Hi, Neil. This is not the first ask I've sent you and I know you're very busy so I apologize. I just wanted to let you know, because I know how much you enjoy our pain, that my partner finished GO season 2 late last night and I woke up this morning to nine voice messages and forty six texts from him. Most of the voice messages were unintelligible because of how hard he was crying but here's a little piece from one of them: "... Like, he's such a great author and such a great person...[unintelligible sobbing]... why would he do this to us?!" I was hoping that maybe you could respond with something to assure him that our Ineffable Husbands will be okay. I really need help cheering him up, he's very upset. His name is Kai and he really is a sweetheart - very tenderhearted so he took it pretty hard. We're both big fans of yours so it would mean a lot, but I completely understand if you're too busy.
Tell him it’s okay to feel things and to care about fictional people and about stories. And reassure him that this story is not yet finished. This was the quiet and romantic jam in the apocalypse sandwich, and we have a way to go before it’s done.
Cringe started as a verb describing a physical reaction, i.e.: “I cringe when I see [x].”
Modern slang has turned cringe into an adjective describing anything to which a person might have such a reaction.
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This shift in language is illustrative of a shift in culture.
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For a while there, in the early 2000s, there was this big sex positivity movement and we talked openly about kink and queer sexuality and creating a culture of consent that broke away from traditional conservative ideas of moral respectability.
And now we are in the midst of this giant purity culture backlash, this giant push for rigid conformity all over the internet. Anything that deviates from the norm even remotely is ridiculed.
And this cultural shift is perfectly encapsulated in this singular linguistic shift, this verb becoming a noun.
The Revenge of the Pearl Clutchers
That’s what “cringing” is. It’s pearl clutching.
When the pearl clutchers turned cringe into an adjective, they turned a reaction into an accusation. The pearl clutchers don’t want to take responsibility for their own kneejerk emotions. They want to blame YOU.
They are saying, “My disgust isn’t the fault of my own backwards prejudices. It is YOU who are inherently disgusting. My inability to cope with even the slightest deviation from norm is not the problem here. YOUR refusal to rigidly conform is the problem. I am not the one who is cringing. YOU are the one who is cringe.”
GOOD OMENS (2019-) “The Ball” (2.05) Requested by @maandarinee
Okay but can we talk about how wildly, insanely reckless Crowley is being here?! Like. He is so determined to push the absolute limits with Gabriel to see if he’s faking that he all but tells him their most important secret! Crowley says that Aziraphale wasn’t there in Heaven for the execution, that he, Crowley, was there. It would not be too hard to figure out from there that they simply swapped appearances and aren’t actually immune to holy water/hellfire.
It’s an incredible risk for Crowley to be taking, especially with how paranoid and protective of Aziraphale he is. I was stunned. And I can’t help but worry that it might come back in S3.
Drawing snake Crowley is super easy: You just have to make sure to draw his tenuous relationship with God and don’t forget his 6000 years of pining after his hereditary enemy. I find that watercolors work best.
I do know you have too many messages right now. And it might seem really insignificant. But, my 12 y.o. son, a war refugee and a domestic abuse survivor, just saw the ending of the Season 2, and is crying hard, saying that it’s all wrong, and it shouldn’t be like that, because Crowley and Aziraphale love each other. I beg you, please, would you find a couple of kind words just to help me soothe him?
Bee. 31. 🔞. Wife 💍. Mother of Corgis (and one deaf, toothless, geriatric cat). Lactose intolerant cheese enthusiast. Trans ally! Captain of an armada of Ships and OTPs.
