How Mexicans feel about duendes too.

True. Most Irish people, as Norwegians do with Trolls, will happily let the 'fairies' be a thing to make tours for tourists and idle threats to make children behave. Most Irish people will have a very normal and mature explanation of fairies as a common folk mythology that expresses some dimension of Irish culture but are not, obviously, to be taken literally.

And most Irish people, if you ask them to move a stone from a fairy circle will immoveably, flatly respond with 'absolutely fucking not'.

Construction projects have had to halt and be abandoned for it.

At work me and a couple coworkers (black, white, and mexican) had a fun discussion on whether there are more ghosts at a hospital or a cemetery.

everyone individually took a moment to specify that ghosts probably aren't REAL real. then weighed in on where and why.

for the record my position was that there's probably way more ghosts in hospitals because that's where people die horribly, but since you can only see ghosts in dark, solitary conditions, graveyards at night is where the majority of ghost sightings occur. hospitals are usually well lit and busy, so even if they're crammed with ghosts the living are too damn busy to see them. meanwhile if a cemetery has even one ghost that followed her corpse there from the hospital, she'll be spotted because that's where all the ghost hunters go to look.

this theory was received as extremely sensible, and a coworker drew the conclusion that that's why abandoned hospitals are even scarier than graveyards. once the place gets abandoned then you can tell how much ghosts got built up.

we all liked this explanation a lot and explained it to everyone else all night. and of course, none of us believe in ghosts.

me, Irish: of course I do not believe in fairies. My American peers: sexy fairies?

Me: You are all deranged as a box of frogs. The fairies will steal your skin and wear it as a cloak. Don’t go into a fairy ring. There are no fairies, this is just sense.

Rae from Long Live Evil by @sarahreesbrennan.

Happy Fanart Friday and thank you so much to @ace-artemis-fanartist for these fabulous renditions of my bad girl Rae, Lady Rahela, the Beauty Dipped In Blood. I love the touches of title purple in her shoe ribbons, snake and glorious hair, love her skirts, love her angry wee face on the far left, her acceptance of the Bosom of Evil perfectly portrayed, and that said bosom is shown but also her breastplate/armour top from the cover kept. She doesn’t wear a breastplate in the book but my editor cleverly suggested it because the gauntlet is subtle and we wanted the cover to say, mischief and frothy skirts and all, that Rae is a fighter.

I'VE NEVER FELT THIS MUCH JOY BEFORE!!!!!!

One sign of a great adaptation is that it has you shipping something you never shipped before.

Never in all my days did I care about the interviewer in Interview with the Vampire, until the show said what if he lived to get old as the vampires don’t get old, what if he cared about having a point of view and telling a story and had Pulitzers and wanted to do the interview again and this time get it right, what if he was cynical and mean and amused and dedicated, and THEN what happens when Daniel the irresistible truth seeker meets an immovable false image (Armand of the many masks, wearing them from childhood to survive until he doesn’t know which is his face).

And now I clap like a seal.

tyrannosaurus-trainwreck:

…nope.

The narrator explicitly says that Darcy did want Bingley to marry Georgiana, though he tried to keep it from influencing him:

Keep reading

This is my night for Pride and Prejudice posting! I like this discussion a lot and have only one thing to add to it which is that I like that the book is subtle about how sympathetic Darcy’s wish for Bingley to marry Georgiana (which of course despite what he thinks is influencing his desire to believe Jane’s not into Bingley) is.

Because objectively Georgiana can do better, she and Darcy are fancy with an estate and aristocratic connections and wild money. Bingley’s very well off but not landed and would have to sink a bunch of money into becoming so, and definitely has no aristocratic connections. But he’s Darcy’s friend, he’s notably sweet-tempered, he’s obviously easily led by Darcy, he’s great in social situations while Georgiana Darcy is shy. Georgiana has reason to be, as an orphan who got preyed on when she was 15 by someone she grew up with and who undoubtedly she trusted - her dead father loved Wickham, and this girl loves Elizabeth sight unseen because Darcy does. Bingley is someone Darcy has selected as someone who would be good and gentle to his little sister.

