#formative texts

[tytclin]

one thing I love upon rereading Tamora Pierce is that there's not a single love interest under 6ft tall. she really was like short kings need not apply

[alcego]

This, too, is dellyharls

[stubborn-string-bones]

ok but, oh fuck, how many of my old fave het ships are mostly just like

Well I Want To Be Both/Some Combination Of You, But I’m Only Allowed To Want To Be One Of You, So

[stubborn-string-bones]

OK SO. the thing about listening to the ashanti and ja rule hamilton mixtape version of helpless after watching nearly an hour’s worth of 2001-2003 ashanti and ja rule music videos is like

a) there is something uniquely hilarious about ashanti singing “nah, i ain’t sharin’“ after not just always on time but also down 4 you and rock wit u

b) i’m never gonna get over ja rule’s “ashanti”s instead of “eliza”s, like, “as long as i’m alive, ashanti, swear to god you’ll never feel so-” (”helpless”) (which brings us to)

c) it is incredible listening to ja rule sing lines where lin manuel miranda was clearly thinking of ja rule’s voice when he was singing them?? like the whole thing is so!!!! but miranda is the writer and performer and while the recording may not have his full blown “Ja Rule voice” it is right there in his performance and you can totally fucking hear it

d) there is also a really specific thing about songwriting and skill and value and accomplishment and goals and shit

[oldshrewsburyian]

Five Favorite Characters

I was tagged by @qqueenofhades to list five favorite characters in a poll; from her I have adapted this description: "While I am unsure whether you are supposed to select *your* favorite character from the list or the one that you think I most resemble (as I have seen differing versions), I do know there will be a poll, and Tumblr users love polls."

Blorbo from my Formative Fiction

Lucy Pevensie

D'Artagnan

Harriet Vane

Sherlock Holmes

King Arthur

Voting ended onJul 19, 2024

Several of these were challenging. Sorry, Athos, but your boy and mine had to get the Three Musketeers slot. Sorry, E. Morse et al, the detective slot goes to The Master. Apologies to Robin Hood re: the formative medieval lit slot. I'd apologize to Lord Peter but he wouldn't mind.

I will tag @mercurygray, @kivrin, @doctornerdington, @aloveforjaneausten, and @sanguinarysanguinity

[allofthefeelings]

@sidewaystime and I have been discussing the difference between favorite texts (books, movies, tv shows, etc.)- which is to say, the ones you love the most- and formative/foundational texts- the ones that have shaped you.

And I get why we talk more about favorites; we love them and they make us happy.

But I am so much more fascinated by the foundational and formative texts. The ones that disappointed you at the time with a plot twist that undid your favorite aspects, or the ones that felt so important at the time but in the context of the present day you can’t rewatch because society has progressed and you now see all the parts that you didn’t even know to be upset by at the time, or just the ones you’ve outgrown.

I think there’s often shame associated with formative and foundational texts, because they aren’t who you are as a person now. But you wouldn’t have become the person you are now without those texts shaping you, and setting you up to move beyond them.

[oldshrewsburyian]

For another beloved book with too many beloved characters: who's your favourite person in The Lord of the Rings?

OHH. This is harder for me than the Narnia answer, I confess it, largely because I was never immersed in LOTR the way I was immersed in Narnia. This, in turn, is because by the time I was old enough for LOTR, I was also old enough that my interest in reading medieval literature was kicking in. I like to think that J.R.R. would understand. Anyway! Again, I can say with complete honesty that one of the reasons I love these books the most is that there are so many good, flawed, funny, proud, loving characters. I love them. 

Sam is probably the best character. Éowyn is someone in whom I saw myself at 13, and needed to see myself then, and – to be honest – probably still do. She is caged and sorrowful and angry and uncertain, and she still strikes out and makes a life for herself and I adore her for it. But. Here is the answer of my early 30s. Right now, I need and love Aragorn the most. And it is not for the same reasons that I loved him when I was 13. I do, I do love the grey-eyed king, the thoughtful man, the loyal friend, the healer with patient hands (who calls Éowyn heart’s-sister, in a line that might as well be engraved on my soul.) But right now, the Aragorn I’m clinging to with every fiber of my being is the wanderer and the exile, the way-weary man who sings old songs and fights old evils (and new ones) and takes care of the hobbits and whose relationship with Gandalf is one of friendship, as well as respect. I love the man who walks singing through the gates of Minas Tirith, without any certainty – perhaps without hope?? – of what we might narrowly define as “personal happiness.” But he and his allies and his people and his friends have fought and won, and he walks singing and beautiful and triumphant, arm-in-arm with the two others who shone untouchable in the battle. This is possibly very rambling, but right now I really love him for his achingly long perseverance, for his ability to keep his sorrows to himself and to fight through them. (That scene where he has his head buried in his arms as they all prepare to depart Rivendell? ALSO might as well be engraved on my soul.) Sorry, I just really need to admire outcast royalty right now, apparently. Also, I should reread LOTR. I may be neglecting Goldberry.

[oldshrewsburyian]

Who is your favourite character in Narnia? Why?

Prolegomenon: one of the things I love about the Chronicles of Narnia is that there are so many wonderful characters, demonstrating so many ways of living good lives. I love Frank the cabbie and Strawberry his horse; I love the hermit Ramandu; I love prickly, intelligent Edmund and dreamy, sharp-witted Polly; I love pessimistic, perseverant Puddleglum and traumatized Rillian and I love Reepicheep and Caspian and Aravis and…

This may seem like a boring answer, but I really do have to say that my favorite character is Lucy. There are many reasons for this. She taught me the word “inquisitive” when I was 5, and taught me that I was that too. She believed in her own instincts and her own hopes in the face of ridicule. She was lonely and mocked at school, and had to realize that, while that was painful, it didn’t really matter, at the heart of things. She loved the stars. She loved her siblings. She trusted Mr. Tumnus and she forgave him; she wept for his danger and danced for joy at his recovery. She was tenacious, and curious, and warm. Her people called her Lucy the Valiant. I love her.