That's why I love the popular headcanon that Andrew is an avid reader - he just hides it well. He honestly probably couldn't focus on a book long enough to save his life while on the drugs but I imagine he spent a lot of time in juvie just devouring books to escape his reality. Then when he could finally find peace and time to enjoy them again - i.e. when his family is finally somewhat safe from the mafia and he's not busy trying to save everyone from their own self-destructive decisions (Kevin - alcohol, Aaron - drugs, Nicky - his parents, Neil - his... everything) - then he finally starts reading again.
When people argue that food from Chinese and Mexican restaurants in the US are not 'real' representations of that culture's cuisine ignore the historical reality that these dishes were developed by diasporic communities striving to recreate the flavors of home with available resources. Such criticism frames adaptation as a loss of authenticity, rather than recognizing it as a sincere and evolving expression of culture by people separated from their homeland.
When people argue that food from Chinese and Mexican restaurants in the US are not 'real' representations of that culture's cuisine ignore the historical reality that these dishes were developed by diasporic communities striving to recreate the flavors of home with available resources. Such criticism frames adaptation as a loss of authenticity, rather than recognizing it as a sincere and evolving expression of culture by people separated from their homeland.
The first time I watched Knives Out, I was in nursing school & wondered what I’d think about it when I was a nurse. Now I’m five years into my nursing career, plus with plenty of time in the home health speciality like Marta, and watched the movie again a few nights ago. My overall feelings about the nursing are actually about the same: I could quibble about details but overall the vibe feels right. She feels emotionally authentic. She feels like a nurse. She should have maybe done a respiratory assessment. But also that old man was absolutely so hyped to concoct a mystery. Absolutely jazzed to slit his own throat. Not a good partner in his own care. Patient who definitely wouldn’t use the call light appropriately.
You know that hospitalist note starts with something painfully diplomatic that just screams you will be walking into a war zone. “Harlan is an energetic and pleasant 85 year old gentleman with very engaged family support network actively involved in care”
Okay this took me embarrassingly long to figure out but, your character needs a thing they do that has nothing to do with the plot. A specific, weird, small habit. She counts stairs. He can't throw away receipts. She reorganises the fridge when she's anxious. It doesn't matter. It doesn't go anywhere. But the moment you give someone a habit that serves no narrative purpose they stop being a character and start being a person. And the reader can feel that difference immediately even if they can't name it.
or: are you REALLY in love if you aren’t actively trying to see around your own b0ner to get a better look at the mark your soulmate just left on your skin, bcs that’s more important? good boy Neil, you’re doing an excellent job as a bf
A question for possible distractions and worldbuilding:
What is the Wizarding World's mythos around left handed people? Cause in our world there was that whole annoying with thinking it was the devils hand or whatever, so I feel this could have a fun answer somewhere.
dude, same brain!! I was just mulling this over the other day.
one issue I have with BOTL and my writing process is that I don't have character sheets (I am lazy) and so I don't remember if I've decided if someone is left or right handed already? and it's not terribly easy to search. I think what I've been doing is very vaguely mentioning "wand arms" and just avoiding having to make a decision, lol. at least, I hope so.
the point to all this is that Draco is left-handed. Draco...actually....ah.....okay spoiler character building for Draco below the cut. If you feel strongly about spoilers, maybe don't read it 🥰
So, Draco is left-handed in BOTL, I decided recently. Draco is also dyslexic.
I've always been really fascinated with Draco's psychology, and so many Drarry stories have elaborated on his childhood in various ways and how that informs his behavior, so of course I had to do my own spin on it.
When I was developing him, I kept coming back to Draco's perfectionist streak. I think his academic record of being a "straight-O" student is mostly fanon, but I wanted to incorporate that into BOTL, because my Draco is a perfectionist. He likes to be in control. He likes to be beyond reproach.
God knows when, if ever, this will make it into the main narrative of BOTL because this (in my head) is revealed not to Harry, not to Theo, not to Blaise...........but Hermione, because Hermione sees Draco working in the library one day and notices his system he's designed for reading and taking notes is quite peculiar.
This is one reason why Draco and Theo became distant in first year is not only because of Theo losing his mum and Draco not knowing how to deal with that, but also because Draco is struggling massively with having to read so much for class. He never admitted to Theo that he struggled to read because of course he never wanted Theo to think he was stupid! Theo was always reading, so Draco never would have admitted such an embarassing fact to him.
In addition to his adjustment to reading so much at Hogwarts, Draco's spending hours revising and correcting his essays so they don't have spelling errors. Draco essentially tortures himself to perfectionism because he's terrified of letting his Mother and Father down. I am not excusing his behavior by any means but I think it's interesting to consider that his insufferable behavior is somewhat of a symptom of his constant stress and fear of being found out.
I imagine that both of his parents, but especially Lucius, were quite overbearing about Draco's struggles with reading over his young life. Theo would have accidentally helped him hide his struggles from a young age because Theo was such a voracious reader and he would give little book reports to Draco, and then Draco would take what he'd said and pass those stories off as his own reports about books he'd read (but in a much more theatrical way, so it was very believable). But once they found out that he was behind in his reading/writing skills, they would have been on him to fix it. Lots of drills. Old school style rote memorization and practice. Hours of practice.
In addition to his bigotry, this is another reason Draco hates Hermione. She is not only a muggleborn, she's a muggleborn that's easily besting him - a pureblood heir to a Noble house! - in every class without even trying.
I realize I have not actually answered your question LOL. I guess what I'm getting at, I don't think left-handedness would carry as much of a stigma in the magical world. In fact, to me it makes some kind of sense that most people would be left-handed or ambidextrous (Theo is almost ambidextrous, by force of will). But I do think that some kinds of neurodivergence and learning disabilities would be basically entirely unknown or understudied in the magical world. Possibly because it's just less common, because there's a smaller population? Or perhaps because magical folk hand-wave "odd people" as just a regular feature of magical communities, and thus don't feel as strongly about cohesion like muggles do?
Draco makes Hermione a really beautiful cloak in my daydream of this whole scene, as a gift for a spell she teaches him that basically takes a page in a book and shows it in handwriting that's easier to read. or maybe they're a pair of reading glasses with runes that do the same thing? idk I haven't fully fleshed it out, I just really love thinking about that whole moment between them.
too many people write jily as the mature ‘parents of the group’ couple and while i do like that dynamic too i will unfortunately be writing them as their true calling (freak x freak)
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