Fractalflowers - Fractal Flowers

Bros aura is unusual and off-putting, wonder who he learned that from

authors jason todd can talk about who are NOT jane austen or mary shelley

okay SO. a couple of people indicated they would be interested in this which was honestly all the encouragement i needed. my credentials are that 1.) i love jason todd 2.) i love literature 3.) i got my bachelors degree in english like a week ago and am now in that awkward space in-between school and employment and am looking to fill my time with inconsequential geeking out. amen.

incomplete list of authors and works (romantic to modern) you could write about jason todd being invested in under the cut!!:

SOME DISCLAIMERS:

this list is not even a little bit exhaustive and there are authors big and small i elected not to include because i either felt like i didn’t know enough about their work to comment or i felt their work didn’t relate to jason todd, who is ostensibly the subject of this post

there’s also not a whole lot of detail on the history and context behind these authors and their works, because again, this is a silly tumblr post about the hypothetical reading preferences of a comic book character

while i do have a brand spanking new bachelor's degree in english i cannot claim expert knowledge, especially because most of my education was broad strokes in literature survey classes. i just have access to a lot of overpriced lit anthologies and a dream

also i need to say i LOVE jane austen and mary shelley. i’ve written jason referencing them before and will do it again but come on. there’s a whole world of english lit out there and most of this post is a transparent excuse to get people–including myself–to read more cool poems and stories 

NOW LETS FUCKING GOOOOO

william blake: (1757-1827) blake was a weird fucking guy. he was an artist and poet and he was very preoccupied with religious and esoteric imagery. check out his paintings; they’re all bleak and occasionally grotesque but deeply evocative and honestly?? rad as hell. i think jason would really get a kick out of them. blake’s most famous poem is probably "the tyger", but "london" and "holy thursday" from songs of experience do a great job of invoking a really grimy urban feel that would slide right into gotham. 

lord byron: (1788-1824) a guy described as “mad, bad, and dangerous to know;” which he certainly was. this guy got up to so much dark and broody bullshit that they named a whole character type out of him–byronic hero, anyone? he’s mostly on this list because jason could certainly be called byronic and the connection is too good to pass up, but i do think jason would really vibe with the apocalyptic imagery in "darkness."

okay FINE this doesn’t really have anything to do with jason but "ozymandias" is one of my favorite poems ever and well worth reading

john keats (1795-1821) possibly one of the most romantic out of all the romantic poets, right down to dying tragically young of consumption. i mean, just look at "bright star." i am personally of the opinion that jason is secretly a HUGE romantic, so he’d probably dig keats quite a bit. i would also be remiss if i didn’t nod to “ode on a grecian urn.” 

note the biographical links for the victorian authors direct to victorianweb.org, which is kind of an old reference but it is one i got directed to in one of my first lit classes, so i feel comfortable linking it as a jumping-off point. 

elizabeth barrett browning: (1806-1861) i actually already wrote a fic where jason referenced barrett browning but i’ll reiterate here. barrett browning was HUGELY influential within the victorian time period, probably best known for her verse novel, aurora leigh, about a brilliant young woman working to become an artist against the strictures society has placed on her. lots of really fascinating stuff about womanhood, art, and the intersections thereof within the victorian era. sonnets for the portuguese is another big work of hers, written for her future husband robert browning (a very talented and influential poet in his own right) during their courtship. sonnet 43 is probably the most well-known out of these, but i’m personally a big fan of sonnets 14 and 24. sonnets are great for if you need to write about jason being a weird sappy romantic or just if you want to read cool love poetry. 

alfred, lord tennyson: (1809-1892) there’s a LOT i could say about tennyson’s influence and impact on the victorian era and on poetry at whole that can’t fit into a tumblr post about the reading preferences of a semi-niche comic book character. for jason specifically, "in memoriam", written over the course of about three years after the sudden death of tennyson’s close friend, is a deeply moving meditation on grief, loss, and recovery that jason would likely find really impactful. cantos 54 and 56 are particularly impactful. how am i not supposed to resonate with a banger like “nature, red in tooth and claw”??? huh???

charlotte brontë: (1816-1854) charlotte brontë is best known for her 1847 novel jane eyre which, as a personal aside, is one of my absolute favorite books of all time. jane eyre is the one about the governess and the madwoman in the attic. (obviously, it’s more complex but i’m not getting into that in a tumblr post). jane eyre and brontë’s other two novels, shirley and villette deal with emotionality and strong feeling in ways jason would find very compelling, even if he probably spends most of jane wanting to (rightfully) punt edward rochester and st. john into the sun. jane is the most famous out of the three, but i think shirley is very underrated–i’m still thinking about shirley keeldar saying, and i quote, “bon voyage” after she rejects a proposal. shirley keeldar queen of my heart <3<3. i can’t mention charlotte without also mentioning her sisters emily and anne, but i’m less familiar with their work and can’t comment on it (but probably jason would be a big fan of the gothic leanings of wuthering heights). 

gerard manley hopkins: (1844-1889) hopkins does some REALLY fucking fascinating things with language in his poems. he plays around with sound and meter in ways that dip into modernity. "god’s grandeur" and "as kingfishers catch fire" are particularly good examples of this. "carrion comfort" is the kind of poem everybody should read at least once, and it’s also the kind of poem that jason todd would read and then lay down for a really long time about. 

