@haneul of course! You got through a big chunk there all at once
Thanks! I actually didn't make this build, I rarely make them because they're so time consuming & that one was so different to how I'd pictured it in my head, but I think it's a gorgeous building all the same. I was inspired by these corrugated iron houses I spotted nestled among the dunes on a beach last summer and thought - oh wow, what kind of people could afford to have a holiday home like that? That's where the idea for Jude came from.
15: good point hahaha - I guess he didn't want to disturb her but he could have thought that through more, as it was pretty awkward for her to have to emerge alone.
Also, yeah, Kelly and Evie totally hate each other. This chapter was meant to be the big "reveal" that actually, Kelly secretly dislikes Evie as much as Evie dislikes her, and they both have reasons to be jealous and believe the other is a terrible friend. They're a bad bad match, but at least Evie stands up for herself here because that friendship was nothing but a mess.
16-17: Evie worries, worries, worries in part 1 and never enjoys herself. She'll learn but obviously she's supremely insecure. I see what you mean about Jude's words about Liam, although he's trying to be funny more than anything. He has very little respect for him, and even more because he was probably jealous and bitter that someone who he considered to be a bit of a loser was able to score a girl that he - Jude - was interested in. I'd say he's a bad loser (and a bad winner) and has an entitlement complex but doesn't mean genuine harm.
Ugh yes - I know. Unfortunately this is something I used to feel too, like if something ever happened you'd feel like you needed to be quiet about it because it shouldn't be a big deal, but thankfully society has progressed so much past that point that very few would put up with it now. In small rural places here the old attitudes still persist, but we're moving on up & improving all the time. I hope.
Thanks so much! I loved making this chapter & it was the first time I used deco sims. I was so happy with how it turned out, and I'm glad that you noticed the effort
18 - 20: Evie and Claire are good friends, and they'll only become closer after this but it certainly will take a while for Evie to see Claire as a real flesh and blood human rather than some angelic specimen that she can only aspire to be. Claire is meant to be there as an aspirational figure, because things in her life work out at the same time as they don't work out for Evie. It's hard for her to look at her friends achievements and assets reflected back on her and not see herself as lacking in comparison. This is what I was getting at with the title of the story, kind of. Each of these girls is looking at one another and believing that one is luckier than the other, the point being that you're never satisfied with what you have.
Jude has good friends like Shane and Jen but those girls are toxic. A reflection of the kinds of attitudes that will prevail during the college chapters.
Hahahhaha - I guess there's a running theme here. Jude is just very bad at waking Evie up at crucial times.
Interesting. I took him at face value when he said that and thought that he was rudely telling his sister the truth. She hasn't practiced all summer and she's young, so I assumed that she must be bad too and that her teacher would tell her off when she got back to class. Evie also describes Ivy's playing as jarring.
Actually, I'm glad you said this, because I have this horrible habit of second guessing myself and starting to feel unsure about what I've written. When this scene played out in my head, Jude was just messing around the way that older brothers do sometimes and it really wasn't intended to be mean. When it was out there though I thought "Oh darn, maybe I overplayed his teasing and he seems like a horrible guy now" so I just accepted it and rolled with it and thought "hey, yeah I guess he's the worst." I suppose the lesson is to be more confident in my writing. I always default to assuming I could have done something better with it lol.
Woo! You're so close to catching up now, and I'm curious to hear what you think of the next part, which is a bit of a shift in tone.
OK, so he and Evie weren't a good match but there's a lot to like about Liam. He helps his dad, he gives to his community, he's great with kids. In short, for a guy of 18 he knows the value of responsibility and as you've said: Eventually he'll be fine and I think he'll do well when among more mature and less selfish people.
I like Shane and Claire as well. Shane's kind of got a Chandler Byng quality about him: Quick with the wit and repartee and initially you might be mistaken for thinking he's a jerk but he's always there to help when needed and his friendships are long lasting and deep. I also like that he's reasonably good looking, but not super hot, but he's managed to pull Claire who is one of the best looking Sims I've seen. It shows that Claire's primarily attracted to Shane because of his character and personality because she could easily attract someone who's in Jude's league for looks.
Speaking of Jude...he bears a striking resemblance to the French actor Alain Delon. Delon's eyes are blue but apart from that there's a strong resemblance.
I thought Jude's scenes with his sister were revealing about his character and his family dynamic, especially after his parents show up. The apple hasn't fallen far from the tree.
Evie and Claire are good friends, and they'll only become closer after this but it certainly will take a while for Evie to see Claire as a real flesh and blood human rather than some angelic specimen that she can only aspire to be […] This is what I was getting at with the title of the story, kind of. Each of these girls is looking at one another and believing that one is luckier than the other, the point being that you're never satisfied with what you have.
