this is my house you ignorant fuck

have you seen boris’ boots?

[borispav]

FUCKING BORIS AND POPCHYK AMIRITE?!

[andrrewminyard]

MOVIE POSTERS » the goldfinch

“—if a painting really works down in your heart and changes the way you see, and think, and feel, you don’t think, ‘oh, I love this picture because it’s universal.’ ‘I love this painting because it speaks to all mankind.’ That’s not the reason anyone loves a piece of art. It’s a secret whisper from an alleyway. Psst, you. Hey kid. Yes you.”  

[pavikovsky]

“What if our badness and mistakes are the very thing that set our fate and bring us round to good? What if, for some of us, we can’t get there any other way?”

Boris Pavlikovsky lived a life of chaos; homeless on the streets, a mother who died, a father who neglected him and didn’t care about his wellbeing. He believed his fate to be set on one course, he would have one path: that of destruction. He could do nothing to change it because it was a hole he’d never be able to crawl out of; the universe to him was random and that energy was something that surrounded him at all times. He lived by the notion that nothing mattered and no one cared.

But then he meets good. He meets Theo. He meets someone who teaches him the secret of the universe: that laughter is light, light is laughter. Someone who makes him feel like he belongs, who makes him feel safe. 

Boris Pavlikovsky believes all of the shit he endured was worth it because it brought him the one good thing, good person, he ever had. 

Chaos brought him Theo, and therefore Chaos is worth respecting. 

[ravcnsclaw]

the goldfinch by donna tartt: boris pavlikovsky. “Well—I have to say I personally have never drawn such a sharp line between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ as you. For me: that line is often false. The two are never disconnected. One can’t exist without the other. As long as I am acting out of love, I feel I am doing best I know how. But you—wrapped up in judgment, always regretting the past, cursing yourself, blaming yourself, asking ‘what if,’ ‘what if.’ ‘Life is cruel.’ ‘I wish I had died instead of.’ Well—think about this. What if all your actions and choices, good or bad, make no difference to God? What if the pattern is pre-set? No no—hang on—this is a question worth struggling with. What if our badness and mistakes are the very thing that set our fate and bring us round to good? What if, for some of us, we can’t get there any other way?

[borispav]

thoughts on Boris and Kotku's relationship? don't you think it was a little asshol-ish for him to leave Theo on his own and start obsessing over that girl, when he very well knew that Theo had mental&suicide issues? what went through Boris' mind?

No, I don’t think he was an asshole for doing that and tbh i’m tired of seeing people trash him for it on insta.

First of all, Boris isn’t responsible for Theo’s mental health. Yes, they were close, more than friends etc., but still— constantly monitoring his depression and suicidal thoughts? That’s just not his job. The person responsible for Theo’s wellbeing was Larry. If people want to direct their annoyance and frustration at someone, it should be at him. He was the negligent one. He was the one that was never home, never asked Theo whether or not he was okay, and flat-out ignored it when his 13-15 year old son was blatantly drunk/high/smoking (a huge red flag).

I feel like people forget that Boris was just a kid himself. He struggled with his own mental illnesses, and then had his problems at home to deal with on top of that. It’s actually amazing to me that despite all of that he was still able to be the sensitive, loving, attentive boy that he was. He did so much. He was there for Theo after his nightmares, took care of him when he was blackout-drunk (cleaning his clothes, getting them into bed etc.) and stopped him from killing himself multiple times. That’s a lot; a lot for anyone to take on, let alone an abused kid who’s exhibited suicidal tendencies before himself. You can’t penalize him for wanting to date someone, everyone has the right to that. He was allowed to have a girlfriend, he was allowed to spend a lot of time with her, and he was allowed to struggle with the act of balancing a relationship while also making sure Theo wasn’t committing or being tormented by debt collectors. It’s not not like he stopped liking or loving Theo once Kotku came along, things just changed. And that happens, that’s realistic, nothing can stay the same for too long. Does it suck that it took the route it did? Hell yeah, but you can’t singularly blame Boris for it. He’s only human, and when this happened he was only a teen.

As for the Boris/Kotku relationship in general, I have my suspicions about its construction and presentation. 

Keep reading

[pavikovsky]

concept: after theo leaves, boris has no one. that first night alone is one of the hardest in his life. it’s full of heavy silences that don’t get filled by anything but wind. it’s cold; there’s no bodies nearby to warm him. popchyk is gone, theo is gone. within a few months, his father is gone too, and boris is left to fend for himself in the desert like some nomad. no family, no friends. nobody loves him. everyone leaves him. nobody misses boris, they’re all better off without boris. (and yet, across the country, there’s theo: huddled up in bed reading the idiot in russian and not sleeping because he misses boris so much and can’t get used to being without him either) did i say concept? oh wait i meant fucking canon

[borispav]

you mentioned it in one of your previous replies so now I'm curious: we talk a lot about how Theo represses his sexuality as hell, but what about Boris? how do you think he feels about his (obvious) bisexuality? because I have the feeling he falls into a sort of personal biphobia: he has no problem whatsoever with queer people (Hobie, Sasha, he's a lot chiller than Theo regarding the subject) but when it comes to himself it's like he's suddenly scared to be associated with that kind of sexuality

