From The Ashes Of Valyria

“I would sell my soul for another minute with Astoria”

“Listen to me. I don’t care. I don’t care. I want you.”

Daphne: Tell her you like her!

Theodore: I like you

Daphne: Yeah just like that

Theodore:

Theodore:

The movie is captivating, but the book is twenty kinds of terrifying, even now, ten years after I first read it. As disturbing as the movie may have been to some, the things Selick added really serve to cushion just how horrific the story really is.

First of all, the character of Wybie does not exist in the book. Coraline is facing all of this nearly alone, with her only help coming from the sly comments of the cat, a warning from the circus mice, and the stone given to her by her neighbor, presented with no comment but that it “makes the unseen seen.”

Second, the Other Parents are never quite as warm (and, dare I say, normal) as they are in the gifs above. They’re described as having paper-white skin and the Other Mother’s hair is said to move on its own, and her long, red, claw-like nails don’t ease any uncertainty that she is absolutely, positively up to no good. The first time Coraline meets them, they (and the rest of the Others) seem to be playing roles (for whatever reason, Coraline does not seem to pick up on this), like they all know what to say and what to do and are simply waiting for Coraline to make her move in their terrifying play world. This is shown to be partly true when the Other Parents tell her they know she’ll be back soon after she refuses the buttons - this time, to stay.

Third, the Other Mother commits atrocities that really should not have been in a book for anyone not fully grown up. She physically deforms the world around Coraline to slow her progress in their game beyond any mild traps the movie portrays, and, instead of turning the Other Father into the wandering pumpkin-thing seen in the film, she simply ceases to use him and throws his body away in the cellar, leaving him to rot with whatever bit of sentience he has left. She begins to lose her touch, as Coraline gains the upper hand. Her world doesn’t just become a nightmare - it falls apart completely. No creepy but oddly cool bug furniture here, just the house that now appears to be a child’s drawing. Whatever the Other Mother is (a beldame, but something tells me she’s much more ancient and powerful than that), she does not give half a hump about what she has to do to ensnare Coraline. Destroy the supporting characters of her twisted creation? Done. Allow herself to be dismembered to ruin Coraline’s life in the normal world? Not even gonna bat an eyelash.

On a final, personal note, imagine eight year-old me, ignored by my parents, absorbed in the story and identifying with Coraline from the start. Imagine me finishing this bloodcurdling book and immediately thinking of my basement, where there is still a locked door that my grandmother swears up and down is nothing more than a storage room, but has not once in my (or my mother’s) lifetime unlocked.

A decade later, at the Opening Night of the Coraline musical, I was sitting next to Morgan, Merilee’s youngest daughter, and told her how her not being scared had made the book happen. And she said “I was terrified. But I needed to find out what happened next. So nobody knew.”

agamemnon, he just can’t get a break! *canned laughter*

more Iliad/Odyssey stuff

the summer after the war, all pansy wants to do is get out. home isn’t home; her parents don’t understand, could never understand, and every single thing in the house reminds her of her mistakes. she doesn’t quite know how to respond when she recieves an owl inviting her to the burrow. she’s both surprised and not, somehow.  she packs her bags and leaves the next day, and as she knocks on the door, heart pounding, she tells herself if they hurt her as revenge it would only be justice. instead, she is welcomed with open arms. the house is warm and messy and a little quiet. pansy has the softest summer she’s ever had. ron weasley sits next to her in the big yard almost every day; sometimes he holds her, and he understands. they sit together and allow themselves to heal.

So excited to have been commissioned for this piece by Lisa Wishonetwothree for Floorcoaster’s fic “How It Falls”.