We Get Caught Up In The All-consuming, All-encompassing, All Or Nothing, "love And Freedom Can't Coexist"

We get caught up in the all-consuming, all-encompassing, all or nothing, "love and freedom can't coexist" emotional extremes of so many of the TLT characters and that's sexy and I love it and all but

We've got to give a thought for Abigail Pent and Magnus Quin.

The only people who were ever simply nice to Gideon Nav, because it doesn't have to be any more complicated than just being nice to someone. Magnus, who kept that dance card corner but didn't build a mausoleum for it because keeping a chokehold on something good isn't going to make it stay. He wasn't a great cavalier but he was a fantastic husband and a good friend. Abigail, who sent the teens back because she was willing to fight at the end of it all, but no matter what's on the line some things are too much to ask. She knew when to say no, when to step down and trust others are capable. Both of them choosing to go into the River, maybe beyond, because endings are good and nothing is supposed to be forever.

I think they resonate more with what Nona was trying to get across than anyone else in that book besides Nona herself. They would've loved her.

(to the tune of Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree)

🎼 fuckin around

and findin out 🎶

A book asks the reader to imagine any sensory input of the story, whereas a film or TV show provides both sound and visuals. Audio fiction lives in the space between these two approaches. I think there's a unique power to that middle ground. I love how audio drama asks the listener to co-construct their sensory experience of the story.

Audio drama allows me to simultaneously experience 'This character feels real to me because I've heard their voice' and 'This character feels real to me because I've pictured them myself'.

What the characters are experiencing is both directly presented to me and left to my imagination. There's no page or screen between me and the story. It's there in my ears. It's there in my mind's eye.

There's a strange sense of intimacy to that, the intimacy of feeling like a fly on the wall during a conversation or of hearing a character speaking as if directly to me. Perhaps it sounds contradictory to say that experiencing a story only through sound allows me to feel uniquely connected to that story, but that's one of the reasons why I love audio fiction so much.

imagine a house that loves you but whose architect wants you dead

I only have one note for you Rian Johnson. In the next one Benoit Blanc needs to be at least 500% more gay. I've now seen Glass Onion twice, once in a cinema and once on Netflix, and both times I had to explain afterwards to the heteros I saw it with that Benoit Blanc and Hugh Grant are husbands. Yes despite the PR push. No I do not know the character's name, Blanc is gay married to Hugh Grant now thank you very much, that is my second note if you'll allow me that Rian Johnson.

Both times! "Oh I loved Hugh Grant's little cameo, but I didn't really get who he was supposed to be?"

You gotta shut these reactions down next time Rian Johnson. The rule of show don't tell is officially suspended. There must be no room for doubt. 500% gayer at minimum. Everything else just keep doing what you're doing, darling, loving your work

A few of the more creative spellings of Christmas I’ve come across while looking for Dear Santa letters in old newspapers this year.