william butler yeats (1865-1939) an extremely influential modernist poet, deeply associated with the modern irish independence movement and identity (for example, see “an irish airman” or “easter 1916”) which i just think is neat. yeats also wrote a lot about cycles of time and history and idk. i think that would really resonate with the guy who died that one time. i especially recommend checking out “the second coming” and  “sailing to byzantium.” 

t.s. eliot (1888-1965) pretty easily one of the defining modernist authors and critics of the era. “the love song of j. alfred prufrock” is another one of those poems everyone should read at least once and another one of those poems that jason todd would read and then lay down for a really long time about. “the waste land” is long but also really worth reading; but if you’re reading for jason todd specifically, you should take a look at sections i and v. 

there are so SO many more but this post is ah. long enough as is!! if you have any comments or thoughts or questions please feel free to reach out to me!! i’m not ever going to claim to be an expert on the subject, but i do love talking about this stuff :))

I always wonder if Clark has accidentally called Bruce by a Midwestern pet name without realizing

Bruce: Superman

Clark working on something: yes darlin

Bruce*burning bright red*: uhmm.... M-Mission reports

Clark, oblivious: what's that doll?

Bruce gay panic Wayne: nothing.... doesn't matter

*Smoke bombs away*

Clark finally turn around: weird. what was that about

Later that night in bed Clark wakes up in a cold sweat realizing what he's done.

Clark: Oh no. He's gonna kill me

_____

Bruce still on the floor 6hrs later: you don't understand Alfred. That midwest charm. It's psychological warfare.

Alfred so done with this gay shit: I only asked if you want tea, Master Wayne. However I now realize that nothing can quite quench your thirst

Batfam + References to being family (Part 10)

Part 9

Dick about his family in Nightwing #79: “I’ve always had someone to catch me if fell. My parents. My father. My other father. And my brothers.”

Jason in Detective Comics #975: “Being here, being one of all of you… It’s important to me. […] Family is family. I can make room on the black sheep side of the table if I need to.”

Bruce, Kate and Jacob talk about Martha in Detective Comics #978:

Part 11

uhhhhhhhh smth smth gay gay title

i have not slept and it's like 2AM and im now feeling tired but i locked tf in to draw this i just HAD to finish before bed i will be more coherent tomorrow anyways. gay superbat. have

Checkpoint

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If the answer is "All good," feel free to keep scrolling!

But if any of these reminded you of something you need to do, please take care of yourself. 💕

What if Dick’s hallucinations of Jason got so out of hand that he began to believe that the spirit of his brother was trapped in his coffin and needed to be laid to rest?

So, like, HalluciJason normally just hangs out in the corner of Dick’s eye and occasionally blames Dick for his death. But one day, HalluciJason begins to talk about how he’s trapped. How it’s so dark and it smells like dirt and there’s velvet beneath his fingers and he can’t breathe. At first Dick tells himself to just ignore the hallucination, he’s just crazy. But over time, as HalluciJason starts to venture further and further into Dick’s field of vision, it becomes harder and harder to ignore his pleas. Something about the hallucination becomes more substantial, more real.

Eventually, Dick breaks. He goes to the graveyard where Jason is buried and digs up his grave. Bruce, who has noticed Dick slipping, is horrified when he finds out what Dick is doing and rushes to the graveyard.

He arrives just as Dick finishes digging and Jason bursts out of his coffin. Dick hugs his little brother, covered in dirt and sweat and tears.

After this, everyone believes that Dick was actually having visions and wasn’t going crazy at all. Stranger things have happened—like Jason’s resurrection. He was trapped in his coffin, if only briefly. And if Dick hadn’t been there, Jason would’ve indeed suffocated.

(But two weeks after Jason returns to life, Dick sees him, just in the corner of his eye. A boy dressed in a bloody Robin suit. Jason. Watching, with pale blue eyes.)

I dont understand how people think “but they killed people!” Is everrrr going to convince me to hate a fictional character. I actually like them more because they killed people. In fact, its the main thing I like about them. I would cheer with pom-poms at the mere implication of them killing again.

Sure, canon accepted

I really love the concept of Tim hiding in small spaces randomly, and his family just completely accepting this as normal behavior.

Like,

Dick, mid conversation with Wally, grabs a cookie from his plate and reaches behind the couch, sticking his arm down there and pulls it up with no cookie. He doesn't falter once in his conversation.

Wally blinks in confusion a few times and then carefully asks, "Did you just... put a cookie behind the couch?"

Dick blinks as well. "Tim is behind there." He said like that should be obvious.

"What?! Dude, has he been listening to our conversation??"

"Nah, he's got his headphones on." Dick says dismissively.

Tim reaches his hand up and taps Dick on the shoulder to get his attention and then mimes writing. Dick hands him a pen.

"This happens all the time, doesn't it?" Wally asked, amused.

Dick snorts and nods. "Are you really surprised? I mean, I hang upside down when i need to think, Damian cuts things, Jason shoots things, Bruce broods. Tim hides."

Wally laughs. "Fair enough, man."

Or,

Mid Justice League meeting, Bruce looks under the desk he's at, grunts and motions to the side of his head. Then, he grumbles "Notepad." A second passes, he straightens up and starts scribbling something onto a notepad.

"What the hell just happened?" Hal asks bluntly.

"Red Robin is under there." Clark says immediately, used to this whole thing.

"Okay... Is there, like, a reason for that?"

Bruce grunts, and Clark says, "He likes it under there."

"Ooookkaayyyy then."

Every one of my works. If you don't like the shit I've tagged, you have no reason to be mad at me when you click