#fourth letter

[diana-andraste]

I close my eyes Imagining that you are there, Imagining your fingers touching mine Imagining our room, The bed, The secrecy, The world outside, Your mouth on mine —

Stephen Sondheim, from the musical Passion, 1994

[aaravos-answers]

To Archmage Aaravos:

This mortal apologises profusely for disturbing you. I know I have overstepped my bounds in sending you my letters. I beg for your forgiveness, rather untruthfully. For even if I am unworthy to speak with you, I still cannot stop myself from praising you.

With such wonderful, perfect personality, it is no surprise that you are inundated by requests for conversation.

Should it relieve you of any burden, this one will stop their ramblings. I would never want to displease you in any way, my lord.

I hope your evening is tranquil as a river.

Signed Ardently,

Your Secret Admirer

What? Starling, no, never stop! I adore your letters.

I am indeed busy, but I read your missives many times over as I write my replies. I enjoy every word, every time. I cannot forgive you when there is nothing to forgive.

I apologize for not managing to reply to this one earlier. For as long as I have been alone, I seem to have had a sudden influx of visitors: first Viren, then my Princess, then my Angel, then a Skywing, and it seems I have yet another, and this is not even counting my starlings. However has my prison become so popular?

Heh, perhaps because I am in it. But if that is the case... why did no one come for three centuries?

Please, starling, do continue your writings. I enjoy them every time.

[audacious-fly]

originaliTy...wHat is it?

"Make something original!"

"People don't want to see the same old stuff; they want something new."

"That seems too much like this, where's the originality?"

The concept that surrounds originality is like a virus. It changes and if you can't adapt to its changes then you'll get hurt. There was a point in time where what we associate originality to be was just that. At one point, it was something truly new and never done before. However in the modern era in which we live in...'orginality' is more than 'something new' but rather it is something 'fresh'.

What is fresh though? Take a sandwich. You've had this sandwich multiple times. Its gotten bland at this point but lets say that your only option is to have a sandwich. What was previously just a sandwich with a slice of ham and a nice spread of mayonnaise has received some much needed tweaks. Now it has lettuce, toasted bread, a slice of tomato. Its still just a sandwich but its a fresh take.

You keep making tweaks and 'improvements' on the sandwich all up until there is seemingly nothing left that could be added to it.

Its bland again. So you go back to basics. A slice of ham, even spread of mayonnaise on untoasted white bread. Rather than something with a flash, simplicity is better appreciated.....

...

...

...

...all up until its bland again.

The term of originality should not be something 'new' and 'never done before' because we are at a day and age where it has all been done in one way or form. Rather it should be...

The individual interpretation that is improved to contrast others in its field. It is the deconstruction and reconstruction of an item or concept. Originality is the much needed take on something for the time being.

[youmissit]

Man I don't want to but I will

Dear Sherlock,

It’s almost time to go. We all know the sun is coming up. Everyone has their guns cleaned and their packs on their laps as we sit in the jeeps on our way to wherever we’re going. It’s so quiet. We’re all getting ready for the fight. No one wants to be the first to talk out loud. No one wants to be the one who calms everyone only for them all to die because they weren’t alert. Out here we always have to stay alert. Especially on the roads and even more so when we’re on our way to attack. If we’re calm than there’s always a chance that we’ll miss something.

Of course, you already know that. It’s why you’re always so excited. At least that’s my opinion on the matter. I can just imagine your look if I told you that to your face, though. You’d probably call me an idiot. Again.

Right now I’m kind of craving that, though. I just want to hear your voice again even if it’s just so that you can call me an idiot. If that’s all you do the whole time we talk, then I will be more than happy to listen to you. I am always more than happy to listen to anything that you say.

But now I’ve gotten off track. You’ve distracted me once again. You’re really good at that, you know. But I have to focus now. I’m sure that we’re almost there and then we’re going to have to head in and I don’t want to be distracted at you when I have to think about and take care of my team.

As soon as we get there, we’re probably going to head straight into battle. I really don’t want to do this, Sherlock, but I know that I have to. I will do it.

Love,

John

[scaletimemedium-blog]

geolocation + timestamp = 48,908973, 2,387006 at 18:06:27 06/23/15

[scaletimemedium-blog]

sent from Aubervilliers on 26/06/2015; received in Lisbon on 01/07/2015.

[scaletimemedium-blog]

Hugo (1 July): Hi guys, just to let you know that I've received Anna's letter! I'll get to replying as soon as I can. Just to be sure: we're supposed to repeat the process in the same order of recipients, right? Also, Anna: have you run into problems with tumblr, that I can help? Best, Hugo

Anna (1 July): That's great! I haven't gotten to the tumblr thing, since I do not have Josh's digital pictures to upload, yet. Josh, do you have the possibility to send it to me? Another variant is that you take a photo of of Josh's photos, Hugo, and then we put that photo up on the tumblr. Otherwise, yes, I think we continue in the same order, right? I also include my pictures to you, Hugo, so you can upload them later. Best, Anna

Josh (1 July): Hi all My digital photos can be downloaded from: https://xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.zip Best Josh

Anna (1 July): Thanks Josh! I will give tumblr a try tonight.

