welcome to the trash compactor

Grace, 29, she/her. May contain fantasy/sci-fi, history, art, and nonsense. "sometimes I do a thing and a good portion of the time I don't"

[suzie-costello]

[audiobyte-moved]

peeing after robot sex so i dont get an hdmi

[stars-bean]

Charlie's Angels (2000) dir. McG

[callmekamel]

The National Pastime

[kbsd]

hollanov // "shy boy"

yeah, i'm gonna make this easy for you

[lunarblue11]

sketches of swim to me by ausgezeichnet / @oldguardians

[krisonthefrontporchwithabeer]

I Saw The TV Show

[reginasphalanges]

DERRY GIRLS  1.02

[atlantisview]

Zendaya | The Odyssey | New York Premiere ♡

[oldguardians]

Just wanted to throw you a hi! I'm a sucker for time period pieces, and am enjoying what you have out currently for Birdwatcher. Thank you very much for sharing it! (I'm ToastedRivalry.)

-Zell

hi! so glad you're enjoying it, and thanks for your lovely comments.

I was, ironically, procrastinating on writing my history phd dissertation while writing this fic. it's really fun to think about what a time period Feels Like in historical fiction, and all the little tangible details that make it right. I also went down so many wikipedia rabbit holes, and then had to decide when the details mattered and when to throw them out the window for my own convenience.

I hope it's as fun to read as it was to write!

[toastedrivalry]

(Still me hi.)

Work on your PhD omggggggg. (But also writing is good for the soooouuulll and you'll need that soul for your PhD, soooo... Is it REALLY procrastinating? Avoiding burnout is important. 😋)

I've been appreciating how you've been balancing the vibe of the period with the translation to a modern audience in Birdwatcher. You're not sacrificing too much, which is nice, but you're also sidestepping a lot of details I would usually fall into a research spiral over. I always get caught up on math, and literally have historical government documents about cost of living and weather archives up for my own fic. (See, the devil in my brain is like, "But what if a historian who loves this time period reads it and you write a clear day during a record-setting blizzard? 🥺" and then I do it for the historian lol.) I honestly need to learn from your example because it would probably save me a lot of time. And grief. (probably won't tho.)

I've read what you have up twice, so yes, I'd say it's been fun to read thus far.

(hey if anyone else is reading this, please read Birdwatcher.)

[oldguardians]

yeah I think finding the balance is tough!! I feel like there always is going to be someone who knows that 1969 was an unusually cool year in Canada, let's say, and will get upset if you describe a heat wave that didn't happen. but personally, I feel like you have to be able to take liberties with things like the weather in historical fiction because it's literature, and weather in literature is important for setting a mood in a scene.

personally the things I find really distracting are concepts intruding where they don't belong or important parts of everyday life being missing. psychology appearing before psychology was a thing, or totally ignoring religion when it should be Really Important (looking at you, Bridgerton), or forgetting about colonialism when there should be lots of colonialism happening.

but then again, there is something to be said for the happy coincidences that come up during research process, and all the little details you discover along the way. so maybe taking liberties depends on your baseline sense of what's really important in a period.

also, in the end, it's fanfic. it's for fun!! do what works for you!!

[jedi-valjean]

LOTR but Gollum has the ring the entire time, he just keeps losing it and has to chase it down like the squirrel from Ice Age

[detailspecialist]

i heart women

[oldguardians]

Just wanted to throw you a hi! I'm a sucker for time period pieces, and am enjoying what you have out currently for Birdwatcher. Thank you very much for sharing it! (I'm ToastedRivalry.)

-Zell

hi! so glad you're enjoying it, and thanks for your lovely comments.

I was, ironically, procrastinating on writing my history phd dissertation while writing this fic. it's really fun to think about what a time period Feels Like in historical fiction, and all the little tangible details that make it right. I also went down so many wikipedia rabbit holes, and then had to decide when the details mattered and when to throw them out the window for my own convenience.

I hope it's as fun to read as it was to write!

[sophsun1]

The Birdcage (1996) dir. Mike Nichols

[theburialofstrawberries]

awesome awesome interview with Emily Wilson

[deathstars]

so much could have been improved in the sequels if kylo ren hadn’t been force sensitive

[deathstars]

no wait think about it. kylo ren not being force sensitive, but so desperate to be so he’s willing to do anything. he feels cheated out of his grand destiny, his powers that his mother and uncle (and cousin?) have. give me the story on the entitlement towards the force. it would have shown that the force is beyond biological, it always has been. it would have given a better reason for kylo ren to “fall to the dark side”, so desperate for a connection to the force that he plays the part of a dark sider, swinging a cracking red lightsaber around with no finesse or training, killing hoping that it will push him further into a dark side of the force he cannot feel. it would have given a reason for him to hate han; that because han isn’t force sensitive, it’s his fault that kylo isn’t either. kylo’s character would have been stronger because his choices would have been his own, instead of whatever whisper dream manipulations they were in canon. his evil has nothing to do with the force, but an entitled man trying to claim a power he believes is his by birthright.

this would have foiled perfectly with finn, too- one is a child born to the most powerful force sensitives in the galaxy who cannot feel the force. and finn is a child who was taken from his family, forced into soldier-hood, who feels such a deep and powerful connection to himself and the force that he breaks free. kylo ren, seething and entitled trying to claim a destiny and power that just aren’t his, and finn, who has suffered at kylo’s actions and still connected to the powerful light inside of him. the “nobody” hero of the sequels who has the power of the force and the legacy-born villain who doesn’t.

[emziess]

Havana Rose Liu as Isabel Bottoms (2023) dir. Emma Seligman