And that’s high-handed but sweet. This is one reason we love Darcy that isn’t discussed enough. Austen is keenly aware of how vulnerable women are. So too is Fitzwilliam Darcy.

Sorry, still not over Darcy critical-failing that proposal! Not that sorry, though. I have no idea why Pride and Prejudice hits so hard when most of Austen's other novels are like "They're fine! I like them! Anyway..." for me.

But, here's the thing. Darcy is being an asshole. Darcy isn't an asshole, generally, but he's really being one about his whole Regency Era situationship with Lizzie. Like, he rolls in on day one with this giant fucking chip on his shoulder, acts like he's too good for everyone, and why? Well, he's rich, and he's got lofty connections.

Except who's he rolling with right then? His spineless dustmop of a bestie and his bestie's godawful sisters. Bingley's the sort of guy who can be peer-pressured out of being in love!

Like, you know that thing where you have a friend, and they introduce you to another friend, and that friend is such a wet sock that you find yourself reevaluating your friend because they're hanging around with this guy? Like, okay, Darcy, do you have friends, or do you have toadies? Is this your bestie, or did you find a gentleman's companion that you didn't have to pay?

Later on we meet his aunt, who's the goddamned worst.

Like, we all hate Mr. Collins, right? This woman has Mr. Collins over twice a week for a quiet evening of performative dickriding. That's the kind of taste Darcy's family has. Voluntarily spending hours with Mr. Collins on a regular basis.

There's no talking about Mrs. Bennet's lack of decorum or matrimonial grasping or entitlement without talking about Lady Catherine flying in on her broom to scream at her nephew's fiancee, right? Especially considering that her basis for doing so is a cradle engagement that she seems to have never spoken to her nephew about as an adult and a fucking rumor that she assumes pertains to Lizzie.

She doesn't even talk to her fucking nephew before spending half a day in a carriage to make a blazing spectacle of herself in front of the entire Bennet household! He finds out she did that afterwards when she tries to make him break off the nonexistent engagement that she's announced to half the fucking kingdom by that point.

I mean, unexpected point to Mrs. B, who notably did not even walk down the road to Netherfield to act disappointed at anyone.

Also hard to get on too high a horse after Georgiana's near-elopement with the country's biggest asshole! Like, oh, the Bennet sisters are embarrassing? The Bennets lack propriety?

Buddy, you hired a sex trafficker to look after your sister and then your sister almost fucked the one-man-crime-wave son of your late property-manager. And you didn't even manage to hush it all up properly! Sure, he's keeping your sister's name out of his mouth, but he's running you down like a dog in every other respect to the whole county!

Like, "Oh, look at me, I'm Fitzwilliam Darcy! I'm not going to lower myself to correcting any of The Plebes who now think I deliberately misadministered a will to fuck over The Help out of cheapness and spite, especially when all it would take is one conversation with That Fucker's commanding officer, but god forbid I ever have to go out in public with a Bennet! I might die of shame and secondhand cringe!"

So he's got all of that going on, and then he busts in on Lizzie with a proposal that's got huge "I don't consent to being attracted to you" energy and runs her entire family into the ground. This is after Lizzie's spent approximately three centuries being negged by his mannerless nightmare of an aunt, so that's at least one extra level of "Really, bruh?" in there.

And then he fucking claps back at her rejection! Instead of going "Oh. Huh. Whoops. Guess I'll just have to go marry one of the other ten thousand women lined up waiting to marry me!" he's like "What the fuuuuck did I ever do to you, you fucking menace?". At which point she checks him so hard he spends the next three months bluescreening and looking up how to be polite to people you haven't already known for five years.

