Reblogged lesbianbillygibson
really love how hodgson’s idea of a conversation is either sharing a fun fact or sharing the most harrowing experience of his life
Reblogged thesilliestpotato
[tiktok text to speech voice] one summer when I was seven, my parents sent me to live with my great aunts in oxfordshire. I did not want to go. the elderly have that affect on children. but they loved me and I grew to love them. they were papists, and I came to find, devout. each sunday they’d leave me with a housemaid while they attended a catholic mass. I was frightened for them. I’d been told they were doing a great, unforgivable thing. then one morning, they took me with them. I was shaking. the service was not the howling spectacle of sin I’d imagined, but was beautiful. the singing sounded delivered by angels themselves. when it came time for the eucharist I found myself moved to step forward. my aunts were surprised, but pleased, I could see. I took the wafer on my tongue, drank from the chalice, and I felt clean. with the body and blood of christ within me I felt forgiven of every poor or weak or selfish thing in my soul. It was a perfect morning in a whole imperfect life. the next week, when it came time to dress, I pretended to be ill. they knew I was pretending. to this day, I don’t know why I did it. they never asked me to join them again. we never spoke of it. it was the last and only time I stepped into a papist church. but tonight, when I close my eyes, I’m there. if I were a braver man, I’d kill mr hickey, though it would mean my death, too. but I’m hungry. I’m hungry and I want to live.
here go
Reblogged polar-iced
mermaidshells547-deactivated202
many thoughts (about terror lieutenant memes)…head full
Reblogged leadandblood
would you consider. terror lieutenants. would you. please. i need to see them. they dont have to be happy but they have to be together.
I have pondered them like an orb of lead
they fill a scurvy shaped hole in my heart <3
I saw the post @werewolfetone made about Hodgson and need to pop off with information in my brain. I LOVE his story about going to church becuase the symbolism is so, uh, meaty? Yeah I’ll go with that. *Ahem ahem* here is my simplified literary analysis of that scene :)
Simply put, 19th century Britain is Protestant and most of the people on the expedition are, too. They view Catholics as being damned to hell for practicing the wrong religion. Young Hodgson really thought he was going to be damned, too. He betrays his religious by accepting the eucharist. In Catholicism, when a clergyman blesses the eucharist, it literally becomes the body and blood of Christ. Now is when things come together. In literature, the general name for eating anything symbolically is communion. It can have so many different meanings, including cannibalism. Hodgson has equated church communion and cannibalism communion, he thinks he is twice damned for consuming body and blood now as he did of Christ in his youth. Each are a sin and he repents, vowing to never commit the sin again.
This may be me applying this symbolism a little bit further than the writers intended, but I find it interesting that he confesses his sins to Goodsir. In Catholicism, there are seven sacraments in which members of the church must complete. Only two of these generally exist in Protestant religions. One sacrament unique to Catholicism is confession, going to a clergyman to ask for the forgiveness of sins. In Protestantism , confession is done by confessing directly to God through prayer. Although Hodgson is Protestant, he confesses to Goodsir, a character who is also imbued with religious symbolism as a Christ-like figure. With this, Hodgson’s fate is sealed. He has defied his religion, has defied God, and faces certain doom.
Religious symbolism actually goes wild in the Terror, it’s really fun to pick apart. In that one scene when Goodsir enters Hickey’s tent, Goodsir is literally stepping into the darkness from the light. There is religious symbolism as Goodsir stepping out of God’s light into the darkness with the devil. He has rejected God, and he knows it, by becoming another one of Hickey’s rats and doing his bidding. Since there is no one there to keep order besides the devil himself, he must punish himself by death.
Ok ok, Goodsir’s death. There are so many layers. First he is really stepping into his Christ-like role of sacrificing himself to save others from damnation. This has layers, too. In the Bible, Jesus accepted crucification and death to forgive the sins of humans, saving them all from damnation in hell. In this case, the sin committed is murder and cannibalism. From Hodgson’s confession, we know that Goodsir forgives him for his sin. From the entire series, we know Goodsir truly cares for all the shipmen. As a Christ-like figure, he cares for and forgives them despite their atrocities.
To understand the depth of his sacrifice, we have to understand Hickey’s symbolism. Hickey is pretty obviously a devilish or satanic figure. He has manipulated the men to become his rats. Hickey is the devil and they are simply misguided sinners who have been led into the darkness by him. They can be saved from the darkness they have been trapped in.
Goodsir’s sacrifice is meant to save them from the darkness. His sacrifice has also saved others from being murdered and cannibalized. By explaining his sacrifice to Crozier who could warn the men, he gave the them a chance to survive and return to the light and righteousness. Finally, they eat his body and blood to add on to the Christ-like figure symbolism. Crozier is the only one to resist the devilish temptation of cannibalism. He is forced into it by Hickey, reminding us that he is just a mere mortal who sins,
When bro is making himself poisonous he wipes an unidentified liquid upon his body. GUESS WHAT it’s symbolism for baptism. This is a common type of religious symbolism in literature. Baptism is believed to forgive all sins, so Goodsir is cleansed of his own sin. Most importantly, he is forgiven for the butchering of Gibson which he obviously repents for after the devil forces his hand by threatening to harm an innocent Hodgson. So, in The Terror canon, Goodsir is in heaven. Good for him. :)
To top-off the Christ-like symbolism, the wrist wounds he inflicts upon himself are adjacent to the palm wounds Christ receives from crucification.
Now I need to figure out what the images mean… Another time!