#jareths

[alyosius]

Got me some chocolate cake, some tea, some Fouccult, a highly condensed Jonathon Culler, and a whole 'nother day to do my ecology homework...this is it.  This is the life.

[days-of-reading]

hey can I ask you the dorkiest question? you mentioned a little while ago, signing up for a lecture at oxford (I think? I could swear, but if you didn't, my fault). I'm completely terrible at navigating the oxford website and weblearn is... not helpful either... so can you give me some advice about finding these lectures? sorry, I know you're probably busy getting ready to go, but if you have the time, it'd be much appreciated. :)

Hey! (I hope you don’t mind me answering this publicly — just might have some helpful info for people looking to go to stuff!) I actually haven’t gotten my SSO yet, so I don’t have any access to WebLearn. The lecture I registered for is Christine Korsgaard’s series on animal rights; since it’s a special lecture through the Practical Ethics centre, not an undergraduate school, it’s kind of its own thing I think? But there are small miscellaneous things like that cropping up everywhere, in fits and starts — I just kind of stumble upon things. Lecture lists for most departments will come out a couple weeks before term begins, I believe, & the Oxford Union speaker schedule a little after the beginning of term. (Thanks to sleepybae for telling me that earlier!) Everything else I’ve found through the Interesting Talks Oxford FB page (I think there’s a twitter account too,) Twitter, Facebook, or events at Blackwells. Hope this helps!

[alyosius]

 Man, these things are taking me back to like, the early days of facebook, before my paranoia about surveillance ruined the whole experience, and I love it.  Tagged by the class-A renegade Shakespearian sauntering-vaguely. 

Rules: In a text post, list ten books that have stayed with you in some way. Don’t take but a few minutes, and don’t think too hard — they don’t have to be the “right” or “great” works, just the ones that have touched you. Tag [ten] friends, including me, so I’ll see your list. Make sure you let your friends know you’ve tagged them.

1.  A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L'Engle.

Sometime, I might really describe, in full, how this book is a placeholder in my life, documentation of the rift on either side of which I measure my own memories: before and after this.  

2.  Alanna: The First Adventure, Tamora Pierce.

And so did young Alyson discover their fascination with passing.

3.  To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

"Atticus is a gentleman, just like me!"

4.  The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald

We had some battered copy lying around our garage for years and years, and something about the cover and the description on the back terrified me.  There was some sentence in a review about gangsters being the American heroes and sex the American pasttime, which seemed to 10-year-old Alyson like the ultimate testament of depravity.  Somehow this weird, uncomfortable association stuck with me all through 11th grade, until I was actually leafing through a copy in English class.  My teacher had just started reading the first chapter out loud to kill time, and I swear, something in me stood up and stayed perfectly still, listening like I knew what Fitz was going to say.  I hope having sex is like reading this book for the first time, I really, really do.  

5.  Essays, Ralph Waldo Emerson

See: why I survived high school At All

5.  A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce

Never thought I'd identify with a character as strongly as I did Scout Finch until I read this sucker last year.  Certain images are just fixed: Cranley's hair swept over his head, Stephen crouched in bed writing the villanelle, the bird-girl, the dinner table dominated by Dante.  I've only read this twice, but it's a collection of absolute images, which, as far as I'm concerned, are perfectly recognizable, knowable in the sense that they are ideas perfectly represented by their art.

6.  My Side of the Mountain, Jean Craighead George

And then I did go to the Catskills, and didn't succeed nearly as well as these books led me to believe, and we all almost contracted giardia.

7.  All Creatures Great and Small, James Herriot

See: why I stayed in the veterinary program for an entire year

8.  Another Country, James Baldwin

Closely tied with Invisible Man here in that it was the first time I think I saw music enter prose and inhabit the story.

9.  Arctic Dreams, Barry Lopez

Okay, so, I've never actually gotten past the first chapter of this book, because every time I start it I am so fucking mortified by my own science writing I can't continue.  Natural history and social history are treated as one extended landscape.  Lopez made environmental science real to me.

10.  Will in the World, Stephen Greenblatt

It's not really literary criticism, but Greenblatt's a critical scholar and it shows.  This book made me feel like there was something still left to be discovered in literature, that I could access and make new, that this, like science, was an open field.