I did not mention this before because my comment was already long, but I think the title's meaning comes across neatly and clearly. I noticed earlier that Kelly literally tells Evie that she's a lucky girl (when I read that I was like “the title!!! ”). It’s easy to see that Evie feels similarly about Claire but not in such a negative way (and sometimes it seems like she feels that Kelly is lucky too). It's a clever title.
Actually, I'm glad you said this, because I have this horrible habit of second guessing myself and starting to feel unsure about what I've written. When this scene played out in my head, Jude was just messing around the way that older brothers do sometimes and it really wasn't intended to be mean. When it was out there though I thought "Oh darn, maybe I overplayed his teasing and he seems like a horrible guy now" so I just accepted it and rolled with it and thought "hey, yeah I guess he's the worst." I suppose the lesson is to be more confident in my writing. I always default to assuming I could have done something better with it lol.
Yes. Be confident. I never saw Jude's personality as being any worse than the personality of any of your other Sims. He does some questionable things, but he never seems malicious to me (in Part 1 at least). He seems like he's young and learning/growing up like everyone else. I did think he was just playfully teasing his younger sister about the piano as well as telling her the truth and that there weren't any hurt feelings involved because Ivy mocks him in return. I'm glad to hear that he can depend on Shane and Jen.
I feel like the "I could have done something better" mindset can be a positive thing, but it can also be a trap. Technically, most people could have almost always done something better but thinking that and doing something over again (and again and again and …) may not be worth it. What you've done with Lucky Girl is already great. Specifically regarding Jude, I never saw him as horrible so changes there would have no effect on me.
I don't think many people are motivated by negativity. If they do something well, then they want to do it again and perhaps see if it can be done a bit better next time even though better isn’t necessary, but if it doesn't go well, I think it's discouraging ("I didn't do a good job at all so I should give up”). You’re doing well and teaching everyone more about Ireland at the same time.
oh I totally get what's to like about Liam! His problem was that he was trying very hard to fit in with a group of kids who in short: did not think he was cool enough for them. That sucks, and he would have done better to focus his attention on other kinds of people, but it's hard to get things right when you're so young. I think people like him struggle during their teen years when they haven't found their tribe and figured out exactly what they want yet. I considered revisiting Liam later on in the story actually, just to see how he was getting on, but I don't think I will. In my mind he's fine, he's doing what he wants to do and he's still waxing surfboards on that beach. Good for him!
I have to say, I really love Shane. My friend read the first chapter a while ago and she said "I hate the horrible brother!" which now makes me laugh. Shane's a very Irish man. If you've been here or ever come you will see carbon copies of him everywhere you go, the same clothes, the same haircut, probably holding a hurl and beating a ball against the wall, and I never fit in with people like him in real life, but in the story I've developed such a soft spot for him. I've written further than all of you have read, but there's a moment with him in chapter eight that just makes me fall in love with him. He's the hero to me. He's always, always there for the people he cares about, even in his own gruff, stilted way.
Aha! Alain was such a handsome man, and I totally get what you mean. In a 60s version of this story maybe Claire would have compared him to Alain rather than Johnny Depp
Yeah the family scene was meant to be a bit revealing of aspects of him, but we'll revisit that a bit later!!
haha awesome - I felt so powerful when I got to use the title like that. I was like "I've been waiting for this moment!!"
Yeah I felt that way when writing him too. Like, I was determined not to make him perfect, because honestly what teen boy is, so he's nice sometimes and not so nice other times. He can care about his friends and be nasty to people he doesn't like and there's nothing particularly alarming about that, I'm sure we're all like that.
You forget what a minefield writing is until you do it, and the absolute hardest thing about it is the self doubt and the questioning. I feel you could write something over and over and still not be happy with it, so it comes to the point where you just have to say, okay, enough. My weekly update plan helps with this. I'm always about 3 chapters ahead, so I have 3 weeks to fuss over the chapter and then it's published. There's a limit on the agonizing.
Yeah, families eh? Sooooooooooooooo much going on in that chapter.
So Evie's still feeling guilt because Kelly hates her when it wasn't her fault their friendship broke up but Evie's mum adores Shane and wants to see him with Evie and that's probably because she sees in Shane the potential that her own husband has failed to live up to and so she projects her hang ups on to Evie and Kelly projects her hang ups on to Evie as well and then Evie is drawn....YET AGAIN...to the "exotic" person in any social situation, this time with her cousin's girlfriend, who is projecting her inner party animal onto Evie and on top of all that Evie might be subconsciously becoming a snob because she's repulsed by the parochial, working class background of her family so she's projecting her magnetic attraction to higher class people on to her family and bread sauce is delicious by the way what is Evie on about here and there's the mum again projecting her fears on to Evie because she made bad choices when she was young and oh my brain hurts....
