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SMNTY Classics: Ash · Stuff Mom Never Told You

0:05
Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. I don't know I'm
0:07
Speaker 1: a step I'd ever told you protection of iheartrate you.
0:18
Speaker 1: So we have another classic book club for you because
0:22
Speaker 1: I was fondly remembering I know we were talking about
0:25
Speaker 1: you know, we don't get to read for joy as
0:28
Speaker 1: much anymore, or I do, but it's all fan fiction almost.
0:32
Speaker 1: But I do remember when I was a kid, like
0:34
Speaker 1: that excitement of getting a book and in the summer
0:38
Speaker 1: and like taking it to the beach or I don't know,
0:39
Speaker 1: taking it wherever and just I would just devour it,
0:44
Speaker 1: like stay up all night with a flashlight. I was
0:46
Speaker 1: that good. M hm. So I was thinking about that,
0:51
Speaker 1: and then it's Pride month as this comes out, and
0:54
Speaker 1: I remembered the book we read Ash, which is sort
0:57
Speaker 1: of an L G B, t Q plus take on Cinderella,
1:02
Speaker 1: which I really really liked. Um yeah, and I think
1:05
Speaker 1: it was fun. I think it's a good like summer read.
1:08
Speaker 1: It was one of our first. It was one of
1:09
Speaker 1: our first, and I really liked it. And I'm actually
1:11
Speaker 1: on the hunt for more books like that. So listeners
1:14
Speaker 1: a few getting suggestions, UM, please send them our way
1:18
Speaker 1: because I'm I'm ready I'm looking, But in the meantime,
1:23
Speaker 1: please enjoy this classic episode. Hey, this is Annie and
1:30
Speaker 1: Samantha and welcome to stuff Mob never told your production
1:33
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio Today is a special episode for
1:47
Speaker 1: several reasons, but the number one might be that we
1:52
Speaker 1: are for the first time recording from our home studios. So, Samantha,
1:59
Speaker 1: why are you described to the listeners where you are
2:02
Speaker 1: recording from. Well, I think I've already showed a video
2:06
Speaker 1: myself trying to set up this amazing, amazing equipment. Thank you.
2:11
Speaker 1: It was a sixteen minute video which should have been
2:13
Speaker 1: a two minute video. Oh god, mine, if I had
2:17
Speaker 1: recorded all of mine, it would have been very long
2:19
Speaker 1: and a lot of cursing. I lied, I said it
2:21
Speaker 1: was a little cursing. It was a lot. I do
2:23
Speaker 1: like that. There was several listeners are like, yes, thank you,
2:26
Speaker 1: keep it real, show the struggle, and it was, um,
2:31
Speaker 1: I am now in my dining room. I have kicked
2:33
Speaker 1: out my dog because she is too loud and when
2:36
Speaker 1: she hears any noise, and especially with me being around
2:38
Speaker 1: almost all the time now, I think she's hyper aware
2:41
Speaker 1: that something is happening. But in my dining room, literally
2:47
Speaker 1: sitting with my laptop, Mike, and my headset's kind of
2:51
Speaker 1: on my head because the way we're recording it is
2:53
Speaker 1: through Skype, but at the same time we're using audio
2:56
Speaker 1: limit that our superproducer Andrew is going to have to
2:59
Speaker 1: fix and spliced together. Thank you very much. Um, I'm
3:03
Speaker 1: definitely in pajama pants, no bra, a little bit of
3:06
Speaker 1: wine I did. I did let this, brush my teeth
3:09
Speaker 1: and wash my face today, though, I feel like I've
3:11
Speaker 1: been pretty good at maintaining some semblance of I put
3:15
Speaker 1: on clothes and I washed my face, and I shower
3:17
Speaker 1: and I exercise, But who knows how long that will last.
3:21
Speaker 1: I definitely only exercise for the first time yesterday for
3:23
Speaker 1: about five minutes. Um. If you follow on my Twitter,
3:26
Speaker 1: you will see that it did not really help in
3:28
Speaker 1: comparison to all that I've ingested. Just say, yeah, yeah,
3:33
Speaker 1: that is a strungle. Yeah, I am recording from my closet. Yes,
3:40
Speaker 1: I see all the games. Yeah, there's games and books
3:43
Speaker 1: and mostly costumes. This is my costuming closet, really big closet.
3:50
Speaker 1: Thank you. I don't know why I feel so proud
3:53
Speaker 1: to have a big closet. A lot of people who
3:55
Speaker 1: have visited my apartment. Don't even know this exists, and
3:57
Speaker 1: then when I showed them, they're always like wow, um,
4:02
Speaker 1: but uh yeah, it's it's cozy, it's cozy, I I put.
4:08
Speaker 1: I posted a picture as well if anyone wants to
4:11
Speaker 1: see it. Um, but it is right next to the window,
4:13
Speaker 1: and I've done my best to sound proof. But if
4:15
Speaker 1: you hear birds or traffic, just bear with us as
4:20
Speaker 1: we work out the kinks in this system. So, how
4:23
Speaker 1: how is your quarantine going? I will say I have
4:28
Speaker 1: been a lot luckier than some. I do have a partner.
4:31
Speaker 1: I think I've talked about him a little bit. Uh
4:34
Speaker 1: where he is around because he's literally my downstairs neighbor.
4:37
Speaker 1: Yeah that's a whole big story. And so essentially we
4:41
Speaker 1: live together but don't so we can be away from
4:43
Speaker 1: each other but together. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, So
4:47
Speaker 1: it's a perfect little setup. I will say that I
4:50
Speaker 1: feel like I'm definitely getting antsy. I think that's the
4:54
Speaker 1: best word I can think of it, because I do.