Anna (1 July): Hi all! Sorry about my confusion, I had not understood that you had already posted your letter on the tumblr in private Josh, I thought the previous discussion was about Jens' letter. So now I have posted the email correspondence up until I sent my letter to Hugo, added dates and tags to the posts that were in private, and posted them publicly. However, I have to admit that I am not sure to have gotten the columns right. Would you mind checking, Hugo, to see if this is how it is supposed to be or not? Best,

Hugo (1 July): Hi! I think that was me, actually (I'm not absolutely sure, though). The posting order is CORRECT! The irregularity of the posts' length just makes it confusing on the page. Next time, let's just make a proper website so we have absolute control over everything haha. Best, Hugo

(…)

Josh (30 July): (…) 1. Anyone know where the most recent letters post May are? eg Anna's on tumblr? 2.  and who has the letter now and if we are doing another round? 3. I think we shouldn't do another round - the project has proven to be much more time consuming than we realised, and i think our scarce time is better put into the article instead of the letter (…)

Hugo (30 July): Josh, thank you for your assessment, and xxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx. As to your questions: 1. The letter is currently with me, and in fact I haven't had the time to write one back for a second round. I do agree that it's taken a lot more time than I was expecting. What do you all think?  2. I'm confused about Anna's letter, because I was convinced I had already posted it on tumblr. But now I see it isn't. It's probably my blunder, I'm sorry; I'll take care of it as soon as I can. (…)

[theperverseletters-blog-blog]

No. 4: Confession and the Performative (Critical Summary)

February 9, 2015

The critical reading “Mad Girls’ Love Songs” is a conducted interview between a professor, Arielle, and student, Becca, the beginning focusing primarily on Sylvia Plath and her legacy as being a female Confessional poet that committed suicide and the affects it leaves behind for contemporary female readers and poets. The student, Becca, believes that Plath was only briefly spoken of but never truly learned and she’s categorized as the “crazy girl” and yet she’s overlooked by “serious” poets. She’s more so seen as a celebrity for her tragic life than her actual poetry, creating this literary Plath myth. It causes a stereotype of “teenage girl poets” in the American culture that Sandra Gilbert describes well: “take an ambitious, intelligent, middle class young woman; impose the standard cultural expectations of niceness and beauty on her; don't forget the fact that because she is an artist, she's a bit mentally unstable to begin with; throw in some kids and a bad marriage for good measure; wait for the inevitable train wreck” (184). This also addresses the Sylvia Plath effect, where female poets are more likely to suffer from mental illness. These ridiculous elements are based off of only one woman’s tragedy to life, and suddenly teenage girls seem to only read them poems and The Bell Jar because it refers to Sylvia’s experiences with depression and attempted suicides. It’s gotten to the point where her suicide is even glamorized and romanticized. 

Arielle and Becca also discuss how their childhoods have an effect on favoring different poets, both growing up around feminism lead them to love poets such as Plath and Rich. The way they describe their adolescent years is similar to the “outcast girl” such as Arielle gives an example to with Wynona Ryder’s character in Heathers. At the time, girls like Veronica from Heathers and Esther from The Bell Jar were females of the perverse. But it was also typical to view the teenage girl with love and shame, she’s beautiful, blonde and thin but it comes with the price of binging, starving, and cutting. Plath was a woman of perversity for being the “beautiful blonde” that killed herself and being viewed as juvenile and immature.  

The collection of poems from Ariel are also talked about in the critical reading, some of the most well-known ones discussed being “The Applicant”, a matchmaker trying to defects in the applicant who is a husband-to-be and “Lady Lazarus”, Plath’s suicide attempts and being seen as a freak show. The poems discussed are from Plath’s emotions however she doesn't use them as a solution or cure for herself but rather molds them. 

Their interview leads to how poetry from Plath and other female poets can let adolescent girls understand that they aren’t alone, it gives the girls something to relate to without the connotation that poetry fix the girl when there is nothing to fix. Arielle make a point to mention that we should focus more on poems that expose what’s wrong with the culture instead of what’s wrong with the girl. In Plath’s case, she’d write poems of problematic girls as representation of the problematic culture in society. Becca also notes that young women are also seen as presenting the future because “they tell us something about where we're going as a culture” (196). It’s also because of this that young girls are expected to strive and succeed at everything, such as doing well in school and taking up extracurricular activities but can give mental strain to the girls. The last part of the interview talks about a variety of women’s poetry aside from Plath that discuss aspects of the female adolescents and issues that are appealing to teenage girls because they can relate to it. Although some of poets mentioned were narrative instead of Confessional like Plath, a lot of the poetry made reference for being “Plathy” or relating to similar dark humor Plath used.