Good catch on Marian and Shane's relationship dynamics! Yes, lots and lots of projections happening all over the place here which is unfortunately very natural. Sometimes family situations can bring out the worst in people and I've often felt that Christmas can be the perfect environment for any festering resentments to come out, as with Evie's cousins, their dad & Fabiana. Evie and her parents, and of course, Kelly and Evie too.
perhaps it's true that Evie is becoming a snob, and I'm very interested in what you said about her relationship with her working class roots! I viewed her thoughts as more of a pushback against the patriarchal structures within her family that she never had the language to point out before. It's unfair that she and the other women should have to work to make the dinner while the men sit around eating sweets and watching films. The other women have accepted this as normal, but Evie has discovered that she feels differently about what should be expected of her, and them, and her opinion is probably offensive to everyone who wants things to stay the way they are.
Also! LOL. I've never had bread sauce because I am unfortunately
but it does not sound that good to me! I had to have Fabiana balk at it because people from countries with delicious food always think classic Irish and English food is gross
The men, working class manual labourer types, wouldn't want to be in the kitchen (most likely because they lack any cooking skills) with all the women after spending the previous week doing a physically hard job (I'm thinking Dekky here). Probably the grandmother has instilled in them over the decades that they are the breadwinners and she and the other women provide the meal. Again, this is a very small town working class way of life that none of the others see a problem with.
However, you've previously had chapters where Evie is exposed to a more modern, metropolitan way of thinking...especially from Marnie who is a bit on the woke side. So the tension between the family tradition on the one side and Evie's influences on the other is there and the catalyst for an argument is her father's drinking and her mothers'....well, her issues for she has many. It's telling that the person Evie latches on to in that group environment isn't a family member...it's the outsider who probably has more in common with Evie's social circle than the rest of the family.
Everything is interconnecting...well done.
• Okay so at first when I saw the church for some reason I thought somebody died
• Are Ms.McCarthy and Agnes Crumplebottom the same person?? I can't remember what Agnes looks like and I never set foot in Henford on Bagley so I woudn't know for sure haha
• Kelly is still unsufferable but I'm glad they didn't speak to one another!
Wait... why is she still mad at Evie but not Claire... what? I thought the whole thing started between Claire and Kelly in the first place, and that Evie ended up as collateral damage. But I guess her standing up for herself and making her own choices was harder to swallow for Kelly than just Claire being Claire.
Part of me thinks that she's just trying to hurt Evie. It's likely that Claire doesn't care what Kelly thinks anymore but Evie's too sensitive still, it definitely sounds like one of her mind games. That or she tolerates Claire because she knows she doesn't have a choice if she wants to hang out with her brother. Both might apply.
• Family dramaaa! No Christmas dinner was ever spared in human History
• I will never understand why everybody is so obsessed with Evie being single. It blows my mind. Why so much pressuuuuure?? Poor Evie, she's only eighteen
• With everything that's apparently going on with her uncles and cousins, I didn't actually expect Evie and her mom to be the ones to cause a scene first. Like there's so much drama potential! It's like everyone around Evie know where to hit where it hurts it's really sad...
Marnie might be a hypocrite but she's helped Evie see some things about sexism that she's taken for granted till now.
Also, the way you set up that scene allowed Evie to completely skip past asking herself whether she might in fact have a problem with alcohol... she's focusing on the problem with sexism (and the problems with her family members) instead.
yeah Evie's family were never middle class white collar folk, and her grandmother living in a farmhouse implies that her husband once worked the land, so the traditional family structures would have been very much in place for decades. Men get up early, head out to work, come in at midday to have their lunch ready, and then head back out again. They will never learn to cook or clean or wash their own clothes. It's a very old fashioned mindset that kind of prevails in rural areas, but the roots of it are understandable. It's different now though, while Decky is a manual labourer, his brother Conor works in an office and their dad, well, he was a bachelor for years who was presumably living on his own & jetting off all over the world on exotic holidays. These men know how to help, they just don't, they're allowed to abstain from it.
I would agree that Marnie is to thank for Evie's change in mindset here, but college can do that to you, it would have been difficult to escape social justice oriented discourse on campus at that time - and the same now, I expect. The late 00s, early 10s were a real "awakening" time here as our country began to rapidly lean into more liberal politics and reject the traditional & often intolerant mindsets of past decades. (there are loads of complex reasons for this that are very boring so I won't explain.) Evie is rejecting traditionalism too, which is one of the things that taught her how to hate herself. You cannot respect yourself if your family views women as lesser, so she's breaking away from it in her own ways.
HAHA - fair, I feel like I'm embroiled in catholicism that when I see a church I'm like "huh. someone's having a mass. boring."
Right - so actually, Agnes was in the church during that scene and I wanted to use her as Ms. McCarthy because I thought it might be a funny little easter egg, but she left before I had a chance to talk to her! I just put her outfit on another random sim. So no, it's unfortunately not her
It's always mind games with Kelly, but I expect she's more used to tolerating Claire because she has to see her often and at least pretend to be nice to her so that Shane doesn't give her an earful. Also yeah I think you're right, Kelly wants Evie to be quiet and agreeable and was furious when she changed her tune, so her betrayal was somehow worse to her. Claire would be expected to be independent, Evie should not be.
