[Narnia Content Note: War, Violence, Chivalry]
The Horse and His Boy, Chapter 13: The Fight at Anvard
Today we're going to see the humiliation of Rabadash, for which I wanted to dedicate a full post.
This passage didn't leave much of an impression on me as a child, or at least certainly not as much as the scourging of Aravis (which was quite upsetting to me, even at a very young age). I think that's partly because it occurs at the end of a long sequence (which began when the party "split" at the Hermit's house and which dragged on as we waited for the war to resolve and the heroes to reunite) and partly it happens to an unambiguously "bad" character (Rabadash) as opposed to the ostensible heroine (Aravis). But this passage is part of the reason why I chose to deconstruct these novels in the order they were written rather than in the order they occur in canon.
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Narnia: The Humilation of Rabadash |
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Open Thread: Red and Green |
Portland, Maine is a city of brick. Probably because it got burned down so many times everyone gave up on wood, but --the thing is-- we use brick everywhere. Thus sidewalks. And while it may have become fashionable to make tar sidewalks and then, before it dries, press a brick pattern into it (and sometimes paint it) we've still got the old fashioned brick sidewalks. This leads to things like the roots of trees forcing the sidewalk into an undulating pattern. It also leads to things like the above.
Oh, also, while an open thread is theoretically for everything, since we had the "everything sucks" open thread just yesterday, it might be good to put "everything sucks" comments there rather than here.
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Friday Recommendations! What have you been reading/writing/listening to/playing/watching lately? Shamelessly self-promote or boost the signal on something you think we should know about - the weekend’s ahead of us, so give us something new to explore!
And, like on all threads: please remember to use the "post new comment" feature rather than the "reply" feature, even when directly replying to someone else!
Friday Recommendations! What have you been reading/writing/listening to/playing/watching lately? Shamelessly self-promote or boost the signal on something you think we should know about - the weekend’s ahead of us, so give us something new to explore!
And, like on all threads: please remember to use the "post new comment" feature rather than the "reply" feature, even when directly replying to someone else!
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Open Thread: Everything Sucks, but I Love You |
As a trans disabled USian, I'm not doing too well.
Here are some twitter threads for anyone who wants:
* The thing the President said about trans people.
* The thing my Mom said about my writing.
* The thing I did at work.
* The feelings I'm having right now.
Here is the short version: I'm low of spoons and in a depression trough so I haven't been responding to people the way I'd like. I wish I could individually write you all and tell you how much I love you because honestly it's a lot. My ultimate wish would be to send you all my love on really special paper, written in way better handwriting than mine, and sealed with a fancy wax seal which goes to show how much I mean it. But in lieu of spoons, I can at least do this post: I love you.
I'm going to try to start sending out early beta read emails to people on the project I wrote about last June. This is less because the writing is ready for prime time and more because I feel like people need something nice right now. Or maybe that's just me. Anyway, if you signed up for that, you'll get an email sometime today about the project.
For everyone else: I have half a Narnia post written. I will try to finish it soon. I'm still here, I promise. I love you all. Please hang in there and be safe.
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Open Thread: Reflecting Bird |
Not much to say. Just a bird that's reflecting.
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Friday Recommendations! What have you been reading/writing/listening to/playing/watching lately? Shamelessly self-promote or boost the signal on something you think we should know about - the weekend’s ahead of us, so give us something new to explore!
And, like on all threads: please remember to use the "post new comment" feature rather than the "reply" feature, even when directly replying to someone else!
Friday Recommendations! What have you been reading/writing/listening to/playing/watching lately? Shamelessly self-promote or boost the signal on something you think we should know about - the weekend’s ahead of us, so give us something new to explore!
And, like on all threads: please remember to use the "post new comment" feature rather than the "reply" feature, even when directly replying to someone else!
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Open Thread: Evidence That The World Will Not End In Flood |
Ok, technically it's evidence that Yahweh (always remember that the vowels may be wrong) won't destroy the world with a flood, which still leaves a lot of room for other people and things to destroy the world in a flood, but still.
What happened was this: After a storm there was the most vibrant rainbow I have ever seen (yes, it was a full arc double rainbow) with a supernumerary rainbow clearly evident below it which I don't think I've ever seen before. (I wondered if it could be one of the "greater than two" rainbows, but none fit the placement and color direction, so I had to look it up and find out that supernumerary bows are thing.)