4:59
Speaker 1: I getting to the point where my house gets cluttered
5:03
Speaker 1: with things, and I'm at this point where everything is
5:05
Speaker 1: cluttered but at the same time is kind of there
5:08
Speaker 1: for a purpose. But I'm feeling a little little bit overwhelmed. Sure,
5:14
Speaker 1: but I think I'm doing okay. Everything is. I know
5:17
Speaker 1: that I'm fearing better than most, so I feel very
5:19
Speaker 1: privileged in that. But how how are you doing? Because
5:22
Speaker 1: I know you are alone, and that made me, It
5:23
Speaker 1: gives me a little worried. I am a I'm a
5:26
Speaker 1: very social creature, and I know I talked about in
5:31
Speaker 1: our Trauma mini series. One of the ways I cope
5:34
Speaker 1: is by constantly keeping myself busy, and that is harder
5:37
Speaker 1: to do when you can't leave and like Atlanta. Of course,
5:42
Speaker 1: Atlanta is miserable weather for months and right when the
5:46
Speaker 1: city is like, everyone, do not leave your place. It's
5:50
Speaker 1: beautiful outside, and it's so cordially beautiful. Um. But I
5:55
Speaker 1: happen staying in touch with people, and we're working on,
5:59
Speaker 1: you know, the virtual watch parties. Samantha and I are
6:01
Speaker 1: talking about doing some of those ourselves. So finding these
6:05
Speaker 1: virtual ways to to have company and to keep contact
6:10
Speaker 1: with people has been really really helpful, right, I think
6:15
Speaker 1: if people, I will say, I do love the fact
6:17
Speaker 1: that we're almost more in touch with each other now
6:21
Speaker 1: than we were before because we're like, hey, um, and
6:24
Speaker 1: I was talking about a previous episode where we have
6:28
Speaker 1: just an app whether it's the go to meeting, zoom, whatever,
6:32
Speaker 1: and we have it up all day, not necessarily because
6:34
Speaker 1: we're watching and talking together all day, but the option
6:37
Speaker 1: of hey, which is silly. It's this silly thing just
6:39
Speaker 1: happened and we've never done that before. But now that
6:43
Speaker 1: we're like, oh, this is what we can do now
6:44
Speaker 1: that we are absolutely all alone or with the only
6:48
Speaker 1: the one person who may not understand what we're talking
6:50
Speaker 1: about in comparison to so that has been kind of
6:53
Speaker 1: nice to see. I mean when it comes down to
6:57
Speaker 1: communication wise, been nice to see in trying to bond
7:03
Speaker 1: with each other. And I will say, yeah, this definitely
7:05
Speaker 1: has brought in a whole level of I think this
7:08
Speaker 1: is when people talking about going in through like a
7:11
Speaker 1: military service together where only you guys know what it
7:15
Speaker 1: feels like to be in that weird situation. Because Quarantine
7:17
Speaker 1: Life has kind of put us all on that same page. Yeah,
7:21
Speaker 1: like globally, Yeah, it really has. As um and I
7:27
Speaker 1: did want to a quick note before we get into
7:29
Speaker 1: our episode. UM, I did want to say we were
7:34
Speaker 1: pretty far ahead before this happened. Um, so you're going
7:37
Speaker 1: to hear some episodes that we recorded in the before
7:40
Speaker 1: times um come out after this one, and I think
7:44
Speaker 1: it would be pretty obvious which ones those are, but
7:47
Speaker 1: just want to put that out there. We are doing
7:49
Speaker 1: our we are doing our a bit, we're quarantining, we're
7:51
Speaker 1: social distancing. But there are some episodes you're going to
7:54
Speaker 1: hear that we recorded in some cases like months ago, right, um,
7:58
Speaker 1: that are only gonna just come out probably in April.
8:01
Speaker 1: So there's that note. And uh relevant to this episode,
8:06
Speaker 1: which is a book club episode. I remember when we
8:09
Speaker 1: first said like, let's we're gonna make this book club happen,
8:13
Speaker 1: we both had concerns about how, well, how are we
8:15
Speaker 1: going to read one book a month? And now I'm
8:17
Speaker 1: kind of like, hey, and I will say for books
8:21
Speaker 1: like this because another listener had also said the same
8:23
Speaker 1: thing that it took our two days to read this.
8:26
Speaker 1: It took me like a day and a half to
8:28
Speaker 1: read this. It was a really good, uh simple read,
8:31
Speaker 1: very fantasy level. So stuff like this is like, okay,
8:34
Speaker 1: well this is not too bad. Yeah, it was a
8:36
Speaker 1: quick read. So what we're talking about for this edition
8:39
Speaker 1: of book Club is Ash by Melinda Lowe and uh
8:44
Speaker 1: Samantha and I are doing it with wine. Yes, we
8:47
Speaker 1: are definitely making this an official book club book club
8:53
Speaker 1: by adding our own little beverages. And for those who
8:57
Speaker 1: don't drink, I hope you're listening with it. Whatever sparkling water,
9:01
Speaker 1: you want, just a regular water, iced tea, hot tea, whatever,
9:06
Speaker 1: just join, cuddle up and imagine this as our book
9:10
Speaker 1: club together, our book club together. I love it. And
9:14
Speaker 1: this was actually a listener recommendation for forever ago when
9:17
Speaker 1: I asked for LGBTQ plus fiction. So thanks to the
9:21
Speaker 1: people who wrote in and suggested this one, and always, always,
9:25
Speaker 1: always keep those recommendations coming. We need our next book
9:28
Speaker 1: for next month's book club. We need our next movie
9:31
Speaker 1: for fitness movie Friday. Please send in your suggestions. But
9:36
Speaker 1: for today, okay, Ash, let's talk about the plots. Yeah.
9:41
Speaker 1: So the story is a reimagining of the Cinderella fairy tale,
9:46
Speaker 1: complete with fairies and magic, split up into two sections,
9:50
Speaker 1: which is the Fairy and the Hundreds. Is a tale
9:54
Speaker 1: of loneliness and love and magic. It follows Ashling or Ash,
9:58
Speaker 1: and it opens with her mother's as a young girl,
10:01
Speaker 1: and it's clear that they were very close and the
10:03
Speaker 1: death really impacts Ash and I wanted to put in here.
10:06
Speaker 1: One of my worst auditions ever, and that's actually quite
10:11
Speaker 1: the feat because I've had some bad auditions. Was for
10:14
Speaker 1: one of the step sisters in Cinderella. But to be
10:18
Speaker 1: fair or to not be fair, I was trying to
10:20
Speaker 1: get out of band practice. I actually didn't really care.
10:23
Speaker 1: I just knew if I auditioned, I didn't have to
10:25
Speaker 1: go to band practice. So that's fair. When I we
10:29
Speaker 1: had um into the Woods with one of our plays,
10:32
Speaker 1: and I played the mother of Jack and the beanstalk funny.
10:37
Speaker 1: I'll say I feel like I was pretty funny. I
10:39
Speaker 1: got a lot of laughs of that I do remember.
10:42
Speaker 1: But to go back to the name Ash, obviously it's
10:46
Speaker 1: a reference to the Cinderella fairy tale where she's falling
10:49
Speaker 1: asleep in the ashes or cinders of the hearth, and
10:53
Speaker 1: according to Low, it also means dreams or visions, and
10:57
Speaker 1: Ash has a lot of those throughout this Joy is
11:00
Speaker 1: definitely intertwined throughout. Oh yeah, and and we um, we
11:06
Speaker 1: forgot to mention, but we were accidentally timely with this
11:08
Speaker 1: pick because nineteen was the tenure anniversary of this book,
11:13
Speaker 1: so they re released it. Um. It's in really perfectly timed. Yeah. Um. Anyway,
11:20
Speaker 1: the world it takes place in is in the middle
11:23
Speaker 1: of a transition between the old fashioned ways of magic
11:27
Speaker 1: and those that believe the stories of magic are all
11:30
Speaker 1: fairy tales. Ash's mother, Eleanor, fell into the old fashioned camp,
11:34
Speaker 1: and she was what was called a green witch. They
11:38
Speaker 1: created potions and big cast spells, some of which her
11:41
Speaker 1: mother recorded in books that later become a huge comfort
11:44
Speaker 1: to Ash when Ash finds them. She also left behind
11:48
Speaker 1: books of fairy tales that Ash reads pretty much every night.
11:51
Speaker 1: One in particular is her favorite, about a girl who
11:53
Speaker 1: essentially dies to live in the fairy world. She chooses
12:00
Speaker 1: kind of eternal sleep, I think to be in the
12:04
Speaker 1: fairy world as opposed to existing in the real world. Um.
12:08
Speaker 1: Ash frequently sleeps by her mother's grave, hoping to see
12:11
Speaker 1: a fairy and believing that the fairies will be able
12:13
Speaker 1: to reunite her with her mother and then. Her father, meanwhile,
12:18
Speaker 1: fell into the more logical camp. Soon after his wife dies,
12:23
Speaker 1: he leaves for the city of Royal City to do
12:25
Speaker 1: some trading, leaving Ash at their home in Rook Hill
12:28
Speaker 1: on the border of the mysterious Wood with a capital W.
