Shoutout to my fellow TMA obsessed academics, office workers, and Londoners!
How’s it going justifying every bad thing that happens with ‘this would happen in tma!!’, is it still keeping you sane?
POV: you’re Gertrude Robinson.
Shoutout to my fellow TMA obsessed academics, office workers, and Londoners!
How’s it going justifying every bad thing that happens with ‘this would happen in tma!!’, is it still keeping you sane?
As a frequently stressed person who owns a zippo I’m firmly of the belief that Jon fidgets with his lighter CONSTANTLY and absolutely ENRAGES everyone else in the archives. The click-clunk of the lid opening and closing changes pace based on how well he’s handling current events.
💕💞❤️🥰👨❤️👨💗💖💝💌Martin K. Blackwood 🌹💓💕💞😍💍👁️💖
POV: you’re Gertrude Robinson.
Okay so this October just gone I went to a panel at comicon that Jonathan Sims was speaking at, and it was great! I’m obviously a fan of his work and some other great writers were on it too, so I really enjoyed it. During this panel, Jonathan said something along the lines of ‘A really unnerving piece of cover art can go a long way to prime your audience’. So I thought “huh yeah that makes sense!” yknow, however the phrase goes, we all do judge a book by it’s cover to some extent and it definitely helps to be in the right mood for what you’re about to read. But I don’t think I really fully understood until just now exactly how right he was.
I’m a uni student so obviously I’m pretty broke, but I’d been wanting to read Thirteen Storeys for ages, so you can imagine my excitement when I found a second hand copy for £1.50! It wasn’t in the great condition, but it was good enough, and I’d take any hardcover for that price!
The arrival of the book happened to coincide with my sleep schedule being even more messed up than usual, but this was kinda welcome in context! I love horror, but I read a lot of it so I’m a little desensitised; this combined with doing ghost hunting for fun means that horror media is the best for me when I’m sleep deprived and on edge.
As expected from the first couple chapters the writing was excellent and the story delightfully engaging, but to my pleasant surprise it was really quite creepy! And made all the more enjoyable by how relatable it is. For some reason though, chapter three really got under my skin. Stuff with kids freaks me out in general, that creeping sense of dread as the story builds up to its climax, and an odd memory from (much hated) church as a child all built together to make it stick in my mind for the entire day, and following night.
I mostly read late at night so when I picked the book up again to carry on, I was still thinking about chapter three, still freaked out, and still sleep deprived as hell. I kept thinking about the woman I bought the book from, I’m not sure why. I guess I was thinking about kids and wondering if she had any that would’ve messed with the book to get it into that condition, but whatever. I kept reading, enjoying it just as much, if not more for the lingering taste of chapter three.
By the time I put the book down it was around 3am, and i was pleasantly spooked enough to go to sleep. I don’t know why but I stopped for a moment to look at the cover, partially examining the marks and scratches, partially admiring the design.
That’s when I saw 'PENNY’ written messily on the back and when I tell you my heart DROPPED. I don’t know what I thought! But my 3am mind was racing, scared as FUCK. Had this random woman’s kid read the book? Had they just decided to scribble out the first name they read when they opened it? Why that one!?!? Why could it not be LITERALLY ANY OTHER NAME???
And that is when I realised that it is PART OF THE FUCKING COVER ART. Well played Sims, well fucking played. In one simple design detail I was forced through the entire emotional journey of the story again in SECONDS. I could’ve dropped dead. (though to be honest, someone found dead clutching a copy of the book would probably be good publicity considering).
So yeah, moral of the story? Good cover art can do ALL MANNERS OF THINGS to your audience. For my sake, use it wisely.
Oh what’s my type? Probably the sort of guy to not believe you when you say you spent your lunch break with your new boyfriend but will 100% believe you’re a real life ghost if you word something wrong.
Yeah, it’s Jonathan Sims. The archivist. Yeah.
I think the funniest thing Jon could do if a doctor ever asked him about his missing ribs is look them straight in the eye, and say in the most deadpan voice “cosmetic surgery.”, and simply refuse to elaborate.
Jon: Trying not to fall asleep on the bus when it’s cold and dark outside.
Martin: The slightly firm texture a fluffy blanket has before you wash it for the first time.
