BSD and BSD inspiration literature sideblog (mostly)
A lot of my posts are Stormbringer-related. Overanalyzing is one of my favorite things, but I am an expert in exactly nothing
If I'm ever obnoxious in some way, please let me know (politely). It's never my intention, but the internet can be a maze and I have no sense of direction
I just realized the cemetery I got locked in a week ago is the one where Oscar Wilde is buried. His tomb has gotten more lipstick kisses than Baudelaire's first grave, but I wasn't there for him and had no idea it's there
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Iām gonna write this out like itās a theory but itās really just a headcanon based on the assumption that Lippmann is actually the BSD version of Walter Lippmann.
Walter Lippmann was an American writer and political commentator who wrote āPublic Opinionā, an influential book that argued the necessity of the field of public relations and explained several key concepts behind it. This makes sense considering that BSD Lippmann is a public relations officer, the face of the Port Mafia and a necessary mediator between the dark and light sides of Yokohama.
Towards the beginning of the main story, Fitzgerald placed a bounty on Byakko and eventually came to Japan to retrieve Atsushi because an ability user had foreseen that Atsushi was a guidepost to the Book, which was sealed away somewhere in Yokohama.
The Guildās membership mostly consists of the American elite, so it would make sense for high ranking government officials to also be aware of the premonition that Fitzgerald was privy to. And like, of course the American government would want to get their hands on a book that can rewrite reality, hello.
Fitzgerald and the Guild werenāt operating on behalf of their government though. Fitzgerald was on a personal mission to restore his family. So whatever plan the American government might have to retrieve the Book, it wasnāt what we witnessed in the Guild plotline.
So hereās the headcanon:
Lippmann worked for the BSD equivalent of the CIA and was sent on an undercover mission to Yokohama to keep tabs on any leads relating to the Book or the white tiger. (Part of the reasoning for this is me questioning why a famous American actor would be based out of Yokohama specifically instead of say, Hollywood). His position as an ambassador between the dark and light sides of the city would have meant he had access to every rumor above and below the board.
Another part of this headcanon is that Lippmannās ability has something to do with influencing/manipulating the public, which is why he was assigned to become a celebrity. His fandom is especially strong in Yokohama, so that would make him a particularly effective sleeper agent if/when the time came for the CIA to make their move.
I also like to think that he ended up finding an unexpected family in the Flags, and that if he had survived to the present timeline and current battle for the Book, he would have experienced an internal conflict similar to Tachihara.
hIGUCHI MY QUEENNNNN I MISS YOU SO BAD. I MISS YOU SO BAD
(Florence + The MachineāBuckle) (you can thank @cedar-spirit for that one it's so Higuchi . it's so her /neg PLEASEEE YOU DESERVE BETTER) (also we have not yet gotten past Dead Apple so if Higuchi appears again do not tell me //SHOT)
in the bsd mobile game, you shine the ramune marble over the course of the game, and depending on the value of the marble, you can trade it to ranpo for items. higher value marbles mean higher value items. however, since thereās no transformation that the marble makes or some skill to turn the marble into the item, we can assume that ranpo simply has all of these items on hand, and is willing to trade for the marbles. this means that ranpo has unlimited access to evolution materials, power up materials, and all rarities of scout cards. from this, we can conclude that, in the bsd mobile game, ranpo is the most powerful character, with infinite access to ssr cards within the base game scount, and infinite access to the materials needed to level and evolve them. ranpo chooses to give away some of his power for some silly little marbles, but that only shows how powerful he truly is. he has so many, that at this point he doesnāt even need the cards. i wouldnāt doubt that he has every non-event card in the game, and has maxed them all out, awakened, evolved, max skills, and max leveled. he has reached the limit of strength, and realizes that itās time to pass it on to the next generation, as there is nowhere else for him to go. He has reached the summit.
In the mobile game, Bungo Stray Dogs: Tales of the Lost, Ranpo Edogawa is a god. Thank you for coming to my ted talk
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Can I just say? I love this scene from chapter 43 of BSD.
