no i dont think richard was "not smart enough" for the greek class. but lets not pretend his monetary status is what kept him from fitting in. Bunny was not rich, despite his illusion of wealth/big rich guy persona and his 'friends' knew this. Even the twins weren't well off, lol. Only Francis and Henry were wealthy.
The reason richard never became a core part of the group (unless absolutely necessary) was simply this: he was boring. he was a voyeur whose sole purpose was bearing witness to something greater than himself (nnnot really. all these guys were kind of pathetic and swept up in the tides of their delusions.)
that is part of the tragedy of richard and his entire story: he wanted, so badly, to be a part of this group, this other-worldly phenomenon that could never really accept him. he got swallowed whole and spit right back out by the very people he had built up to be these divine beings of perfection. He becomes doomed to forever feel the grief of a rejection so in-his-face and the only closure he gets is some fantasy he forces in a foggy dream.
interesting things happening on my twitter account
A part of Richard's isolation from the group that I would like to put forward is this:
I truly do believe the group care for Richard as a friend, even when their relationships start to spiral out of control near the end. But that care isn't always present throughout their lives, the same way most people aren't constantly obsessing over their friend's feelings 24/7, and he cannot understand it.
It's not just the stuff you would typically think of that proves this to me, like the twins going out of their way to include him, companionable rambles with Bunny, making food with Francis. The most obvious instance of this is Richard being excluded from the Bacchanalia, and yes, this obviously sucks as someone trying so desperately to be included and a part of the group, but also makes so much sense from their perspective.
If Richard had been normal, he would have been so weirded out! This could be a convenient excuse, but it could just as easily be the group showing their own desires to be accepted by HIM, in a kind of reverse of roles that Richard naturally doesn't want to pick up on, because that would be seeing them human, and fallible, and SIMILAR TO HIMSELF. Unthinkable!
Something I've not seen discussed is the little aside when he first falls in with the group proper and relates that they had found him just as aloof as he had found them. Their inviting him to Francis's house was simply an urge to impress him, and I can't see any other way of reading it than that. If they had simply wanted to include him, but didn't care about how he saw them, they could have simply kept inviting him to their houses and out for lunch.
But, it's the moments that also double as little instances of ostracism that really interest me: Camilla saying Henry didn't want to do another pig ritual because he thought it would upset Richard, the group telling him they've already involved him enough and that he shouldn't participate in Bunny's murder. The general reading of this (that I've seen so far) seems to be that Henry did these things purposefully to keep Richard apart from the group, he didn't know him as well as the others, an unknown quantity, someone he didn't care for as much since he hadn't known him as long. But there's a lot of ambiguity there as well, and I think what makes things so compelling is that uncertainty. It could be purposeful, or unintentional, or some inextricable combination of the two.
(As an aside- ironically, I believe Henry may care about Richard the most out of anyone in the group. Helping him while he was sick, worried about seeing Richard drunk during the day, it's all rather sweet, and I don't believe it was entirely some machievellian scheme.)
However, I like to see the isolation as mostly, if not entirely unintentional, because that makes it so much more cutting to me. It's subtle. They don't put any special thought into doing it, they justโฆdon't even think how these things could make him feel.
The worst part is, as far as I remember, Richard never fully engages with his feelings about this, but they are felt so much through the story and his actions within them. They are moments that sunk deep within his psyche like a stone that's dropped into water and swallowed immediately without a trace. It sits very still inside him, unmoveable.
His acceptance of these moments as they are happening to him is likely a result of his history of loneliness and being apart from others. There is nothing unusual to him about this, that it would require further thought from him within his narrative.
A large part of Richard's isolation is due to his glorification of the people he deems worthy, which continues even after he begins to see their flaws. Despite them, he still can't bear to see them torn down to his level, people he can relate to instead of glorify or look down upon. I think there is an element of self destruction to this, not wanting to understand so he has an excuse to punish himself for self perceived deficiencies.
It's very intriguing, this uncertainty of how much of Richard's isolation from the group is imagined, or perhaps even self imposed in a kind of feedback loop, where he feels pushed away and so pulls himself away from them, to anonymous parties with people he professes not to care about, takes pills and sleeps for days, to numb himself from the pain of their rejection.
And in the process, this feeling of isolation is enforced, becomes more a reality through the concrete evidence he has produced by himself. Maybe the group see his behaviour and think he needs space, they give it to him. He feels lonely, he says nothing. Because he would rather freeze to death than ask for help.
He makes me crash out, respectfully,,
When I was little and read the myths of Ancient Greece, I thought that the ancient gods were very cruel, turning people into trees. Now I am older and I want to be a tree too.
how did Richard casually mention doing cocaine in a burger king parking lot and then ONE LINE LATER call Judy a 'senseless cokehead'
my dude drop the superiority complex
Happy New Year of the Peacock!! ๐
(As you know, if you seize enough territories in China, any year can become the year of the peacock)
Lord Shen from Kung Fu Panda 2
oh thanks for tagging me :3. i'm new to tumblr so i'm glad someone is already including me in this activity
these are my six favorite books:
The Gray House by Mariam Petrosyan
Heaven official's blessing by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
The Hobbit, or There and Back by J. R. R. Tolkien
Woe from Wit by Alexander Griboyedov
Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev
I often find it difficult to choose my favorite books because all my favorite writers are short fiction writers ๐ญ. like Bunin, Paustovsky, Akutagawa, Andersen
btw next year i will take exams to enter university. and for the literature exam i will have to read a lot of russian works. (also i want to read more japanese literature). so i think next year i will have a different top of books :)
๐๐ @asableedingheart @egujournal @autumnalethereal
Favourite Book Tag Game
Dear mutuals and followers, let's play a game. It is simple and straightforward: name your six favourite books (with or without explanation), then tag five more people and let them do the same.
Here are my six favourite books (not in any particular order, they all share a space on the podium):
1. Demons by Fyodor Dostoevsky
2. Northanger Abby by Jane Austen
3. The neverending story by Michael Ende
4. Krabat by Otfried Preuรler
5. Fire and Hemlock by Dianna Wynne Jones
6. The Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett
I'm tagging @thelostinthebooks , @catcoffeeenjoyer , @stoertebeker , @plutorine @deimosatellite
Have fun ๐
too many movies have been ruined by not casting ugly people
I kinda hope The Secret History never gets a movie adaptation because being forced to read the book is a test you have to pass to get into this fandom.
my theory for what henry whispered to camilla is "kitten, i'll be honest. daddy's about to kill himself"
I'm an artist (at least my mother told me so)/ message me, if you want to talk/ any pronouns/ dni: terf
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