over-analyzing & under-feeling

Word count in the HP Series: 

Sorcerer’s Stones: 76,944  Chamber of Secrets: 85,141 Prisoner of Azkaban: 107,253  Goblet of Fire: 190,637 Order of the Phoenix: 257,045 Half-Blood Prince: 168,923 Deathly Hallows: 198,227

Word count in the LOTR Series:

Young Adult books are roughly 55,000 to 80,000 words. (Younger YA skews shorter.)

Mystery (especially cozy mystery) books tend to be between 65,000 to 80,000 words.

Romance tends to be between 85,000 to 100,000.

Fantasy and sometimes Thrillers tends to go longer; HOWEVER, anything above 120,000 is considered (and this is an official industry term guys) REALLY FUCKING LONG. As in, if someone submitted a 170,000-word book for publication, there is a very good chance they would have to cut 50,000 words or more before it would be published. I’ve worked for publishers where anything over 120,000 was an automatic rejection.

(Note: this is depending on a lot of different factors. Notice how Rowling’s books got suddenly longer–that’s because her name got big enough that she could sell those huge monsters. Most young authors don’t have the benefit of the doubt there.) (And of course there are always exceptions. This is strictly average industry accepted norms. Like seriously, if you’re trying to get published, learn the average length of books in your genre, because it is a barrier to publication if you’re significantly too short or too long.)

So if you are reading a 200,000 word fanfiction, you are not reading a full-length book someone wrote for the fun of it. You are reading TWO FULL-LENGTH BOOKS someone wrote for the fun of it.

Why have a society at all if we are not to take care of each other? Why depend on the farmer and the truck driver, or the cook and the waiter, or the architect and engineer if you are not to try and make their lives easier with such a small gesture of kindness? What reason is there to not be kind and not be willing to help?

her name was Marsha P Johnson, and we have her to thank for so much.

remember, the first Pride was a riot, and she was one of the brave souls who endured it to help carve the path which so many of us walk today. she helped found several activist groups regarding LGBT safety and wellbeing. and she was absolutely radiant, too.

i love the jabs and barbs the women of bridgerton throw, quite casually at that most of the time. they are the highlight in every conversation.

love the music.

i love portia featherington and it's got a lot to do with how polly walker imbues her with humanity. if you take the in-show reality and rules of bridgerton serious (and there wouldn't be a show-naming family for whom everything goes), she's the only one who's got her head on straight. also, there are layers to her. especially in regards to marina. also, comic relief.

i don't care for the men very much.

i don't connect with JRP as an actor. it's all there and yet i just feel he looks constipated most of the time.

simon and daphne are both immature and childish and their characterization / story plays out like fanfiction i read at 14.

as unknowing about sex(uality) as daphne (et. female al) is, what does she think "being a rake" means? she uses that word in every second sentence.

also, she never ever (inadvertently) brushed up against herself and thought "oh, now wait a minute..."? i mean, if you don't know about sex, don't know about masturbation, how could those things be taboo or forbidden then? you'd have no intellectual concept for it, just your physical reality. i don't buy what the show is selling.

my biggest gripe right now is that what the women of bridgerton rightly call out as double standards, sexism, toxic masculitiniy, lack of opportunities, marriage mart as meat market etc. is then in the next breath used (unironically) in the writing and characterization of the show.

ugly, plain, not as beautiful = bad, evil, stupid, comic relief (see lord berbrook, lady berbrook, the featheringtons.... nicola coughlan said the note for the costume department in season 1 for penelope was dowdy.)

only naked women as decorations in the background. like, i like looking at naked women, but put a naked man there as well and the effect is wholly different. (also, more educational benefit for the artsy people.)

the really powerful female characters / voices (LW, lady danbury, lady bridgerton, the queen) only concerning themselves with sheperding young women into marriage or making matches. i totally get that that's the raison d'être of the show, which is why i'm still so on the fence about it.

also - just a parallel i noted from what i've seen / read on s3: colin totally pulled a lord berbrook on penelope and marriage trapped her. i've seen takes that she is trapping him with announcing the engagement as LW before he knows the full truth, but in reality he trapped her the moment he interrupted her dance with lord debling (and then entered her carriage). even if she didn't reciprocate his feelings, i'm not sure that after his public display there was much room for her to deny him. and again, his attractiveness = good, therefore in his case compromising the lady is no problemo. at least he's prepared to marry her after dishonouring her in this fashion (looking at you, simon).

I'M SALIVATING I'M SO SORRY I'M NO BETTER THAN A MAN