Not so much KyÅkaās reaction to the truth about her parents ā though that part is great ā but the way Lucy advocates for her. Itās an unexpectedly sweet moment with a lot of layers.
Iāll admit, when I first got to this scene, I viewed Lucyās upbraiding as needlessly harsh. I mean, Atsushi was only trying to help, right? Right. Thing is, their interaction here is a callback to the Guild arc. Following Lucyās defeat, Atsushi was conflicted. He knew that beating her was the only way, but he still felt sorry that she was about to lose her home. And so, he directed the same offer (i.e., āIs there anything I can do?ā) at her. At the time, it seemed like Lucy ran away because she was embarrassed, but in retrospect, there was clearly more going through her head. That moment was a precursor to her current (and, in my opinion, very interesting) dynamic with Atsushi.
In other words, sheās not dragging Atsushi away here because she disapproves of his trying to help; sheās doing it because she sees the value in letting people fight their own battles. Atsushiās offer was well-intentioned, but at that moment, KyÅka needed space ā not someone to swoop in and save her.
Put simply, Lucy is one of few people who perceives Atsushiās victimhood, and as a result, she understands him on a level most donāt. Sheās pieced together that, for Atsushi, heroism isnāt just a virtue, but a coping mechanism; an attempt to free himself from the demons of his past. Thatās why heās always diving headfirst into danger, trying to save those in need (and relying on the Tigerās regeneration to bypass the consequences).
Sheās also uniquely positioned in that ā because it was Atsushiās vulnerability that āsavedā her, not his strength ā she has no qualms about confronting Atsushi when the hero in him eclipses the person. When strength turns to recklessness, or when fierce empathy turns to overreach. Though her methods could use some work (she has no idea how to convey care for Atsushi without yelling at him), her motives are clear: she sees Atsushi as more than just a hero, and expects more from him than just heroics.Ā
Lucy may be rough around the edges, but sheās really a good person when it comes down to it.
Also, keep in mind, Lucy and KyÅka donāt like each other very much ā not at this point in the story, anyway. They have no reason to fight anymore, since Lucy isnāt actively threatening to strangle Atsushi, but itās no secret that theyāre only tolerating each other for Atsushiās sake. And yet, Lucy advocates for KyÅka. She has every reason to be jealous: if Lucyās parents ever loved her, she has nothing to show for it.
Whatās more, KyÅka just received confirmation that her ability symbolizes something pure ā something apart from violence. Lucy, meanwhile, is still too ashamed of her actions in the Guild arc to use Anneās Room as anything but a coffee bean receptacle. Her ability is still defined by the labels and uses ascribed to it by others ā people who didnāt have her best interests at heart. At the orphanage, it was a freakās playground. In the Guild, an instrument of cruelty. Now? She doesnāt know what it is (and won't know until the Sky Casino arc). She should envy the fact that KyÅka got her answer. But if she does, she shows no sign of it. She sets aside their ārivalryā and makes space for KyÅka to process her feelings.
