Post by bitekiosk in Letty comments

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This is so sweet, so graceful. Deeply loving and tragic. Immensely tender. Every element of Letty — the music, the art, the prose — converges on that: tenderness.

And heartbreak.

From a technical perspective, I really do think this comes together so well. I was honestly just amazed by many of the illustrations, which convey such detail and emotion through well-arranged composition and skillful leveraging of the limited color palette.

I appreciated how the relationship between Blanche and Scarlet is one of selflessness, of wishing to attend to one another despite one’s own needs and boundaries. And yet, neither can truly deny her own desire; both come to use one another despite the risk it poses to their already-troubled relationship. This unease, this cross-purpose… you see it in both of their hearts. Their bodies. The gradient between desire and fear.

And from the perspective of the erotic, I really like what was keyed in on: the desire to learn and teach intimacy safely, the tension resulting from the conflict between self-disgust and desire, the way that and other tensions can unpredictably spill one way, than the other.

Something I love about Letty, perhaps selfishly as I feel I failed at this in Bernadette, is that it seems the wall of resentment has largely been hurdled, and Scarlet demonstrates a serious empathy, care, and eventual forgiveness toward Blanche. Those are not born simply through Scarlet witnessing Blanche’s pain (and, that said, I think Blanche’s trauma was depicted with great care and dignity), but through Scarlet appreciating the ways in which her mother nurtured and cared for her.

I guess what I mean is that Letty to me is a very selfless work, while Bernadette feels very selfish. I don’t know that either is “the right way” to go about it, and maybe both are needed, but when next I write a story about mothering, I would like to write something more tender, more caring, more loving, something that addresses and nurtures the other little girl that was thrust unprepared into the role of mother. I would like to write something more like Letty.

I am grateful that y’all made and shared this. Thank you.

Dimension 1119 hours ago(+1)

FWAAHHHHH THANK YOUUU This is such high praise.. Mother, You and I was so gutwrenching, so to have such kind and gentle praise of Letty from you is an honor, truly. This comment made our day!! In my writing I really tried to capture that uncertain unsteady feeling, what it was like to be a little girl and wrestling with big heavy miserable feelings, feelings you know are wrong and bad and gross, intuitively, and Plushie's music paired perfectly. Especially during the sex scenes: the 3/4 waltz timing makes everything sound like it's stumbling forward, unable to stop, catching itself before it hits the ground over and over. Describes them perfectly, I think

I love Scarlet. She's an embarrassing crybaby whose internal monologue runs like an 19th century poet. She's still so young, everything in her life is the most that anything has ever been, she greets everything with dreadful gravitas. And if Letty is a child who thinks like an adult, Blanche is an adult who thinks like a child. They both offer themselves up. In their heads, If they're useful, then they will be loved. Neither left childhood without scars.

Momfuckers of the world unite!!!!!!

~Pendulumgraph

wahhhh you played it!! it is one of the best feelings, i think, when someone experiences a piece of art you've worked on and writes so much about what it means to them, it's still new to me, haha. that is to say, thank you for writing so much!

a lot of emphasis was put into the mutual desire to take care of each other. i think this is a great aspect of mother x daughter, the daughter wanting to take care of the mother as much, if not more than the mother wants to take care of the daughter. there's sort of an energy of "i can do better than her husband" that went into the writing in Letty. the tenderness, and the intimacy is key to that.

it's really really cool reading that you would like to write something more like Letty, especially since i came out of Bernadette thinking i would like to write something more like it! i very much agree that there isn't a right way to write a story like this, the selflessness and selfishness of relationships like this are often two sides of the same coin, and a lot of insight can be gained by focusing on only one of those sides in a work. an obsession with your mother tends to be both loving and hateful, and you can often get lost picking out which is which. i found Letty a great experience in picking out specifically the pieces of the former, but i think i'd like to write something more resentful next.

~plushie

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