No red light can stop me

Just came across this quote and wanted to share it. It's so true, and so beautifully expressed!

“Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: they feed the soul. When writers make us shake our heads with the exactness of their prose and their truths, and even make us laugh about ourselves or life, our buoyancy is restored. We are given a shot at dancing with, or at least clapping along with, the absurdity of life, instead of being squashed by it over and over again. It's like singing on a boat during a terrible storm at sea. You can't stop the raging storm, but singing can change the hearts and spirits of the people who are together on that ship.” ~ Anne Lamott

I'm not sure how this happened (the stress and resultant avoidance of uni work may have been a contributing factor!) but in the past couple of years I've become a rather avid fangirl. (You may have noticed. :P)

But it didn't start there. I was on an icon-hunt recently, and came across an icon that took me back to the first film that I had a fangirly reaction to - Ever After.

I first saw the film at the cinemas with my mother, and we both loved it. We had a great crowd - everyone laughed in all the right places, and even cheered when Danielle punched Marguerite, when she shouted "I would rather die a thousand deaths than to see my mother's dress on that spoilt, selfish cow!", and again when Jacqueline said she was only there for the food.

At the end I stayed through the credits while everyone left. I claimed I wanted to see the filming location for the ruins at Amboise, but I was also listening to the song, plus I secretly didn't want the film to be over.

I wanted to see it again, but we couldn't, so I looked it up online and found a site on Geocities. I had no idea how the internet worked at that stage, but I downloaded a wallpaper collage I still use ocassionally, and found a fan-written adaptation of the film with the title "A Tout Jamais". I basically memorised it before the video came out, and I have it to this day. (I used to go swimming in a local lake and imagine I was Danielle.) I also made a few attempts to draw the characters. One drawing of Danielle remains one of the best people I've ever drawn. I even wrote a story set when Danielle was about 14 - my first attempt at fanfic. I still quote the film.

I recently found the soundtrack secondhand, and I love it! I continue to find Danielle de Barbarac inspirational and beautiful, especially for her inner strength, and still feel that Prince Henry was cute but too often had a puppy-dog look. :P

( Some of my favourite quotes: )