This could go two ways: they're based on other major representative works or they're based on ones which are weird for the writer and/or less famous. If the second:
Twain and Nikolai basically switch Abilities except instead of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer Nikolai's avatars are specters of the poems IRL Gogol abandoned. Twain's version of The Overcoat is called The Purloining of Prince Oleomargarine and he has to say that every time he uses it
Poe and Louisa are the shapeshifters now. Louisa takes different human forms by the power of My Mysterious Mademoiselle and Poe can turn into a lion with Lionizing
Fyodor has The Crocodile, but it doesn't change that much, since it's sort of like Crime and Punishment with an avatar component. After someone kills him, they get swallowed whole by his crocodile (escaping the crocodile is almost impossible) and turn into him in there
Herman Melville's Ability is now Pierre. Not sure what it does but it has to be weird
Ango's Ability is D.D.T. and the Perpetually Laid-Out Futon. It creates a wasting illness
Akutagawa's Ability is The Ball, supernatural agility and strength if he turns his fighting into a dance. If he saw the subtle shoujo sparkles it gets animated with, he'd be furious
Francis has Tarquin of Cheapside. It could be like Illuminations or Black Cat in the Rue Morgue. Side effect is that he sometimes talks in Shakespearean English
I can't say what Rimbaud's Ability is called because it's. Obscene
Lippmann can talk to dogs
Agatha's Ability is Giant's Bread, but since we don't know what And Then There Were None does yet, that might not change anything whatsoever
Almost a year ago, in one of those late night moments where you're convinced you've thought of something brilliant, I formulated a theory that Lippmann's Ability is Cold War and was inspired by Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD), while admitting that I had not yet read Walter Lippmann's Cold War. I then read it and wrote up an analysis and verdict. I then decided to hold off on posting it until I'd read Public Opinion. I then forgot it
I still plan on making Public Opinion and overarching Lippmann analyses, but it's been too long, so for now, here this is
Tl,dr: Cold War has some overlaps with Lippmann's Ability and could well have inspired it, but it could just be that Walter Lippmann's writing and career arc are very BSD Lippmann-ish in general
In essence, Cold War (or The Cold War: A Study in U.S. Foreign Policy) is a takedown of the Truman Doctrine and a specific document promoting the containment policy, along with W.L.ās idea of what policies the US ought to implement instead when dealing with the USSR and the nations of Europe overall. If BSD Lippmann-relevant, itās in a rather abstracted way, though not moreso than a number of other Abilities
The overlap, if there is one, could be in W.L.ās arguments about how US military strength lies in targeted defense and they should make the Soviet Union show its hand by withdrawing its armies if itās really willing to commit to peaceāthat is to say, you should counter killing intent, direct your power where itāll have an impact, and try to keep the enemy from being able to fight you in the first place, all of which sounds like Lippmann's Ability
Then, there's W.L.'s idea of diplomacy:
"That is what a diplomat means by the settlement of a conflict among rival powers. He does not mean that they will cease to be rivals... He means that, whatever they think, whatever they want, whatever their ideological purposes, the balance of power is such that they cannot afford to commit aggression."
The killing intent reaction, combined with Lippmann's movie star reputation, could create a stalemate much like the balanced power-mutual costs situation W.L. describes
MAD also fits that description, though it didn't coagulate until after the publication of Cold War and was definitely not what W.L. was hoping for. (The policies he saw as terrible were implemented and failed in a number of the ways he said they would). The detail which led me to connect Lippmann and MAD was him being called a bomb which would go off when he died
Interesting as it would be if MAD were part of what inspired Lippmann, and much as it is a famous feature of the Cold War, there are enough bombs in BSD as it is (literal and figurativeāOda compares a bundle of supernotes to a small nuclear warhead) that I wouldn't say a Lippmann-bomb connection has to be MAD related. It easily could have been, but it easily could have not been
I still haven't gotten around to reading most of Public Opinion or any of W.L.'s other works, so I could be and very likely am missing something more relevant. The one other thing I can think of, based on my limited knowledge, is that Lippmann's Ability could be inspired by the course of Walter Lippmann's career. While he sometimes spoke out boldly and had a major scandal (the Foreign Affairs affair), he was better known for toeing the line even at times when he should have spoken out (ex: during and after the Sacco and Vanzetti trial, during and after the rise of Nazism). However, at the end of his career, he got to an issue he couldn't ignore: the Vietnam War, which he increasingly strongly objected to and may have thought wouldn't have happened if everyone had just taken his Cold War advice in the first place. A major public figure and household name during his era, he seems to generally be remembered as one who spent decades mostly staying uncontroversial (sometimes, perhaps, while thinking of himself as doing the opposite) and then went out like a firecracker
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In order to talk about Alcott, I think it is important to talk about her foiling with other two characters aka Steinbeck and Fitzgerald.
It is interesting to highlight that after the defeat of the Guild only Louisa and Steinbeck show concern for Fitzgerald even if in two different ways:
Louisa states that she wants to find him, while Steinbeck surprises his former comrades by saying he wants to take care of the empire founded by Fitzgerald.
