Tell a Braver Story

I follow and like from @thewatercolours. You can call me Siena. The stories are true. "The glory of God is a man fully alive," - St. Irenaeus

[lexie-squirrel]

[siena-sevenwits]

I would very much like to love a story of mine the way I loved The Brilliant Hour, and see it through.

[fictionadventurer]

Magic system where magic is treated like work in 19th-century England. Magic is something that everyone is naturally able to do, and you can learn different skills and do certain tasks with it, but it's tiring and wears out the body.

Lower class people use magic all the time--it's necessary for survival--and they're hired to do magic for the upper classes, whether they're working the fields, hiring out their magic for factory work, or, working as a maid in an upper class home. Gentlemen are allowed to use magic in a few specific "refined" occupations.

Upper-class ladies are allowed to do almost no magic, except for tiny decorative uses--magic is "low", and using it too much destroys your status in society. Upper-class ladies also regularly go insane from "magic hysteria". Some women are starting to notice this and are arguing for women to be allowed to do healthy amounts of magic. Other people find this idea coarse and unfeminine.

The world and story would be shaped by what the magic actually does (so there's a reason to write this as fantasy rather than pure historical fiction). I'm sure there have to be plenty of stories like this already, but it's still an interesting framework.

[inthefallofasparrow]

To commemorate Independence Day, let us all closely consider these words as set down by President George Washington himself in his diary in recognition of July 4th:

[saintcolumbiformes]

that’s it I’m starting a beguine who’s joining

[saintcolumbiformes]

we will have morning and evening prayer and nice community meals

[kuklarusskaya-deactivated202003]

you know why it’s so critically important to celebrate women over the age of 40? 

because young women and girls need role models. need someone to aspire to become as they age. 

as it is, society basically tells girls and young women: aspire to be 18-22. do not aspire or imagine past that, for you are useless without youth and beauty. do not aspire to be wise, or strong, beautiful without youth, or valuable with lines and wrinkles. and THAT is scary. we put a cap on aspirations for girls, because we want them to think the ideal comes and goes by 20–when really, we’re at our best for many, many years beyond.

[fythemummy]

Happy 4th of July!!

[siena-sevenwits]

🍒🐧 I have to admit I had a lot of vicarious glee in how happy Cherry was to be a published author and that his book was received with so much acclaim. He was so antsy about making it perfect, and at last he just had to publish and let his anxieties go. He chose to self publish because a) he wanted it to get include more of the personal side of the story, which didn’t fit the vision his original publishers had got it, and b) he wanted as many of his dear friend Bill’s beautiful paintings to feature as colour plates as possible. After all, he did say in the book that he wrote it as a sort of “sequel” to his friendship with Bill and Birdie - he wanted their work to be appreciated too. His good friends and neighbours, George Bernard Shaw (yep) and his wife Charlotte were his two beta readers, and helped him clarify his narrative voice, shaking off some bloated writing habits he had picked up at school and Oxford, revealing a more emotionally incisive style that hat had been hidden beneath the bad habits. He had it published in two shining white hardcover volumes - he was determined it gad to be a visually lovely book.

The public and critics loved it. It was the sixth memoir published about the Terra Nova Expedition by one of its members, but it was agreed with near unanimity that it outstripped the other books by far. One critic said that though it might be about the worst journey in the world, it was probably the best story in the world. My favourite, slightly weird review, was from a critic who said that while the book was expensive, and cost about the same as a weekend stay in Brighton, any man man of good conscience would choose to read Cherry’s excellent book over a Brighton holiday. Style, content, insights - all were praised.

However, Scott’s widow, Kathleen, who had been friends with Cherry for the past decade, angrily distanced herself from him after reading the book. She did not approve of his attempted to capture the full range of Scott’s personality rather than painting him flatly as a flawless hero like the newspapers had. Cherry actually writes with great admiration of him in the book (and doesn’t mention his criticisms of some of Scott’s decisions) so I can only assume she did not like him mentioning that her husband was a sensitive man and was very expressive of his emotions, and sometimes was shy of the others. Because heaven forbid Cherry suggest a man might show his feelings.

