#book lore

[luna-azzurra]

8 Books for Writers <33

[auspiciousaspen]

I'm just thinking about the scene in project hail mary where Grace has a minor disagreement with dr Lokken about whether earth life and astrophage developed seperately or not and Grace immediatly defaults to calling her an idiot. Do we think this is how he was acting before becoming a teacher? Because if so, no fucking wonder he was ousted from the sientific community lol.

[lady--lucrezia]

(original posted by @thestolenthrone I only added Warhammer to it, because it was missing !)

[faireladypenumbra]

Long Live The Black Parade - Tampa Book Lore

The Young Acrobat and The New Jersey Postcard

(Pictures by me)

I'm back at it again! With thanks for a good rest, because I'm just really settling back in after the Tampa show (which was incredible and life-changing). My last book lore post for six months possibly, but it's a good one! We've got clowns, baby!

We once again have two "texts" to consider with MCR Tampa: the book, The Young Acrobat of The Great North American Circus by Horatio Alger, Jr. and the New Jersey postcard. Since the Jersey postcard is mostly functioning as prop, we are going to focus a lot of Alger's work, partially because Alger's work is something I can speak more directly to, given my finished MA and in-progress Ph.D in Victorian literature. Rare, fun intersection of my interests!

Horatio Alger was an American author who specialized in serialized young adult boys' fiction (a genre you should consider less like modern YA, and more like modern comic books, since Golden Argosy serialized pulp and penny dreadful writing) and published between the 1860s and 1890s. Alger is often speculated as a gay man by academics, and unpacks a early homoerotic subtext in his work. Lots to read about there that, in my opinion, make Alger complicated as a literary figure, but important to understanding the tenuous situations lived by the historical queer author. Alger's work has often been attributed to the myth of the "American Dream" and how we understand that today, which is also complicated.

The Young Acrobat of The Great North American Circus is, at its summary, already easy to connect to LLTBP: the main character, Kit Watson, is a plucky young Victorian boy, who lives in a loosely contructed Greek city where Barlow's Great American Circus is coming to town. This circus consists of exotic animals and a curiousity show, both of which we need to discuss. Of the plot, Kit has ideas of becoming an acrobat and joining the circus, because being a blacksmith's apprentice sucks, and this disappoints his remaining family. Through a series of misadventures and daring escapes, Kit decides to leave the circus and returns to Greece. I've linked the Gutenberg copy for easy reading.

The circus is a classic metaphor for disillusionment with fame/performance, and speaks heavily to the plot of the show. The Black Parade is being forced to tour for DRAAG and trot out music week to week as the underbelly of their situation becomes more corrupt.

The section with the "curiousity" circus workers is particularly telling of this, in Chapter 3. Each of the "curiousity" workers tells of a longer and longer stay with the circus, and quiet resignment to their fates as Barlow seems to be the only place they can find employment (this was often historically true). But of course, there's more to Kit Watson's story that we can take apart- always a second layer. And my particular interest lies with Chapter 4 and 5: here, Kit learns that his late father has squandered his fortune, and so he turns to the circus for distraction. Kit and his friend are warned about an aggressive lion. When they enter the show, the following occurs:

So, the lion (traditionally a symbol of strength and power, and here- a particularly cruel portrayal of violence) strikes down one of clowns and poses a threat to the circus audience. In the Tampa show, the Clerk/Pierrot has clearly become a target and victim of DRAAG, if we're comparing clowns to clowns.

This brings us to Chapter 5, where Kit realizes that he can defeat the lion using a snuffbox he has previously pocketed.

Kit's clever (perhaps plot-contrived) thinking ultimately saves the clown- and the circus-goers from the violence of the lion.

Which makes its place in Tampa's show interesting, because this both does and does not happen. The inteludes reveal increasing empathy to the Clerk's position as victim of DRAAG, focusing us fully on the violence of DRAAG as the final opposing force. But there is no happy ending for the Black Parade, or the Pierrot, at the end of this show, but perhaps defeating DRAAG (as discussed in previous texts) is not so easy as taking out lions in YA serializations. Perhaps there are no plucky Victorian heroes for this story. As the song says, "I'm just a man, I'm not a hero."

I find this piece important as well, because it's disrupted by the postcard from New Jersey, a very clear visual callback to the band's hometown that seems to help break Gerard out of his reading, which makes this text a lot more like Boston's, and I wonder what it means to disrupt a story where a plot point comes so close- and diverges, from the events of the show?

Thank you for reading this final ramble for six months. Tagging @clowns-ofthesame-circus and @magicallydelicious618 again for lore purposes. Adding to the master post as well!

[bilbobagginstookversion]

Bringing my Hobbit to Life

Originally, the skirt and brooch were made for last year's Comic-Con, where I had the incredible chance to meet some of the cast.

The Details:

Smaug: Designed after the drawing on Thrór's map, featuring a single glass bead for an eye. Because of how the fabric is pleated, he sits right above the dwarven names on the hem.

The Brooch: Colored in Bilbo's palette, featuring the acorn alongside beads fashioned from semi-precious stone and glass.

The 13 Dwarves: All written in Cirth Erebor along the pleats, sorted strictly by family branch and age! Each has a glass bead above their name (pinned here for better viewing). Thorin's section stands out because I included his full regnal number and epithet (Thorin II Oakenshield).

The Hidden Baggins: Lastly, Bilbo's signature from the Red Book of Westmarch and Bag End, complete with a little green glass bead for the round door.

My favorite design choice: When the skirt hangs normally, Bilbo is entirely hidden beneath the flap that Smaug is embroidered on. He only becomes visible when I move.

Bonus:

The picture for which all of this started. And in-game references from tales of the shire I used for bringing her to life

[thestolenthrone]

-If you can't stand Canon and don't respect a book/game lore at all; you should ask yourself why you are even dwelling in a certain Fantasy World which is not to your taste the way it exists, where Characters and facts are twisted, blackwashed instead and far from the original Lore. Create your own fantasy world, instead of soiling good looking and canon book/game content and its Lore with degeneration.

[ambientdrops]