Some Fic Recs - Venom, Pride and Prejudice

Venom:
intra-personal negotiation by Wildehack (tyleet)
Author's Summary: How fucked is that, that a compromise that ended with eating raw shark liver under the Golden Gate Bridge in the dead of night is probably the most interpersonally mature he’s ever been? Intra-personally, Venom corrects, not really paying attention.

Why I love it: I adore stories that are about actually making relationships work, and giving and taking and paying attention. I also love stories in which people try to do this and fail badly, and try again and fail better. And this does all of that, plus Venom eats a shark and makes reference to theories about cultural differences. 

Pride and Prejudice:

An Ever-Fixed Markby AMarguerite (This is locked to AO3 users, I have invites if you need an account!)

Author's Summary: One would think that having the name of one's soulmate appear on one's wrist on one's sixteenth birthday would make matrimony much less complicated. It mostly does not. And not at all for Miss Elizabeth Bennet of Longbourne. (A deconstruction of the "soulmate identifying mark" trope, using "Pride and Prejudice." Trigger warnings in the tags.)

Why I love it: This fic takes the idea of visible soulmate marks as trope and then just decides to take it apart and put it back together slantwise. It's also has 'Bisexuals in History: Pretty Normal, Actually', as a minor plot thread about why Colonel Fitzwilliam's family were weird about him for years, beautiful thoughtful romance, considerate and kind reactions to grief, and British politics of the Regency period as a major plot threads.

Content warnings: some non graphic discussion of 19th century battlefield medicine and nursing injured people. 

 

Meta On Venom and Pronouns and Aliens

There is some ongoing 'new fandom weirdness' going on in Venom fic, in which writers who come from the comics tend to fall into using language common to the comics, and people got into fandom from the movie using that language.

This can lead to some confusion, particularly around how to talk respectfully about a character who is literally a goo alien from a species that does not have gender and reproduces by budding.

Since this can have some overlap with the ongoing cultural discussion about how be respectful and kind when you want to talk to and about trans and nonbinary people, it's worth laying out why there's some differences going on, and where they come from.

• The comics address this by calling the symbiote, 'the symbiote' or 'the Venom symbiote,' and using it/its/itself language for the symbiote. In the comics, only the combo of symbiote+host = Venom, and the name Venom is applied to any host the symbiote takes. Specifically, people who know and love the symbiote use 'symbiote' and 'it/itself' language in a positive, non harmful setting, and this is largely taking place in the context of the symbiote being an alien creature with different cultural norms

• The movie took a different approach: the symbiote's name is Venom from the first discussion, and the movie uses he/him/himself. (Specifically, the symbiote makes an introduction using the name Venom to another character personally, and other characters call the symbiote alone Venom and use he/him language when they consider the symbiote sentient, but other characters who are not nice use “it”; and don't know the symbiote's name.) The line “We are Venom” is said towards the end of the movie, but it's not quite clear if what that shift means.

So, fic writers are using both of these modalities, both supported by canon, AND some people are also using different ways to talk about the symbiote that are drawn from some existing etiquette about how to talk about trans and nb people who don't have a traditional gender (like, sometimes using 'they/them/themselves’) language.

So there is a lot going on in Venom fandom about this, I so far have not seen any grossness or antitrans sentiment going around (tho, hi, it's the internet, I'm sure there's some out there), and I hope this helps explain where folks are coming from.

For myself, I got used to the conventions of the comics, but I've been reading a lot of fic about the movie, so I'm playing fast and loose.I do tend to use 'it' or 'they' with the symbiote by itself, because that's what the comics do and that's what I'm used to doing with nb characters. I basically never use the name Venom for just the symbiote unless I am comment on a fic where the author has used that convention; - it can cause too much confusion to try and insist on different language, and I'm not convinced it really adds much to push for it. “He” for the symbiote alone seems just weird and wrong to me, but it's also common in the comics for people to address Venom (when the symbiote and host are 'suited up) by the host's gender, so it's coming from nowhere. There is a basis for a lot of these choices.

It's a developing fandom and I'm not sure where the consensus is going to land, if indeed it ever does.

Memes? In this economy?

Leave a word, any word, in the comments below, and I will tell you a fact about myself relating to that word.

Meme provided by journalmemes.

the Victoria and Albert Museum has vintage knitting patterns for free!

https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/1940s-knitting-patterns 

Hand-knitting was at a peak in Britain in the 1940s. During the Second World War, women on the home front were encouraged to contribute to the war effort by knitting for the troops, which was promoted as public duty. Advertising at the time stated: "England expects – knit your bit".

Many knitting patterns were given away free, while wool was also sent to schools so that children could knit gloves, scarves and balaclava helmets for the forces. Wool was also supplied to organisations such as the Women's Institutes of England and Wales, who made over 22 million knitted garments for the Red Cross (an average of 67 garments per member). Parcels of their knitwear were sent to prisoners of war, as well as to troops.

The warmth of woollen garments also made them popular for civilians who were faced with a shortage of heating fuel. In the face of wool rationing, knitters were encouraged to unravel old sweaters.

The original 1940s patterns, available to download below, show the wide range of items knitted during the War: a fatigue cap that could double as a scarf, a balaclava helmet and a waistcoat for men, as well as knitted turbans, a When You're 'Off Duty' jumper (its title hinting at the change in women's roles at this time), and gloves for women. They also show the many specialised patterns developed in response to the specific needs of the time. For example, the gloves have long wristbands for extra warmth, while the balaclava helmet has earflaps "to enable good hearing during telephone calls".

Download the free patterns below to create your own classic 1940s fashion.