But overall, the book was loved. A rousing success. And it made Cherry forget his troubles for a long time. He was so glad people liked it. When asked to state his profession, he would happily call himself “explorer and author.”

[nathanielthecurious]

i wish more ancient texts had survived as much as the next guy but can this website cool it with the myth that the destruction of the library of alexandria is the reason for ancient texts not surviving

[nathanielthecurious]

i mean first of all, we don't know exactly how long it stuck around, but it wasnt destroyed in one fell swoop. caesar's soldiers accidentally set it on fire in the civil war but it survived, it gradually declined in importance during late antiquity, ammianus marcellinus says it had been destroyed at some point before the 4th century, there's a story that some iteration of it was destroyed by caliph omar in the 7th century...

but it also just. wasnt the only place that any of those texts existed. there were lots of other libraries in antiquity. they didnt survive forever either, because most buildings and cities and institutions die. the texts that survived were the ones that people continuously decided to keep copying, even across shifts of institutions and book formats.

the fable youre repeating is popular because edward gibbon and carl sagan and some other people wanted a symbol of the loss of cultural memory (and specifically people liked a story about the destruction of scientific secular knowledge by medieval christian and/or muslim theocracy)

[siena-sevenwits]

I might cut the pages related to the Azimir siege out of Wind and Truth, bind them into their own little booklet, and throw the rest of the book out. It would free up much needed bookshelf space and would be kind of cathartic.

[surreptitioussilhouette]

Classic Doctor Classification Chart

[holidays-begin-at-sundown]

is the brothers karamazov fandom divided equally over ivan and alyosha. or is there a small subset of people who have dmitri or pavel as their main favoritest blorbo and will defend them to whoever will listen

[teagrammy]

Shut up ring this, ball and chain that. Get you a man who sings a whole song about how excited he is to marry you and cherish you, comparing it to the great miracles that have occurred for your people throughout history. Who is this man you might ask? The tailor Motel Kamzoil!! 🗣️🗣️‼️‼️

[windmilltothestars]

The thing about some authors is that you trust their heart. Their themes, their sympathies, maybe - but I really do think "heart" is the best word for what I mean here. Like - hobbits were and are and (probably) always will be my favorite part of Lord of the Rings, and there's no hobbits in the Silmarillion. So I could have gone in thinking I wouldn't find as much to love. But the thing is that it's written by the same guy who gave us the hobbits and their themes and their hearts. The same guy with the same views and priorities and eccentricities. Like, it doesn't matter that the story is about Elves, it's still got Tolkien's heart and themes, which was the thing that was shining through the hobbits in Lord of the Rings to begin with; the thing I love about them! Even Children of Hurin still has Tolkien's heart, and I can feel it through Turin's troubled heart. And now I love Turin and I love Tolkien Elves, too, for the ways they show that heart. What does it matter if the tale is of Elves or Men or Dwarves or hobbits? Tolkien can't help writing with the same heart, and I trust it. Similarly (to me) with Dickens, or Dostoevsky. I knew the guy who gave us David Copperfield or Ebenezer Scrooge's story arc wouldn't let us down if I explored more of his work; it would still have the things that made me love those stories. The guy who gave us Prince Myshkin clearly values the things that Prince Myshkin stands for, and therefore I trust that man when I look at his other works. The Dickensian heart and Dostoevskyan heart have won my trust. Like, yeah, I couldn't quite appreciate "Demons" the same way, I don't love every CHAPTER of the Silmarillion or of Nicholas Nickleby, but I knew would find something there that resonated, because by themes and sympathies and resonances, I felt I knew the author's heart.

Does that make sense to anybody else?

[incomingalbatross]

I stumbled across your tags about Martha and Rory's workplace friendship and I LOVE that idea and would enjoy more thoughts on it if you have them.

