#kazz-brekker

[qqueenofhades]

hello! just dropping by your inbox to say i'm so happy to see another fan of the rook & rose trilogy on the internet, it's a criminally underrated series and there are not NEARLY enough people around for me to shout at about distinct cultural identities in fantasy and found family and vigilante shenanigans. not sure if you're on discord, but the authors run a server for fans of the series and it's a good time. anyway, normally the rook & rose tag is mostly me shouting into the void so it was fun to find out you're also a fan!

Aha, thank you. I have been shouting about my feelings for almost a month, off and on (ever since I finished Labyrinth's Heart) and this has happily resulted in a number of my followers deciding to give it a try and also getting sucked down the rabbithole. So I have probably single-handedly doubled (at least) the size of the fandom on Tumblr. I'm so proud, etc etc.

Unfortunately, I am very much NOT a Discord person, so I am not likely to turn up over there, but anyone who does want to come shout at me about it in my inbox is more than welcome to do so! I'm also glad to know that there is indeed a fan community of some sort, ahem. Thanks for stopping by!

[libraryleopard]

hello i am under ATTACK from @kazz-brekker (the context is that i tried reading a recent book about a vampire in a rock band and found it boring)

[queerasfact]

Hi! I was wondering if you'd ever consider doing an episode on Sophia Jex-Blake? Apparently she was one of the first female doctors in Scotland and was also a lesbian

Hi! I hadn't previously heard of Sophia but it sounds like this would be a good continuation of the research I recently did on James Barry, so thank you for the suggestion - I have added her to our list.

- Eli

[libraryleopard]

top 5 bits from king arthur stories

Oh don't mind if I do! (I'm in a class on Arthurian legend and fiction this semester and also just generally really like mythology, so I have THOUGHTS.)

6. I know you said 5, but also Gawain self-flagellating himself in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight because he flinched in the moment he thought his head was about to be cut off and deciding to wear a girdle as a reminder of his own shame except then is just catches on as a fashion trend at the court in Camelot.

5. Lancelot being raised by the Lady of the Lake. This keeps being briefly mentioned in texts like The Knight of the Cart and not being elaborated on, but I would like more details on this please! (My kingdom for a Lancelot novel where he's well-meaning and passionate and a little tormented and bisexual and kind of weird because he was raised in a lake by a fairy woman.)

4. Guinevere and Lancelot's doomed and terrible and toxic romance in The Knight of the Cart and Le Morte d'Arthur that kind of ruins their lives but that they're unable to walk away from. They're so incapable of healthy communication and and in some ways quite unhappy because of their forbidden romance but way that unhappiness coexists with the passion of their relationship (like Chrétien de Troyes writing it as a kind of religious ecstasy) is actually so compelling to me.

3. Merlin being the son of a demon in texts like History of the Kings of Britain. I love throwing this fact out to people, it's honestly a great conversation starter.

2. Morgan le Fay learning necromancy at a nunnery in Le Morte d'Arthur. One-sentence mention that I need an entire novel about, hello!!!

Mordred and Arthur's confrontation at the final battle in Le Morte d'Arthur. Okay, listen, this one makes me absolutely crazy. Like, first of all, you have the fact that Mordred is introduced at the start of LMDA and then actually comes back at the end, which is surprisingly consistent for a text that is a really bizarre patching-together and translation of other Arthurian texts. Second of all, the fact that Arthur tried to kill Mordred and all other babies born on May Day because of a prophecy but Mordred survives is so utterly wild to read as a modern reader because those are not the actions of a good and noble king and kind of make me root for Mordred a bit! Third, Mordred being pierced by Arthur's spear and hauling himself further along it to wound Arthur is SO hardcore. Like, imagine hating someone–your father, your attempted murderer, your prophesied enemy–so much you are wiling to hasten your own death just to deal them a blow? So tragic and epic!

[libraryleopard]

top 5 pieces of vampire media!

Oho thank you for indulging me, don't mind if I do. I half-drafted this and then forgot about it for a while, but here we go!

So if you haven't noticed, I periodically go through a vampire phase every fall but it's somewhat haphazard because I've never watched some well-known pieces of vampire media like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Blade, or Castlevania. Also, this list might be entirely different in six months when I've read/watched more vampire media if this phase continues! So, with that caveat:

Bonuses: "The House of Aunts" by Zen Cho (amazing short story about Malaysian vampires), the opening sequence of The Hunger where vampires are killing people to "Bela Lugosi's Dead," The Accursed Vampire by Madeline McGrane (cute middle grade graphic novel about a kid vampire).

5. House of Hunger by Alexis Henderson. I read this recently and it fulfilled me need for fucked-up gothic lesbian vampires PERFECTLY. Very atmospheric and claustrophobic and intense and the central relationship between the protagonist and the vampire countess she serves is just *chef’s kiss* in its spiral of lust and obsession. 

