Week for terrorism reasons. That character will be the red herring suspect though, which means conservatives and liberals alike get to glee in pointing fingers and reluctantly withdrawing when he turns out to be One of The Good Ones after all. Or at least, not one of the Murdering Ones. He might do other minor crimes, as a treat.

Meanwhile the murderer is inevitably a white person in a very silly love+family triangle bc one wants to be lurid but domestic about it, with plenty of opportunity for shoehorning egregious quotations.

[glintglimmergleam]

Hello from Lewis s3e1, which has a ridiculous and convoluted plot involving an Oedipal love triangle and the murder of a derivative fantasy novelist via the sword of C.S. Lewis (why be on the nose when you can cut it off instead), but somehow the most absurd thing this episode asks me to believe is that that Lewis's dead wife, a 50-something working-class Northern housewife, wore the same perfume as a 20-something posh Oxford graduate student and a 20-something Bosnian immigrant mail order bride who also worked in a pub.

Come on. I'm not a perfume girlie in the slightest but those 3 women would never overlap in taste, not even if the suspect gave them each a bottle as a gift. They'd smile and say thank you and at MOST wear it when he came to visit. Not every day!

Also a scent called Mystique Noir in a dark red glass bottle is much too racy for Val Lewis, copper's wife. Please be serious.

[amorphousbl0b]

The tribes of Tumblr appeared to worship Apollo as their primary patron deity, most often under the epithet Apollo Sphairahemon ("Apollo the Ball-Thrower") as a god of prophecy and sport. His name was typically invoked to celebrate a user blessed with uncommon prescience. Moments of prophecy were considered highly sacred and were often recorded, and such texts are sometimes accompanied by an artistic depiction of the god — either his traditional masculine image or, unusually, in the form of a young woman, which appears to have been an earlier style before a conservative shift toward more conventional iconography — preparing to cast a round rubber ball that our scholars believe was used in the sport known as "dodge ball". Much as other cults regarded his arrows as bringers of disease and health, this community believed that being struck by this ball would bestow prophetic visions.

Some icons are reproduced below:

An earlier depiction (c. 2020) of Apollo as a girl clad in a simple tunic and playing with other children. Figures are smiling and the image is brightly colored, indicating a celebratory outlook toward knowledge of the future.

A later piece (c. 2022) that resembles the traditional appearance of Apollo. References to childhood and play are omitted, and the god carries a more frightening aspect; perhaps this icon represented grim omens rather than good tidings.

[hardwrench]

aaaaand after much research and deliberation, we’ve determined that the final frontier of women’s rights is… *opens envelope* personal aesthetics, again

[hiddurmitzvah]

Beyond the Golem & the Dybbuk lies a forgotten world of Jewish magic and folklore myths!

After many preparation we are launching a 50-page, fully illustrated zine exploring the hidden creatures, spirits, and myths of Eastern European Ashkenazi folklore. If you love dark, whimsical lore and handmade art, check it out!

You can grab a digital copy, a premium physical zine, or limited-edition art prints.

Please reblog and support the campaign here:

Jewish Folklore of Eastern Europe Zine by Bence Illyés - Indiegogo

Beyond the Golem and the Dybukk lies a forgotten world of jewish magic. This 50 page, fully illustrated zine unearths the lesser-known creat

[decadent-trans-girl]

'why is so much politically-focused genre fiction centred on monarchies' many reasons, but one which I think deserves attention: monarchy is an obvious way of tying together the dysfunctions of the domestic to those of the state

[kuttithevangu]

the new fantasy genre, popehunk, encompasses all books in which historical figures responsible for real atrocities are presented as sexy and potentially suffering from a cute lil' anxiety disorder

[tossawary]

As much as I would like "The Muppet Show" to return regularly in some form, I don't really have any faith that it'll be very interesting. Entertaining, maybe, and inspiring nostalgia, but I don't think the execs will loosen the strings enough for much compelling creativity. I suspect that too much of the focus will be on "recreating the classics of Muppets IP" rather than doing much of anything new.

Anyway, the thought occurs that "Dropout" and its shows are currently serving as something of a spiritual successor. Large, colourful, recurring cast of comedians. Lots of weird skits and parodies and improv chaos. Increasingly big celebrities lured over for performances and cameos with the promise of a good time on set. Everything kind of takes place within the broader "we're trying to put on a show" narrative.

I'm not even remotely suggesting it's a one-to-one situation. "Dropout" shows take inspiration from many other sources while also trying to be their own thing. I just had the thought that a lot of "Dropout" shows fill a similar niche in my personal media catalogue as "The Muppet Show". I mean this as a compliment.

[giveherswords]

Emily Lipson, Dykes Vol. 1, 2026

[glintglimmergleam]

Anyway this has been a very interesting few weeks thinking about fandom and gender and coming out and yaoi tropes and how fic culture has changed in the past 15 years so even if I never finish the fic, it's been fun.

[glintglimmergleam]

It's so funny to take a standard murder mystery show and put smut and emotions into it. Sometimes the smut is very good smut and the feelings are profound! But it can drift so tonally far from canon to be a little ridiculous. Those characters on my teevee are definitely not sexually interested in each other, we are just playing.

There is also a range of fandom thoughtfulness re addressing that Lewis is Hathaway's boss so the power dynamic really matters, even if Hathaway is the one who initiates (which in fic he usually is). Do not fuck your direct reports, Lewis!

[glintglimmergleam]

The standard fandom take on Hathaway is a whump creature, a poor little miao miao, carefully repressed yet very soft and also very horny. A lonely sod with no friends (despite the band). Self-isolating to the point of self-harm. Always ready to be put into some sort of dramatic medical situation. The degree of Catholic self-loathing varies according to the taste of the author, sometimes not mentioned at all.

They mostly write him as gay rather than bi, and he's nearly always pining for Lewis, secretly aching for a tender touch from his straight boss. That is, well. Very much not the canon character, at least through the end of s2.

I like some of those fics a lot but tbh canon Hathaway offers potential for way more interesting interpretations!

[glintglimmergleam]

anyway my conclusion after much thought is that I am not ready to write a Hathaway POV yet, not when I'm making him sound too much like a bantering histrom hero. That's a style issue on my end.

I'm going to put the draft aside for now and focus on rewatching the show up through s4 bc I like it (the point is to enjoy my hobbies) AND because it will help me crack the code of Hathaway by spending more time observing his speech patterns and emotions.