So like I said, he is being an asshole here. He knows how to act right, he just hasn't bothered to do so once since posting up in Netherfield because idk, he's on vacation or some shit.

Critically! However upsetting Lizzie finds The Proposal Incident (half-hour crying jag, spends the rest of the day hiding in her room), she is at no point worried about Darcy's subsequent behavior.

This is while she still thinks he genuinely did Wickham dirty and before she's had a chance to get character references from the 500 people working at Pemberley. This is the guy about whom her dad later says "Kidding-not kidding I can hardly say no to this rich fuck, can I?" when asked for his blessing. This is after Mr. Collins literally said "I've heard no means yes these days" to her fucking face and then her mother tried to make her marry him anyway.

She preached a full on sermon about the man's shortcomings to his face immediately after saying she wouldn't bounce on his dick if it was the last one on earth and after the adrenaline crash wasn't like, "Fuck. Fuck. Fuuuuuuuck my entire life, he's going to burn down the vicarage and frame my father for tax fraud."

Everything that she's seen with her own eyes about this snobby bastard tells her he's not going to go crying to his aunt and get her cousin's patronage revoked. He's not going to go out of his way to fuck her or her family over. He's pissed, and he was definitely playing the ass with that proposal, but he's not going to lash out over it.

So this is Lizzie seeing Darcy at Peak Asshole, with extra assholery that he didn't even do but he couldn't be bothered to tell anyone he didn't do, and Lizzie's still like "omg you're such a fucking prick, how do you even get out of bed in the morning" instead of "Well, RIP to my prospects, there's no way that man doesn't have the lot of us consigned to a convent by parliamentary decree now."

This is also great Pride & Prejudice posting! Darcy, like many rich people, has trouble with the fact that others have feelings and viewpoints as valid as his own.

Darcy presumably sees his aunt Lady Catherine through affectionate eyes, softening her faults, but doesn’t consider that Elizabeth sees her family through affectionate eyes. Interestingly, we the audience regard Georgiana with sympathy - Darcy’s beloved baby and only sister, admiring of Elizabeth - while we tend to be far less sympathetic to Lydia (Elizabeth’s sister, but with about 5 years and 2 other sisters between them, which gives more scope for annoyance and competition than Darcy’s approximately 12 year age gap with a little girl who’s no threat to the heir or the near unlimited resources in their huge manor).

But Darcy, to his credit, is shown knowing Lydia is a victim like Georgiana, both 15 year olds preyed upon by Wickham. While society at the time meant Lydia marrying her seducer was bad yet the alternative might be worse, I always liked that Darcy’s first impulse was to march in calling ‘Lydia get your coat, we are blowing this popsicle stand!’ It also tells us that had he come too late to save Georgiana’s reputation, he still would’ve tried to get her away from Wickham and make sure she was safe. Perhaps his immediate reaction to Lydia tells us he’d thought about that.

Darcy, a principled guy at bottom, and yes! Elizabeth can either subconsciously sense that despite Wickham’s claims or can tell (possibly by noting his affection for his sister) that if this guy cares about you, he won’t hurt you. And he could have without framing her dad for tax fraud. All Darcy would have to do if he really wanted to marry and/or punish Elizabeth was something entirely legal and socially acceptable: go ask her parents for her hand.

Think how hideous her mother made refusing Mr Collins. As OP says, we see Mr Bennet go ‘oh I can’t refuse Darcy anything, but you—my 20 year old dependent daughter—you can go say no to him after I’ve already agreed to give you away.’ His reaction is whatever at that point because Elizabeth loves Darcy, but earlier in the book Mr Bennet defends Elizabeth from Mr Collins. We know Mr Bennet wouldn’t defend her from Darcy. Mrs Bennet would never stop hassling her. Jane got jilted, all the Bennet daughters have no prospects at this point. Whether or not Elizabeth caved, she would be under unbearable pressure and nobody would think Darcy had done a thing wrong.

But of course Darcy would never. Man has too much pride, for one thing.

