Friday, June 20, 2025

In lieu of starting online fights: Not everything that has rich people in it is Sucession

 Hey now, has this ever happened to you? You are innocently scrolling social media, looking at memes, cute animal videos and the occasional comment on some of your favorite media, when suddenly an opinion crosses your feed that's so unbelievably wrong it seems the OP is posting from a parallel universe. Because surely, surely, if you had both watched the same movie/show, surely, they could not have reached a conclusion this eccentric. It itches in your fingers, you start typing up a reply, you simply have to set the record straight. But then you remember. Starting fights online is generally a huge waste of everyone's time and efforts. People aren't likely to try and see things your way, no matter how clearly and persuasively you explain. The most probable outcome is just huge amounts of frustration on your part. It's simply not worth it. Especially over something as ultimately inconsequential as a media opinion. And still. OP was so wrong on the internet. You cannot let that go unremarked. So what are you to do?

Mostly, I just rant to a friend. We commiserate and pick apart why exactly the opinion was bad and then we congratulate each other on being the only ones with correct ideas. But I realized that I have this blog and I don't utilize it nearly as much as I want to. Thus, without further ado, I'm starting a series where I elaborate on opinions I read on the internet that I heavily disagree with. 

Disclaimer: Obviously, obviously, I do not think I have the correct opinions. These are, after all, opinions still. I do believe the statements I will be discussing here to be based at least partially on flawed logic or a misunderstanding of the media, but that doesn't mean I'm right all the time or even about these. Just in case the irony wasn't clear.

No. 1: Not everything that has rich people in it is Succession

 The first statement I will be discussing is the following: "The Gentlemen [the show] is Succession if it was bad".

This is fascinating to me, because it would have never occurred to me to compare these two shows whatsoever. 

Now, I've watched and liked both shows. And I agree, Succession is the better show by many metrics. So, I understand if OP didn't like The Gentlemen. You can see Guy Ritchie's signature style of storytelling everywhere (even if the show has more than one female character and less homoeroticism than his movies usually have). That's not for everybody. But it makes absolutely no sense, in my opinion, to compare these shows in this way.

In The Gentlemen Eddie Horniman gets called back to England because his father is dying. After his death, Eddie inherits the family estate as well as the title of Duke instead of his irresponsible older brother. The same older brother owes a large sum of money (although, 8 million would be peanuts to anyone in Succession) to a drug dealer and when he causes even more trouble, Eddie is forced to join forces with a cannabis producer who grows her product under his estate. 

When in Succession, the patriarch of the Roy family and CEO of a media and entertainment conglomerate, Logan Roy, suffers a stroke, the struggle for the control of the company begins and the characters start to destroy themselves and each other for the money and the power that would bring.


 Succession is (despite what some other very wrong people might claim) a scathing critique of capitalism and the people propagating it, specifically the America-brand of hyper-capitalism that sucks everyone participating in it in until there's nothing left. Almost every single one of the characters is awful in one way or another, they cannot escape the draw of their abusive family dynamics that mirror the abusive dynamics of the capitalist system. It is a drama with dark comedic elements.

In The Gentlemen meanwhile you are supposed to think the two main characters are cool and badass. You are supposed to root for them and they are, through narrative decisions, mostly in the right in their actions.  It's also not about capitalism at all really. It's not presenting capitalism and the people participating in it in a positive light, it's only concerned about money as a means to an end not and end in itself. The Gentlemen is about keeping your family safe with the cleanest hands possible. It's about the allure of a criminial underbelly and how far you are willing to go. It is an action comedy. 


 The specific point the post was belaboring had to do with the - excellent - choice of Succession not to have an employee character who works for the Roys and is loyally supportive of them, while The Gentlemen has a gamekeeper that looks after the Horniman estate and is devotedly on their side throughout. Again, it is useless to compare the two because the context is different. On the one hand, the gamekeeper lives on the estate, he's personally invested and connected to the family, and a trusty butler/housekeeper/groundskeeper is a staple in stories about the British nobles; on the other hand everyone in Succession works for the company - some long-standing, some not - and while they also are in part involved with the family, they, as well, are shown to prioritize their own self-interest as is fitting for the thematic through-lines of the show. 

Therefore, while it is utterly fair to not want to watch or else not enjoy watching a show that - at least in part - looks at criminal enterprises or British aristocracy with kind eyes, you do have to acknowledge that it has very little in common with the withering insights into US-American capitalism of Succession.   

In the end, it's like saying "Game of Thrones is Lord of the Rings if it was bad". Those two things aren't the same. 

Sunday, January 26, 2025

Favorite Quotes of 2024

As another collection from the novels I read last year, I present to you some of my favorite quotes. They are my favorite either because they express something in beautiful language, are profound in context or stuck with me throughout.

Enjoy!

