it's a radio for speaking to god
challenge #6 - share a favorite piece of canon!
i got a lot but will limit myself to two. the first:
The snow fell deeper that Easter than it had in forty years, but June walked over it like water and came home.
(what june did in point of fact was walk into a spring storm and freeze to death.) it's from love medicine by louise erdrich and is honestly more about the way it's phrased than the canon. i mean, the canon isn't pretty - june is chippewa and lived on the reservation until she froze to death and life was not kind to her - but the writing is and the book is really good.
(my favorite of louise erdrich's books that i've read is the bingo palace and if you want to check it out i will not dissuade you.)
and the second because if i didn't take the opportunity to mention raiders of the lost ark i wouldn't be me:
"i'm gonna blow up the ark, rene!"
[snip snip]
"ok, jones, you win. blow it up. yes, blow it up! blow it back to god."
and indy can't. he threatens the ark to get marion back and belloq calls his bluff because belloq knows he cannot destroy the ark of the covenant even knowing what the nazis want to use it for because it is an archaeological find of IMMENSE historical and cultural importance and what did he get into archaeology for if not for this? he's no more capable of blowing it up than belloq is, and for the same reason - "we are simply passing through history. this... this is history."
belloq might have a wobbly moral compass because he's willing to throw in with nazis to find the ark but he's not a nazi and at no point does the movie try to make you think he is. he's an archaeologist. deitrich and toht and their goose-stepping goons are a temporary means to an end for him.
honorable raiders mentions go to "you can't do this to me! i'm an american!" and "until i get back my five thousand dollars you're gonna get more than you bargained for. i'm your god damn partner!" (marion is the fiestiest and the best) and the full scene with indy and marcus brody and the two guys from the pentagon ("good god." "yes, that's just what the hebrews thought." and "didn't any of you guys ever go to sunday school?") and "that's just my pet snake reggie" and "bad dates" and "snakes. why'd it have to be snakes." and indy just giving up and shooting the assassin with the sword in the middle of cairo. i love this movie. every piece of canon is my favorite.
one of the things i really like about snowflake - aside from all the squee because i legitimately love reading about people's love for their fandoms even when they're not fandoms i share - is the original fic writers coming out of the woodwork. it's very exciting. :D and i mention that partly to segue into the fact that my writing group said nice things about my holiday project which was gratifying because it was pretty self-indulgent. also someone asked if there was more to which i answered "for this story? no. this is where it ends" but i like the characters and the world and there are other vignettes in my head. whether or not they actually make it out of my head is another story.
there was something else i wanted to share and now i don't remember what it was. yesterday i booked a lot of last-minute travel at the end of the day and this morning when i forwarded a guest speaker her hotel reservation with "here's your room, you're all set" she responded with "thank you and you sent it to me yesterday :D ". (the smiley face was implied.) there's a workshop tomorrow and a conference next week and a guest speaker the beginning of february and booking travel is legitimately my job! but it makes my head hurt when i have to do a lot of it all at the same time.
anyway i survived and today has been super chill and later i'm meeting my sister and cousins for dinner so that should be fun. my cousin adjacent's middle kid is going back to college tomorrow and she doesn't want to abandon him tonight so he's going to be joining us because apparently he doesn't mind eating with the old folks. :D