12:32
Speaker 1: A place stories say is home to all of the fairies,
12:36
Speaker 1: and when he returned, it's with a new wife named
12:39
Speaker 1: Isabelle and her two daughters, Anna and Clara. Ash is
12:43
Speaker 1: obviously unhappy with the situation, feeling as though it was
12:46
Speaker 1: a betrayal to her mother. I can see that, and
12:49
Speaker 1: she continues to search the woods for the fairies and
12:51
Speaker 1: finally makes contact with one. He instructs her to leave, angrily,
12:55
Speaker 1: calling her a fool for looking for them at all.
12:58
Speaker 1: Right in Ash returns home, she discovers her father has
13:03
Speaker 1: fallen seriously ill. One of her mother's friends and fellow Greenwich,
13:07
Speaker 1: pushes for treatment of the old ways, telling Isabel if
13:10
Speaker 1: she calls her a physician it will make things worse.
13:13
Speaker 1: Isabel ignores her, and soon after Ash's father dies, she
13:17
Speaker 1: and her stepmother and stepsisters move into Isabel's house, called
13:20
Speaker 1: the Queen House at West Riding, which is five miles
13:23
Speaker 1: outside of rural city and is the famous staging ground
13:27
Speaker 1: of the Royal Hunt. These hunts are always led by
13:31
Speaker 1: women called huntresses, which is awesome, yes, So soon after
13:36
Speaker 1: Isabel informs Ash that her father left behind a series
13:39
Speaker 1: of debts and to pay them off, she demands the
13:42
Speaker 1: Ash works as a servant and she wars from Dawnt
13:45
Speaker 1: or Dusk, dealing with her stepmother's cruel treatment and abuse
13:49
Speaker 1: that it often involves striking Ash and walking her in
13:52
Speaker 1: the cellar, but at night she reads the stories her
13:54
Speaker 1: mother left her when she came. She sneaks out to
13:57
Speaker 1: the woods searching for fairies in a way to bring
13:59
Speaker 1: her mom back, and Jigan runs into the fairy she
14:02
Speaker 1: met earlier. He's intimidating, I'm mysterious and gives off an
14:05
Speaker 1: air of danger. I'm not gonna lie. When I read this,
14:07
Speaker 1: I kind of thought of like the Twilight level word. Yeah,
14:13
Speaker 1: I didn't wonder that. So throughout the series she has
14:16
Speaker 1: a lot of meetings and she learns his name as Sheen,
14:18
Speaker 1: and she begs him to take her with him to
14:20
Speaker 1: the fair world, but he keeps saying it's not time yet.
14:25
Speaker 1: Also shout out to Melinda Lowe for having a section
14:28
Speaker 1: on her website on how to pronounce all the names.
14:30
Speaker 1: I really appreciate that we need those obviously. Any any
14:34
Speaker 1: time you can write out the pronunciation of things, thank you, yes, um.
14:39
Speaker 1: So years go by, Ash becomes very familiar with the
14:42
Speaker 1: trails of the royal Woods. She continues to meet Machine
14:45
Speaker 1: and they develop an uneasy friendship, I guess. At the
14:50
Speaker 1: same time, Anna, the oldest daughter, becomes of age, which
14:53
Speaker 1: means Isabel regularly takes her to the city to find
14:56
Speaker 1: a rich husband. And they are very transparent. That is
15:00
Speaker 1: what they are all about. Anna bickers with her younger
15:03
Speaker 1: sister about it, kind of insinuating that the younger sister
15:05
Speaker 1: doesn't know anything. They are both excited though, at the
15:09
Speaker 1: prospect of meeting Prince Aidan. One day, Ash falls asleep
15:14
Speaker 1: in the woods and when she awakes, she sees a
15:16
Speaker 1: woman drinking from the river. They make eye contact and
15:20
Speaker 1: the woman smiles before disappearing into the wood, and Ash
15:23
Speaker 1: later dreams about this woman. Ashes taken to the city
15:27
Speaker 1: to act as a servant for her stepfamily during fuel
15:30
Speaker 1: There she meets fellow servant Gwynn and they become fronts.
15:33
Speaker 1: It's really nice to have a few characters who actually
15:36
Speaker 1: like her. Thank you, because it's so dark, so they
15:40
Speaker 1: turned a party for the servants and Ash sees the
15:44
Speaker 1: woman from the wood and realized this she is the
15:47
Speaker 1: Royal Huntress. Um and ashleeings are again later and it
15:50
Speaker 1: said when she leaves the party early, feeling lonely. Ash
15:54
Speaker 1: skips out on the party too, and that night Gwinn
15:57
Speaker 1: probes Ash about her feelings about men, obviously and who
16:00
Speaker 1: she wants to marry, and Ash feels uncomfortable and sure
16:04
Speaker 1: and the conversation makes Ash think of a different kind
16:07
Speaker 1: of love and she obviously desperately misses her mother. Gwinn
16:10
Speaker 1: gives her a spell meant to give her dreams of
16:12
Speaker 1: her future husband. Ash takes it, and then they returned
16:15
Speaker 1: to Quinn House. The morning after they return, Ash gives
16:18
Speaker 1: a spell to her stepsister Anna Um and it does
16:21
Speaker 1: not work, and Anna angrily calls her rustic. Ash goes
16:26
Speaker 1: out that night to meet Sheen, who tells her that
16:28
Speaker 1: he knew her mother Um. He protects her from other fairies,
16:32
Speaker 1: informing them that Ash belongs to him, but still he
16:36
Speaker 1: tells her it is not time, but he does give
16:39
Speaker 1: her a medallion to wish for impossible things. Inter the Huntress,
16:45
Speaker 1: Ash meets her again in the forest where the huntress
16:48
Speaker 1: is tracking a deer, and they chat about how they've
16:51
Speaker 1: come across each other. Several times. Ash pulls the classic
16:55
Speaker 1: I'm Lost routine to spend more time with her, even
16:59
Speaker 1: though she wasn't outlaws at all. We learned the Huntress's
17:02
Speaker 1: name is Kaisa and that they both share a love
17:05
Speaker 1: of the forest. So during this time, Anna begins courting
17:09
Speaker 1: a man, or a man begins courting Anna, leaving Ash
17:12
Speaker 1: alone at queen House more often. Yeah, this allows her
17:16
Speaker 1: more time to wander into the woods and hang with Kaisa.
17:19
Speaker 1: Kaisa offers to teach her how to ride a horse,
17:21
Speaker 1: and they spend several afternoons riding through the forest. Kaisa
17:24
Speaker 1: provides a horse and clothing, say you can't ride a
17:27
Speaker 1: horse and address, I guess that's true. You can, but
17:31
Speaker 1: it's difficult, feel like here, and I don't ride horses,
17:35
Speaker 1: so yeah, no, I don't either. They become closer and
17:38
Speaker 1: Kaisa divulges some of her history and how she became
17:41
Speaker 1: the Royal Huntress, and she tells Ash her favorite fairy tale,
17:45
Speaker 1: a story of a hundreds who fell in love and
17:47
Speaker 1: made a deal with a fairy to make all this happen,
17:50
Speaker 1: and the deal required her to spend time with the
17:52
Speaker 1: fairy queen, and as time passed, the huntress is said
17:55
Speaker 1: fell in love with the fairy queen instead of the
17:58
Speaker 1: one that she was going after and fairy Queen loved
18:00
Speaker 1: her as well. Ash he is more hesitant, believing her
18:04
Speaker 1: station effectively renders her a nobody, and it is also
18:07
Speaker 1: always torn with thoughts of Sheen in the fairy world.
