Fellas It’s That Time Of Day Again

NYT has been discouraging reporters from sharing photos of luigi mangione - not due to concerns for his safety but to dissuade sympathy - and refuses to post his alleged manifesto in full. and today, they published an opinion by bret stephens about how brian thompson is the "real working class hero" of this story.

reddit deleted luigi's account, which was completely innocuous and consisted mostly of him giving out advice in health subreddits. they're also deleting any post that includes his alleged manifesto and banning users for sharing it.

luigi yelled that this was "an insult to the intelligence of the american people" while he was being dragged by police and news pundits are framing it as a deranged and violent outburst. news media are picking apart details of his life to paint him as a cold-blooded and mentally ill individual. even something as innocent as playing "among us" with friends is being framed as some insidious look into an assassin's disturbed psyche, ffs.

news media are also capitalizing on luigi's supposed "bizarre and impossible to understand" politics as an obvious way to paint him as a scary individual when the guy is... a centrist, at most. whose views are similar to those of your average college-educated white guy.

multiple news media also keep harping on about how luigi comes from a rich family. an obvious attempt to break the class solidarity that's been formed around this case by continuously trying to tell us "oh he's not like you guys" while ignoring the now pretty well-documented accounts of his multiple health struggles throughout the years.

and all this, and he hasn't even been found guilty of the crime he's allegedly committed. luigi is, as of right now, still innocent until proven guilty. and the news are trying to tear him apart because they obviously fear the symbol he's becoming for low and middle class america.

quintuple decker

ON PERCY’S YEAR OF MARITAL STRAIN.           meta analysis

           i think about this a lot my dudes. this is going to be really long because it includes QUOTES.

“Armand knew that: her impulses and imprudence, knew it still better; but Blakeney was slow-witted, he would not listen to “circumstances,” he only clung to facts, and these had shown him Lady Blakeney denouncing a fellow man to a tribunal that knew no pardon: and the contempt he would feel for the deed she had done, however unwittingly, would kill that same love in him, in which sympathy and intellectuality could never had a part.”

so ok there are a few things here. one is that armand is very wrong in the fact that percy is an idiot. percy is far from slow-witted, but on the other hand, armand is right that in this scenario, percy only listened to facts.  percy DID just take the information on marguerite’s supposed part in the eventual execution of the marquis de st cyr … at face value. which ok yeah is he hypervigilant because he’s the scarlet pimpernel, yes. but also, he decided not to trust his wife. the woman he adores more than life itself ( and no, his love for her never died ) and because of this disaster yes of course there was strain on their marriage, even when — no, especially when percy found out that marguerite was tricked and in the matter she was innocent. 

percy is prepared for basically every situation, he KNEW marguerite had once been friends (?) with chauvelin. even if he didn’t let on how much he knew about her, he’s the scarlet pimpernel, he keeps himself informed on people because there’s also an inherent fear of betrayal. and nothing could’ve prepared him for hearing about this — and so he was suspicious of her for the entire fucking year because he had this kneejerk reaction. for percy, knowing he was WRONG was absolute hell. he hates that more than if he’d been right in thinking he married someone who could betray him. because he hurt her. he was distant and honestly really fake in basically every aspect for the whole year and she was miserable. and she comes to warn the scarlet pimpernel about chauvelin, not knowing it’s percy, and he’s literally punched in the gut because what does he do now, knowing the truth and knowing he’s been an absolute ass, a real idiot, for NO REASON — 

and STILL, his pride stands in his way, he can’t even tell her when they’re in the garden of THEIR OWN HOME? instead, percy is still a goddamn headass, 

“Twenty-four hours after our marriage, Madame, the Marquis de St. Cyr and all his family perished on the guillotine, and the popular rumour reached me that it was the wife of Sir Percy Blakeney who helped to send them there.”

“Nay! I myself told you the truth of that odious tale.”

“Not till after it had been recounted to me by strangers, with all its horrible details.”

“And you believed them then and there,” she said with great vehemence, “without a proof or question–you believed that I, whom you vowed you loved more than life, whom you professed you worshipped, that I could do a thing so base as these STRANGERS chose to recount. […] had you listened, I would have told you that up to the very morning on which St. Cyr went to the guillotine, I was straining every nerve, using every influence I possessed, to save him and his family. But my pride sealed my lips, when your love seemed to perish, as if under the knife of that same guillotine. Yet I would have told you how I was duped! […] I was tricked into doing this thing, by men who knew how to play upon my love for an only brother, and my desire for revenge. Was it unnatural?”

percy gets to know that wow he really fucked up. literally right before this exchange, he accuses her of basically just kicking his affections aside ( as evidently , the marquis was executed a year before they married ), and then. THEN, this dumbass fucks up AGAIN. marguerite tells percy armand is in danger, and he basically tells her ‘ask chauvelin for help’ because good god he’s really just doing HORRIBLY, so we get to this,

“Faith, Madame, since it distresses you, we will not speak of it… . As for Armand, I pray you have no fear. I pledge you my word that he shall be safe. Now, have I your permission to go? The hour is getting late, and …”

“You will at least accept my gratitude?” she said, as she drew quite close to him, and speaking with real tenderness.