I don't have ten people lined up, but I'd love to see happilyeverafterattheend, jareths, harrydosh, days-of-reading, and cloudedpages give this a go.  (No obligation, though, of course, and I apologize if you've already received this!)

[kinklock]

jareths replied to your post “how alone am I in the Labyrinthlock appreciation, like completely, or...”

I AM HERE FOR THIS (if my username didn't make that clear)

THAT USER NAME IS SUPER CHOICE 

[goupilz]

tagged by robespierristwildean  (omg thank youuu)

The rules

Answer the questions from the person who tagged you

Write 11 new ones

Tag 11 people and link them to the post

Actually tell them you tagged them

1. Have you ever met a celebrity or musician?

i've met a few local politicians, and i have an acquaintance whose boyfriend is part of an up-and-coming rock band (they've won a few awards, i think) but i haven't yet met an actual celebrity.

2. Do you fear you might grow up to be a crazy cat lady? (Read “cat lady” as any type of animal and any gender.)

it's a definite possibility!  i don't think i'd ever take the initiative to go buy a cat, but i can definitely see myself adopting a few strays.

3. Would you ever take the time and effort to meet your internet friends in person?

HECK YEAH

4. Favorite quote?

most of my favourites only make sense in context, and i feel like choosing one of oscar wilde's epigrams would be too obvious, but i just finished reading the goldfinch by donna tartt and i really like this paragraph:

"And as much as I'd like to believe there's a truth beyond illusion, I've come to believe that there's no truth beyond illusion.  Because, between 'reality' on the one hand, and the point where the mind strikes reality, there's a middle zone, a rainbow edge where beauty comes into being, where two very different surfaces mingle and blur to provide what life does not: and this is the space where all art exists, and all magic."

5. Who is the fictional character you have the biggest crush on? (if any)

basil hallward, no question, no contest

6. Do you have any images of your favorite historical figure in your room? If so, how many and who?

i thought i would, but after looking around my room, i discovered i don't!  i'll have to get some pictures of oscar wilde and rectify that right away!

7. What comes to mind when you think of the word “home”?

probably the garden outside my childhood home and the flowers we used to plant there.

8. How many tectonic plates have you stood on?

just one

9. Have you ever visited the grave of a historical figure?

alas, not yet!  as soon as i've saved up enough money, i'm going to visit oscar wilde's cenotaph and probably embarrass myself by crying so loudly he can hear me from heaven

10. Are you embarrassed of your middle name? If so, why?

my old middle name was a "family tradition" or something, but i've hardly told anybody what it was because it was just. so. boring.  i think i actually would've been less embarrassed by it if it was something really strange!  fortunately, i recently changed it to something much more distinguished.

11. Favorite rock/mineral?

i'm a big fan of rainbow bismuth, but i think my absolute favourite would have to be the moonstone.

my questions:

1.  matte, shimmer, or sparkle?

2.  if you could spend a month living inside a book, would you?  if yes, which book?

3.  do you believe people can be divided into "cat people" and "dog people"?  which one are you, or are you both or neither?

4.  if you had the ability to grant any one person omnipotence, but you couldn't keep it for yourself, who would you give it to?

5.  have you ever read the dictionary for fun?

6.  if you had to live the rest of your life in the body of an animal, which one?

7.  would you rather be famous while you're alive, but forgotten afterwards, or anonymous in life but remembered for generations?

8.  the last time you danced in public, did you have fun or was it embarrassing?

9.  have you ever misspelled your own name or gotten your phone number wrong?

10.  do you believe in magic?

11.  would you rather live on a mountaintop, under the sea, or in space?

[ladyofstardust]

I had to write a class response concerning Yeats's "The Stolen Child" so I ended up throwing in Rossetti's "Goblin Market" and talking about the Seelie and Unseelie Court while pretending all the while that my knowledge of such topics came from something other than Labyrinth fanfic. All of this made me think of you :) Having any strong Laby feels at the moment that you feel like sharing?

WHAT A COINCIDENCE!  I just happened to be having some super deep and real Labyrinth feelings!  Like this is a BRAND NEW EXPERIENCE!

No but actually, I’ve been having super serious feelings regarding Sarah and Jareth as literally mirrors of each other.  Like, I know I’ve talked a bit about how they’re the yin and yang before, but this is just so much more.  They’re the same people, always the same people, but different in the little ways.  But in the ways that are super significant to both of them.  

