fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #3140 ]

[ SECRET POST #3140 ]

⌈ Secret Post #3140 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 04 pages, 082 secrets from Secret Submission Post #449.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
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15. http://oi60.tinypic.com/mcx0f5.jpg

Caveat: I haven't read the book, so this is only about the movie.

I don't know why exactly, but few things piss me off more than seeing children be treated as imbeciles just because they're children. Maybe because I was actually raised with a lot of respect for my intelligence.

So I can't really find it in me to feel sorry for the lovers in Atonement. They could have explained themselves to Briony instead of leaving her to surmise the worst. Cecilia could have done more than just tell the police that Briony was a liar.

I do feel a little sorry for Robbie because he was imprisoned for something he didn't do, and he didn't deserve that. But he would have ended up in the war either way. I have no sympathy whatsoever for Cecilia.

If anything the one I feel sorry for is Briony, who is fucked up for the rest of her life over something she did at age 13 based on strong misinformation. How hard would it have been to say, "Briony, we're grown up and in love"?

Thanks for the transcript OP, I'd never have found out what this secret was about if you hadn't made it.

But, how hard can it be to make a readable secret in the first place?..

OP

Very. I couldn't find any other image that included all three characters and was large enough for the text. This was the best I could find within the size limit, and then there was pretty much no color of text that would make it more readable. This was literally the best I could do.

I think it might have been easier to read if you had made the white outline on the text a little bigger. That being said, I was actually able to read this, though with some difficulty.

Re: Transcript by OP

(Anonymous) - 2015-08-09 20:37 (UTC) - Expand

Tip: When you have a smaller pic or a pic with a background that would make it harder to read text, use picmonkey's "collage" editing. You can choose a layout that will give you a blank space for the text.

Re: Transcript by OP

(Anonymous) - 2015-08-09 22:03 (UTC) - Expand

They couldn't have imagined her misunderstanding would lead to what it did so quickly so maybe not interrupting the dinner party to have this awkward talk with her straightaway wasn't necessarily treating her like an imbecile. And you're forgetting they don't know about what she thought she saw between them earlier and what the tone of it seemed like to her; it probably didn't occur to them exactly what kind of misunderstanding she had the context for.

They knew she'd read the letter before dinner but didn't address it, and after she caught them in the library, there was time to grab and talk to her while everyone was searching for the twins. And when the cops were there surely Cecilia could have talked to Briony about her statement before the police hauled him off.

surely Cecilia could have talked to Briony about her statement before the police hauled him off. Yes, I'm sure that would have solved everything and made it all look like a simple misunderstanding to the classist police; why didn't Cecilia think of that?

Re: Transcript by OP

(Anonymous) - 2015-08-10 01:27 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Transcript by OP

(Anonymous) - 2015-08-10 12:08 (UTC) - Expand

SA

(Anonymous) - 2015-08-10 12:10 (UTC) - Expand

It's a very old-white-guys-will-love-this sort of book, with all the flaws, quirks, and weird sexuality that entails. (But hey, that's better than the young-white-liberals-will-love-this sort of book, or the white-Christians-will-love-this sort of book.)

Oh, word?

What weird sexuality?

I don't know how to explain it exactly. Something about how these guys write romance . . . It's like sex isn't just part of a relationship, but the purpose for which the relationship exists. Like the act of sex is itself a being, and it's greater than both participants and pulling their strings. Like playfulness, laughter, and enjoyment of the other person's company have no place in the bedroom, because it's all sex sex sex fuck fuck fuck. (If you ever want to see exactly how bad this can get, read The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore, and then scour your brain with steel wool.)

Edited 2015-08-09 20:54 (UTC)

I see that everywhere. It manages to be cliche and bizarre.

But, to be fair, I have experienced guys going into a sort of trance at a certain level of horniness, even otherwise very considerate guys; where suddenly getting off trumps all else: comfort, mutual enjoyment, risk of discovery etc. And if you are as horny yourself, this can be very, very sexy. But if you are on another stage of arousal, even only slightly off, it can be off-putting, disconcerting and certainly make it seem like sex is a means or an entity of it's own, who have just whisked your love interest away for a (pretty critical) while.

Don't remember getting that impression at all TBH, from the first half of the book which was all I read but I doubt there was much sex stuff after where I left off? Maybe there was a whole lot of emphasis on attraction but given that the attraction was so recently realized at the addendum of a long-going friendship it made sense that in that brief run of passion there would be a lot of emphasis on the unexplored ingredient in the relationship. But eh, it has been a long time since I read it.

wow. you've managed to put into words what i loathe about so many litfic books.

humorless sex is the worst to read.

(no subject)

(Anonymous) - 2015-08-10 03:48 (UTC) - Expand

How hard would it have been for Briony to tell the truth? If she's old enough to understand love (which she isn't, that's why she reacts so badly) then she's old enough to understand what she's done at the time, never mind years later. If you really think Robbie and Cecelia deserved to be kept apart and miserable (and eventually die, though that might have happened anyway) because of not telling a kid sister their personal lives then you're priorities are a little askew.

Briony thought she was protecting Fiona and Cecelia and for all we know the rest of society. She seemed to have convinced herself that Robbie was dangerous and that he had attacked Fiona and Cecelia. Someone should have given her a different perspective on his behavior, and quickly. I'm not saying that the punishment was "deserved", but that it can't be blamed so much on Briony as the movie does.

No one had any reason to think that was her perspective until it was too late. I mean, when Briony gave Cecilia the letter she appeared to be practically laughing about it. Keep reaching.

When Briony gives Cecilia the letter she's trying to cover up the fact that she read it by focusing all her attention on her brother and being extra boisterous. Cecilia doesn't buy it.

Well the point in the story is that she didn't confess after that, even when the actual attacker is about to marry Lola. She atones through fiction and in her mind but in no other way that helps anyone - the point of the book being is it enough for Briony to have given her readers a happy ending which was untrue when everyone else concerned is dead and Briony will soon not even remember the truth anyway. (My answer: no it bloody well isn't.)

Furthermore, she was 13, not 5, and the implication is that she half invented that Robbie was dangerous in her head but half knew what she was doing was wrong. Meanwhile Robbie and Ceclia didn't know what was going on in her head and continue not to know why she did accused him. The OP saying they have no sympathy that two lives were destroyed because they weren't psychic seems a massive overreaction.

(I don't actually like the book so idk why I'm defending the lynchpin of the entire plot but here we are.)

(no subject)

(Anonymous) - 2015-08-10 03:01 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

(Anonymous) - 2015-08-10 03:05 (UTC) - Expand

I think she was being mailcious. I think she was jealous, which is certainly the implication of the book. However she of course lives to regret what she did, and was probably too young to realise what a big deal it would turn out to be.

While I feel very sorry for the lovers in Atonement, I agree that Briony doesn't deserve the hate she gets from fandom.

(Note: by fandom I just mean fans discussing the movie. I've never read Atonement fic or anything.)

I always felt that Briony wasn't lying; at the time she believed Robbie was guilty. And yes, she was wrong, but her emotions and perceptions played a trick on her, and she was just a 13 year old girl. The results were tragic, and she rightfully felt guilty about it, but she wasn't some kind of monster setting out to destroy lives. She made a mistake.

Unrelated: I love that long tracking scene of the soldiers on the beach. I bought the movie for that shot alone.

I like how you hate children being treated like imbeciles, but the entire premise of your secret rests on forgiving a child for being an imbecile.

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