Ugh, there is always something! But I think that Evie is the one who's obsessed with being single. Her mother was trying to bring up her alcohol consumption but Evie freaked out and made it about her singleness. Marian was only saying that girls who drink are unattractive and didn't disagree when Evie asked her if that's why she thinks she's single, but that's not the point she was making. Evie is so obsessed with being defective that it seeps into everything, she's actually the one that brings it up - poor pet.
Marnie is good, then bad, then kinda okay, then awful, it's a flip flop kind of friendship!
Yes exactly! She does not want to discuss the alcohol, she doesn't see that as the primary issue, only that she's single, which likely. nobody at that table cared about.
>> Ugh, there is always something! But I think that Evie is the one who's obsessed with being single. Her mother was trying to bring up her alcohol consumption but Evie freaked out and made it about her singleness. Marian was only saying that girls who drink are unattractive and didn't disagree when Evie asked her if that's why she thinks she's single, but that's not the point she was making. Evie is so obsessed with being defective that it seeps into everything, she's actually the one that brings it up - poor pet.
That's interesting, my impression was sort of the opposite? At first yeah especially in the first part Evie seemed obsessed with feeling defective for still being a virgin at seventeen but like who never had a tought like this? I remember being fourteen and feeling the same way when some girls I knew from school were starting to jump from boyfriend to boyfriend haha.
But even at the beginning it's really insidious: first because of Kelly of course, who kept trying to "fix" Evie and "find someone for her", I can't remember but I think Claire participated a little too, so from the very beginning she was surrounded by ideas reinforcing her feelings of defectiveness. And then the whole thing with Jude happened, and it was sooo obvious that she was putting him on a pedestal, acting like her whole world revolved around him, it would've been extraordinarily toxic even if the relationship had blossomed without obstacles. Then once that was over, Marnie showed up and again there was someone heavily pressuring Evie to flirt with random people because "it doesn't matter who!" as long as she's flirting/sleeping with people that means she's "normal". And now her mom, so yeah it's likely that she was just scared about Evie drinking excessively because of her husband having issues, and that's understandable, but the point she makes is sooo clumsy "girls who drink are unattractive" sounds a bit like "no one will ever want to marry you" . Of course with Evie's track record of insecurity and toxic friends it was a recipe for disaster but sometimes I feel like mothers are the worst offenders of the ideas that you're not a woman if you don't have a man by your side. She could've said anything at all, gone for the health angle or even "look at your father, do you want to end up like this?" (which would've likely started drama with the dad instead haha) but she really went for the jugular. Maybe, just like Kelly did, she was trying to voluntarily go for the one thing she knew would be effective on Evie.
I find it very realistic though, in a way where the mom is just feeling powerless and panicky and like her daughter is slipping away from her so she tries to push whatever buttons she can still reach, but the damage is real. I'm a little worried about Evie, it's like no matter what she does or where she goes everyone around her is obsessed with the fact that she won't be whole, or worthy, unless she gets an SO. Now granted I'm not saying she should be only be happy by herself and move to a remote island to raise chickens but I feel that as long as she doesn't realize her inherent value, she'll always struggle boyfriend or not
oh man, I like your interpretation a lot more than mine. I always find it funny who you can write something with one intention and others will find so many different meanings from it.
Agreed - when you're seventeen virginity seems like the most embarrassing thing ever because you're looking at all the people with more experience than you and wondering what's wrong with you. I learned that everyone was lying about what they'd done anyway, and I like to think that this was the case for Kelly in part one. She probably had not done the things she told her friends about.
At the beginning Kelly - and Claire to a lesser degree - would have projected their own insecurities onto poor Evie. When Kelly feels like what she's done and how far she's gone is the most important thing about her, she would see her pressure on Evie as her way of "helping" her become more worthy. I guess setting her up with a boy she thought was a bit of a loser was a way of simultaneously keeping her in her place and not allowing her to be with someone who was too good for Kelly. Hence her fury at the Jude situation, Kelly could never have scored with Jude, so how is it fair that Evie, the defective friend, can?
Regarding Jude, flat out, he was too much for her to the point that you could say he was on a completely different plane of existence. He would have destroyed her, he was just too adult and she put too much stock in him and acted like he was the love interest in some romantic movie, it's too much pressure to put on a person and she would have never viewed him as mortal. Either he would have become frustrated by her desire to move slowly with him (and her obvious immaturity in other ways) or she would have jumped into bed with him before she was ready in order to prove something to him.
True about her mother, she absolutely could have taken the health approach, but it's telling that she hit Evie where it hurts. She was embarrassed by her husbands behavior at the dinner table and took it out on her daughter instead. Mothers and daughters can often have extremely complex relationships, they may be a lot that Marian sees of herself in Evie, and is afraid of her making the same mistakes, or projecting her own self loathing onto her, it's truly a tangled mess.
