hello 2020! may it be kind to us all :)

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this break has me itching to get back to school; the more healthy I slowly get the more unhealthy I recognise some things to be, and I need that distraction 🙃

Good news though, I've been taking the time to read and it's been great! Too stressed to write unfortunately, but well seeing as the first book of 2020 has been The Future Is History (Masha Gessen) I haven't really been in a fic headspace. Gotta love starting the year in the streets 

I also found myself re-reading Ender's Game/Shadow and trying to finish Lawrence in Arabia (Scott Anderson) so the pall is hanging pretty well around me. Whatta world, isn't it!

Realtalk, The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia is probably one of the best contemporary reads I've found. (Off of the top of my head, my other best nonfiction for the decade was probably Down Girl.) Masha Gessen is an excellent writer, and I'm so glad to've found a sincere explanation of the road to current events. Gessen is, of course, talking specifically about Russia and the rise of Putin's system, but understanding that also helps me realise so much of what's gone on in the US as well. It's grim, certainly, to realise the extent to which we're collectively living in Interesting Times, but the best we can do is try to find common ground, right? The anti-russian nonsense that's been kicking back up is so bafflingly stupid to see, and instead I wish I could convince more people to read this and realise how much more we have in common than not. 
Honestly, if I was the one teaching my spring semiar on totalitarianism, I would've probably included the chapter "The Future Is History" itself on our readings list, because Gessen does an amazing job of tying together some of the best names and introducing their concepts without pretension. I first read Arendt in that class and it was frankly extremely hard for me to break into digestible pieces. Gessen processes and contextualizes Arendt, Fromm, Gudkov, Bogdanov, Fitzpatrick, etc, and before you know it, you're holding a working epistemology of totalitarianism vs authoritarianism, with confidence to branch out to, say, Levada next!

My other cheery read has been a slow slog through Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East, which is everything it sounds like. The abject horror of knowing what the west is about to do to the middle east is only tempered by Anderson's relentless mockery of how poorly WW1 was run - on a random quick flip-through, I've got "when it came to committing folly, British war planners were just warming up" (118), "the old-fashioned notion that a nation should abide by its promises" (163), and of course, "Lawrence was nothing if not resourceful, and he had next thought to put one of his more pronounced personality traits to good use: the ability to annoy" (192). Yeah, it's named after Ned and he's one of the major threads, but it's not actually just another biography. Anderson has a full cast to refer to in trying to explain (not unlike Gessen, actually) how on earth the stage was set for what we've got today. It is Buckwild to think that America was once considered a distant and noninterventionary body. I laugh so I don't cry, yanno?

