#pineapple-split

[wellntruly]

pineapple-split replied to your post “I stumbled across your blog by accident while searching for posts...”

Feb. 28th!? I thought we'd have to wait at least until summer!!

That’s the word from these folks! 

[wellntruly]

pineapple-split replied to your photoset “almandine-winter: “Und in der Seele brennt nichts als Schmerz.” -...”

Whaaatt!? Also, the first thing I noticed was our Favorite Beanpole bout to get trampled by the Masses, glad to see some things never change.

The whole dang dong trailer is just wall-to-wall Shit Which I Have Enjoyed Previously In Fun New Contexts, danke so much....

Incidentally re: Littlest Rath, did you catch when Edgar is embraced by a man he has to genuinely look up to because I sure did and squeaked “sir how tall must you be!” Please accompany me on an imagination journey:

oH LAWD

[wellntruly]

pineapple-split replied to your post “STRANGER THINGS Recap: 2x02”

One of my favorite things about this show is how it just NAILS depicting the pre-teen (& teenage) years. With all the vestiges of childhood but also the burgeoning awareness of the world & How Adults Act, the dumb arguments, the confusion, the frustration, the certainty that Friendships Are Holy and Forever. The actual traumatic experience of fighting monsters also functions like a huge on-the-nose metaphor for the crap involved with growing up and I am here for it.

Yes yes yes yes Yes!

I mean god, Nancy and Steve in this episode, with their stunningly good party fighting, so much of it is about the two of them having different responses to realize that growing into an adult means just pretending a lot of the time. Pretending that you know what you’re doing, pretending you’re okay with it, pretending you’re okay, period.

This is the kind of shit I think the first two seasons of this show did soooo so well. I feel like I have some thoughts formulating about the execution of the third season now that I’m rewatching the second that maybe I’ll write down some day, but yeah the retro genre touchstone shift to a summer action movie from the more dark & weird sci-fi/fantasy flicks meant a cutting down of the space where we used to be free to do all this kind of stuff with characters and themes and the monsters that we face at every age, and god, yeah, this space here is my speed.

[wellntruly]

pineapple-split replied to your post “STRANGER THINGS Recap: 2x01”

YESS so excited for these! "Unfortunately, Will is 100 percent the Frodo of the party, and WILL wander off from the group at any given opportunity." If that ain't the heartbreaking truth though.

That boy is such a ringbearer. Even disappears in MIRKWOOD, u may recall.

[wellntruly]

pineapple-split replied to your post “STRANGER THINGS 3”

Love your recap! I was a bit disappointed in S3 myself, but its kinda like having vanilla ice cream after a flavor I really like on a super hot day. Still gonna consume the shit out of it. And there were moments (like Steve and Robin in the bathroom) that were GOLD. Precious little screentime for Will Byers though! :( There's gotta be a middle ground between Kidnap/Torture and Exposition Character for my child.

I keep waiting to not enjoy Stranger Things as much as I always do, but I just, DO, I always do. I’m actually not much of a binger of hour-long shows on the whole, usually prefer those one or two a day, so the fact that I’ve just galloped through every dang season now says a Lot. Watchability, pals!

Steve & Robin On the Bathroom Floor is, I’ll say it, easily the greatest thing this show did in Season 3. It’s the first time they’ve taken their cozy nostalgic warmth (that backing track! right out of the dark sparkle synth childhood joy of the first season!) and wrapped that comforting charm around something progressive. I know a lot of people have long wished Stranger Things would interrogate its ‘80s genre sources more, be more of a commentary, or, a self-aware pastiche, I guess. And I like those things when those are made, but I also so enjoy a pure homage sometimes, which are made with such love that my loving heart just loves right back in echo. And what that moment with Steve & Robin did, was just add more love in. It wasn’t delivered as a ~commentary~ with the air of snark and superiority that can so often come with that, they didn’t step outside their genre to do it, basically, is what I mean, they just folded this on in there. It felt organic, it felt true to the time and to these characters, it didn’t shy away from the reality of what it would mean to be queer in the 80s, but it also didn’t shy away from the fact that queers have always been here, and here they are now in Stranger Things, laughing on the floor of a bathroom stall. I loved it so much.

Meanwhile, oh my god, listen, I keep knowing I’ll want to rewatch Stranger Things 2 this October and continue with my episode recaps I started with the first season, but then I remember that I may COLLAPSE if I do this, because do you remember just how much our darling brave boy Will Byers suffered through in that season??? How will I make it!!

So. If S3 were to have just been more of that for Will, thank GOD they didn’t, he has been through ENOUGH. But I love him so dearly, so after this more restful (RELATIVELY) season of mostly wearing wizard robes and getting goosebumps, I hope he’s got all manner of a big part to play next time. Mark my words: you will know Will Byers is here to play in Stranger Things 4 if he shows up in the promotional materials with a new haircut. Keep a weather eye, gang.

[wellntruly]

WELL. I started watching Fleabag. I was sucked in by Phoebe-Waller Bridge and the SAIL performance art on the tube and the hilarious and inappropriate comedy and then she just comes straight at me with "I just want to cry all the the time." (its amazing and I don't know if I've ever gone so wildly between laughing my ass off and being emotionally compromised in such a short time span)

Y’know I actually suspect that Fleabag wouldn’t be near as emotionally compromising if it wasn’t ALSO very, very funny. It’s not that she makes light of the loss and unhappiness, but it’s that a person with a sense of humor is processing them, and that just makes it all feel so real. 

[wellntruly]

pineapple-split replied to your post “what are your complex thoughts on Neil Gaiman the Author?”

You’re right and you should say it. Tbh that is exactly how I’ve always felt about Gaiman’s actual writing, and its been a super weird experience to feel like… obligated to love him because his stories are so baked into the cultural zeitgeist? But the ideas themselves are compelling to me, so idk.

passingknightly replied to your post “what are your complex thoughts on Neil Gaiman the Author?”

i think this is why sandman is, for me, gaiman’s best work because the ideas hold this much more immediate and central place and the issues with his longer form prose are reduced

More from our self-forming Internet Book Club for other souls who find themselves with complex & critical feelings about nerddom’s one Neil Gaiman, and are looking for company.

[wellntruly]

Considering getting a free trial of Amazon Prime for Fleabag. The real question is can I binge it all in 7 days!? I guess I won't know til I try.

Oh you TOTALLY can, the entire series is I think just 5 total hours of watch-time? It’s British—there’s only two 6-episode seasons, and each episode is about 25 minutes. And the amount of television she accomplishes in this time is I think one of the strongest arguments for her writing skill.