i haven’t seen anyone post it here on tumblr but here’s an amazing blog post by kim o’connor about nick spencer, the guy who made captain america a nazi, and how he ran for office in 2005 on a platform of defunding social services and building bigger jails to arrest more “thugs”
here’s a telling excerpt from one of spencer’s blog posts:
normally i would say “it was ten years ago and isn’t representative” but since nick spencer’s current idea of a villain is this
… i’m gonna go out on a limb and suggest that it is, in fact, a pretty telling look at where he’s coming from as a writer
if you learn a little bit about sea star anatomy, you will quickly realize that they are not something any sapient creature would want attached to a nipple
“I’ve had a career that is kind of under the radar, but it sure is varied, and I’ve been so blessed to be able to get paid to do something I love to do.” –Bill Paxton. 1955 – 2017.
Thank you for writing Les Miserables. It means a lot (probably too much) to me.
But mostly I want to say. I’m sorry.
I’m sorry your book is still relevant. I’m sorry your lessons fell on deaf ears. We are destroying our world through corruption and power and your writing has become more relevant than ever.
You state in your preface “as long as there is misery in the world books like this will be useful” but to think that in 2017, almost 200 years later, those words still ring true? It’s awful. So much has changed in the world, yet fundamentally the problems you address in your preface – and in the 1500 pages that follow – have barely shrunk a measurable amount.
Your book is an award winning musical now. It was filmed with a star-studded cast. It has had so many adaptation both for screen and radio I honestly cannot count them.
And yet nothing has changed.
I love your book. I think about it constantly. It is a work of genius and care to the extent I have not seen before. So this is a thank you for writing it.
But I hate that it is still relevant and I am sorry that your book is still useful.
i actually have a lot of feelings about these parallels
the rogue one!trio are basically the broken versions of the tfa!trio
bodhi and finn: breaking through the banality of evil to do good (with the help of a friend!), but bodhi never had any type of training and was actually *tortured* for his deeds, so his mind’s durability is compromised
cassian & poe: believing whole-heartedly in their cause and act as spies, but poe got to grow up in peacetime with his family, while cassian grew up in war with none. poe’s superior sends him on dangerous missions, but (most likely) actually cares for his health. cassian’s superior thinks only of winning, of getting ahead. (headcanon: if cassian had survived, he’d be absolutely against poe being a spy. not only because he knew Poe’s parents, but because he believes the work would break Poe’s spirit).
jyn & rey: both abandoned by family, but rey is able to hold onto her hope, while jyn completely loses hers.
the tfa!trio are what the ro!trio could have been, in a kinder universe. if we were to go meta, maybe the brief period of balance in the Force post-OT tilted the tfa!trio to a better life (if still tainted), whereas the imbalance in the ro!trio twisted theirs.
also, the ro!trio all died, so, y’know, can’t be more broken than that
I can’t stop thinking about the wisecrack carrie fisher would make about debbie reynolds dying a day after her: the joke about her family, always bringing the drama, the ‘she couldn’t stand to let me have all the attention even when I had just died. I want you all to remember that I did it first.’
I like to imagine her in the afterlife adding material to her stand up: ‘I’m really disappointed to be here tonight, I was hoping I’d get to haunt george lucas for that metal bikini.’ ‘do you know how long the line for this place is? I flipped off nancy reagan and fidel castro on the way in. ’ ‘when I said dear lord please don’t let me live to see that orange buffoon be president I should have been a helluva lot more specific.’
playing to a sold out audience, her mother in the front row. bowie and rickman at a table in the back.
“All those people on Twitter saying ‘no parent should have to bury their child,’ and what does she do? She goes ‘damn right I shouldn’t’ and kicks it the very next day.”
I’ve never made this connection before…at the beginning of DH Hermione tells Ron and Harry how a wizard who’d split his soul could heal himself, save himself…remorse
oh, harry
Harry James you precious baby
I’ve read this second bit before, the whole try for some remorse thing, and thought it was just a Harry stabbing in the dark, but nO
It was so calculated
He remembered that conversation
Hermione’s research
actual, possible redemption for Voldemort
he kept that hope, however slim, that Voldemort could be saved
before they cast their final curses, after all that happened, Harry was actually trying to get Voldemort to mend himself back together
Harry james potter you compassionate jerk trying to save your mortal enemy before he utterly and finally destroys himself