So in hopes of lightening the mood, I figured I'd watch The Witcher! Which actually is infuriating if I try to actually think about 99% of it, but hey, I might have a fever, so it's easier than usual to fuzz those bits out. anyway, sick!brain insists on 'henry cavill leather armor fight monsters,' so I'm fine with that. It took me a while to get solid netflix access actually, so I took that time to write up a bit of meta responding to a really good meta on the bath scenes with Jaskier and Geralt vs Geralt vs Yennefer, because I don't faff about when hyperfixating lmao: Scenes according to a stage actor: 
Hi! I really enjoy your Witcher metas :D Chiming in, I had a few thoughts re. the bath scenes comparison. Full disclosure, I haven’t actually seen all of the show (no Netflix, so it goes), but on the other hand, relatively clean slate! And just to be technical (shelving the shipping goggles!), I do think the blocking tells us a lot about the two sets of characters as well.
First up, Jaskier is a gadfly. He’s confident in speech, but crossing back and forth like that speaks to anxiety. He’s afraid of the upcoming event. But he’s absolutely not afraid of Geralt; see: throwing salt(?) at him, pulling the mug away from his face, shaking his shoulder, + the baseline intimacy of carrying on while someone’s taking a bath. Geralt’s stillness, then, is the point on which Jaskier can turn. There must be a metaphor in there, too.
Actually, Geralt’s not the only one he’s orbiting, because the majority of shots are from approximately Geralt’s eyeline, even when pulled out - we the audience look up at Jaskier with him. Imo, the angle adds to Jaskier’s flightyness. We’re synchronized with Geralt, more than him. It also emphasises the connection when they finally come to the same eye level; when they unite, we the audience are part of it, instead of a more removed point of view from above, or pulled out again.
There’s even the light falling over Jaskier’s shoulder and into Geralt’s face, following Jaskier’s gaze at him*, and that panel on the wall driving home their eye contact, for extra subtlety (if I was sketching that moment, it would divide almost perfectly into the rule of three. Perfectly balanced image, yet seperated subjects.) (*here’s another metaphor - Jaskier’s gaze illuminating Geralt just as his songs illustrate the White Wolf?)
And Yennefer! Now again, without the proper context, I don’t properly follow their exchange. But like you say, Yennefer moves around much less than Jaskier did. She actually seems much more on Geralt’s wavelength by conversation and disposition, but they still don’t share the scene in quite the heightened way that would come from that synchronization. In-character, of course it makes sense for Yennefer to move the mirror. But unless it was featured earlier in the scene somehow, the purpose it serves here is to actively deny a sightline or connection between the characters. She has a lot more confidence, in settling down with so much more intention. They’re being set up as equals, and so when they fall into step, the camera has to be the mobile factor and do the work to keep the audience in the loop. (I personally think the shots could be unified a bit more across the whole show, but the number of short takes really stands out all the more when the subjects are so still. It actually pulls me out of a moment, instead of letting the actors carry the scene, but this is just personal preference now, and I come from theater, so I’m biased. But it really feels like the camera is telling us that it’s a unified moment, instead of letting the scene stand on its own.) (for a contrast that’s also a bath scene, I love the composition in OSF’s Macbeth last year, pulling the audience’s eyes up to the crowned child)
It’s funny, but Yennefer and Geralt’s scene is very much blocked for film. The conversation as delivered depends on the camerawork to give the audience each character, or else if it was on stage, we would only basically get two profiles with a bit of splashing and bad acoustics. Park And Bark scenes on stage happen facing the audience, not the wings. OTOH, Jaskier insists on filling the space, showman that he is. He’s upstage of his partner, but a) that doesn’t kill a conversation on film like it would hamper stage (particularly when Jaskier’s doing most of the talking anyway), and b) he uses it to cheat out and maintain the camera’s ability to join his and Geralt’s moment.
I gotta say, one more thought to throw into the ring is how the scenes treat Geralt’s scars, and by extension his whole body. He’s still a bit grody in the hair in the Jaskier scene, but apart from that reminder of his job, there’s no real emphasis put directly on his scars. They’re discussed, but not highlighted. Jaskier even casually jostles the shoulder that Yennefer points out as scarred later on. Yennefer’s scene makes a point of the nudity in a very different way - again, that mirror turns it into something sexual, even while denying the opportunity. I’m not quite sure where I’m going with this one either, but the metaphor’s in there somewhere. (Something about how the scene partners see him? Jaskier taking ‘Geralt who has scars and that’s just how life is’ as complete vs Geralt and Yennefer sharing ‘scars are things that have happened to you’? idk)
Honestly I don’t have any conclusion here either, it’s just late and I wanna chime in on the good points you made and hope I’m making sense. What you said about the favors - Geralt doing one for Jaskier, and then Yennefer doing one for Geralt - reminded me of an anecdote from psychology. I am no psychologist so if I’m wrong forget this, but isn’t there something about how doing someone a favor will make the actor more well-inclined towards the person they did the favor for? I think it’s something about sunk cost fallacy. But that might be another element to the relationship-building work that each scene does; the Jaskier scene might end up contributing to Geralt’s positive thoughts on him, and the Yennefer scene add to her opinion of Geralt. Or maybe they don’t because I haven’t seen the episodes. But one way or another, neither of these scenes Needed to happen in the bath, so that choice alone points to some sort of intimacy being underscored or developed in each dynamic. Hard to say what it all ‘really’ means, but the setting absolutely opens the doors to comparisons! Hope I’m making some sense, I totes dig your thoughts on this show!!

tripped and fell 100% into geraltxjaskier though, like, I have taken that bait, hook line and sinker. I'm not feverish enough not to notice I'm being yanked around - the instrumental cut of 'her sweet kiss' playing in the bg of geralt and yennefer's reunion kiss is like, the cherry on top of dashing any questions that it might not've been intentional. But I'm always a sucker for pining, so catch me sketching along to 'you belong with me'!