I know that this is almost definitely not the meaning of the title of 14×08, “Byzantium” but my very first association is with the W.B. Yeats poem “Sailing to Byzantium: that begins, “That is no country for old men.” It feels like there’s a lot potentially happening now with ideas of succession and generations, with Jack on the scene and with the turnover of power in Heaven and Hell, with Dean’s heartbreaking daydream of a TFW beach trip with umbrella drinks, Hawaiian shirts, and toes in the sand. It’s potentially the midseason finale too (with the shorter season). Feels like it could be thematically resonant.
I’ll put the poem below, for those who don’t know it, but Yeats wrote it about the quest of the soul for enlightenment (symbolized by Byzantium) aided by art.
I That is no country for old men. The young In one another’s arms, birds in the trees, —Those dying generations—at their song, The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas, Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long Whatever is begotten, born, and dies. Caught in that sensual music all neglect Monuments of unageing intellect.
II An aged man is but a paltry thing, A tattered coat upon a stick, unless Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing For every tatter in its mortal dress, Nor is there singing school but studying Monuments of its own magnificence; And therefore I have sailed the seas and come To the holy city of Byzantium.
III O sages standing in God’s holy fire As in the gold mosaic of a wall, Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre, And be the singing-masters of my soul. Consume my heart away; sick with desire And fastened to a dying animal It knows not what it is; and gather me Into the artifice of eternity.
IV Once out of nature I shall never take My bodily form from any natural thing, But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make Of hammered gold and gold enamelling To keep a drowsy Emperor awake; Or set upon a golden bough to sing To lords and ladies of Byzantium Of what is past, or passing, or to come.
There is an official Dean/Cas Pinefest community on Pillowfort! Come join us there! I’ll be importing our previous round masterposts there as time allows, but we wanted you to be aware we do exist!
You have until 11:59PST on Friday 7th of December to submit your rough drafts! An email containing the submission form link has just been sent out to all of you, so if you can’t see it, please check your spam filter.
Bear in mind, Byzantium (known officially as Constantinople but the original name persisted so freaking hard that the Eastern Roman Empire was known as the Byzantine Empire) is now Istanbul. (Which is another fun song to go out and find but anyway.)
The song seems to be a fantasia on the Byzantium of legend that fell to conquerors* in light of an episode about Heaven that has either been breached or was left so wide open that it is completely vulnerable.
The lyrics mention “the kontakion strain,” which is a type of medieval hymn that was once popular in Eastern Orthodox Christan worship. It’s an invocation of the past, which we are seeing in every episode.
If you want some good fodder for watching with subtext in mind, it’s also well worth reading “Sailing to Byzantium” and “Byzantium,” both poems by WB Yeats about an old man who wants to see the wonders of Byzantium before he dies. (Sound like the previous episode? Yeah, there’s a loop.) Yeats wrote the second poem much later after a reader questioned him about the metaphor of the golden bird, insisting that it was not clearly explained. Yeats rewrote the entire poem for him. You can immediately hear how his style has matured and his voice has deepened and is it really the same story it was the first time?
Listen, I know you’re not really into the idea of moving, but I’m here to sell you on Dreamwidth for your fandom needs. And I don’t just mean our fandom in this little corner of the site, I mean that we could move all fandom there, as well as any communities that want to be able to have their conversations and share their content behind private blog functions. We can start a revolution, and we don’t have to pay to do it. You can have a free Dreamwidth account and start right away, start your own communities, start posting your own content–you can do that.
Dreamwidth has been there for us. It took LJ’s source code and made a new site, and it has never condescended to or struck down fandom in any way. Back when I RPed on DW they much to my surprise even listened to RPers who had issues with site function and found ways to work with us. The site cares about its users, and it doesn’t advertise to us either. In return, users have a strong loyalty to the site–that goes for me too.
I’ve reblogged some posts about how to use dreamwidth and such. Here’s my post about what I’ve done about it, for my own little Destiel corner of fandom.
A Destiel Fic Comm for posting all your fic and podfic and even tiny drabbles etc.
A Destiel Art Comm for posting all your art, from doodles to masterpieces
A Destiel Community for posting any other Destiel content, meta, conversations, merch, podcasts, vids etc.
Join the comms and then you can post your own content to them. If you add the blogs to your reading list (or circle) at the same time as joining, you’ll be able to access all that content in chronological order as it posts, just like having a dashboard or feed with just Destiel content on it (unless you add other circles, with other content, obviously). I will moderate membership if I have to, but at the moment it’s open, and it will be moderated according to the rules posted there. If anyone has any other suggestions or changes they think I should make please just let me know.
Maybe everyone will move to Pillowfort instead, but not everyone can afford to do that, and I don’t know if it’s ready. DW is ready. You can go over there and start posting content right now. If you don’t see a comm just for your content, for example a community just for your favorite character, or TFW as a group, you can make it right now (you can make 3 communities max per week). So go and start your own fandom over there. Get a foothold. It’s up to you.
oh gosh, no! I’m here until they pry this site out of my cold dead mittens. 😀
I haven’t been around in the last few days because real life has been interfering with my fun. I’m gonna be back home Saturday night, so things should get a little more regular around here then.
Well, once we get all the Pinefest drafts sorted, and once I get the Bunker Secret Santa chapters sorted and write the final chapter for it, and once I get the transcript of 14.08 posted, and I’m also trying to archive as many of my meta posts to AO3 as I can just in case… but yikes, I have been busy. It’s 4pm and this is the first chance I’ve even had to sit at my laptop yet today…
I WILL BE ABLE TO WATCH SUPERNATURAL TONIGHT THOUGH! WHEEEEE!
Because I’m a nerd who reads the details of everything I sign, here’s a few pointers about the new tumblr guidelines:
Traditional art and writing is still allowed via the new guidelines, just not photos and videos of real folk being “inappropriate”. So if your nsfw drawings or fic get flagged, just appeal and you should be fine.
And anything that gets flagged will not be deleted, they will just automatically become “private” so only you can see them.
And they are not deleting anyone’s blogs. If you have a nsfw blog that is labeled as such in your settings, all they will do is make all your content private and unsearchable, and hide your avatar and possibly your username if those are considered inappropriate as well. They don’t want to lose their user base so, rather than delete you, they want to give you a chance to turn your blog around and start posting safe content.
Don’t panic. Don’t delete anything. Just breathe and take this a day at a time.
You didn’t! No worries! I just haven’t been here much in the last few days, and maybe I’ve just missed it? But I have no idea what anyone is basing some huge destiel moment speculation on in this episode, so I don’t really feel comfortable discussing it like I have half an idea what I’m talking about, you know?
The clip I saw was just Dean and Cas talking to each other. Like… just talking. If that counts as a huge destiel moment, then I think folks need to reevaluate how they’re watching the show and what their expectations are.
And we know there are scenes where Dean and Cas are together other than the tiny clip I saw. But we all know exactly ZERO about what the actual content of those scenes will be.
Mittens of Sorcery 