The longing… the love…

The best romantic scene I can ever recall btwn two men in a move, imo. Having seen when it was originally released I couldn't wait until it was finally available on VHS. I rewound that clip again and again of the lovers embracing and kissing. I remember being so relieved and elated to see Scudder asleep in that dimly lit boathouse. Half afraid that Maurice wouldn't see him there, and might rush out of there to maybe commit suicide or something equally drastic. This is def my very first happy ending experience in a gay themed movie or novel. Despite the passage of time since its release there has been sooo few other such movies with happy endings. Why is that? More happy endings in foreign releases than in America, for sure!

What always strikes me is that I too had EXACTLY that reaction – despite having seen the original cinema trailer for Maurice (which gives literally everything away: someone once called it ‘the worst trailer ever made for the greatest film ever made’) before seeing the film itself.

I guess we are so hard-wired to expect tragedy that – when Maurice arrived at the boathouse, his face luminous with hope, but there seemed to be no sign of Alec – I feared the worst even though I had seen the trailer. The brilliance of Maurice is the way it dangles and acknowledges ‘tragic’ tropes – only to flip these and deliver such a glorious happy ending. (See also: Lasker Jones’ hypnotism makes Maurice ‘open to suggestion’ – from Alec, Maurice’s blackmail panic – averted, and even Dick Robbins’ use of Tchaikovsky in the soundtrack. Sit tight until the very end of the credits to hear what he did there.)

Ivory adds to the tension by flipping the novel’s closing scenes: Forster had Maurice finding Alec at the boathouse first – then emerging only some hours later (tacitly, after some hours of lovemaking) to ‘close the book’ with Clive. Hence that line in Chapter 46: “‘Also in town. Also –’ here he stopped.’

Future director Francis Lee goes to see Brokeback Mountain

What do you mean that’s not how it happened? :-)

*standing ovation*

This is too good, must share!

i will die defending the idea that humans are not inherently evil and that its corrupt governments/corporations/establishments in society that are evil, not humanity as a whole. our species survival has always hinged on our ability to care about each other and to help one another, the violence of capitalism is not natural and humans are a hugely social species we NEED to make connections to keep living!!!! we need to make connections and interact with other people in order to thrive and touch starvation is an example of what happens when were denied these interactions. ancient humans took care of their disabled, elderly, and sick people because they cared about them. we have always cared and we always will and we need to keep nuturing that loving and caring nature that is within the whole human race

Rupert Everett in the film adaptation, Another Country, 1984 

i honestly believe human beings are not meant to live like this. we are meant to live in loving communities and be around nature every day and grow our own food and create art and not work day and night until we die. this longing for another life is not human nature, it’s a symptom of modern society.

that’s not what it means and you know it

This photo always cheers me up a bit. It’s a front-page article from 1955 about Christine Jorgensen, one of the first women to have sex-reassignment surgery.

Since the text is a bit small and I couldn’t find a larger copy, here’s what the small blurb says:

A World of a Difference

This article is 58 years old, and it’s more respectful of Christine’s pronoun choices and name than some publications are today. It makes me happy to see a newspaper be respectful of a trans person’s choice of name and pronouns like that :3

Say it again for the haters in the back who want to keep pretending that trans people, or even treating trans people with respect is even remotely anything new. 😎

It’s worth mentioning, that this was kinda celebrated as a wonder of the atomic age at the time. “Look at the power of our scientists! Look at what we can do!” You know, back when America was trying to be the leader in scientific advancement.

For anyone who’s ever wondered who they’d be in a 19th century novel, the wait is over: I put together a 19th Century Character Trope Generator!

If you’d like to reblog, put your character in the tags because I’m curious.

I ♡ readers

here’s to the readers who stay up past midnight reading just one more chapter

here’s to the readers who like one fic - so they go through our archive and read everything else

here’s to the readers who are still learning the language of the fic they’re reading, but they’re making it through anyhow

here’s to the readers who are too shy to tell us how much they love our story, so they just tell all of their friends about it instead

here’s to the readers who kudos - and then comment “kudos” when they can’t do it again

here’s to the readers who make rec lists or run fic reccing blogs

here’s to the readers who give out prompts and ask for metas and suggest ideas of things they’d love to see

here’s to the readers who hide their phones so that no one sees what they’re reading, but omg this fic is just so good!

here’s to the readers who keysmash, reaction gif, tag, comment, quote us back to us, and otherwise let us know that they loved our work

here’s to the readers

without you, we don’t exist

#i can’t stress enough #how much it helps #to look at old comments #when you’re in a writing blergh #and I mean no one is obligated to comment #so people giving their time #to be kind is very heartwarming #so when someone comments #i look at their username and I am very very grateful (teagrl)

“The afternoon had broken into glory. White clouds sailed over the golden waters and woods. In the midst of the pageant Fred Scudder was raving because his unreliable brother had missed the last train, and the women were protesting while they were hustled up the gangways, and Mr Borenius and old Scudder were lamenting to the officials. How negligible they had all become, beside the beautiful weather and fresh air… “Mr. Borenius do look at the sky — it’s gone all on fire,”… a gorgeous horizon still glowed, and inflamed cloudlets which flared when the main glory faded, and there was even enough light for him to walk up from the station at Penge through quiet fields.”