Yes! This is the central theme of the story - whether she can be worthy as her own person. The pursuit of joy in a society that keeps telling you that the most important thing in life is the companionship of another person.
Yes! This is the central theme of the story - whether she can be worthy as her own person. The pursuit of joy in a society that keeps telling you that the most important thing in life is the companionship of another person.
I love that theme
That has stood out to me as important, during this "act" of the story that's at college/Dublin, that there's no one person Evie is hung up on, in the same way as Jude was her focus throughout the first act. She's got art, friends, boys, parties, and complicated feelings about all of them, but no one thing is giving that single-minded purposeful shape to her life. While she's got her struggles and is floundering in some ways, maybe the struggle and the floundering will ultimately lead her in the direction of understanding and appreciating herself more fully, than she'd be able to if she were just stuck on one person or one thing.
Unless alcohol is going to become a thing that she's hung up on, in "Act 2"? Recent episodes have focused more and more on drinking...
When dealing with such complex subjects it makes sense that our interpretation is tied to our experience, it's why I like your story a lot! It makes us examine ourselves and our values as people. It's something that I'm always a little scared to do in stories, I find it easier to deal with set archetypes and play around with them, it makes me tend towards comedy more than anything. I always feel guilty whenever my stories get darker haha, but I can't really avoid it either, so it's something to practice! You're doing it really well, I feel like I'm learning by reading your work, simlit is wonderful for that ✨
I'm conflicted between my enjoyment of all the drama in Lucky Girl and the fact that I just want to give Evie a hug and tell her it gets better haha
She's been focused on other things which is really really good for her. I think without a boy in her life - we already know she's inclined to obsess over romance and shape her whole life around it - she might be more inclined to discover who she actually is. The challenge for her is to keep herself steady, and learn how to be resilient as she's leaning into alcohol as as crutch whenever she feels unsteady.
it's so cool!! And thank you for this, it really means a lot to hear it. I understand the fear, honestly. You mentioned what your degree was in our private messages on tumblr, and I never responded, but actually I did almost exactly the same degree (and now work in that field). I imagine we have the same training in story and archetypes, I did a load of Jungian stuff and studies of the enneagram test which I've found generally helpful when writing, and I totally get the desire to lean into concepts like that because they've truly worked well for forever. I think if I were writing a screenplay I'd definitely think more about those kinds of things, but writing something like a novel or a story like this one feels very different to me somehow. I also feel intense guilt when it gets a bit dark, but I have to follow the natural progression of it. Sometimes it just feels like Evie would do these things, so I let her do them even if they lead her into strange places.
oh and believe me, me too. I want to give her a good shake all the time.
I'm all caught up! Like always, I have many random thoughts and a few are below the spoiler.
Overall, I want happiness to come to Evie and for her to stop obsessing over boys (feelings can't always be controlled though…) . There are very few moments where she seems to pause and enjoy her life. Instead, almost every sober second seems to be filled with anxiety.
Her parents pay for everything, including her half of the utility bills, so really, nothing matters at all to her, and I know she doesn’t really understand why we have to suffer in the cold, or why I kept telling her to buy a hot water bottle instead of cranking on the radiators every time she goes to bed. If I didn’t keep remembering to switch it off our bills would be astronomical every month.
I don't understand why they have to suffer in the cold either. Evie hasn't raised any environmental issues. Her concerns seem to be entirely financial and if I were Claire, I would be annoyed with Evie about this and pay the bill so it becomes a non-issue. This doesn't need to be a point of stress for either of them. Also as working class as Evie is (and I hope she bonds with Dean over it in the future), she's also privileged and benefiting from Claire's father's wealth and Claire's father's having conveniently evicted the previous tenants. It's disgusting to consider how difficult things would be for her without her basically having her rent subsidized. She's already struggling with money. It must be so hard for working class students who only have themselves to rely on.
Evie's reaction to Dean's criticism is interesting. Based on her shyness to discuss and show others her work in the past, I would have thought that she wouldn't be so sensitive to criticism from fellow art students. Dean's rudeness is too much, but he's clearly good and being criticized by someone who is decent is refreshing? a welcome challenge? The rude parts and his poor word choice (using words like "lazy") can be ignored. I understand Evie's POV too, but as an alternative I imagined her reacting positively to finally being criticized by someone with standards and out of the twilight zone where people unhelpfully and blindly praise everything. Dean definitely needs to work on his delivery, though.
Marnie is a mess. I find her odd, interesting, clueless, shallow and incredibly offensive. Poor Evie seems to attract and tolerate people who have little sense and little consideration for her. I feel like Marnie parrots ideas because she thinks they're cool, but she doesn’t understand them and she doesn't have any actual convictions.