Yes, I completely agree with the biphobia comment, I do think he represses his bisexuality a bit, it’s just not as blatant or severe as, say, Theo’s internalized homophobia. While Theo is very clear and conscious of the fact that homosexuality is something he doesn’t want to be associated with (we can see this in all the times he explicitly writes off everything he did with Boris as “nothing” as well as in his blatant fear of things and people that would be considered gay or effeminate), Boris is far more subtle and—in my opinion—unaware of it. On the surface he, of course, seems unbothered, as you said. He tells Theo that it doesn’t matter if Hobie was an “old poofter” or not, and he was also never afraid to physically express his attraction and love. He took the initiative during most of those cases—spooning Theo first, kissing him first etc.— which leads me to believe he has no issues with physical affection, however “gay” that affection may seem. It doesn’t matter to him, whether he’s kissing a guy or a girl, because I think he just perceives it as gratifying a natural sexual attraction, and to him gender has no place or consequence in that.

The repression, I believe, comes into play when considering emotions. After all, you can separate attraction from actual love or affection etc., those two things (while often paired together) do almost reside in completely different realms. My theory is that Boris subconsciously felt the need to reel himself in a bit once his feelings for Theo (not just his attraction) began to really materialize and gain weight. I don’t believe this is something he would have ever actively chosen to do, just something that happened of its own accord, without him really realizing. I think the thought of actually, genuinely, loving someone was terrifying enough to him, let alone loving a member of the same sex. For as incredibly progressive and all inclusive Boris (for the most part) is— there are some things that are just ingrained in the psyche, things that take root in childhood and never really dissipate without proper addressing. I’m sure Boris was exposed to homophobia throughout his youth (undoubtedly made worse by his father), so even if he didn’t have any qualms with the overall concept of homosexuality/bisexuality, I do think that the core issue is as you mentioned: bi is just not something he can reconcile himself as being. It’s fine from a certain distance, fine in his friends, coworkers, the people he loves, but when it comes to himself—he just doesn’t really know what to do with that bit of info.

But anyway, the why/how of his biphobia doesn’t matter so much as the knowledge that it is indeed existent within him, and that it does hinder his relationship with Theo. I mean, why do you think he is able to tell just about everyone else that he loves them (people who he sometimes doesn’t even know that well and/or hasn’t spent much time with), and yet can’t tell Theo (the one person it’s obvious he cares the most about) the same? He’s so verbal when it comes to everyone and everything except for Theo, there’s an evident block there, something pulling him back from going all the way. And it’s only the “I love you” that he can’t say, because he has no problem addressing the fact that they did sexual things (he’s even the one to bring it up when they’re adults), but he just can’t openly acknowledge that they had romantic feelings for each other, that what he felt was something more than a physical need. He’s afraid of the finality that would come with an open admission like that; I don’t think he’s ready to perceive himself as bi, and so the consequences of talking about actual love are just too weighty and risky to him. So instead he deflects, he does a good job of pretending like he’s indifferent, like Theo’s the only one that was in too deep. In fact, he explicitly says to Theo “I think maybe you thought it was something else” (in reference to their sex), as in: you’re the one that feels this way, not me. You’re the gay/bi one, not me. He says this even though he was the one to bring the topic up in the first place.

I do also think it was biphobia, and the subconscious need for heteronormativity, that shaped his relationship with Kotku. I read it as Boris’ attempt at running away, distancing himself from something he was beginning to sense was dangerous. The intense interdependency growing between him and Theo was just too much for him, too strong and unknown. He probably felt rooted, too tied up in one person—which is something we know he’s not used to and is therefore somewhat afraid of (remember, his entire childhood was plagued with losing people and having to say goodbye). This is why I think he threw himself so deeply (and quickly) into the fling with Kotku. It was a very rushed and fervent thing, an emergency distraction he had to craft for himself. Spending time with her, instead of Theo, became an obsession within itself, which is really telling.

But yes, in short, there’s more than enough evidence to tell us he harbors a certain amount of biphobia, and does repress his bisexuality. Again, I don’t think it’s something he is aware of, or would actively choose, but it’s there nonetheless and shapes quite a bit of his actions.

[heartofnowhere]

Mmmmmm….. Talk to me about how Theo Decker taking the painting from the gallery wasn’t even an active choice for him… How he was a scared child, in shock, and it was something he did without deciding to… An act of pure, unthinking instinct… How he then keeps it secret and hidden for many, many years… How in his heart and mind and darkest moments the painting becomes a shining beacon of goodness and beauty in the world, reminding him of the kindness of his mother and the magic of beautiful things… How the painting is objectively worthless for him to own and as the years go by, becomes something stressful and damning… Hide it, hide it, keep it safe and never look at it. Shrodinger’s Masterpiece. How in the wrong hands it becomes something criminal and cheap, a bartering tool. Talk to me about that moment in New York where Boris tells Theo he knew, all along he knew, because Theo had TOLD him, shown him, had unwrapped it from it’s newspaper cover and revealed to him the part of him that no one else knew about, and said ‘look at how beautiful this is, and it is just mine. But I want to show you, and nobody else.’ How even then, after being reminded, Theo couldn’t properly remember. How he fixates on one girl, one he barely knows let alone has touched, and how he keeps a whole side of himself repressed and hidden in a storage unit no one even knows about. Talk to me about the guilt that Theo feels, later, on his own in Amsterdam, at his lowest point. Talk to me about the inherent queerness of the unreliable narrator and the space in between, the discord between what we read Theo as thinking, how he presents himself to others, and the way the other characters perceive him. Talk to me about a tiny, almost invisible gold chain around the foot of a bird, and the act of freeing yourself from something you can’t even see.