18:10
Speaker 1: She says, perhaps one day she'll share her favorite fairy
18:13
Speaker 1: tale with Kaisa, and it's all kind of awkward and
18:16
Speaker 1: sweet and full of usc who Annie is having to
18:20
Speaker 1: put in here for me because I didn't know what
18:22
Speaker 1: this was, which means unresolved sexual tension. Thank you, fan
18:25
Speaker 1: fiction world, Yes, thank you so much, fan fiction world.
18:29
Speaker 1: You've helped me get through this quarantine like you would
18:32
Speaker 1: not believe. Eventually, Kaisa asked if Ash would like to
18:36
Speaker 1: join her on the King's hunt, and ashe feels like
18:38
Speaker 1: she has never wanted anything more in her life, so
18:42
Speaker 1: she uses the medallion to ask Sheen to make this
18:45
Speaker 1: a reality because her stepmother would never allow it. He
18:49
Speaker 1: tells her there will be a price, and she agrees
18:52
Speaker 1: rather quickly. At my opinion, she agrees uh. The wish
18:55
Speaker 1: provides her with a horse and well fitting clothes and
18:58
Speaker 1: a fairy to take his place so that they don't
19:01
Speaker 1: notice she's missing, but the fairy does tell her that
19:05
Speaker 1: she will be recognized by those that know her. Um,
19:09
Speaker 1: the hunt commences, a stag is called. Much celebration has
19:13
Speaker 1: had Kais's apprentice Lore consistently hints that Kaisa has feelings
19:18
Speaker 1: for Ash. Kaisa and Ash have an awkward goodbye since
19:21
Speaker 1: ashe can't explain her haste and nerves and why she
19:24
Speaker 1: has to leave so suddenly as the magic wears off,
19:28
Speaker 1: and then Prince Aiden remember Prince Aiden from before, for
19:34
Speaker 1: who he's essentially the prince in this Cinderella tale, Um
19:37
Speaker 1: sends out a letter to every eligible woman to attend
19:40
Speaker 1: a ball that he reluctantly it's hinted, is throwing in
19:45
Speaker 1: search of a wife. Anna is set on big that wife,
19:51
Speaker 1: so of course it culminates and Kaisa asking Ash to
19:55
Speaker 1: Prince Aiden's ball, the Soul's Night Masquerade. She again goes
19:59
Speaker 1: to Sheen for her wish to let her attend the ball.
20:02
Speaker 1: He reminds her that she will have to pay, and
20:04
Speaker 1: she again agrees. And this is after Ash asked Kaisa
20:09
Speaker 1: if she would not want to be a princess, and
20:11
Speaker 1: Kaisa says it depends on if it means marrying a
20:14
Speaker 1: prince the hint um and so the day of the ball,
20:19
Speaker 1: Ash finds a very beautiful dress and jewels laid out
20:22
Speaker 1: for her. A carriage awaits, but the driver warns her
20:26
Speaker 1: magic will wear all at midnight, very Cinderella esque with
20:30
Speaker 1: a mask of her face. Ash we used to the
20:32
Speaker 1: crowd before she is asked to dance by a mysterious man.
20:36
Speaker 1: Ash agrees, and after the man leaves her to her
20:38
Speaker 1: room and asked her to wait, impatient, Ashley's and searches
20:41
Speaker 1: for Kaisa. It's revealed that the main Ash dance with was,
20:44
Speaker 1: of course dump Um Prince Aidan, and Cash is the
20:49
Speaker 1: talk of the ball because you know she's gorgeous in
20:52
Speaker 1: this new made up way um. Kaisa tells as she
20:56
Speaker 1: does not like mask and that while the dress is beautiful,
20:59
Speaker 1: it doesn't really suit her. Kaisa deduces that Ash has
21:02
Speaker 1: a debt, but Ash refuses to tell her about it.
21:05
Speaker 1: Kaisa promises Ash that her help comes without a price
21:08
Speaker 1: and that it is her choice, but Ash turns her
21:10
Speaker 1: down and as forcibly as the belt tolls. Unfortunately, though,
21:15
Speaker 1: she does not beat her stepmother home, and she is
21:18
Speaker 1: accused of stealing. How did she get this beautiful dress
21:21
Speaker 1: and all these jewels and she is accosted and struck
21:24
Speaker 1: several times by her stepmother. Her stepsister rips the jewels
21:27
Speaker 1: from her hair before she is locked in the cellar.
21:32
Speaker 1: When she is released, she ventures into the wood, knowing
21:35
Speaker 1: the time to pay up his calm, and she learns
21:37
Speaker 1: that her mother cursed Sheen after he tried persistently to
21:41
Speaker 1: bring her to the fairy world um and so she
21:45
Speaker 1: cursed him with falling in love with a human girl
21:48
Speaker 1: so that he would understand love and what it was
21:52
Speaker 1: he was doing and why it was wrong bringing humans
21:55
Speaker 1: into the fair world against their will. Unfortunately, he ended
21:58
Speaker 1: up falling for her her Oh no Ash. He calls
22:03
Speaker 1: it agony and sees that something has changed within Ash,
22:07
Speaker 1: that Ash no longer wants to give up her life
22:10
Speaker 1: for the fairy world, that her favorite fairy tale is
22:12
Speaker 1: no longer her favorite fairy tale. She wants to live right,
22:16
Speaker 1: and I'm afraid of her stepmother. In the face of
22:18
Speaker 1: possibly never seen Kaisa again, Ash goes to the ball
22:21
Speaker 1: where the princess to announce his chosen bride. She waves
22:25
Speaker 1: through the crowd in her cloak and service dress and
22:27
Speaker 1: asked Kaisa for a dance. Kaisa agrees and everyone is shocked.
22:31
Speaker 1: They kiss, but then Ash admits she must leave and
22:35
Speaker 1: that she hopes that they will see each other again.
22:37
Speaker 1: Not They want to point out that the sister Clara
22:40
Speaker 1: seems to be actually a good character as well. I
22:44
Speaker 1: think she used to bond at this point at the end,
22:46
Speaker 1: they certainly do. She's the most sympathetic of the three
22:50
Speaker 1: um and that's not saying much for a lot of
22:52
Speaker 1: the story, but towards the end for sure. UM. So
22:56
Speaker 1: Ash rushes off to Sheen and she tells him that
23:00
Speaker 1: if he loves her, he will set her free. He
23:02
Speaker 1: agrees on the condition they spend one night together. And
23:06
Speaker 1: time is different in the fairy world, so one night
23:09
Speaker 1: could be a long time in the fairy world. And
23:10
Speaker 1: Samantha and I are going to return to our different
23:13
Speaker 1: views on what this minute later, but he promises her
23:16
Speaker 1: she will wake up the next morning in her own world.
23:20
Speaker 1: She asked if she will die and he says only
23:22
Speaker 1: a little. So the next morning she does wake up.