After seeing @tiredandanxiouschaos' post on the Alyosha-inspired song by the Polish band Metro, I had to go through the rabbit hole of looking for all the Brothers Karamazov inspired songs that I could find.
Here is what I got (including the song by Metro):
1. Metro - Hej, Aloszka
"In the text I'm reffering to one of the Karamazov brothers, Alosza, from Fyodor Dostoyevsky's book. It's a song about naivety, hope, the role of widely understood relation with God, transcendency, religion. In the midst of all the degeneracy shown by Dostoyevsky, Alosza is still certain that goodness (/kindness) will triumph. I'm also using the titular Aloszka to confront my own beliefs regarding the world, which are being subjected to constant revision" - says the text's author and vocalist, Aleksander Zajdel. [taken from one of the youtube comments under the song]. Check @tiredandanxiouschaos' post for the translation!]
2. The Used - The Brothers Karamazov
The song could be interpreted as sung by Mitya or by Ivan. It's about how they hate their father but also hate the fact that they can recognize some of their father's traits in themselves and how they are afraid to end up becoming someone like him.
3. The Slackers - Peculiar
Mitya's story sung from the POV of Mitya.
4. Susanne SundfĆør - Alyosha
To be fair, it's possible that this song was not explicitly written about Alyosha from TBK, but about the singer/songwriter's husband (who has a different name). Still, I decided to include the song because I feel like the singer chose the name Alyosha as a placeholder for her husband's name because the lyrics also fit the character so so well. It could be loosely interpreted as sung by Gruschenka when Alyosha comes to visit her for the first time and she is shocked by his kindness and the fact that he treats her like a human being worthy of respect and compassion.
Let me know if you know of any other TBK songs! :)
strawpage request ^_^ fun facttt I've read the 55 minutes light novel and i find it interesting... h.g wells was a bit difficult to draw but i love her/p
Every time you post about the flags I'm impressed how much you know about literature/historical figures, I've genuinely never heard of some of these people and it's giving me more wikipedia articles to read so a very big thank you for that <33
Thank you, anon! Thatās nice of you to say!
Iām probably not as knowledgeable as I come across as being, at least in general. Iād never heard of Moroi SaburÅ or Nakahara ChÅ«ya at all pre-BSD, had been meaning to read Baudelaire for years but hadnāt done it, had read about Walter Lippmann in passing but didnāt remember his name, and knew about Jurassic Park via cultural osmosis. I had read O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra play trilogy years before but couldnāt have told you much more about him than that he wrote a bunch of grim plays and has a Broadway theater named after him
All that is to say, Iām glad my posts are encouraging you to do research, and thatās what the Flags did for me, too! Wikipedia, as you most likely know but I feel obligated to put as a disclaimer anyway, is not reliable, though it can be a helpful jumping off point (and articles about well-known writers are probably less likely to be intensely skewed by bias than articles about, say, more obscure authors who might have fewer people contributing info about them, or fraught topics people have editing fights over)
I should rant properly about them again, itās been too long. I have a few analyses lying around mostly done which Iām waitingĀ for any relevant last bonus crumbs we might get from...certain upcoming manga chapters to post, a few which have been languishing in my drafts for no reason, and a massive Albatross-Baudelaire theory evidence breakdown I decided to take a break from because it had become a perfectionistic thing I was spending ages on without really adding anything to but it also isn't complete (I'll probably revisit and post it in a couple months, but I, uh, I operate on Piano Man time. Maybe something will possess me and I'll finish it next week. Maybe next year. I don't know)
For now, here is a rather random, tangential connection between two of them which I just found out about
