Natasha Pulley - Tumblr Posts
Just spent the last three days obsessively reading The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, The Lost Future of Pepperharrow and lastly, The Bedlam Stacks, all by Natasha Pulley. I'm in love with her now.
And another version of Katsu, the lovely little clockwork octopus from The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley. Go read that book if you haven’t already!
“Everybody, professors and students and Proctors the same, knew that if the sign said ‘do not walk on the grass’, one hopped.” - The Watchmaker Of Filigree Street, Natasha Pulley
Lovely fanart of such a great character.
A broken-toy man Keita Mori and Katsu for @sunaisongs I honestly would never read this book if your posts weren’t so convincing
Raphael, from "The Bedlam Stacks"
After rereading "The Bedlam Stacks" I couldn't NOT draw these guys.
Trying to draw them based only on the book's informations was a fun exercise though!
Womanhood as a prison in Natasha Pulley novels
I know that a great deal has already been said about Natasha Pulley’s portrayal of female characters, because even her most ardent fans (and I count myself among them) are often highly critical of how women are written in her stories - or, more aptly, written out of them.
But I think there is more to be said about how not only female characters are presented, but how the very concept of femininity is portrayed, via both the characters’ dialogue and inner thoughts. This analysis will reference all of Pulley’s books with the exception of The Bedlam Stacks. I’m excluding it on the grounds of it having little to no major female characters, but if any Bedlam superfans have any insight to add, please do reblog and contribute.
One of the main criticisms of Pulley’s women is their overarching similarity, so let’s briefly consider those commonalities. They are mostly educated, career-driven scientists (Grace is a budding physicist, Agatha a surgeon, Anna a much more experienced physicist). They are usually unnattractive by conventional standards; Grace is described as looking ‘like a boy’, Pepperharrow refers to herself as being ugly, Agatha is ‘tall and flat-chested’, and Anna’s introduction mentions that she has a ‘blonde buzz cut’ and is somewhat overweight.
They are also generally emotionally cold and poor caretakers, especially in contrast to the male characters. Joe’s wife, Alice, is noted to resent their daughter and engage with her far less than he does. Similarly, Shenkov is significantly more child-orientated than Anna. Agatha forces Missouri to watch a man having his throat cut, because she believes him too gentle for war. Said female characters may also show distaste for softer, more vulnerable women. Takiko Pepperharrow speaks of her mother like this (The Lost Future of Pepperharrow, p. 72):
Saying yes and simpering all the time was silly - her mother did that and even noticeably anxious ducklings walked over her mother
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