We’re not meant to be caged in, we’re meant to make something of ourselves and to stand out as being different. I like to imagine myself written about in some magazine far in the future, to have been a notable woman with notable things to contribute to society, not just a mother, a wife, the property of some dull, unextraordinary man.
This screams internalized misogyny. I feel like if she actually discussed and had the interests she claims to have (politics, anti-gentrification…) she would have been called out so many times by now that she wouldn't say such things. I hope Evie dumps her as a friend because she's a user who seems incapable of having any deep thoughts and plays at understanding the working class/being poor because she thinks it's cool.
There's so much going on with the Christmas family dinner. Wow…
I feel for Evie and wish her family was more supportive of her. She must have been a sweet, passive, agreeable child to not have had fights with her family about some of these things in the past. I can understand if her behavior now shocks them. I don't have a sexist family, but I was born a troublemaker, so I was caught off-guard by Evie having these conversations with her family as a college student instead of as a primary school kid. I think Evie being quiet and finally calling out her mother (of all people) as being sexist is an interesting choice. Even though she was provoked, she seems to be going for the easiest target.
@hellohannah2 You packed a lot into just one chapter. Where to begin...
I had a feeling where this chapter was headed when I read the word Catholic. From the start I should say I have a fraught relationship with organized religion and the devout. I am part of the LGBTQ community so you can imagine what it's like. I was not the least bit surprised at the things Evie's mom said. The patriarchy is religion's creation. Any country as old and deeply rooted in the Catholic Church, or any denomination, as Ireland is it's not surprising to see how blasé the older women are to the men's behavior. Women are told by the church that they are lesser than men and are expected to be unquestioningly subservient. That plays into the ages old belief that a woman is nothing if she doesn't have a man. No doubt Evie has been bombarded with those messages her entire life, subtly and overtly.
And you never question the church. So here's Evie with all these very normal thoughts, that hey, wait a minute, who says I'm lesser than a man. At the same time she's a people pleaser and pushing back against these norms being thrown at her by people she wants to please causes anxiety and stress. She wants to break free and be her own woman, but she feels a misplaced obligation to be the young woman other people want her to be. The people pleaser aspect of her personality makes it difficult to break free of the specter of Kelly. She doesn't really care what Kelly thinks of her but it still gnaws at her that a relationship went wrong. So she keeps trying to figure out why, instead of accepting that sometimes friendships really weren't meant to be, or it was the other person that changed or was a user and a false friend.
There is so much more to unpack in this chapter. It is one of those that I need to read and reread more than once to try and take in all the nuances. This is a marvelous chapter and so well written with so many layers.
Overall, I want the very same for her. I find it frustrating sometimes how every moment of her life is tainted with worry and anxiety, but I knew the story wouldn't work if she went from an anxious teenager to a suddenly normal adult without some sort of overlap. She's getting better all the time but is still riddled with worry about small, inconsequential things often. I think that's why people say that youth is wasted on the young...
That's a fair point, Claire's parents could pay the whole bill, as they clearly could afford to. I imagine that the electricity and gas bill arrangement is just something they agreed upon because it seems fair, and since Evie is living there she should have to pay for her half of it. I feel she's aware of how lucky she is to be in that situation and get that apartment for cheap so probably wants to feel like she's contributing fairly, maybe she just wasn't prepared for how lax Claire is with leaving the heat and lights on. Maybe i'll revisit this later! & Yeah, college is always difficult when you don't have money. The fees are not expensive at all, but everything else including accommodation, transport and bills are. It'd be impossible for anyone from a working class background to go if they depended on their parents money, hence why financial aid is available for everyone below a certain bracket.
I was kinda trying to portray that feeling many art students get when they go to college after being used to being the big fish in a small pond back in school. Evie was always humble about her work, but at the same time when she did show it to people they always told her it was amazing. She's become attached to the idea that being a good artist is her main asset, and that it's one of the only things she has going for her which is why she sees Dean's comments as direct attacks on her. Even strict Ida likes her work, so why doesn't he? She feels that if she's not the best at this one thing then what does she have to show for herself.
UGH. Marnie - I hate her a lot, and unfortunately she's based around a group of people I was adjacent to when I lived in Dublin, so the things she's saying are real. She's into the feminism which is obviously very important but she just picks it up the wrong end of it and insults women who don't want to live her specific lifestyle. I feel like she's the type of person to not shave her armpits, and then criticize all the other women who choose to shave for various reasons.
Yes... Christmas dinner... Evie was exactly that! I think I touched on that briefly in earlier chapters, how she was overwhelmed by the way that Kelly and Shane behaved at home because she was used to being quiet and reading books. She was a really sweet, quiet kid, but to her detriment as she's only beginning to question her upbringing now. Hmm that is interesting and I never thought about it like that! I wonder would her criticism of sexism within the family be better directed at one of the various lazy men instead.