In Darcy’s defence re popping the question abruptly, he did think they were taking romantic strolls.

ELIZABETH: I love walking in this particular place. HINT: Stop coming here. DARCY: oho my lady and I have an assignation. DARCY: we now regularly rendez-vous to appreciate nature. I 100% understood her charming flirty hint and am a prodigious loverboy. ELIZABETH: oh no our 5th awkward surprise meeting. How does this keep happening!

It is hilarious to think of Elizabeth returning proposal fire with ‘I do not rejoice in a connection to Lady Catherine, whose wit and manners are so inferior to my own, but I GUESS I’ll marry you.’

Yeah Mr. Darcy’s proposal was a complete turd and a half but you gotta understand. You got your life together. A good career, stable income, retirement plan, all that shit together. And you meet this girl. And she’s everything. Clever, outspoken, funny, calls you on your bullshit. Grade A cutie, right? And she doesn’t go out of her way to spend time with you but she’s nice, and sometimes you catch her looking your way in a way that makes you think you might have a shot.

But her family. Holy shit.

First off, it’s p much ALL women, and mostly UNMARRIED women, which at this time means of something happens to her dad then you’re financially responsible for like. Four grown ass adults, potentially forever

Because mom in law is DEFINITELY gonna need someone to take care of her when dad in law kicks it, and they have like. NO money. So already you’re accepting that if all goes well, you’re gonna be one random old bag’s retirement home. That’s expensive and exhausting, yeah? Imagine asking someone on a first date knowing that if they say yes and things go good her high-strung chihuahua mother is gonna move in with you. IMAGINE.

And girly’s other sisters. Well, one is a sweetheart, yeah, and she’s getting engaged so she probably won’t be an issue, but that still leaves two more, and those ones are INSUFFERABLE. Never went to school, dumb as rocks, spend cash like it’s toilet paper

And while one of ‘em’s young still and might grow out of it the OTHER one is actively torpedo’ing her entire family’s reputation by wandering off with random dudes and chasing ass. She’s never gonna work, she can’t build connections, she’s a fucking sinkhole, and she’s being led on by the same goddamn con man ass leeching tit who’s been bleeding you dry while telling anyone who’ll listen that your family is full of ratty thieving bastards.

And if he dumps her after a week- WHICH YOU KNOW HIS BITCH ASS IS GONNA- you’ve got a SECOND UNMARRIABLE GROWN ASS ADULT TO PROVIDE FOR. And you KNOW she’s gonna be a tantrum-throwing little shit about it, and it’s not like you can lock her in the basement or something, you’re gonna have to bring her fucking. Everywhere. And give her an allowance and shit while she contributes zero, because again, she NEVER GOT EDUCATED AND HAS NO MARKETABLE SKILLS. She’s not even good to TALK to. FUCK

And you’re looking at this girl’s father like “please for the love of fuck get your spawn under control, marry them off, get them working on their résumé, learning to sew or be nursemaids or manage staff or SOMETHING, yall got no money and one foot in the grave” and that old man just laughs like “haha yeah, what can you do. lol”

So you’re looking to the mom and finally it’s making sense how she got that twitch in her eye and as MUCH as she is you’re starting to realize she’s the SMART one, desperately throwing her armloads of girls at random men like they’re a bunch of fucking lifeboats bobbing around a sinking ship, like yes Jesus Christ sweetly that life boat IS old and ugly and kind of boring but for FUCKS SAKE PICK ONE

And you look back at this girl who is ALSO REFUSING THE LIFE BOATS BY THE WAY and god damn it she’s still the most radiant thing you’ve ever seen so fine, fuck it, Christ alive, you’ll do it. You’ll shoot your shot. She’s everything you’ve ever wanted in anybody abut it’s not even just about that anymore, it’s about being her best fucking shot at a future, and even if she doesn’t like you all that much she’s still gonna say yes and that might break your heart a bit knowing it’s about the money but who knows, maybe it will at least be civil, or companionable, and even if she doesn’t LOVE you at least you’ll know she’s well and cared for

