Just because _we_ haven't seen Clare recite that much poetry to Lavinia specifically on the show, doesn't mean he actually hasn't. It's his place of work, he goes there everyday - I think it's safe to assume that we haven't seen every single interaction he's ever had with Lavinia on screen. He's also got a very purple…

Thanks!

I like metafilter for current events. It's relatively heavily moderated compared to most other places I've been too, which does nip lots of the usual derails in the buds. But of course that will only work for you, if you mostly share the site consensus (which tends to be liberal in most regards, but is occasionally…

Bingo. People feel that the choice of a bad partner reflects badly on them, so they need to keep themselves in denial about the true vileness of their partners to protect their own sense of self-worth. See also why people often don't immediately report rapists. (Which is why I get so stabby when people get all "But…

Fun topic! Most of my internet history concerns the German speaking corner of the web; I only switched to English when I took up my studies. So listing the haunts of my youth would be a bit pointless here. I used to be way more into writing then, and post quite a bit on places where you could share your stuff and get…

Glad you're back.

a) Friends, family, fiction.

Hm. A male friend of mine has recently made a resolution to be more active on the local version of grindr in order to have more sex and he seems to me very "grim-obligation" about it. Like, he feels he needs to do this for his personal development, "to break down barriers" or whatever, but it's not something he sounds…

Kinda like Ask_the_AVClub? Why not? I'm basically never commenting about sex here, and no one has thrown me out yet.

I'm so sorry you had to go through all that.

That one was a piece of art.

Yeah, he's really indulging all his worst instincts here.

Oh, but that's way too simple; there are in fact a lot more patterns than that. Martin is having a lot of fun with intertextuality in general. The rise and fall (and rise) of Tyrion as some twist on Shakespeare's Richard III (which gets a big lampshade hung upon in the pre-released Mercy sample chapter, when Arya acts…

No law that he can't use more than one thing for inspiration. Clearly, this particular theory is bullshit in its elaboration, but it's also obvious that Martin has pilfered motives all over the place (as is meet and just; that's the business of art), eg. the Shireen/Iphigenia thing. Some of those inspirations might…

My point is that even a shrewd person wouldn't necessarily jump to "provide body parts for the Bride of Frankenstein". _They_ don't know that they're in a Penny Dreadful, remember?

Yeah, but they're more credible about it. I mean, they can actually possess people and shit. And they've already got servants everywhere. Brona's basically super-strong and that's it. Somehow I'm just less worried about her plans for world domination. She can't strangle everyone single-handedly, and even with…

Why would you assume that Brona knew exactly what Victor was talking about and what he's going to do with the pillow?

Of course she's monstrous; they're all monsters, that's the whole fun of it. More evil than anyone else? Well, maybe once she has actually destroyed all of mankind, but right now she's just talking big. I think she'll snap out of it, once she's gotten some of it out of her system. (Also I like the theory that's she's…

It was totally Victor's idea to play along with Caliban's loathsome plan in order to get Caliban off his own back at the expense of third parties. Of course he had the option to tell Ethan - sure, that would have caused troubles with Caliban, but Ethan seems fairly competent to deal with that kind of thing. But of…

Tech-Forum of teenage males during the heights of Gamergate…. I'm wincing just thinking about it. My sympathies. I'm just so glad for moderators. Thanks for wading through the garbage so that others don't have to.