Absolutely - and I understand that because I do too. I can only imagine, as any of us who have been involved in organized religion to some capacity have seen the intolerances that lie below the surface. Ireland has a very complex relationship with it and a very very long history of oppression, human rights violations and frankly, atrocities committed by the catholic church. My best friend at school was part of the LGBTQ+ community too, but didn't feel safe to come out until she moved to the city because of how (in 2012!!!!) people we knew were still getting attacked for being open about their sexuality. We were the first country in the world to legalize same sex marriage through a referendum, but it was in part because of our collective anger at the church and how we'd been kept under their thumb for far too long.
I wanted to show that Evie is only at the church because she has to be. He's only going through the motions and the content of the mass has meant nothing to her. She was never given the choice to be catholic because everyone here just is one, and because you couldn't get enrolled into many country schools in the 90's if you weren't baptized so everyone just did it whether they liked it or not. Her grandmother is also obviously a traditional catholic woman who has instilled the family with ideas about what man are expected to do vs what women are expected to do, and nobody questions it because it's just normal to them. Evie didn't question it either and was potentially on a path to become just like all of the others until she was blown off course by the new things she's learned about in college. (For all the hate Marnie gets - and deserves - she did help out in this regard.)
The people pleaser thing is such a catholic trait! Women must be agreeable and serve! So many of her issues come down to this, and it's not just her need to be liked by everyone, Kelly, Jude, Dean etc, it's seeped into her self image and her relationship with sexuality. Catholic guilt is so real, it's the plight of the Irish woman.
I knew this was going to be a big chapter, but the response has been really great. I'm relived everyone seems to have understood what I was trying to say, because I feel like when it comes to religion it can be so touchy. Thank you so much for your comment
@hellohannah2 I'm glad I'm caught up too. Now, I can read with everyone else.
I was kinda trying to portray that feeling many art students get when they go to college after being used to being the big fish in a small pond back in school. Evie was always humble about her work, but at the same time when she did show it to people they always told her it was amazing. She's become attached to the idea that being a good artist is her main asset, and that it's one of the only things she has going for her which is why she sees Dean's comments as direct attacks on her. Even strict Ida likes her work, so why doesn't he? She feels that if she's not the best at this one thing then what does she have to show for herself.
Got it. Thanks for explaining. I suppose that reading that scene made me feel that Evie may not be as into art as I originally thought. I guess I feel that being a big fish in a small pond is stifling and lonely, because it's hard to grow in such an environment. Your peers clearly aren't as good as you and it's hard to communicate with them about some things because they're just not on your level (and they just don't get it) and the teachers give lots of odd praise because they have to grade you on the same scale as everyone else. However, their praise always feels empty. They brush over the flaws in your work given that everyone else is much worse. So to come to an environment where others (including your peers finally!) see the flaws that you see in your own work and are willing to discuss with you how you can fix them to help you improve at what you love--I feel that that can be liberating and create a sense of community as opposed to the alien feeling that being a big fish in a small pond creates. So even though Dean is rude, I can imagine Evie being drawn to him because he gets it and he pushes her to become better. It's not that he doesn't like her work. He just sees that she's human and doesn't treat her as a talent robot. I hope this makes some sense.
She was a really sweet, quiet kid, but to her detriment as she's only beginning to question her upbringing now. Hmm that is interesting and I never thought about it like that! I wonder would her criticism of sexism within the family be better directed at one of the various lazy men instead.
I didn't really see her criticism of sexism as a criticism of sexism but as a quarrel with her mother. Her mother is also a victim, and despite her mother’s callous words, Marian seems to have done the most for Evie/cares for Evie the most and is the least able to fight back? If Evie wants to stand up and not just be mad at her mother, I feel like she would speak to her alcoholic father or even her uncle. Or if that's too much, she could simply ask her cousins to help earlier instead. She's supposedly close with Decky.
I totally get where you're coming from, and that makes a lot of sense to me. I suppose this is one of those things that'd be worth re-examining if I were to ever to a second draft of this story. The idea grew from a desire to stir up some conflict between her and Dean, but I didn't really think a lot about how someone in her exact circumstance likely would engage with criticism realistically. I suppose judging by all the stuff I've laid out about her already it's a bit random that she's not open to any critisism.
Empathy towards Marian is warranted, as she is a victim of the same things, she's just compliant in them. She certainly has done the most for Evie, and without her things would be so much worse off. Yes, if she wanted to really make a difference she likely would do that, but I can't see any of the men being very open to a conversation about sexism, unfortunately
It's really helpful to discuss these things, I feel it really helps to improve my writing and reminds me to think more about every aspect of the story as I'm writing it, so thanks for leaving such thoughtful responses
I totally get where you're coming from, and that makes a lot of sense to me. I suppose this is one of those things that'd be worth re-examining if I were to ever to a second draft of this story.
I just want to be clear that I like the chapters as you wrote them and think they make sense that way. I was just sharing random thoughts that came to me while reading, not trying to suggest that you change anything if you were ever to rewrite.
