happy pride to girls who didn’t know that women could be nice to you, inscrutable polycules, straight people in forbidden marriages, body snatchers who kiss their own reflections, poets obsessed with long-dead warriors, predatory cougars, lesbians who are in fact the problem, and girls who are in love with a corpse
IMO ianthe did have a point when she told gideon that what made her crush on harrow different from gideon’s is that ianthe and harrow are equals, and are therefore capable (in theory) of forming a very different kind of relationship than the one that gideon and harrow, as they both exist and percieve eachother right now, could have. bc the thing about griddlehark right now is they each hold eachother as sacred to the extreme. sacred like a holy relic, like a wonder that can be observed and honored but never touched. gideon has a suicidal, overwhelming devotion to harrow. she’s convinced that harrow doesnt care about her and gideon is just… fine with that. that’s part of her devotion. harrow thinks of gideon with a similarly consuming kind of reverence all wrapped up in guilt. and i love it, it’s a delicious dynamic, incredible, but i want to see how they untangle that – they were able to partly shift their dynamic (from childhood codependant enemies) at canaan house but it just switched to a different but still incredibly unequal dynamic on both sides. how do they learn to love the other in a way that accepts the love they are recieving, that believes themselves worthy? how do they learn to love in a way that does not consume themselves? that leaves something left for the other one to love? the AU chapters gave us a taste of what could have been and perhaps what could be later in the series. i need to go lie down.
People keep being like “If you liked Gideon the Ninth, try this other book about lesbians and space and empires!” And some of those books are very good but what the recommenders seem not to grasp is that Gideon the Ninth is fun to read. Even funny. If I want space adventures, I can go to any sci fi book from the past century or so. If I want to see lesbians, I can just go on Instagram. If I want to see an empire brutally attempting to maintain its stranglehold on those it oppresses, I don’t need to go anywhere. What I want, and do not get, is, “I did offer him a stupendous work of a titty nature, and he got offended.”
imo people do not give Gideon enough credit for being incredibly fucked up in the head. gonna devote your life to any pretty lady who shows you even the smallest bit of affection? gonna show your love and loyalty by consuming yourself, so you do not have to be percieved in the act of loving, so there is nothing of you left to love in return? gonna devote your life and death and life-beyond-death to a girl that (regardless of the facts) you genuinely believe does not care about you? mentally ill as hell. i love her.
People go on about good healthy queer rep but I cannot express how much I want unhealthily devoted queer rep. Raise your lover from the dead no matter the cost. Kill to get them to safety. Trade your soul for theirs. Die to reunite with them. I want gothic hyper-devotion codependent lovers
Like the thing is that I am Team Gideon I think she is right in 100% of her arguments and I will be rooting for her no matter what. I hope she gets the opportunity to make some dumb mistakes but she will also be completely correct to make them
ALT