—  E.M. Forster, Maurice

Image: Tom Joyner as Maurice Hall, Above The Stag Theatre, 2018 (x)

#such a good moment #one of my favourite pieces of sympathetic fallacy and so glad they kept it for this production

— Iain Thomas, I Wrote This for You (via wordsnquotes)

Also with two very nice Maurice & Alec cast pictures, and one of James. :)

#y'all james is the gift who keeps on giving YESSS <333

Also this: ‘I’ve directed children in a play and I think if you can work with kids you can probably work with anyone.’ ;D

Reblogging this post again to share my favorite bit from this interview with James:

Maurice was your first major film role and here you are directing the play; it’s obviously special to you…

The book is extraordinary, an amazing piece of writing. All through it you keep thinking about the choices Forster makes as a writer…I’ve read the book many times; there’s nothing quite like re-reading a book that you love, especially when it’s so well written as this.

"There's nothing like re-reading a book that you love" - my thoughts exactly!

[ID: “In a society that teaches us to shame, pride is a political response.” — Carlos Jáuregui] #MotivationalMonday #queerhistory #CarlosJáuregui #Argentina #ArgentinianQueerHistory

so heres a thing my mother always said to me growing up when i broke something on accident that i think is really important

and i know, from watching my friends and seeing their panic and terror when something broke, that not only were not nearly enough children told this thing, many children were punished in place of being reassured

and thats heartbreaking

so heres the words from my mom that i was always told, and theyre the same words that anyone who never got to hear them should hear now, courtesy of my mom, who has repeated those same words to many a friend of mine and now to you

if i ever broke anything, the first words out of her mouth would always be and have always been, “are you hurt?” 

i would say no

she would say, “thats okay, then”

and i would ask why

and she would say “because it was just a thing- even if its a nice thing, or an old thing, or an expensive thing, its still just a thing. it can be replaced, or we can live without it. there is only one you. there will only ever be one you. you will always be more important than just some thing.” 

I lend out a collection to fossils to my school’s 8th grade science teachers annually. I’ve collected since I was a kid, added more as an adult from yard sales and donations. I want kids to be inspired and intrigued. About my 5th year at my school, the teacher came to me with one of her students. The girl looked upset and sort of scared. The teacher explained that the girl’s hand had slipped and a Megaladon Shark’s tooth had broken into two pieces. My first response was to make sure she hadn’t been cut by one of the pieces, and she shook her head, tears in her eyes. I smiled at her and pointed out that she hadn’t dropped it on purpose, that the ridiculously big tooth had been fossilized and survived this long, and it would still be amazing if I had to either keep it in two pieces or superglue it.

It bothered me a lot that the kid was clearly primed by a lot of adults to deal with anger and blame when a simple mistake was made. I offered her a hug, which she accepted and finally laughed.

Story time: 

My grandmother owns crystal bowls that have been passed down to her from her grandmother. Being a family with Jewish heritage in Austria, every single piece of family history we own is basically a treasure in itself. I was already an adult when she allowed me to take one of them home with me, of course only after I swore several oaths to keep it safe. I can go months and years without breaking a single dish, but lo and behold, it takes two weeks and a split second of not paying attention, and suddenly that crystal bowl, that’s worth more to my grandmother than the entire rest of her furniture, goes flying and shatters into a million pieces. I swear I watched for what felt like an hour as that thing dropped, turned around itself and finally crashed in a spectacular impact. Anyway, it’s completely beyond repair, and I’m freaking out because my grandmother will murder me. Only, she will not, because even worse, she’s going to be fucking heartbroken and so, so disappointed with me she won’t even find it within herself to murder me. But, you gotta do what you gotta do - not being able to face her while confessing, I call her, in tears, apologizing a hundred times before she finally goes: “Gigi, calm down now, what happened??” “*sobbing* I- I broke your grandma’s bohooohooowl -” And my grandmother, bless that woman, starts laughing hysterically. She’s laughing so much I think, I must have broken her, that’s it, she’s lost her marbles now and it’s my fault, until she wheezes out: “Gigi that bowl survived two world wars and the Nazis but not a month in your kitchen!” and of course I fucking lost it too at that point. That’s how I learned, that in the end, it’s really all about perspective. 

Now I’m a step-mum myself and my go to reaction whenever I hear something break is to shrug and say ‘Well, it had a good run’ and then I go fetch a broom and we’ll clean up because if my grandma could laugh off a 100 year old crystal dish, I can laugh off an IKEA mug lmao

Stop demonizing riots.-@zellieimani

The main contradiction of liberal democracy is that it has largely been shaped through a history of various forms of illegal civil disobedience against entrenched power structures. Such civil disobedience is (retrospectively) seen as justified, and the people committing it are (retrospectively) seen as heroes…but each successive generation is asked to believe that any further civil disobedience would be unreasonable.

each successive generation is asked to believe that any further civil disobedience would be unreasonable.

“Every society honors its live conformists and its dead troublemakers.”— Mignon McLaughlin