Hi anon! I love these two. Haven't watched either of them in a while, so my characterization might be rusty, but...

I think it's a very chill friendship. They each appreciate that the other is calm in a crisis, competent, and compassionate, so they recognize each other as Good Colleagues quickly.

Rory likes how well Martha listens to people, taking them seriously and respectfully. Martha likes how patient Rory is, and how good at working with difficult people.

They are both kind of flaky in work availability (Martha less so than Rory, but I imagine she still gets called out for emergencies by Mickey or Sarah or Torchwood on occasion, esp. as the only MD in her little network); even though they don't know each other's reasons, they silently empathize and try to have each other's backs on this.

They both make occasional references to their Lunatic Best Friend and have "haha, I have a friend like that!" moments with each other. They do not give enough detail to realize it is The Same Friend.

(Rory has noticed the Doctor never shows up to bug him at work, and is too thankful to question it. The explanation is that Eleven knows Martha works there and is practicing Doctor-typical avoidance.)

Rory spends much of his breaks either texting or calling with Amy; anyone who knows him WILL hear loving and exasperated references to his wife. Martha thinks they're lovely.

Eventually she meets Amy and he meets Mickey. Turns out Martha's not into perfume but she DID like the Petrichor ad slogans. Mickey and Rory, meanwhile, respect each other instantly.

As I said before, Martha and Rory also bond over someone using "decimate" non-literally.

Martha twitches, and Rory rolls his eyes, and a minute later Rory's like "you know, that comes from the Roman practice of killing one-tenth of a group as punishment--" and Martha practically yells "I KNOW, right??"

At first I thought that would be a good reveal, but now I'm unsure. Maybe it's just a buildup of things (fondness for TARDIS blue, stories about Insane Best Friend, belief in extreme possibilities, cut-off references to What Really Happened in past or present history). Maybe Martha comes by their house while the Doctor is here. Maybe Kate Stewart connects the dots for them. All are good.

Anyway, then the two couples become much more solid friends and help each other fight aliens and fight the mundane affects of fighting aliens and Martha introduces them to her other friends and they all roast the Doctor together.

Martha and Rory become much better at covering for each other in the workplace and also on consulting each other for the Weird Cases that come up sometimes.

[popsunner]

You know what the second I stopped saying “I wish I had a friend who-“ and started being “the friend who-“ my life has gotten 100% more fulfilling

[popsunner]

No legitimately. I have a tea table in my room for when friends can come over again. Most of my friends have a key to the back door in my room. I make my friends sweaters and buy things they mention they want. I send handwritten letters in the mail to my friend who lives a block away. I annotate poetry books and give them as gifts when it’s not even a holiday. I keep extra gloves in my purse and jackets in my car.

I’m not trying to be like “ohoho look at me I’m such a good friend”, I’m saying the second I stopped going “I wish I had friends who would invite me to tea parties” and just. hosted the tea parties myself? I still got to do the thing. I still got to see my friends. I still got to be happy with them.

I don’t think it’s about who does it, I think it’s just the genuine act of caring for people, and giving a little light to the environments you’re in.

[popsunner]

Okay. Apparently I’m not done talking about this.

It’s a lot of energy, I get that. Especially if you’re putting in all this effort, but not getting any back.

But I think that’s the reason no one does it. I mean we’re so worried we’ll start doing all these things and our friends won’t like it or won’t be into it, so we just don’t.

Only last week my friend messaged me, asking if I wanted to go stargazing with her. When I forget about our weekly virtual tea party, another friend called me to ask if I wanted them to host it this week.

I’ve been invited on hikes and picnics and pie making competitions over zoom, and it all sort of started with me going out of my way to be “that friend”.

I genuinely believe that the easiest answer to “how do I get friends like that?” Is to be one. In most cases, everyone else just follows by example, because they aren’t worried they’ll be wasting time and energy anymore.

[bowelfly]

shronks