4. The Lost Boys (1987). This movie is a cinematic masterpiece do NOT @ me. Top-notch soundtrack, amazing vampire deaths, more 80s fashion than you can shake a stick at, a vampire motorcycle gang…what else do you need?

3. A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson. It’s deliciously gothic! It’s queer! It’s an emotionally intense exploration of abuse and survival! It’s epistolary! Great novella.

3. What We Do in the Shadows (TV show). I do enjoy tragic, gothic vampires for the most part, but I also really enjoy vampire comedy. I watch this with my mom and sister when we’re all home together at the same time and it routinely makes us laugh until we cry. (I’m not caught up on the most recent season, though.) 

2. AMC's Interview With the Vampire. I mean this one is pretty obvious if you have at all glanced in my blog's direction the last few weeks? I’m unfamiliar with the novel or the movie, but this TV show has kind of devoured my brain. I love unreliable narrators! I love tragic father-daughter relationships! I love gothic horror! I love historical fiction set during the Jazz Age! I love the performances of the three main actors! I

1. The vampire ARG that I played during fall 2020. Okay, listen, this one is probably a surprise because I don't think I've ever mentioned it on this blog, but this is what got me into vampires! It was a really elaborate ARG (alternate reality game, like an interactive puzzle game your act out where there are characters played by real people you interact with). I played through my college during the depths of the pandemic, conducted largely through Zoom and Discord (and a few socially distanced outdoor meetings), but this is what really opened my eyes to what I enjoy about vampires. Prior to that, I feel like my main experience of vampire media had been…uh…watching half of Twilight, which did not awaken a vampiric fervor in my heart. But the vampires in this ARG appealed to me a lot because 1) there was really more of an exploration of the moral quandary of being a vampire than I’d encountered before and 2) there were dramatic romances between vampires instead of star-crossed human-vampire romances. Because the world-building was constructed as part of a game, there were different factions of vampires you could align yourself with that had different attitudes towards what it meant to live forever and to feed on people, plus all the characters were essentially part of a giant, dysfunctional polycule in which everyone had dated at some point and there were two exes-who-still-had-feelings-for-each-other on rival factions. It was also fall 2020 and the world felt apocalyptically bad, so everyone got incredibly invested in the lore, characters, and puzzles of this game to a degree that I don’t think can ever be matched. Anyway, that’s basically the root of my annual vampire phase. 

[wizardysseus]

40 and 45!

spotify wrapped 2020, #40: “master of art” by laura stevenson

a song @wizardjail sent me, like, ages ago that really stuck lol

#45: “washing machine heart” by mitski

what i lacked (in getting into mitski late) i made up for in enthusiasm

[libraryleopard]

for the mechs ask, the bifrost incident, high noon over camelot, toy soldier, marius, ashes!

The Bifrost Incident - How did you get into mechanisms?

Mostly on the recommendation of the friend who also recommended me The Magnus Archives, though I’d heard about Ulysses Dies at Dawn and High Noon Over Camelot before through mythology Tumblr (but it’s a little hard to understand those albums when you don’t understand the space-pirate-narration aspect so I think I’d just Googled them and been confused in the past).

High Noon Over Camelot - What’s your favourite mechanisms song?

Ooooooh that's tough. At the moment, I’m really enjoying playing Favoured Son on endless repeat, but Pump Shanty really does hold a special place in my heart that no other song can truly replace so it deserves an honorable mention. (I love Pump Shanty so much I replayed it, like, five times the first time I heard it before I could go onto the next song even though I was following along with the plot and really wanted to know what would happen next.)

Toy Soldier - How would you describe mechanisms to a non mechs fan?

“They’re kind of like Hadestown but weirder” is how I’ve tried to explain it before (I’m not sure it worked, though). I’ve also tried “they’re a weird British band whose albums are all inspired by mythology/fairy tales and folk music and are narrated by recurring characters” which I think is a liiiittle clearer.

Marius - What’s your ideal mechanisms inspired outfit?

OH, this is something I’ve thought about a lot because I love planning detailed Halloween costumes! I own a lot of strange clothing for that very purpose and one current plan for October 2020 would be kind of Jonny d’Ville-inspired and involves a very ruffled white shirt, brown vest, black jeans, a *very* sparkly sequined rainbow cape (because why not), a lot of weird spiky belts I’ve collected for the sole purpose of being a pirate, and a several fake plastic knives. If this comes to fruition (and I acquire some steampunk goggles, some fingerless gloves, and the eye makeup) perhaps there will be pictures…

Ashes - Best role of a mech in a story? (Eg ‘Hades’, ‘Merlin’)

Ashes O’Reilly as Hades, hands-down. Underworld Blues is SO good. (Though admittedly Jonny d’Ville as Galahad is really something else).

[libraryleopard]

live footage of @kazz-brekker​ when she learned there was a creepy supernatural guy with long blond hair and weird hands in the magnus archives