The background: Eugene OāNeill at first was friends with Charlie Chaplin but came to hate him after Chaplin married OāNeillās daughter, Oona, a month after she turned 18 (Chaplin was 54, only half a year younger than OāNeill). OāNeill also disowned Oona after that, which in my opinion was a terrible parenting choice because yes, she was an adult, but she wasnāt when her romantic relationship with Chaplin started, Chaplin had a history of going after young women and girls, and Chaplin had a lot more power in society than she did. People still debate whether the marriage was somehow happy despite everything or whether Chaplin reduced Oona to a shell of who she might have been and abused her and the children. Anyway, Oona was married to Charlie Chaplin until he died and they had eight children together
The connection: Iris in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, which is not strictly based on a Michael Crichton novel but is part of a franchise he started and takes ideas from his work, is played by Geraldine Chaplin, a daughter of Charlie and Oona Chaplin and granddaughter of Eugene OāNeill. That is to say, one of O'Neill's biological descendants is part of one of Crichton's creative descendants
Geraldine Chaplin is also in The Mirror Crackād and Agatha Christieās Marple, both based on works by Christie; The Hollow Crown, an adaptation of multiple Shakespeare plays (BSD Shakespeare is only mentioned but he technically counts); and Casino Royale, inspired by the Ian Fleming novel (giving her another connection to an author popularly theorized to be in BSD but not confirmed. Her daughter, named Oona Chaplin after her grandmother, is in the 2008 sequel to Casino Royale). If weāre going really tangential, sheās also in four movies adaptions of novels by Alexandre Dumas (three with Musketeers + The Corsican Brothers 1985) and an adaptation of Balzacās Cousin Bette, and Dumas and Balzac knew Baudelaire and Victor Hugo. If weāre going really, really tangential, sheās in Miguel y William, which has Shakespeare as a character, and in The Children (1990), The Age of Innocence (1993), and The House of Mirth (1981), based on novels by Edith Wharton, who supervised Helen Byrne Lippmann when she was a nurseās aide in Paris (long before she married Walter Lippmann). All that goes to show... well, not much, but I thought it was neat
Thank you for the ask! Whoever you are, I hope you have a wonderful day/night!
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If Albatross were a wormā¦ would he still be called Albatross or would he just be Worm??? Wormbatross??? š
Hello Taliehoffbeck! How have you been? :D
(P.S. Albaworm could definitely solo Dostoyevsky. Trust me.)
Depends on whether people know. Heād still be Albatross to Chuuya, but if Chuuya tells anyone who wasn't there for the vermification that he has Albatross in worm form at his apartment, or even lies and says he named the worm after an allegedly dead friend, they might be concerned for Chuuyaās wellbeing. Then again, Chuuya wouldnāt tell anyone he keeps a worm in his apartment unless forced to somehow, especially not Albaworm. Albaworm is to be protected at almost all costs
Hello, Serendipitousity! How have you been? I have beenā¦ well, I got briefly locked in a cemetery yesterday (1st cemetery visit since MontparnasseāI wanted to pay my respects to the actress Pascale Ogier) and it was the most interesting thing thatās happened to me this week. Last week, a near-stranger told me heād translate Romanian poetry for me, so that might be happening (he says heās not fluent in Romanian but is learning); my mom texted to say that ever since the night when I slept on that eerie mountain with the unidentifiable noise (which I did not tell her I was doing), sheās been having recurring dreams where Iām lying down surrounded by specters; and I at least briefly was able to get the song which had been stuck in my head a third of the time for months almost entirely out of my head (itās trying to break in again and I am fending it off with another song which was stuck in my head months ago. We shall see whether This Charming Man can take the Trap Queen in a fight)
(I would very much like to see Albaworm solo Dostoyevsky. To my mind, there are things which would be terrible plotwise but entertaining enough to more than make up for it, and Deux ex Albaworm fits firmly in that category)
I can imagine how awkward it would be if Dazai found out about Albawormā¦ He might tease Chuuya mercilessly, be a little confused and unbelieving about the situation and not entirely believe in Albaworm, or be very distraught that Chuuya prefers Albaworm to him /hj
Stay safe Taliehoffbeck! š„²š I hope you werenāt locked in there for too long, and that it was more of a mild-inconvenience-slightly-fun-adventure rather than an āOh no how am I going to get out of hereā situation. I hope the Romanian poetry turns out well!