23:25
Speaker 1: She goes to find Kaisa and tells her she is
23:28
Speaker 1: free to love her, and they kiss happily ever after,
23:32
Speaker 1: and of story into fairy tale. So that's the plot,
23:36
Speaker 1: UM And now we're going to discuss some tropes and
23:39
Speaker 1: some of our thoughts about it, but first we're going
23:41
Speaker 1: to take a quick break for word from our sponsor,
23:57
Speaker 1: and we're back, Thank you, sponsor. So Oh, one of
24:02
Speaker 1: the big themes in this is one we've talked about
24:04
Speaker 1: a lot, and it's one that is in a lot
24:06
Speaker 1: of children's stories especially, and fairy tales especially, and that
24:10
Speaker 1: is of the mother stepmother, usually the mother dying and
24:14
Speaker 1: the stepmother being evil and trying to take her place.
24:21
Speaker 1: And I will say it's interesting in the case of
24:24
Speaker 1: this story, you never know for sure whether the stepmother
24:29
Speaker 1: was lying about her father's debts. You don't know. You
24:34
Speaker 1: never know what she was implying in or what he
24:37
Speaker 1: had done for her, what hadn't done for her. Um.
24:39
Speaker 1: There's also this whole level like you obviously have a
24:43
Speaker 1: big villain. There's nothing about her that you would want
24:48
Speaker 1: to give sympathy to. She is very obviously the evil stepmother. Yeah,
24:54
Speaker 1: and it's been a long time since I've seen the
24:59
Speaker 1: Disney version of sinder Ella um Or, Oh, I know
25:03
Speaker 1: she is. I was just trying to think of comparisons.
25:06
Speaker 1: I really loved ever after when I was in middle school.
25:09
Speaker 1: I loved them. Look, I continued throughout the entire time
25:14
Speaker 1: I was, I was reading this comparing it to ever After,
25:17
Speaker 1: because it was very similar because again Clara and the
25:20
Speaker 1: other step sister, they were very sympathetic to uh Cinderella
25:25
Speaker 1: slash ash and so that was very similar to that
25:28
Speaker 1: as well. But in Jesica, Houston did an amazing job
25:31
Speaker 1: in that, at the very least and ever after, you
25:34
Speaker 1: knew she loved him like that was the one thing
25:38
Speaker 1: that she had. She may have had disdain for the
25:42
Speaker 1: Cinderella character, but she loved the husband right. And I
25:47
Speaker 1: feel like in this one, the best argument you can
25:51
Speaker 1: make that she is sympathetic is that the whole system
25:56
Speaker 1: they were caught up in that there's no other way
25:59
Speaker 1: to get money or to have property or whatever it is.
26:02
Speaker 1: So there is like this level of tension and it's
26:07
Speaker 1: even addressed outright at one point where ashe feels something
26:11
Speaker 1: like sympathy for Anna, even though Anna is terrible to her,
26:16
Speaker 1: because she sees this pressure that Isabel is putting on
26:20
Speaker 1: her daughter to find like you have to do this
26:23
Speaker 1: or else We're the whole family is going to have
26:26
Speaker 1: no money and no station, and what will we do, right,
26:29
Speaker 1: and then you do feel sympathy with her trying to
26:31
Speaker 1: desperately defined a husband. Yeah, with the curse or another
26:36
Speaker 1: curse with the spell, which obviously she didn't care for, right. Yeah,
26:41
Speaker 1: that whole scene of So we're talking about the part
26:44
Speaker 1: where Ash gave Anna the spell, um because she noticed
26:49
Speaker 1: that Anna was taking part in this day of fasting
26:54
Speaker 1: that is sort of a old ways magic thing and
26:58
Speaker 1: you say the spell and you fast and then you
27:01
Speaker 1: dream of your husband at night. So she notices that
27:05
Speaker 1: Anna is fasting and gives her the spell, and it
27:08
Speaker 1: kind of reminds me of the whole thing where you're
27:11
Speaker 1: so desperate or are I've seen this play out where
27:14
Speaker 1: people are so desperate to lose weight and they'll try
27:17
Speaker 1: diets that they honestly don't really believe in, but they're like,
27:20
Speaker 1: I just I'm so desperate, I've got to do this thing.
27:23
Speaker 1: So even though she doesn't believe in it, she's just
27:27
Speaker 1: feeling that level of desperation. I will try this spell,
27:31
Speaker 1: even though I think it is rustic, especially when it
27:34
Speaker 1: doesn't work all of a sudden, it's like the stupidest
27:36
Speaker 1: thing ever. Yeah, So that's that's a big trope. Another
27:41
Speaker 1: one related is sort of this women's intuition versus men's logic,
27:48
Speaker 1: and we see that play out with which is and
27:51
Speaker 1: and the spells and potions that um Ash's mother took
27:56
Speaker 1: part in um and also this whole like old new
28:00
Speaker 1: world fantasy versus the real world thing. Yeah, so it
28:06
Speaker 1: is odd reading it with our modern eyes because like
28:10
Speaker 1: the scene where her dad is dying, you're definitely, as
28:13
Speaker 1: a reader meant to be like, no, stick to the
28:16
Speaker 1: old ways in which they should in this story, they
28:21
Speaker 1: should have. He was getting better. It just didn't um
28:24
Speaker 1: look exactly like how they thought it would, and it wasn't.
28:27
Speaker 1: It was kind of slower than they thought, so they
28:29
Speaker 1: switched the position and that killed him. But looking at
28:31
Speaker 1: it through our modern eyes, you're like, no, science, that
28:35
Speaker 1: is very reminiscent of pants Labyrinth. Do you think about that? Oh,
28:39
Speaker 1: it's been so long since I've seen that. You know,
28:41
Speaker 1: when the mother is sick and she starts putting the
28:43
Speaker 1: things underneath the bed, and the father and the husband's
28:46
Speaker 1: like nomad, like get rid of those is what is nonsense.
28:49
Speaker 1: But she was actually getting better and it got rid
28:52
Speaker 1: of all that. She ended up dying, But Yeah, it's
28:54
Speaker 1: kind of that same level of old culture versus new culture,
29:00
Speaker 1: new technology. Yeah. Um, And you see it also in
29:05
Speaker 1: Sleepy Hollow, Yeah, Christina Ricci and her doing the Eye
29:11
Speaker 1: under the bed and people not understanding what she was
29:15
Speaker 1: doing and thinking it was evil. So there there is that.
29:19
Speaker 1: And then also, yeah, the whole thing the book being
29:24
Speaker 1: divided into the two sections, The Fairy and the Huntress,
29:28
Speaker 1: sort of represents Ash's decision she has to make. Is
29:32
Speaker 1: she going to give up everything and going go into
29:35
Speaker 1: this fantasy world with the Fairy, which is where the
29:38
Speaker 1: first half of the book is that is her goal,
29:41
Speaker 1: that is what she wants, or especially as it moves
29:45
Speaker 1: into the later part of the book, is she going
29:48
Speaker 1: to give up on bringing her mother back on this
29:52
Speaker 1: fairytale world and be with someone she loves in the
29:57
Speaker 1: real world the Huntress. And I think a lot of
30:00
Speaker 1: that too is also about going through grief a little
30:03
Speaker 1: bit that that desperation to go back to and wanting
30:08
Speaker 1: that person that you lost, but sometimes moving past that
30:12
Speaker 1: and accepting what that what has happened and going into
30:16
Speaker 1: a better version of and not for everyone, but that
30:19
Speaker 1: this is a very like binary idea, but it is like, okay,
30:24
Speaker 1: accepting death and then moving on to live right. Um,
30:29
Speaker 1: And that's what she ends up doing, is she chooses
30:32
Speaker 1: the real world and life after she has squared her
30:35
Speaker 1: debts and can enter a relationship fully and openly. And
30:39
Speaker 1: there's one scene in the book that the jewels that
30:42
Speaker 1: on a tour out of ashes hair, when they wake
30:47
Speaker 1: up the next day, they they're worthless and fake. Um.
