Ignorethisrandom - Untitled

I’m reading Katherine by Anya Seton

and I’m torn.

On one hand, the attention to detail is breathtaking.  Seton has fully immersed me in the 14th century, palaces and plagues and all.  Geoffrey Chaucer’s brief appearances are delightful.  The friendships Katherine forms with the other women in her life are a driving force for most of the first half of the book.  Not to mention this gem:

“I am no duchess, no queen, but I have been your equal in love, for this I dare to tell you how I feel.”

On the other hand…

The romance.  

I’m over two-hundred pages in, and Katherine just seems so miserable with John.  They’ve barely had a conversation about something other than how they love each other…and I cannot stress how few meaningful interactions they have had leading up to their affair.  

He comes onto her as soon as his wife—her friend—dies, then even stronger as her husband is dying.  

And when they finally get together, he’s in talks to get married the entire time.  Their “honeymoon” overlooks his future fiancee’s homeland.

He just steamrolls her hesitations and ignores how becoming his mistress decimates her sense of self-worth.  And then he gives her his deceased wife’s ring as a symbol of their love!

Every declaration of love or step forward in their relationship involves her crying and hating herself and her situation, and he is infuriatingly oblivious.

I get that a book published in the 1950′s would have faced backlash if Katherine actively pursued John.  And I’m sure the references to sex caused a scandal when it was first published…but I’d rather have the heroine enjoying the hero and their relationship than simply giving up.

Let’s hope the third-act break-up will lead to Katherine putting her foot down and John recognizing that she is his equal, not just in love, because right now, their “romance” reads less like a love story and more like harassment.

If you know how this story ends, hearing this line is all the more painful!

augh

A view of Edinburgh in 1560, the year Scotland formally adopted Protestantism as the national religion. 

The Pride of Dijon by William John Hennessey, 1879 / "cowboy like me" by Taylor Swift

Fanny practicing her dance moves:

 ...and was actually practising her steps about the drawing-room as long as she could be safe from the notice of her aunt Norris...

Mansfield Park Memes, Ch 28

Richard help! I’ve fallen off the dashboard!!

Imagine if Gus’s last scene on Better Call Saul was him walking up to Gale and kissing him...Am I the only one who feels some kind of romantic tension between Gus and Gale? 

I wanna talk about what Peter Gould said about Gus, more specifically, how "Gus finds love".

In my opinion, it is either some flashback with Max, or some kind of metaphor - and he doesn't really fall in love with a person.

Having Gus be in a relationship, even with a man, is first of all, forced and probably completely unnecessary and contributes absolutely nothing to his character development and plot progression in both Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul - and so I (at least) can't think of any good reason for doing that.

In addition, given that Gus had a full blown revenge plan over the death of Max, extending to around 20 years of planning and executing (no pun intended), I just doubt that he has the mental capacity for another huge commitment that comes with having a romantic partner. He is a human, after all. Giving him a partner will have definitely meant that he would have had to let go of Max. Let go of his plan, or else he would most likely be putting his relationship at risk.

However, he definitely does not let go of anything, as we already know. He is completely OBSESSIVE about his plan. It is clearly the only thing in his mind - the reason behind his each and every move. He is scared shitless of Lalo - not for his life, but for his PLAN (according to Esposito himself). He is scared Lalo will ruin his perfectly-crafted, flawless plan of unleashing the hellfires upon the cartel, and especially Hector, for murdering Max right in front of him.

Therefore, I see no reason a romantic partner would be of any interest for Gus, given his biggest and... only motive.

How would you even go about using that thing properly? It doesn’t look very practical. 

Of course Henry had one. Would you expect anything less at this point?

Henry VIII’s bizarre mace pistol,

A very bizarre weapon, this is a mace with three pistol barrels located in the mace head.  A matchlock firearm, it was discharged by touching a burning slow match to a touch hole.  Most interestingly one was owned by Henry VIII King of England, who would carry it while walking the streets of London at night.  He did this to check that his constables were doing their duty.  One night they were, and he was arrested and jailed for suspicious activities, as he was carrying a huge mace gun on him at the time.  When his identity was revealed, the constables feared they would be executed, after all Henry was known for having people executed.  However they were rewarded with a stipend of 23 pounds for their vigilance.

Henry VIII’s mace is currently a part of the Royal Armouries Collection

America wants a second season too! Cozy British period dramas are the highlight of my week over here. 

Hello dear Miss Lori! Do you know of any news regarding Sanditon's chances to a season 2? I was sure everything will be fine until I read on twitter that Andrew Davies said that ITV was disappointed with the ratings. And that, if he had known that it would be only one season, he would end it very differently. My heart broke when I read that. If yoz have any consolation, it would be greatly appreciated.

Hey, Miss Nonnie. :)

Honestly I haven’t seen this particular Andrew Davies interview since I don’t spend that much time on twitter. I did have a look on Google and I couldn’t find anything aside from Davies saying that he’d love to do another season. 

However, I think the clear indication now is that ITV is waiting on the American market’s reception of the show to announce a second season so that’s my best guess. We are entirely in our American brethrens hands. 

I did suffer a bit of a blow in my confidence about the certainty of a 2nd season which was based on the idea that they had built the entire Sanditon town for the show. I felt that kind of investment wouldn’t have been done if they weren’t planning on a 2nd season. 

Since then, though, I’ve come to find out a new Pride and Prejudice adaptation is in the works on ITV (why?!?!?) by the creators of Poldark (a dark retelling because … WHY?!??!?!) and I assume they will be using the set for that as well. 

However, seeing as there isn’t any news of cast, filming schedule or anything on that yet, it’s still in pre-production so hopefully ITV will give Sanditon another season to fill in the spot in 2020 and prepare the audience for their P&P regency extravaganza. 

Thanks for the ask!