Litloverscorsetlaces - Lit Lovers & Corset Laces

“No sooner did I see that his attention was riveted on them, and that I might gaze without being disturbed, than my eyes were drawn involuntarily to his face… I looked, and had an acute pleasure in looking - a precious, yet poignant pleasure; pure gold, with a steely point of agony; a pleasure like what the thirst-perishing man might feel who knows the well to which he has crept is poisoned, yet stoops and drinks divine draughts nevertheless.”

— Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre (via undergroundoutofsight)

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (2005) dir. Joe Wright

David Shannon & Gina Beck

Gifset dedicated to Davis Gaines's legs...and hands...and everything else.

nine/or so people i wish i knew better :)

(Awww, I love being tagged in stuff)

tagged by: @wheel-of-fish and @selcouthself (oop and @dj-triumph lol)

favorite color: indigo blue

currently reading: Yvonne Chireau, Black Magic: Religion and the African American Conjuring Tradition (grad student lol)

last song: "My Funny Valentine" (Chet Baker cover) by Matt Maltese

last film: Sinners dir. Ryan Coogler

last series: Obsessed with Étoile on Prime.

sweet/salty/savory: This is so hard but I could eat chocolate chip cookies until the end of time, so sweet.

tea or coffee: Chai!

working on: grief, a syllabus project on AfAm Religion and American Cinema, and a fanfic that keeps my spirits up lol.

tagging: @poorerik @flora-gray @daaesviolin @forever-and-whats-left @achillmango @from-aldebaran @warpweight (sorry if you've already been tagged by someone else!)

I went to dinner and when I checked my phone a little later my best friend was live tweeting the Phantom boot I gifted him. Suffice it to say...I think I've converted my first person to the phandom.

I started him out with the 25th anniversary performance and then proceeded to give him comparative highlights of Hugh Panaro, Earl Carpenter, Davis Gaines and Norm Lewis to give him a sense of scope. Then built it out with others. Sprinkled in information about canon and the different Erik/Christine types and ranted a lot about hands and my personal tastes.

And then I gave him a Lucy St. Louis boot bc I suspected he'd like her and I asked him to share his thoughts afterward. Now his takes have me screaming because I've totally indoctrinated him.

"She was good, but I didn't like this Phantom. His ILY was weak! The hands weren't right. DO YOU WANT HER OR NOT BRO??" I warned him about the post-COVID fall off but now he's blaming me for setting him up with high expectations and declaring his allegiance to the 2000s era.

And he's already abbreviating POTO.

I'm so damn proud of myself (and him) lol.

Phantom Acting Choices that Live in My Head Rent Free

Kevin Gray touching his face while Christine sings "pitiful creature of darkness."

The point in MOTN when Laird Mackintosh and Earl Carpenter's Phantoms walk up on Christine hesitantly so the segue into "turn your face away" is just them chickening out.

The way Gary Mauer yells "NO!" in the angel before crashing out on "you will curse the day."

Davis Gaines's deliberate hand movements during the kiss and "Christine I love you." And the way he sobs and falls to the floor without it reading melodramatic. (Davis Gaines as a whole, tbh.)

When Erik and Christine lock eyes for a hot minute after the kiss. (Killian Donnelly/Lucy St. Louis and Hugh Panaro/Mary Michael Patterson are so good at this.)

The unique way Dean Chisnall sings "save me" during PONR/AIAOY reprise like his voice is breaking a little.

David Shannon wants to touch Christine's face so badly but just can't bring himself to do it.

New fandom level unlocked: I officially have an AO3 account.

POTO retelling loading. And maybe I'll even overcome my trauma and restart the Jane Eyre fanfic I lost more than a decade ago when my computer was stolen.

OMFG thank you to whoever captured this.

Dean Chisnall - The Music of the Night (14th August 2024) 7.30 performance

An Essay on ALW's Erik

One of the best insights I got into ALW's Phantom from some random Reddit user is to watch for whether the lead plays Erik from his own POV or from Christine's, especially in MOTN. (I also add a third option because several actors also play him from the perspective of the audience or a more omniscient narrator.)

These approaches result in entirely different, but no less accurate, interpretations of the character. For example, Earl Carpenter's performance from the first lair to the final lair is entrenched in the Phantom's perspective, from the total anxiety he projects in MOTN, to his more hesitant physical engagement with Christine, to his decision to kneel/silently beg Christine to stay with him during the ring return. And I love that there's variety within this perspective as well. Carpenter uses this POV to portray a very earnest and sympathetic (if unscocialized) Erik, but I'd argue that Anthony Warlow also falls within this category even though he leans into the darker aspects of the Phantom's psyche.

I have favorite Phantoms in both categories, but I admit that Christine's POV is actually what hooked me to this musical. I got deep into Phantom boots after losing my dad in my 20s and watching an engagement fall apart under the strain of grief. When Erik is viewed or portrayed (à la Hugh Panaro) through Christine's eyes, you can see the character undergo a pitchy transformation throughout the musical as Christine works through her own relationship to men while grieving and coming of age. Erik initially presents himself to her as a father figure, then as a full-on seducer in the first lair, and then as a total monster. The story is in part about Christine's journey toward reconciling these different ways of perceiving/relating to masculinity in the absence of what had been the only male figure in her life. And the musical approaches resolution when Christine realizes that Erik is neither her dad, her lover, or a total villain--he's just a man. And he's worthy of compassion, but she can also choose to leave him.

Anyway, I hate when people say that it's inaccurate for Erik to be "X" or "Y". Because especially through the lens of Christine's journey, Erik is all the things at one point or another (or even simultaneously). He is a daddy-coded immortal messenger and a genius and sex incarnate and unhinged and broken and, and, and...a literary figure shaped by the internal worlds of the author, the reader, and the viewer/listener. What's the point in trying to make objective claims about him? Resist binary thinking and make literary and media analysis great again.