reagan > Recent Status Updates

“Where is the villain, Edmund?”

“Where is the villain, Edmund? Here, sir, but trouble him not- his wits are gone.”

…

“Stop, stop! No help? The enemy’s in view! … The wheel is come full circle; I am here!”

Something about this Shakespeare dialogue is really tugging at me. It does a masterful job of conveying the guilt and horror of the death.

Ok so love the conversation but I don’t think there’s been enough built up tension to warrant Oliver’s strong reaction. So much of it happens off screen (James being flighty) that I’m still trapped in their Thanksgiving holiday together. That’s much more memorable.

“He kissed her once more, this time long and lingering. My mask was hot and sticky on my face, my stomach twisted inside out and aching like an open wound. I leaned heavily on the balustrade, trembling under the weight of parallel truths that I had, until then, been able to ignore: James was in love with Wren, and I was blindly, savagely jealous.”

NO WAYYYYYYYYYYY

James (as Romeo): …”’In sadness, cousin, I do love a woman.’

For a moment I forgot which line of mine followed…With a jolt I remembered my words, but not quite the right ones.

Oliver (as Benvolio): ‘Be ruled by me,’ I said, a few lines too soon. ‘Forget to think of her.’

James blinked rapidly behind the mask…”

No way they aren’t in love

I’m slightly disappointed. I wish the tension had built for longer leading up to the climax of their story. Each scene I hoped for it to be a little more drawn out, because the ideas and character conflicts are enthralling.

Okay I am prepared to eat my words if this gets good. Seeing the Macbeth parallels with the character castings and potential future happenings is interesting… anticipating more friction between Richard and James.

I don’t believe the dramatic reactions in this book are merited. You would think this group of 7, after knowing each other so intimately for 3 years that they are “not impressed by their best and worst traits” anymore, would not be shocked at Meredith’s little reveal. Maybe I’m being too much of a critic.

The plot better be good 😭😭 this is already pretentious

The narrator is Mamiya? And the guy they claimed was Kozuka earlier is Kida? Or is this passage another schizophrenic delusion?

Can’t tell if it’s poor writing or if the author is trying to intermingle the narrator and Ryodai’s stories to confuse readers on purpose.

OK they’re trying to play mind games with me

EARLY PREDICTION:

The narrator IS Ryodai Kozuka after all, but has multiple personality disorder just like Miyazaki, leaving him confused about his surroundings. It would explain the abrupt narrative style and the ambiguity of his identity.

Interesting analysis of Tsutomu Miyazaki’s psyche. Quite disturbed.

This book is very graphic and I’m not sure I’m cut out for it. I’m going to try and continue, because I think there is merit in the themes presented, but I’m just hoping that this doesn’t turn gratuitous.

“Just as I had caused the twitch in Grandma’s eye, I was the swelling in my mother’s cheeks, and was the fracture in her arm.”

Brilliant quote. Not so sure about this book though- I found some of the previous parts of the transcript to be confusing and therefore hard to read.

“Resurgam”

My dear Helen. What an injustice that has been done to you.

“Helen, why do you stay with a girl whom everybody believes to be a liar?”

“Everybody, Jane? Why, there are only eighty people who have heard you called so, and the world contains hundreds of millions.”

:3

No no never mind. Everyone should be a Jane. Her strong sense of justice amidst a culture that silences women and children is satisfying.

“But I feel this, Helen: I must dislike those who, whatever I do to please them, persist in disliking me; I must resist those who punish me unjustly. It is as natural as that I should love those who show me affection, or submit to punishment when I feel it is deserved.”

“Yet it would be your duty to bear it, if you could not avoid it: it is weak and silly to say you cannot bear what it is your fate to be required to bear.”

Wordy but I like it. I want to be a principled Helen Burns, but I’m more of a Jane Eyre I think.

“She ought to look” or “ought to be”. I’m reminded that our present culture is progressive. In the 1800s, a child was seen and not heard, expected to project a dutiful happiness instead of their true misery.

❤️❤️❤️

DAMNIT SALLY YOU IDIOT!

Waleran, Percy, and Prior James were all part of the White Ship plot or at the very least were instrumental in covering it up