Tim: Sipping a cocktail without realised how cold it is, the ice brushing your lips.
Sasha: The slightly artificial but altogether natural scent of fresh homemade popcorn.
Basira: When you spill rose oil on your hands and they smell like it for the rest of the day.
Daisy: The sting of a burnt tongue from a sip of scalding coffee.
Melanie: The taste in your mouth after you spit out chewing gum that’s lost its flavour.
Georgie: Pressing your hand into a brand new feather pillow
Elias: Accidentally putting your hand in your mouth after using hand sanitiser.
As anyone who’s ever listened to the magnus archives knows, the characters are viscerally and entirely captivating. This sounds like an exaggeration, but it’s impossible to not fall in love with at least one of them.
I think this lies in the intense humanity of each of them. Their reactions are so real, their emotions so tangible. Hearing Martin sob when verbally attacked by Elias, Jon yelling in anger when he doesn’t understand something, or Sasha whimpering her explanations during prentiss’ attack; these are all such relatable reactions, and make the characters extraordinarily easy to sympathise with.
This also goes a long way in making the horror that much more powerful. It’s a bitter reminder that horrible things happen to people exactly like you. It puts me in mind of the quote “The moment you die will feel exactly like this one.”
Your life could be this awful; you’ve simply skirted around the terror.
Daisy and Basira’s relationship is such a sweet agony, because at its foundation it’s so transparent, so honest. They both know what they’re doing, however much they pretend to lie or hide it. Such is the situation they’re in that there’s no choice but to cling to eachother.
Have you ever been in that sort of situation? The type where the closest person to you is deeply morally flawed and you’re realising just how in the wrong you are, but their hand is the only one to grasp. You see the claws along their fingertips and you turn your head and hold them close.
On many occasions Basira talks about the wrong Daisy’s done, she knows where Daisy’s kill spot is, she figured that’s where Jon would be. And yet she never tries to convince everyone that she’s capable of fixing daisy, because she knows she’s not. Daisy knows this just as well, and perhaps it’s a foundation of their trust.
To be loved is to be changed but to be changed is to be hated; a relationship where you accept each others flaws is a commodity, and a rare one at that. Whether those flaws are mundane or deeply damaging, these kinds of connections have a tendancy to grow beyond the point of return.
To know that you’re in the wrong together is a comfort. It’s not good, nor is it right, but it’s a place you can sit. A place you can stay. And as your comfort grows so does that leeching wrongness you protect, and in the end it may just eat you up.
To continue the way Daisy and Basira did was what drove them towards their end, but even at that last painful moment there was a tenderness, a rose in the thorns that makes the wounds worthwhile.
Hey um. So it’s my birthday party tomorrow, and i was just wondering did you maybe wanna come and talk about emulsifiers or something? I’m sure you have lots of interesting things to say about emulsifiers.
I think it’s pretty cool that in real life you can hold a cassette tape and say “I’m worried about the distortion.” and that’s actually a perfectly normal thing to say.
As anyone who’s ever listened to the magnus archives knows, the characters are viscerally and entirely captivating. This sounds like an exaggeration, but it’s impossible to not fall in love with at least one of them.
I think this lies in the intense humanity of each of them. Their reactions are so real, their emotions so tangible. Hearing Martin sob when verbally attacked by Elias, Jon yelling in anger when he doesn’t understand something, or Sasha whimpering her explanations during prentiss’ attack; these are all such relatable reactions, and make the characters extraordinarily easy to sympathise with.
This also goes a long way in making the horror that much more powerful. It’s a bitter reminder that horrible things happen to people exactly like you. It puts me in mind of the quote “The moment you die will feel exactly like this one.”
Your life could be this awful; you’ve simply skirted around the terror.
Your life could be this
awful; you’ve simply skirted
around the terror.
Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.
(part 3)
Melanie:
Daisy recovering from the buried:
Elias:
Jon, suffering immense horrors at work:
Martin:
Gerry:
Martin transferring to the archives:
Everyone to Basira for enjoying working in the Archives:
Leitner @ Jon:
The sad thing about great horror podcasts is that it’s really hard to just sit down and enjoy an episode with a friend unless you’re driving somewhere or something.
It takes a very specific kind of friendship to sit in a room together silently listening to some guy suffering.