Love Examples Of Earlier Transformative Works!

Love examples of earlier transformative works! 

This is part 7 of I’m not sure how many. Note this is the same publication that ran the “spiders Grantaire” article.

Translation: 1) Valjean gripes about M. Victor Hugo, who roasted his arm for the reader’s entertainment. [T/N: I guess this is a reference to the scene at the Gorbeau house?] 2) With all confidence, Valjean finds King Charles X [well uh not king anymore since the arm-burning incident happened in 1832], uses Charles’ brother, his friend Louis XVIII, as a reference, and asks him if he would be willing to take on the task of amusing the reader until his arm heals. 3) Charles X, who is truly the best of men, takes charge of the reader, tells him about the capture of Trocadero, the “Unobtainable Chambre” [of ultraroyalist deputies] of 1827, and a bunch of things that could not have less to do with Victor Hugo’s novel. 4) King Charles X takes advantage of the Revolution of 1830 to walk out on the reader.

This. So excited. How often have readers had the opportunity to see both readers and author made to engage with the strong gender scripts underlying an incredibly popular work, made explicit and challenged by a gender-swap? Has it ever 'officially' happened before?

i know everyone and their grandmother is taking potshots at the new twilight novel but honest to god i have so many questions, so many things i needed to know in the agonizing hours occupying the space between “knew this thing exists” and “got my filthy, goblin hands on a copy,” and my first and most pressing being what are we going to do now that jacob black doesn’t have a knot? how does renesmee work in this universe – does she exist in this universe? would she have existed? if edward is the one who is against having the baby, would edythe have carried it given the reverse situation? would edward’s body – unable to change, age, or grow, even conceive a child? would there be a vampire abortion? would there, in this universe, have to be some kind of fanfic-style cis-dude mpreg for beaufort slash bella swan to fulfill her destiny of being a zombie vampire babychild incubation machine? and like, in a universe where the dynamics of half of the familial and romantic relationships are predicated on gender roles learned and assigned in like, the mid 19th and 20th fucking centuries, how does rosalie’s storyline even work? she was only a vampire because of a) her relative class status b) the existence and enactment of gender-based violence in the depression era,  jasper was only a vampire because he was an active confederate soldier in texas during the southern vampire wars, would alice’s institutionalization and torture have even happened if she’d been a man? would carlisle have been a doctor? is edythe going to take the role of stalker slash protector without the hovering obligation of antiquated gender roles? how does leah’s struggle with the hypermasculinity assigned to her as a werewolf play out if she’s like, a dude, how does the whole lowkey racist narrative about quileute men being unable to control their violent, animalistic impulses because they’re native ameri– excuse me, werewolves, play out if all of them are women. i have been sending frantic, screaming voice memos about this to several people tonight and my only regret is that this was the way you all had to find out that not only did i read twilight but i am heavily emotionally invested in the consistency of the twilight universe’s internal logic buT LIKE FOR REAL IS THERE GOING TO BE MPREG IN THIS? IS BEAUFORT (BEAUFORT!!!) SWAN GONNA HAVE A BABY. WHAT HORRIFYING PORTMANTEAU IS RENESMEE GONNA SUFFER THROUGH THIS TIME

I like this song as sung by women, but I love how Ramin kept in the gender of the one who left. Also this feels very intimate. 

Ramin singing I dreamed a dream

that awkward moment when your group is doing a trust exercise and you’re doing everything your partner asks of you and you realize it kind of feels like that fic you read about service submission

boy: you got any fantasies ;)

me: ok so, im in an alternate universe where i have to fight with my friends for a better future and i have a huge sword

Before there was Tinder, there was the Victorian notebook

In 1860s Manhattan, young men and women in search of some excitement could duck into a little stationery shop uptown, open the unmarked notebook on the counter, and scribble a message to all the other strangers who were in on the secret. When the New York society writer George Ellington managed to get his hands on the book, he opened it to find page after page of people talking about themselves in the third person:

“Miss Annie B—, a young lady of high family (fourth floorer), probably highly accomplished and of a sweet temper, desires to exchange cartes de visite with a ‘nice’ gentleman.”

“S.J. A—, a handsome young man, but full of fun.”

“Blanche G—; a very pretty girl, aged twenty; full of fun. Object in corresponding, fun, and to gratify a curiosity as to how many gentlemen will be foolish enough to answer this.”

“James P—, a very homely gentleman, of thirty-five, wishes to correspond with a blue-eyed, light-haired young lady. Must be tall, not younger than twenty-five nor more than forty. A homely person preferred to a beauty. Must be stylish.”

And you better believe people are just as freaked out about women pursuing hookups now as they were then.