[pavikovsky]

sometimes i get caught up in how those quiet moments must have been for theo and boris; moments lying on their backs with the cool sheets against their bare skin, staring at theo’s ceiling—hands stretched above their heads examining their fingers with wide eyes. moments on the floor of the living room, where it’s so hot outside it’s simply unbearable; with the fan whirring in the background and the tv on mute (gone ignored in favour of lazily dozing, boris fiddling with the hem of theo’s shirt, taking advantage of how stoned they both are). moments in the dead of night, shoes dragging through the dirt, an endless expanse of desert stretching out in front of them—a bottle of vodka passed between them, no words spoken, feelings known but buried. everything must have seemed so infinite.

[goldfinchmovie]

Ryan Foust & Nicole Kidman

Source: ryanfoustofficial on Instagram

⤷ Social media

[goldfinchmovie]

[8bithearts]

Many reviews that I’ve read about The Goldfinch deemed the Wind, Sun, and Stars chapter irrelevant but as a former 13 or 14-year-old seeking company, consideration, and understanding from someone (or anyone at that time, really),  I knew how important having someone like Boris by your side. Someone who won’t really ask you what’s wrong and rather make you laugh until you want to “ have thrown yourself in front of a car to make it stop”. Sure, it wasn’t entirely a healthy relationship (they both knew that as adults lol) but it helped keep Theo alive long enough to have his realization at the end. 

Adults used to tell me whatever I was feeling was going to pass eventually. When I became a college student, some of it did and some of it didn’t. And so did Theo’s. In many ways, I understood how the Vegas chapter shaped him, Boris, and the absence of narratives from the many other people in Theo’s life. Life is sometimes like that –you’re dragged on your own in the middle of fuck nowhere after having lost the most important person in your life and funny enough, you get compensated with a real relationship that will stick with you (maybe as a lifeline, a friend, a brother, or a lover).  

Perhaps, that’s why I loved that chapter so much. It was long, dragging, and sometimes seemed futile, much like Theo and Boris’ life. Their lives seemed as empty, cold, and grim as a desert at night but what was important is that they had someone by their side, to help them laugh, cry, or get drunk at the absurdity that is this life. 

[snafusgene-deactivated20190310]

popchyk decker pavlikovsky 🐑

for @queerkotku bc i hate her

[borispav]

so like.. if boris = the moon right,, then the part where theo goes smth like "hey does the moon look diff indonesia" n boris is like "nah it looks the same everywhere" then do u think... that this is a sort of symbolism we get later on when we see that like the moon, when boris reappears later in the novel in a different time and place, he's the same old curt and reckless boris theo knows? and that sense of familiarity, like theo's r/s w the painting, is unchanging and comforting?? i cant

ahhhh omg yes

I hadn’t even considered that but it’s a perfect parallel considering that they’re both constants in each other’s lives. The sun and moon both disappear for a while each day but they always come back in the end, just as Boris and Theo seem inextricably drawn together, no matter how much time or distance stands between them. 

[borispav]

I just saw a post calling the goldfinch a "reddie fanfic" brb I'm gonna go kill myself now

Yep!! I just saw. I don’t want to have to say this more than once, but knowing tumblr I probably will:

Do not conflate Richie Tozier with Boris Pavlikovsky 

Do not conflate Eddie Kaspbrak with Theo Decker 

Do not conflate reddie with boreo 

And do not conflate It with The Goldfinch

These are two completely different books with completely different characters.  Finn Wolfhard being in both their movie adaptions doesn’t make them the same, nor does it give you the right to reduce a Pulitzer prize winning novel into a “fanfic” of the other. 

[goldfinchmovie]

Luke Wilson in Park Avenue, New York City | March 12, 2018

⤷ Behind the scenes

[borispav]

I also like how Boris in the book was just as appealing to other characters as he was to the readers. Girls at school crushes on him, Theo loved him, random friends of Xandra flirted with him (ew). He has this lovability and it jumps off the pages. Too bad his own papa couldn’t see it 😭

He does, and it’s not (like some people *cough* like to claim it is) the same type of deceptive charm or charisma that characters like Larry have, for example. I like to think so many people flock to Boris because they can just sense that he is good, good and luminous at his core. He doesn’t even have to try most of the time, he’s just himself. His amicable, cheery, somewhat enticingly dangerous, self—and it just magnetizes people to him.

And yeah, it’ll always pain me that his own father couldn’t see that he was a good kid, a resilient and big-hearted kid that loved and forgave him despite never being given a reason to.