Mirrors play a really significant role in the Labyrinth film.  Sarah initially looks into one and sees herself as a queen.  She tucks in the photos of her mother on her mirror, so that when she looks at herself, she sees her mother reflected back at her.  She also begins the story where she wishes away Toby by looking directly into a mirror.  

Then, when she’s dancing with Jareth in the ballroom, she smashes a mirror and his entire illusion and power over her crumbles.  The next time she encounters Jareth, they both see each other for who they truly are.  Jareth is no longer playing games with her, he’s angry and a bit mournful about her.  He also confronts her in the final scene by marking himself as her equal (gone are his domineering black outfits, instead he dresses as Sarah does, in white and with flowing garments).  Sarah smashes his mirror, his world comes falling down and all illusions are broken (it’s a turning point in the film as Sarah literally spends the next 20 odd minutes destroying everything in her path - she is done with being nice).

There’s also the obvious things, like how Sarah uses the mirror to contact her friends, or how Sarah looks into her mirror and sees what she’s become in the scene with the junk lady.  It’s a bit through the looking glass and I think that’s the point.  Jareth is Sarah’s mirror, because he carries out the traits she thinks she suppresses (her cruelty, her selfishness) and hides the traits she’s proud of (her loyalty, her love).  

Basically I fell into my pillow moaning about this the other day because Sarah smashed Jareth’s mirror and Jareth fell to pieces.  

[crocheted-flower]

Day 12: your favourite jareths outfit

winner hands down is the grey majestic number from the very end, that shit is legit

[ladyofstardust]

Coffeeshop AUs are essentially the greatest. Because they involve falling in love over caffeine and UST and passed notes and glances and ugh. Basically I am saying, look at coffeeshop AUs in your favorite fandoms. You will smile for at least an hour afterward. I have a topic: I've been reading a lot of fic about choosing between Above and Underground? I was wondering what you thought of it as a trope. Because it's about choosing magic (usually Jareth) over family and I don't know how I feel?

I struggled with this concept a lot when I was writing my fic.  Because if you're doing a back to the Underground arc, which a lot of fics do, then this is a decision it must ultimately come down to.  Now admittedly I prepared for this by making Sarah not close to her family, but it still wasn't going to be that simple.  

I like looking at fics such as Goblin Market as the example.  Where she is very clearly given a choice, and makes it with a lot of difficulty.  Whereas you and I always want Sarah to choose the Underground, Sarah herself might not want that, the very nature of her character is based around her choosing her family.  But at a certain point in a fic, Jareth becomes her family.  Then it's really just a matter of which life does she want?  I've seen fics where they pick both and I've seen them where Sarah stays Above and Jareth visits her a lot.  But I don't buy the latter, eventually that would fail.  

The next longfic I'll write, if I choose to do another, will be Sarah choosing the Underground despite Jareth.  She'll decide to go back and just be one of the humans living there, hopefully without Jareth's knowledge.  My reasoning for wanting to do that is, we almost never see Sarah choose the Underground without Jareth being a overly large part of the equation.  I want her to choose life, and I think that's what she's doing.  When we grow-up, some of us move far away from our families and our old lives.  We start new ones with new loves and new friends.  In my mind, that's what Sarah's often doing by choosing the Underground.  She's making a life for herself somewhere else.  It becomes much more complicated when the wrench of her family not remembering her gets thrown in.  But if Sarah's able to visit them at her leisure - well maybe that's what's ideal.  

I want Sarah to choose the Underground because she chooses magic.  I want Sarah to choose the Underground because she chooses her friends.  I want Sarah to choose the Underground because that's where she's happy and fits in.  I want her to love Jareth of course, but I want Sarah to ultimately choose life over love.  Maybe for her, the love is such a strong part of her life that she'd follow it through worlds, but it ultimately has to be what life she wants for herself.  

I also take some issue with Sarah choosing the Underground before she proves her worth to it.  Being kept as Jareth's queen who gets everything her heart desires is a nice idea, but I don't think it'd be something Sarah would consider, whether she loved Jareth or not.  Sarah always needs to carve out her own place and make herself the hero of the story.  She'd never be happy knowing her story could so easily be rewritten by a unpredictable fae king.