Letters Sent And Letters Unsent…

books i read in 2021: “evelina” by frances burney ★★★★☆

“I revere you. I esteem and admire you above all human beings. You are the friend to whom my soul is attached as to its better half. You are the most amiable, the most perfect of women. And you are dearer to me than language has the power of telling.”

rereading act 5 of measure for measure to see how i could hypothetically make it a tragedy and i completely forgot isabella cries "And given me justice, justice, justice, justice!" I can literally not recall any other time in a shakespeare work where a single word has been successively repeated four times like that god wow. The escalation the desperation.. to me there is no way to do that line without turning out to the audience and screaming/begging THEM for justice, a call to action from a heartbroken woman grieving a brother who betrayed her

Quiet…… I am Yearning

This is an interesting theory. If it is true, then maybe it’s one of the first times Littlefinger realized the power his words can have over other people’s actions. Maybe at first he felt guilty, but then the power started to feel good, leading him down the path to the man we meet in AGOT.

Do you think it’s possible that Littlefinger tricked Brandon into thinking Lyanna was kidnapped by Rhaegar? All four were in the same area around the same time and it’s definitely within his MO. Not to mention that he just came off a brutal beating from Catelyn’s betrothed and we know what he’d do to get his competition out of the way.

I’m going to preface this with saying that I don’t think we have direct textual evidence disproving this theory. I’m skeptical on Watsonian grounds - first and foremost, it requires Littlefinger to know of Lyanna’s disappearance well before Brandon himself learned of it. While he was recovering from a serious wound half the width of the continent away.

I also dislike this theory from a Doylist standpoint.

First, in terms of LIttlefinger’s backstory, he’s the little guy everyone underestimated, only realising too late that he was their biggest problem. That sort of thing requires time and buildup on the villain’s part; I can’t help but feel that it takes some of the punch out of Littlefinger successfully orchestrating the start of the War of Five Kings if this is his second successful attempt at kicking off a war.

Second, I don’t think it adds anything, really. It doesn’t tell us anything new about Littlefinger (we already knew he’s manipulative), it doesn’t tell us anything new about Brandon (we already knew he was rash). The idea that Brandon learned about Lyanna’s disappearance and believed it was abduction works as a story no matter the source the original news came from.

I decided to read Washington Square, and now Catherine Sloper will haunt me all the rest of my born days.

She's the anti-Fanny Price and the anti-Anne Elliot, in that she's in a similar situation (so similar that I almost have to believe it was intentional) but makes all the wrong decisions because she happens to be stuck with horrible men. But her story's still worth telling because she still matters. She manages to maintain her dignity even in her small, pathetic story. She gets broken and it's sad, because she deserved better, yet the fact that she recognizes she deserved better is what keeps her strong in the end.

I should hate it but I don't, because instead of pure cynicism or mockery, there's compassion there, a recognition that even flawed, unremarkable people deserve our care. Almost nothing happens, yet in the week and a half since I read it, I keep thinking about it. I'm slotting it alongside Eugene Onegin as an anti-Austen story that fascinates me because of the sad ending. (And then I'm going to imagine that Catherine moves to Cranford and gets to experience sunshine and comedy and friendship).

Varys, what an underrated character!

the gods flip a coin and the world holds its b r e a t h

i’m sorry

Sansa knows that of all the Starks that were ripped from Winterfell, she suffered the most to get it back. She’s the driving force for getting it back. Now she’s being told, “It’s not yours, and it’s not the Starks’ anymore. It belongs to Hitler’s daughter, the worst person in the world’s daughter, the daughter of the person who murdered your grandfather and uncle in the worst way possible. And guess what? Your brother, who you convinced to step up when he wanted to fuck off because of his death experience, bent the knee to her and is telling you that she’s your queen.” What part of Sansa’s reaction to any of this is irrational?

Bryan Cogman on the conversation between Sansa and Daenerys. Even when they were smiling, you felt the stakes involved. (via sophietisthebest)

Baby Clifford & baby Snoopy