And so you’ll do it. You’ll take on the neurotic stress mess mother in law, the absent father, the broke ass wingnut no brain no money no future airhead sisters, the bad mannered relatives and the embarrassing behaviour and the impending future of sharing your entire shit with a clown parade of freeloaders, you’ll risk it all and accept the absolute certainty of financial ruin and emotional exhaustion for the rest of your whole ass life and you’ll make your own family deal with it too, you’ll do it, you’ll fucking DO IT, you stupid lovesick motherfucker

And so you go to this chick like “look. Your whole family’s a shitshow. You’ve got fucking nothing and you’re gonna die on the street. But for some reason- and I don’t get it either- I’ve fallen in love with you, and I wish I didn’t, but I did, so I’m telling you that whether you like me or not, I’ll give you everything. I’ll give you everything even if it’s the dumbest shit I ever done. Fuck my stupid Baka ass, I’ll marry you.”

And she looks at you- having heard or considered absolutely none of your months-long internal debate and monologue- and goes “The fuck did you just say about my family, you son of a bitch?”

And the shock of that is enough to jolt you back into a reality where you are able to actually hear and process what just came out of your damn mouth And yeah

Yeah, I think I kinda get it

This interview is in Sue Birtwistle’s The Making of Pride and Prejudice, in which indeed Colin Firth came to the exact same conclusion as OP, that he was like ‘I will brave horrors innumerable (your sisters) and dangers untold (your parents) to be your man’ and got offended by the crew going ‘diabolical arrogance!’ when he now felt it was HIGHLY romantique.

I’m watching Splash (1984) which is a romcom about a guy who falls in love with a mermaid, and when she chooses a human name she chooses Madison and guy says “that’s not a real name, but alright” which seems to imply that Madison was not a name until at least the 80’s and all girls named Madison are actually named after the mermaid. thought you should know

I think...you might be right

what the fuck

In names brought to you by popular fiction, please join Dora (Dickens), Olivia (Shakespeare), Wendy, Heidi and Lestat…

https://britishfantasysociety.org/events-calendar/bfs-online-worldbuilding/

“We don’t create a fantasy world to escape reality. We create it to be able to stay.” – Lynda Barry. The British Fantasy is having a whole BFS Online Day on Worldbuilding, and at 12:15pm to 1:15pm BST I’m being interviewed by the wonderful David Green. It’s so exciting to have the interview spot, but from 10am to 6pm BST there will be so many amazing writers doing panels and readings. Link to tickets above - free for BFS members, 5 pounds otherwise - and see you in other lands…

Today’s the day! My interview is in an hour, I primp and consult my notes and quotes.

Well, not outside the books, anyway.

Despite what some groups of online activists may think, authors are not legally responsible for the things we write about. Thankfully. If we were, I'd be in a lot of trouble.

*cue interdimensional lawyers charging you with genocide and assorted other crimes, having determined you're the person who came up with their reality*

This is, in all sincerity, why I laugh and back away whenever anyone asks me which of my characters I'd like to meet.

Death of the Author?

… could happen, some of our characters are right to be annoyed!

(And that was a great exchange.)

Liar.

From the Top Gun: Maverick production notes. It was Cruise who wanted Kilmer for the original Top Gun and Bruckheimer has said that Cruise refused to do Maverick without Kilmer. What a gift to have them on screen together again one last time.

It turns out that the reason why Julliard trained Val Kilmer was tricked into being in Top Gun by the studio was because Tom Cruise really really really wanted him to be there. Man.

sad we lost him, glad he was in Tom Cruise’s ray bans commercial. Pour one out for the greatest swordsman who ever lived.

characters that are repeatedly stripped of their humanity eventually turning monstrous is such a great and compelling arc trope