With a quick, almost involuntary effort he would have taken her then in his arms, for her eyes were swimming in tears, which he longed to kiss away; but she had lured him once, just like this, then cast him aside like an ill-fitting glove. He thought this was but a mood, a caprice, and he was too proud to lend himself to it once again.

at this point, you’re probably wondering if i’ll ever be done talking about this or if percy’s headassery gets any better and in order yes and … not during this particular interaction. because percy’s a FUCKWIT, he actually CAN’T function if he doesn’t have a plan for a situation. without that absolute control of things from his perspective, he’s truly as stupid as he pretends to be, and it shows. the worst part is uhh as soon as he just tells marguerite ‘it’s late go to bed’, mind you, she’s in tears, HE KNOWS THE TRUTH NOW. HE FLAT OUT WITNESSED IT and HE’S STILL ACTING LIKE THIS. yet, he’s too fucking prideful to show his emotions until marguerite goes into the house and percy … 

Before entering, she paused once again to look at him, hoping against hope to see his arms stretched out to her, and to hear his voice calling her back. But he had not moved; his massive figure looked the very personification of unbending pride, of fierce obstinacy.

Hot tears again surged to her eyes, and as she would not let him see them, she turned quickly within, and ran as fast as she could up to her own rooms.

Had she but turned back then […] she would have seen […] a strong man, overwhelmed with his own passion and his own despair. Pride had given way at last, obstinacy was gone: the will was powerless. He was but a man madly, blindly, passionately in love, and as soon as her light footsteps had died away within the house, he knelt down upon the terrace steps, and in the very madness of his love he kissed one by one the places where her small foot had trodden, and the stone balustrade there, where her tiny hand had rested last.

percy worships the ground marguerite walks on, LITERALLY. and he always has, and the issue is that he let his pride win in those moments and if she hadn’t figured out he was the scarlet pimpernel, who knows if this shit would ever have been resolved? that very thought haunts him. all of this haunts him, and honestly, it’s what he’d consider his greatest failure in life. he hurt the woman he loves more than his own life and even if she forgives him, even when she does, he never forgives himself for this.

Reblog for sample size and also tell me why in the tags. I want violence. I want discourse. I want bloodshed

Here’s a little storyboard project I’ve been working on, a scene from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, chapter 13 🎩✨ I had a lot of fun drawing these angsty, dramatic men starting to spiral 😂 Plz excuse my voice, imagine I’m saying all these lines in an impeccable British accent 👌

I love this book to death, so here's some things I noticed <3

"My Baby"

Silver & Lilia Animatic

Song: No More Birthday

One of my Dorian Gray hot takes is that there was absolutely nothing in Dorian and Basil's relationship that was healthy. I keep seeing posts like "Basil's love for Dorian was so pure, that's why the portrait was so pretty and the real villain of the story is Wotton because he corrupted it"

As I see it, yes, Wotton did corrupt him, but saying Basil's feelings for Dorian were pure is simply inaccurate to the story. Basil says himself he merely sees Dorian as an artistic ideal [Dorian Gray is to me simply a motive in art. I find him in the curves of certain lines, in the loveliness and subtleties of certain colours. That is all; ch1] and admitted he (a 10 year older man, who had power over him) tried to isolate him from other people and "keep him to himself". Furthermore, Basil also plays a big role in the way Dorian sees himself and his beauty, by painting him everyday and not maintaining any conversation with him, he's indirectly reaffirming what Wotton tells him: people only care about you because you're pretty and young. There is also this scene from the second chapter:

Dorian Gray turned and looked at him. "I believe you would, Basil. You like your art better than your friends. I am no more to you than a green bronze figure. Hardly as much, I dare say.

The painter stared in amazement. It was so unlike Dorian to speak like that. What had happened? He seemed quite angry. His face was flushed and his cheeksburning.

"Yes," he continued, "I am less to you than your ivory Hermes or your silver Faun. You will like them always. How long will you like me? Till I have my first wrinkle, I suppose. I know, now, that when one loses one's good looks, whatever they may be, one loses everything. Your picture has taught me that. Lord Henry Wotton is perfectly right. Youth is the only thing worth having. When I find that I am growing old, I shall kill myself."

Hallward turned pale and caught his hand. "Dorian! Dorian!" he cried, "don't talk like that. I have never had such a friend as you, and I shall never have suchanother. You are not jealous of material things, are you?-you who are finer than any of them!"

Dorian is even dealing with a suicidal ideation over what Wotton has told him and the way Basil sees him, he needs emotional validation, he's asking to be told there's more than him than that, and Basil's reaction is just─ no. You're prettier than any other object (indirectly comparing him to one, too).

Basil's view of Dorian influences how he sees people as much as Wotton's. For example, to Dorian Sybil was only what she pretended to be, he loved her performance, her acting, how she did exactly what the public wanted (which can apply to Dorian himself), not the real her. She was only an artistic ideal to him, she meant to him exactly what Dorian meant to Basil. He ignored her desires, pain and everything not related to what he wanted to see, since that's what he's been taught he must appreciate.

I also disagree with the interpretation of the portrait as a "pure" reflection of Basil's love (I would personally rather describe it as an obsession, though) and Dorians soul because it's not. At least not entirely. Part of the point of the book is that everyone only saw the part of Dorian they wanted: the portrait represents Basil's idolized version of him, what he wanted to see and how he refused to see Dorian as a person instead of an artistic ideal. That's why he tried to make him redeem himself, because he hated seeing his version of Dorian shatter into pieces. It was never Dorian entirely, not even after aging terribly because that's the result of Basil and Wotton's influence. The portrait was not his real soul, it was a modified version of it other people played with because nobody cared about the whole thing, and the influence was so big those parts became his whole being. It was just an idolized, molded version at first but turned into his real self with the time and the sins. Dorian's soul (the portrait) was constructed upon what others appreciated about him, so when Wotton motivated him to sin, because Dorian's potential to be terrible was what mattered to him, it became ugly and terrible. There was absolutely nothing pure about that portrait since day 1.

there's a stage in sandwich consumption where it's falling to pieces & you're desperately cupping it in your hands & it's like this poor wounded animal that is covered in mustard & wants to die