30:51
Speaker 1: So there is that whole layer two of fantasy and
30:58
Speaker 1: these these dreams, these day dreams that we have and
31:02
Speaker 1: what does Dumbledore say, It does not do to dwell
31:04
Speaker 1: in on dreams and forget to live. It's kind of
31:07
Speaker 1: that whole thing where it's not real, it's all fake.
31:12
Speaker 1: And and one big thing of this book, I will
31:14
Speaker 1: say is somberness and loneliness. Um. That is a theme throughout.
31:20
Speaker 1: So it totally makes sense that she's fantasizing about this
31:23
Speaker 1: which she believes to be this better world where she
31:27
Speaker 1: doesn't have an evil stepmother and two stepsisters that don't
31:31
Speaker 1: treat her well, and she isn't totally alone and maybe
31:33
Speaker 1: her mother is there. Like it's kind of like you said,
31:37
Speaker 1: it's almost reminiscent of the stages of grief. Of bargaining.
31:43
Speaker 1: Another trope we wanted to talk about is mask and
31:49
Speaker 1: especially in the context of assumed heterosexuality, because I think
31:54
Speaker 1: if I had read this book and I had not
31:56
Speaker 1: known going in that was the lgbt Q plus story,
32:00
Speaker 1: I would have seen, Oh, she's okay the Prince. They didn't.
32:04
Speaker 1: They're gonna end up somehow together. And I do love that.
32:08
Speaker 1: It is a nonsensical bit of like it could have
32:11
Speaker 1: just not even been in the story. You wouldn't have known.
32:14
Speaker 1: I love when she sees him the first time, she's like, Oh,
32:16
Speaker 1: he's not that handsome, right? Like that? This is the
32:19
Speaker 1: kind of fighting of her. They said he was handsome?
32:22
Speaker 1: Are you kidding me? I liked that. I'm not gonna lie.
32:26
Speaker 1: I think I had like a Seth Rogan picture of Oh,
32:30
Speaker 1: he's assumed to be handsome because he's got a B,
32:34
Speaker 1: C and D. But in actuality he's fine. There's nothing
32:37
Speaker 1: wrong with him, but there's nothing really great about him.
32:40
Speaker 1: He to me, right, did he reminded me of Prince Harry?
32:43
Speaker 1: I think he was described as having like thin red hair.
32:46
Speaker 1: I could be wrong, but that's that's the image I
32:49
Speaker 1: got my head. Oh, I guess I also pictured like
32:51
Speaker 1: a a little bit of like a dad bod happening.
32:54
Speaker 1: Nothing wrong with us, I'm just saying, like, that's what
32:57
Speaker 1: I imagined as instead of like your Chris Evans or
33:00
Speaker 1: Chris Helmsworth, which typically is the Prince traditional. Yeah, like
33:06
Speaker 1: what Lauren and um our coworker and friend, Lauren, she
33:09
Speaker 1: calls that um Disney Prince SPoD Yeah, yeah, so yeah.
33:14
Speaker 1: If I hadn't known going in, Even though I do
33:17
Speaker 1: feel the romance with Kaysa and Ash, it was very
33:26
Speaker 1: clear when I knew that, I don't know if I
33:28
Speaker 1: would have picked up on it otherwise. And I also
33:31
Speaker 1: was thinking, like if Kis had been a guy, it
33:34
Speaker 1: would have changed how I felt about certain scenes, because
33:37
Speaker 1: there's one part where she shows up at her house
33:39
Speaker 1: kind of unannounced when she's alone, and that would have
33:42
Speaker 1: had a different vibe if it had been a dude,
33:46
Speaker 1: at least for me. I don't think it necessarily has to,
33:49
Speaker 1: but right, I think there was also a part of
33:51
Speaker 1: that that they make uh Kaisa a little bit masculine
33:56
Speaker 1: in that she seems to be a player. Laura even
33:59
Speaker 1: says how about you, which is one more of her lovers, right,
34:02
Speaker 1: And I feel like that was purposeful, and I wondered
34:06
Speaker 1: why that would be that other than to play on
34:08
Speaker 1: the fact a maybe to talk about it that in
34:11
Speaker 1: that society, that was not an abnormal thing for same
34:15
Speaker 1: sex couple and to happen they seemed accepted. But at
34:20
Speaker 1: the same time, be that she got around and so
34:23
Speaker 1: you may be let let supposed to put that little
34:25
Speaker 1: bit of doubt of like whether you're special or not,
34:28
Speaker 1: and so they need to make sure she understood how
34:30
Speaker 1: special she was. But I was like, that's kind of like,
34:33
Speaker 1: maybe that's an understatement to say it seems masculine esque
34:37
Speaker 1: to put that in terms of someone who is very
34:40
Speaker 1: powerful and or seen as powerful. Yeah, And I wonder
34:44
Speaker 1: how much of that is um. This book came out
34:48
Speaker 1: in two thousand nine, which a lot has changed since then.
34:52
Speaker 1: And in just the way of being like Na, she
34:55
Speaker 1: might be interested in you, like you because Astro was
35:00
Speaker 1: kind of I don't maybe oblivious isn't the right word,
35:02
Speaker 1: but she didn't seem to be picking up on a
35:05
Speaker 1: lot of things right. Also, she was definitely that perfect
35:11
Speaker 1: innocent girl who didn't know how amazing she was or
35:14
Speaker 1: gorgeous she was. And I'm like, that is an absolute
35:16
Speaker 1: trope in itself where she just doesn't know how beautiful
35:20
Speaker 1: she is and she but she doesn't. She just needs
35:23
Speaker 1: to wipe the ash off her face. We just need
35:26
Speaker 1: to strain her air and take off the glasses. It
35:29
Speaker 1: is funny, though you don't really or maybe I missed it,
35:31
Speaker 1: but I feel like I didn't really get that vibe
35:33
Speaker 1: until someone outright says it, when Clara tells her towards
35:37
Speaker 1: the like maybe like middle for that, I wasn't really sure. Um,
35:42
Speaker 1: Claria out right it's like, oh, you're so beautiful. It's
35:45
Speaker 1: so much better than Anna. Yeah, I think that's exactly
35:48
Speaker 1: where we were all trying to figure out, Like, and
35:51
Speaker 1: that says a lot about myself. And it's although, like
35:53
Speaker 1: how good looking is she? Could she get away with
35:56
Speaker 1: this in real life? You know? And it could all
35:59
Speaker 1: talk abou able is um? And the fact that she
36:01
Speaker 1: is able to be perfectly quote unquote normal in that aspect. Yeah,
36:09
Speaker 1: And and one of the scenes, the scene where Kaisas
36:14
Speaker 1: says like, I don't like masks. The dress looks good
36:19
Speaker 1: but doesn't suit you. A lot of people have interpreted
36:22
Speaker 1: that as sort of a critiques not the right word,
36:27
Speaker 1: but like pointing to l G B, t Q plus
36:30
Speaker 1: people having to wear this mask to hide their true selves.