The violet band was as visible as I've ever seen it and had another violet band below it, separated from the main violet by a green band. (Hello, supernumerary bow.)
But, you see, I was over here, and my camera was over there, and I knew that getting the camera would kill the wonderful sights. Eventually I walked over anyway, returned with my camera, and as expected the rainbow was much diminished. Hence the picture.
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Friday Recommendations! What have you been reading/writing/listening to/playing/watching lately? Shamelessly self-promote or boost the signal on something you think we should know about - the weekend’s ahead of us, so give us something new to explore!
And, like on all threads: please remember to use the "post new comment" feature rather than the "reply" feature, even when directly replying to someone else!
Friday Recommendations! What have you been reading/writing/listening to/playing/watching lately? Shamelessly self-promote or boost the signal on something you think we should know about - the weekend’s ahead of us, so give us something new to explore!
And, like on all threads: please remember to use the "post new comment" feature rather than the "reply" feature, even when directly replying to someone else!
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Narnia: Narrated For Your Convenience |
[Narnia Content Note: War, Animal Cruelty]
The Horse and His Boy, Chapter 13: The Fight at Anvard
When we last left Narnia, Shasta was tangled in his horse's reins and I was boggling at just how wrong this chapter is; I refer you to all my other posts on the subject but first and foremost I'm still angry that Shasta isn't riding a Horse or a Centaur who can protect him from this battle.
We know Shasta being on an unhelpful lowercase-h horse isn't because That Just Isn't Done, since there are people riding on Horses for this battle--it was mentioned in-text earlier--and we've seen children ride a Centaur in a previous book. We can quibble over whether "protect the kid who looks just like Archenland's lost heir" is a valid enough emergency to break social mores, but those mores have been shown to be negotiable.
Anyway, Lewis wants a bird's-eye view for the battle, so we zip over to the Hermit and I can't help but feel this was literally the only reason for the Hermit to exist in the text. He patches up Aravis and tells Shasta where to find Lune, but neither of those things were strictly necessary; what he really brings to the table is a big screen television. Bree will be the color commentator for this game.
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Open Thread: Shaky Cam |
Technically "Shaky Cam" is when you shake the camera on purpose in a motion-picture setting (by which I mean: "the picture moves", not necessarily "industry") in an effort to make professional work look like it was done by drunken under-funded "college students" (scare quotes for a reason) who were majoring in "Nothing to do with film, cameras, or aesthetics" and minoring in "How to fit every negative stereotype that has ever been unfairly applied to college students".
I don't know what the term for the above is. I don't even know what I was trying to photograph. I do know that it was taken on July 4th from on top of a parking garage (the one connected to Wellington Station by the really long sky-bridge I'd never been inside before) and from there we saw enough different fireworks shows that I lost count. Somewhere in the double digits.
I actually worked really hard to get a picture of the stuffed fox watching fireworks with a firework in the picture, and succeeded (more than once!), but you can only tell the fireworks are fireworks by comparing the pictures to a firework-free picture because a) when you're watching more than ten shows at once you're probably not very close to any of them, and b) the ones in those pictures weren't very big ones anyway.
So, instead, have squiggly lines.
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If you were thinking, "Wow, this is really late," you were right.
Friday Recommendations! What have you been reading/writing/listening to/playing/watching lately? Shamelessly self-promote or boost the signal on something you think we should know about - the weekend’s ahead of us, so give us something new to explore!
And, like on all threads: please remember to use the "post new comment" feature rather than the "reply" feature, even when directly replying to someone else!
If you were thinking, "Wow, this is really late," you were right.
And, like on all threads: please remember to use the "post new comment" feature rather than the "reply" feature, even when directly replying to someone else!
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Writings: The Necromancer's Solution |
April! This month's post isn't especially social justicey, I must confess. I was instead taken with a very fluffy story idea which would attempt to justify the Sorting Algorithm of Evil--you know, that thing where the Big Bad only sends his weakest and most ineffective minions to start out against the Hero, letting him level up against the weak baddies and utterly failing to stomp out the threat while the Hero is still a Level 1 farmboy. I have a soft spot in my heart for genre-savvy villains and wanted to try a hand at writing one.