Me Coming In From The Rain Before I Read Leroux’s Phantom Of The Opera: Bit Wet Out There

Sylvia Plath, from The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

Does ANYONE have video of Erik first coming out to the Overture for the Olympics??? Because I keep hearing about it, and of COURSE I wasn’t watching that day, and I. need. to. know. if. it’s. true.

Kafka gives hope to all writers

𝙹𝚞𝚕𝚢 𝟸𝟿, 𝟷𝟿𝟷𝟺 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙳𝚒𝚊𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚜 𝙾𝚏 𝙵𝚛𝚊𝚗𝚣 𝙺𝚊𝚏𝚔𝚊, 𝟷𝟿𝟷𝟺-𝟷𝟿𝟸𝟹

[ID: Began things that went wrong. But I will not give up in spite of insomnia, headaches, a general incapacity. END ID]

May your day be psychologically torturous and filled with existential dread.

You’re still the best.

If you get it, be my friend. Seriously please be my friend.

Outside the Opera, Paris - Jean-Georges Béraud - 1879

Thinking about Her again

@cuddlesforerik I am honored.

Favorite color: Honestly, black. It’s so beautiful to me. Very classy/elegant. But if that doesn’t really count, I also like a dark red, almost burgundy.

Currently reading: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas (1846); The Collected Works of William Wordsworth (1793-1850); Fear and Trembling by Søren Kierkegaard (1843); AND I am about to start Le Fantôme de l’Opéra by Gaston Leroux (1909), for the first time in the original French (so incredibly excited).

Last song: “Talking About Hope” by Snow Patrol

Last film: 2005 Pride and Prejudice (in theaters, I might add. Gorgeous.)

Last series: “The Walking Dead” (original)

Sweet/salty/savory: Sour. (Guess that falls under sweet most of the time?)

Tea or Coffee: COFFEE. Black. Though, I can be persuaded to drink a flat white now and then. But only when in Europe. Which leads nicely to my last point…

Working on:

Currently: Getting home from a trip to England (lovely, lovely country, home to many of my favorite authors).

In general: Writing a novel, learning French, and preparing for grad school (daunting but full of promise and reward).

No-pressure tags: @fdelopera @forever-and-whats-left @dailykafka @mournfulroses @waistcoatntails @coatntails

Nine people I wish I knew better

Thank you for the tags @meilas and @dj-triumph!

Favourite colour: Green, especially dark forest greens

Currently reading: The Otherwhere Post by Emily J. Taylor and an ongoing read of Les Miserables by Victory Hugo. Almost finished both!

Last song: There Are Other Ways from the Circe Saga of Epic: The Musical by Jorge Rivera-Herrans

Last film: The first half of Chicken Little before bailing on it

Last series: Andor

Sweet/salty/savoury: Always a toss-up between sweet and salty for me

Tea or coffee: Coffee, but always decaf!

Working on: Goodness, a few things, and I am excited about all of them!

A new oneshot about @rose-margaritas’ bartender!AU, based on this piece specifically

My next multi-chapter fic, which is another collab with @brendadaaedestler that we started for NaNoWriMo 2024

The third and final part of Heaven Is Not Fit to House a Love Like You and I

A multi-chapter fic expanding on The Blackened Rose, my 1920s Phantom AU oneshot

Tagging: @brendadaaedestler @ablatheringblatherskite @rose-margaritas @erik-carriere @xcspy @les-gnossiennes-fantomatiques @achillmango @angel-with-paper-wings @blackghostm2o (apologies for any double tags/tagging people who’ve done this already! 💕)

“Perhaps, after all, romance did not come into one’s life with pomp and blare, like a gay knight riding down; perhaps it crept to one’s side like an old friend through quiet ways; perhaps it revealed itself in seeming prose, until some sudden shaft of illumination flung athwart its pages betrayed the rhythm and the music; perhaps … perhaps … love unfolded naturally out of a beautiful friendship, as a golden-hearted rose slipping from its green sheath.”

— L. M. Montgomery ~ Anne of Avonlea (via missemilymorland)

I literally have never seen a more beautifully accurate account of this man.

The other day, I was trying to explain to a friend the difference between Erik and Quasimodo from the Hunchback, and I got caught up in this distinction. Erik isn’t a moving character just because he’s a softy misunderstood by society. He’s awful. He’s terrifying. He IS horrific. And it’s the dichotomy within him that makes him so compelling. It’s the fact that he is both Angel AND Phantom. The point of the novel is in the question: “Shall we pity him? Shall we curse him?” It’s a choice that Leroux puts to every reader, having given them evidence and justification for either options. It isn’t sugar-coated; it’s raw and real. It’s life and death. It’s shocking but it’s truth. Just like Christine in the first unmasking scene, we are exposed to it in all its horror; but it is only through this very horror, the full expression of his madness and his grief, that we are able to experience the heights of his innate divinity and, like Christine, finally recognize the truth of his identity: “the most unhappy and sublime of men,” a man acquainted in equal measure with both Heaven and Hell.

We must never forget that our Erik is tragic hero. Uncomfortable and doomed but, because of this, oh so beautiful.

I love the Phantom because he wasn’t “pretty on the inside”.

He was full of hate and disdain for himself and mankind.

And he was beautiful through his gifts and talents. And he was beautiful when he was exposed, when he was unguarded… But he was also ugly. He was more complex than simply being a monster or being ugly ‘on the outside’.

He was still magnificent, but he changed the rules. He changed the game. He changed everything. He wasn’t kind and he wasn’t terribly sincere and he wasn’t patient or helpful but he was still beautiful.

He was beautiful through his obsessions, his knowledge, his struggle and his downfall.

His struggle, his downfall, his destruction and his insecurities were his beauty.