36:34
Speaker 1: And so at the end when Kaisa, I'm assuming, kind
36:38
Speaker 1: of dramatically shows up at the ball without a mask
36:42
Speaker 1: and it's like you Kaysa were dancing together and they kiss,
36:45
Speaker 1: it's sort of her finally taking it off and being herself.
36:52
Speaker 1: I mean, she does seem to have the struggle of
36:54
Speaker 1: like Shane is as clared, as declared as mel and
36:58
Speaker 1: then Prince Sadan, like she has these ICs, her preferences
37:02
Speaker 1: or her her sexuality leans towards Kaisa instead. Yes, that's
37:09
Speaker 1: who she loves um And speaking of love, that is
37:12
Speaker 1: another big trope in this whole thing. So there's the
37:15
Speaker 1: trope of marrying rich and classism, which throughout Ash feels
37:22
Speaker 1: like she is not worthy of Kaisa because she is
37:28
Speaker 1: a servant um she So there is this layer of like,
37:31
Speaker 1: I am not in your class, so we cannot be together.
37:35
Speaker 1: And there there's a whole scene where Ash tells Clara,
37:39
Speaker 1: you know, you don't have to marry for riches, you
37:41
Speaker 1: can marry for love, and that's sort of the beginning
37:43
Speaker 1: of their tentative truth. Even though Clara totally rejects her
37:47
Speaker 1: when she says it the first time, because she's like,
37:49
Speaker 1: you don't understand what it's like, Like there's so much
37:51
Speaker 1: pressure to do this and if I don't, then how
37:55
Speaker 1: will I live? Um? So there's that. And as we
37:59
Speaker 1: talked about Ash having this pity around the pressure placed
38:03
Speaker 1: on Anna by her mother to marry someone of high status, Um,
38:08
Speaker 1: there's Gwynn who seemingly does not understand that Ash doesn't
38:11
Speaker 1: want to be with someone, particularly a man, um that
38:14
Speaker 1: it's not her whole thing, that it's not her end all,
38:16
Speaker 1: be all right. I think Gwyn's character is definitely the
38:19
Speaker 1: Gigglies schoolgirl. Sure, yeah, she's I I loved gwyn She's
38:25
Speaker 1: like every time you see her, she has a different like, dude,
38:29
Speaker 1: she's after I mean, that's exactly the point. I think
38:32
Speaker 1: she was the comic relief in it all. I did
38:34
Speaker 1: want to talk about the fact that I found it
38:36
Speaker 1: interesting when she in comparison to the hunting outfit that
38:40
Speaker 1: the Fairies gave her versus the dress that the Fairies
38:43
Speaker 1: gave her, and her feeling, and also being the fact
38:46
Speaker 1: that boots we're supposed to be her slippers, even though
38:48
Speaker 1: she never lost her slippers, but that it fits her
38:51
Speaker 1: feet so perfectly, right, Um, and I found that she
38:54
Speaker 1: was more comfortable, which could be a hit or miss
38:58
Speaker 1: um in conversations when comes to the l GRE d
39:01
Speaker 1: Q expectations um of dressing in general. But I found
39:06
Speaker 1: that an interesting commentary. Yeah, because the Woods was such
39:09
Speaker 1: a big part of who she was and what she loved. Um.
39:13
Speaker 1: But Okay, we would be remiss if we did not
39:16
Speaker 1: talk about what we said we would, which is where
39:18
Speaker 1: Samantha and I had a very different interpretation, and it's
39:22
Speaker 1: really telling of our personalities about what happened when she
39:26
Speaker 1: agreed to spend the night with Sheen. Right, I think,
39:31
Speaker 1: I think this is a good time for a nad
39:33
Speaker 1: break and then we come back in because I think
39:35
Speaker 1: it's it's a minute of a conversation, all right, So
39:38
Speaker 1: we'll take one more quick break and then we'll be back.
39:54
Speaker 1: We're back, Thank you, sponsor. All Right, So I'm gonna
39:58
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go ahead and jump in because I found
40:00
Speaker 1: it very interesting and very telling for both of us.
40:04
Speaker 1: Because we also had our producer Andrew as a part
40:06
Speaker 1: of this conversation. Towards the end before we started recording
40:10
Speaker 1: this portion, that there's a conversation of the fact that
40:13
Speaker 1: she has to prove to him what love is, what
40:16
Speaker 1: love truly means, and that according to the Mother's book,
40:20
Speaker 1: the way to break this deal, to break this curse,
40:23
Speaker 1: I guess slash deal conversation is to show him Sean
40:29
Speaker 1: what love truly is and love being sacrificing or giving
40:33
Speaker 1: up that person if they don't love you, essentially, And
40:37
Speaker 1: but that still promised a night, and we did talk
40:42
Speaker 1: about the fact that the very world a night might
40:44
Speaker 1: be longer than a night, but in essence, like he
40:48
Speaker 1: grabs her hands and they talk about what this looks
40:51
Speaker 1: like and if she's going to die a little bit,
40:53
Speaker 1: all of these things. So for me as a very
40:56
Speaker 1: uh almost say, it's very heteronormative or relationship. But at
41:00
Speaker 1: the same time, you know, and I do enjoy. We
41:03
Speaker 1: talked about sex and what we enjoy, what we don't enjoy.
41:05
Speaker 1: But I'm like, yeah, obviously part of the giving of
41:08
Speaker 1: the love was her giving up her virginity and having
41:11
Speaker 1: sex with the dude um as to show yeah, this
41:15
Speaker 1: is love, this is us together, this is giving to
41:17
Speaker 1: each other whatever whatnot. And that was my explanation of
41:22
Speaker 1: what he expected from love and Annie that never even
41:27
Speaker 1: occurred to me, not once. I never thought they had sex.
41:34
Speaker 1: I just thought they spent some weird time in fairy
41:37
Speaker 1: world and I was shocked that I love so My
41:43
Speaker 1: interpretation of her interpretation was, what this is like a
41:45
Speaker 1: nineteen fifties Leave It to Beaver type of episode where
41:48
Speaker 1: they sleep in single beds next to each other and
41:50
Speaker 1: just call each other mom and papa for a little
41:52
Speaker 1: bit and move on in life and and a fairy tale.
41:58
Speaker 1: You know that we should come back and talk about
42:00
Speaker 1: this more in depth because I have been thinking about
42:03
Speaker 1: this a lot. I had a really enlightening conversation with
42:05
Speaker 1: my friend about essentially what is love? Um, and I
42:09
Speaker 1: guess to me had a day was there before anybody,
42:16
Speaker 1: But essentially I think, I guess I assumed to me
42:20
Speaker 1: love is respect and consent, and so I assumed like
42:25
Speaker 1: if he truly loved her and she doesn't want to
42:29
Speaker 1: do that, then they didn't do it. And maybe that's
42:32
Speaker 1: really naive and oblivious of me, but that was my thought,
42:37
Speaker 1: like maybe she did, and I saw from her point
42:40
Speaker 1: of view that this is the sacrifice she was willing
42:43
Speaker 1: to go to be released from his contract. Which is
42:46
Speaker 1: a very different tale in itself that you and I assume.
42:50
Speaker 1: When she asked him, this is gonna am I gonna die?