I hope the specters are friendly? Can they be good signs? Should I be worried??? /hj Please stay safe š
I hope This Charming Man wins out (Iāve never listened to either of the mentioned songs before).
I myself have been doing well, nothing really riveting has happened as of late. I am going to see my friends today, though! So that is very exciting :D
I hope you have a great day and/or night as well, remember to drink lots of water and eat snacks and get plenty of rest, etc. š
Perhaps Dazai would have something to say about worms and slugs
It was more of a mild-inconvenience-slightly-fun-adventure. I got to the door one minute late, so it was locked and had a sign saying the only way out after closing was another door a few minutesā walk away. That door was also locked and had a sign saying to call the municipal police to get out. Luckily, while I was typing in their number, someone who presumably worked there (who was carrying three large bags, at least one of which was full of mostly empty bottles which looked like they'd held red soda or cranberry punch or something) saw me and kindly let me out
This is what my mother said about the dreams a few days later:
...I keep having these dreams that dissipate rapidly--you surrounded by people these sheltering--not beings but forces with a point of light at the top, you surrounded by dancing kind of moving white sheaths, one touching your head and neck and stomach and I'm saying [they donāt] like to be touched and the light ignores me and says but not with words Enid does.Ā Enid was sleeping but is now awake!!
Honestly I do not like the name EnidĀ
Which is what woke me up
I think you slept out either at [redacted] or the lake
My mother was referring to another lake; the correct answer was halfway between her two hunches. Soā¦ consider me thoroughly stumped what to make of that. I also noticed that she used a double space after the period, which she sometimes does and and sometimes doesn't. I used to think it was a typo when she did it but because of what you once said I know it's likely an old habit she's mostly abandoned
I think "This Charming Man" is winning, though seeing the name Enid, a song by that name threatens to enter the ring
I hope you and your friends had an excellent time!!!
Now Iām trying to Bunal AU-cast Les Nuits de la pleine lune (which is a miserable story and would make a strange yet probably bad AU)ā¦ uhā¦ After much deliberation, building off of Louise-Oda and despite the fact that I canāt really remember most of the movie charactersā personalities well enough to cast them, I give you a tentative list:
If Albatross were a wormā¦ would he still be called Albatross or would he just be Worm??? Wormbatross??? š
Hello Taliehoffbeck! How have you been? :D
(P.S. Albaworm could definitely solo Dostoyevsky. Trust me.)
Depends on whether people know. Heād still be Albatross to Chuuya, but if Chuuya tells anyone who wasn't there for the vermification that he has Albatross in worm form at his apartment, or even lies and says he named the worm after an allegedly dead friend, they might be concerned for Chuuyaās wellbeing. Then again, Chuuya wouldnāt tell anyone he keeps a worm in his apartment unless forced to somehow, especially not Albaworm. Albaworm is to be protected at almost all costs
Hello, Serendipitousity! How have you been? I have beenā¦ well, I got briefly locked in a cemetery yesterday (1st cemetery visit since MontparnasseāI wanted to pay my respects to the actress Pascale Ogier) and it was the most interesting thing thatās happened to me this week. Last week, a near-stranger told me heād translate Romanian poetry for me, so that might be happening (he says heās not fluent in Romanian but is learning); my mom texted to say that ever since the night when I slept on that eerie mountain with the unidentifiable noise (which I did not tell her I was doing), sheās been having recurring dreams where Iām lying down surrounded by specters; and I at least briefly was able to get the song which had been stuck in my head a third of the time for months almost entirely out of my head (itās trying to break in again and I am fending it off with another song which was stuck in my head months ago. We shall see whether This Charming Man can take the Trap Queen in a fight)
(I would very much like to see Albaworm solo Dostoyevsky. To my mind, there are things which would be terrible plotwise but entertaining enough to more than make up for it, and Deux ex Albaworm fits firmly in that category)