 "I remember this: the way she stood and looked at me, half raised her arms and then dropped them as though uncertain of her welcome, and the way I ran towards her anyway, the bright reality of her, and felt such wide white blinding love and relief that all other memories from that day disappeared." - Our Wives Under the Sea, Julia Armfield

"My body is a world full of tectonic inhalation and exhalation, volcanic heartbeats, oceans of blood, electrical storms of nerve endings. And my mind is that world's chief city." - The Odyssey Problem, Chris Willrich in The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2023

"... and you breathe in memory. The weight and mortality and the sensible shoes are just costume, falling away, and your real selves rise up, briefly, dancing rosy and naked, in the middle of the subway car." - White Houses, Amy Bloom

"Run isn't quite accurate. Their legs don't move. Their still-twitching feet don't touch the ground." - The Penelopiad, Margaret Atwood

"I like to think of my brain like that, tangled up in my skull. The idea that my brains could be untangled, straightened out and thus refashioned into a state of peace and sanity was a comforting fantasy. I often felt there was something wired weird in my brain, a problem so complicated only a lobotomy could solve it - I'd need a whole new mind or a whole new life." - Eileen, Otessa Moshfegh

"Amber gazes at me. Her eyes are the same waxy green color as the mile marker. 'You're my house, Del.'" - A Bird Sings by the Etching Tree, Nicole D. Sconiers in Out There Screaming

"But here it is, now, and here I am, too. And this train - very real, very concrete and travelling fast - is tearing us together. Close your eyes." - Assembly, Natasha Brown

"I turn back to survey the view. Even up here, I feel it against my skin, the thumping nationalism of this place. I am the stretched-taut membrane of a drum against which their identity beats. I cannot escape its rhythm. Everything awaits Monday - New York, then back in the office. For the rest of my life these Mondays loom loud, thudding and crashing, crescendoing on to me, tearing through -" - Assembly, Natasha Brown

"I remained leaning on the window, with a thirsty longing to plunge myself into the blue-moon mist, this dew and perfume and silence, which seemed to vibrate and quiver like the stars that strewed the depths of heaven." - A Wicked Voice, Vernon Lee, in Weird Fiction: An Anthology

Thursday, January 2, 2025

Top 4 novels I did not like that much

I don't want to be so mean on my blog and generally I have positive things to say about the novels I read since I know that just because something wasn't for me, does not mean it isn't for anyone or that it lacks in quality at all.

So, without further ado, here are the 4 novels that I read this year that did for some reason or other did not connect with me.

1. Greenwood - Micheal Christie

Cover of the novel Greenwood by Michael Christie.

 

In a desolate future a woman works in one of the very last forests on earth. When she finds out a forgotten bit about her family's past, the reader takes a journey through family history, step by step from 2038 all the way to 1908, before traveling back to 2038, stopping at the same stations.

The concept is innovative, I'll give the novel that. Also it's beautifully written and touches on worthwhile issues. It's just that from the summary and quotes I assumed it would be hopeful (and I believe that was the author's intent, too) but by god did it feel extremely depressing to me. Almost all the characters lived miserable lonely lives and died miserable lonely deaths, which apparently await us all as the first trees in the last forest, too, become infected. 

2. Dust - Hugh Howey 

Cover of the novel Dust by Hugh Howey.

 

Dust is the third and final installment in the Silo trilogy, which now has a TV adaptation. In a post apocalyptic future what is left of humanity lives in Silos underground. Over the course of the trilogy the truths the Silo head tells the population are put into question and a rebellion is formed that works to uncover what was kept hidden. In this last novel, the characters must reckon with the lies they were told and find a way forward when their tentative peace is destroyed.

At this point I was just so bored by everything being so very bad all the time. For example, a child character is all but kidnapped and forced into child marriage for a chapter before she escapes. It took me all the way out of the story. I do think the ending is beautiful, though.

3. The Penelopiad - Margaret Atwood

Cover of the novel The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood.

 

Down in Hades, Penelope tells her story. From being chosen as a consolation price over her experiences during the Trojan war and after. 

I usually enjoy these types of perspective shifts, ancient Greek story telling, and Margaret Atwood, but little elements in the way this shift is executed bothered me. The way Helen was portrayed in particular rubbed me the wrong way. I understand that Penelope is an unreliable narrator, trying to position herself as the protagonist of the story, but still, Helen as this manipulative cruel being who causes destruction for the fun of it felt not good to read.

I do like the regular interludes of the maids in different poetic styles, who are killed at the end of the story. Giving those who are not only sidelined but condemned a voice and a humanity is interesting to me.

4. All That's Left in the World - Erik J. Brown

Cover of All That's Left in the World by Erik J. Brown.

 

In this novel two boys, who lost everyone once dear to them, have to navigate a post apocalyptic society, find safety, find themselves, and find each other.

While I had actual criticisms about the other novels on this list, this one only did not hit me as I thought it would. Likely, I am simply too old for this, as it is a YA story. I truly did like the development of the boys' relationship and their different perspectives on the apocalypse.

About Me

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I am in my early 30s and finished my university career. My areas of study included media analysis, literary and cultural studies, linguistics, and history. I like reading, drawing, writing, movies, TV, friends, traveling, dancing and all kinds of small things that make me happy. Just trying to spread some love.

In lieu of starting online fights: Not everything that has rich people in it is Sucession

 Hey now, has this ever happened to you? You are innocently scrolling social media, looking at memes, cute animal videos and the occasional ...