42:53
Speaker 1: And he said just a little, I assumed that was
42:55
Speaker 1: part of like, because it is it's the morning of
42:57
Speaker 1: a loss of something of yourself, which is a whole
43:00
Speaker 1: deeper perception like and not everyone has those experiences, and
43:03
Speaker 1: that takes it down to a really dark road. But
43:06
Speaker 1: the level of sacrifice two thousand nine, Melinda Lowe, I
43:09
Speaker 1: can't tell you what she was thinking, but in that
43:12
Speaker 1: mind of set of what are you willing to go
43:15
Speaker 1: ahead and get through it in order to sacrit to
43:18
Speaker 1: get back to your own and what does that look like?
43:20
Speaker 1: And we've had this conversation of many women somehow, I'm
43:25
Speaker 1: taking it back to here who have always been to
43:28
Speaker 1: that portion of it was easier just to get it
43:30
Speaker 1: over with than to fight it. And that's kind of
43:34
Speaker 1: the same culmination of what I saw her say it
43:36
Speaker 1: might as well get this done with. I'll sacrifice this
43:39
Speaker 1: bit of myself to get to the happiness that I
43:41
Speaker 1: need to get to. Yeah, And I totally understand and
43:48
Speaker 1: see that point, and probably that is what I don't
43:52
Speaker 1: know if that's the truth. I mean, I like your
43:54
Speaker 1: version better where they just hang out and watch some
43:57
Speaker 1: Netflix and they eat some popcorn and then all of
44:00
Speaker 1: the night and go to their separate bedrooms and the
44:02
Speaker 1: story well. And I want to come back and talk
44:06
Speaker 1: about this so badly because I feel like this is
44:09
Speaker 1: something I've been struggling with. I know for a lot
44:11
Speaker 1: of people, love is sex is a part of that,
44:15
Speaker 1: but for someone like me, it's not, And so it's
44:19
Speaker 1: caused a lot of anxiety and just like concern, um
44:26
Speaker 1: and in my own relationships, uh, because it literally didn't
44:31
Speaker 1: even occur to me. And I think that says a lot.
44:36
Speaker 1: And I'm really sad that we didn't have that on record, men,
44:39
Speaker 1: you recording this conversation that you and I had, because
44:42
Speaker 1: it was such a big what what moment that it
44:46
Speaker 1: was like, Yeah, it really was, And I'm thinking, Wow,
44:53
Speaker 1: I think maybe I am just very not I'm just
44:58
Speaker 1: very oblivious. I want to live in your world. I
45:02
Speaker 1: don't know. I don't know. We should definitely come back
45:04
Speaker 1: and talk about it though, because I have it has
45:07
Speaker 1: been on my mind a lot lately, um, because I
45:10
Speaker 1: had a friend she was talking about I don't want
45:15
Speaker 1: to go into the whole conversation, but basically it boiled
45:18
Speaker 1: down to I I couldn't believe that if someone wanted
45:22
Speaker 1: to have sex with me that they thought I had
45:24
Speaker 1: any other value, Like that is all they want, so
45:28
Speaker 1: for me, like, I think there's some kind of disconnect
45:30
Speaker 1: between sex and love and it's all messed up. Um So,
45:34
Speaker 1: I think that could be said for everyone else. But
45:37
Speaker 1: the level of trauma and or just level of preference
45:40
Speaker 1: in itself can make it very disjointed in the conversation
45:44
Speaker 1: in itself, for sure. Um So that is a conversation
45:48
Speaker 1: we shall return to. Yes, Uh, And I think like
45:53
Speaker 1: we both agreed. Uh. Overall, the book was really good,
45:57
Speaker 1: but I know a listener wrote in and said, it's
45:59
Speaker 1: kind of anti climactic. It does feel like it's like
46:02
Speaker 1: the it leads up to it and then it just ends,
46:04
Speaker 1: which I know fairy tales are like that, Like that's
46:06
Speaker 1: the whole thing is it's happily ever after and you
46:08
Speaker 1: just assume how their life plays out. But yeah, overall,
46:12
Speaker 1: I enjoyed it. And I'm not really big into romance,
46:14
Speaker 1: but I was like, yeah, I get together please, yeah again,
46:21
Speaker 1: just like we were talking about the previous listeners said
46:24
Speaker 1: it was a really easy read, and it was. It
46:26
Speaker 1: was a really easy read. It's like maybe a two
46:28
Speaker 1: hour read. Nice little moment of huh, yeah, what would
46:33
Speaker 1: happen if fairies exist? Yeah? I really enjoyed it. So
46:38
Speaker 1: those are thoughts on Ash by Melinda Low And now
46:43
Speaker 1: we need your thoughts on what our next book should
46:46
Speaker 1: be so we can get to reading. Um, please please
46:49
Speaker 1: please send in your suggestions, any movie suggestions to for
46:55
Speaker 1: our next feminist movie Friday, and any streaming and entertainment
47:00
Speaker 1: recommendations which um, I actually locked into Netflix for the
47:04
Speaker 1: first time and several I don't know how long really,
47:08
Speaker 1: and I was shocked at auto play. I do not approve.
47:11
Speaker 1: I hear you can turn it off. You can, but
47:14
Speaker 1: it's not my accountant, so I'll check with the owner
47:19
Speaker 1: of the account about that. Well, all of Supernatural is
47:22
Speaker 1: on there, Annie, so if you want to stop from
47:24
Speaker 1: season one all the way through, it's all the way there. Um,
47:28
Speaker 1: don't tell me about the final season because I haven't
47:30
Speaker 1: seen it. Well, the newest episode came out this Monday,
47:34
Speaker 1: and they said they don't know when they're going to
47:36
Speaker 1: come back, so yeah, you might have to wait at all. Time.
47:40
Speaker 1: Oh no, well, maybe they'll add it to Netflix. But yeah,
47:43
Speaker 1: so tell us just the streaming recommendations because I've watched
47:47
Speaker 1: the same four shows repeatedly because I'm still in the
47:52
Speaker 1: realms of leading the social work world, so I don't
47:55
Speaker 1: like anything too realistic or too traumatic. Don't give me those,
47:59
Speaker 1: uh what we need because suggestions, y'all. Obviously, I've already
48:03
Speaker 1: talked about doing a Netflix party when we get to
48:05
Speaker 1: watch a couple of things. Maybe we could do it
48:07
Speaker 1: as a whole was spenty because we don't know. I
48:09
Speaker 1: don't know if too many people would be interested, but
48:11
Speaker 1: if you all are interested, maybe we could have one
48:14
Speaker 1: giant Netflix party Oh yeah, with our spenty listeners where
48:17
Speaker 1: we get to just chat. Because I know you'll are
48:20
Speaker 1: looking for content, something different, and please let us know
48:23
Speaker 1: what you want because we are just as confused and
48:28
Speaker 1: well definitely, um do you round up of suggestions people
48:31
Speaker 1: send in and we'll add our own suggestions in case
48:33
Speaker 1: you are looking for some streaming recommendations are other entertainment recommendations.
48:39
Speaker 1: So if you would like to email us those recommendations,
48:42
Speaker 1: you can. Our email is stuff Media Mom Stuff at
48:45
Speaker 1: iHeart media dot com. You can also find us on
48:48
Speaker 1: Instagram as Stuff I've Never Told You or on Twitter
48:50
Speaker 1: at mom Stuff Podcast. Thanks as always to our super
48:53
Speaker 1: producer Andrew Howard, than thanks to you for listening. Stuff
48:59
Speaker 1: I've Never Told You is production of I Heart Radio.
49:01
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49:05
Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.