I totally see how a moderately gifted artist who prides herself on her art, and has a lot of insecurities, could react negatively to and be hurt/feel attacked by a classmate who gives mean critiques. I think Evie's actions during the dinner also make a ton of sense. I just think she's kind of compliant too (but less so than her mother). I can't see her confronting the men at dinner even in a polite way because of the real and negative consequences that might have for her.
Slightly early release for the next chapter - I'm away for the next 3 weekends (Nothing that fun unfortunately ) So expect updates on Friday mornings GMT from now until the second week of March.
Anyway, this is one of my favorite chapters and I can't explain why. I had a lot of fun creating the instagram screens in photoshop too!
Comments
15: good point hahaha - I guess he didn't want to disturb her but he could have thought that through more, as it was pretty awkward for her to have to emerge alone.
Also, yeah, Kelly and Evie totally hate each other. This chapter was meant to be the big "reveal" that actually, Kelly secretly dislikes Evie as much as Evie dislikes her, and they both have reasons to be jealous and believe the other is a terrible friend. They're a bad bad match, but at least Evie stands up for herself here because that friendship was nothing but a mess.
16-17: Evie worries, worries, worries in part 1 and never enjoys herself. She'll learn but obviously she's supremely insecure. I see what you mean about Jude's words about Liam, although he's trying to be funny more than anything. He has very little respect for him, and even more because he was probably jealous and bitter that someone who he considered to be a bit of a loser was able to score a girl that he - Jude - was interested in. I'd say he's a bad loser (and a bad winner) and has an entitlement complex but doesn't mean genuine harm.
Ugh yes - I know. Unfortunately this is something I used to feel too, like if something ever happened you'd feel like you needed to be quiet about it because it shouldn't be a big deal, but thankfully society has progressed so much past that point that very few would put up with it now. In small rural places here the old attitudes still persist, but we're moving on up & improving all the time. I hope.
Thanks so much! I loved making this chapter & it was the first time I used deco sims. I was so happy with how it turned out, and I'm glad that you noticed the effort
18 - 20: Evie and Claire are good friends, and they'll only become closer after this but it certainly will take a while for Evie to see Claire as a real flesh and blood human rather than some angelic specimen that she can only aspire to be. Claire is meant to be there as an aspirational figure, because things in her life work out at the same time as they don't work out for Evie. It's hard for her to look at her friends achievements and assets reflected back on her and not see herself as lacking in comparison. This is what I was getting at with the title of the story, kind of. Each of these girls is looking at one another and believing that one is luckier than the other, the point being that you're never satisfied with what you have.
Jude has good friends like Shane and Jen but those girls are toxic. A reflection of the kinds of attitudes that will prevail during the college chapters.
Hahahhaha - I guess there's a running theme here. Jude is just very bad at waking Evie up at crucial times.
Actually, I'm glad you said this, because I have this horrible habit of second guessing myself and starting to feel unsure about what I've written. When this scene played out in my head, Jude was just messing around the way that older brothers do sometimes and it really wasn't intended to be mean. When it was out there though I thought "Oh darn, maybe I overplayed his teasing and he seems like a horrible guy now" so I just accepted it and rolled with it and thought "hey, yeah I guess he's the worst." I suppose the lesson is to be more confident in my writing. I always default to assuming I could have done something better with it lol.
Woo! You're so close to catching up now, and I'm curious to hear what you think of the next part, which is a bit of a shift in tone.
Thanks for taking the time to comment & read!
I like Shane and Claire as well. Shane's kind of got a Chandler Byng quality about him: Quick with the wit and repartee and initially you might be mistaken for thinking he's a jerk but he's always there to help when needed and his friendships are long lasting and deep. I also like that he's reasonably good looking, but not super hot, but he's managed to pull Claire who is one of the best looking Sims I've seen. It shows that Claire's primarily attracted to Shane because of his character and personality because she could easily attract someone who's in Jude's league for looks.
Speaking of Jude...he bears a striking resemblance to the French actor Alain Delon. Delon's eyes are blue but apart from that there's a strong resemblance.
I thought Jude's scenes with his sister were revealing about his character and his family dynamic, especially after his parents show up. The apple hasn't fallen far from the tree.
Read Sim 66 here:https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/978195/sim-66/p1
https://kelloggjkellogg.blogspot.com/2020/10/sim-66-prologue.html
I did not mention this before because my comment was already long, but I think the title's meaning comes across neatly and clearly. I noticed earlier that Kelly literally tells Evie that she's a lucky girl (when I read that I was like “the title!!!
Yes. Be confident.
I feel like the "I could have done something better" mindset can be a positive thing, but it can also be a trap. Technically, most people could have almost always done something better but thinking that and doing something over again (and again and again and …) may not be worth it. What you've done with Lucky Girl is already great. Specifically regarding Jude, I never saw him as horrible so changes there would have no effect on me.
I don't think many people are motivated by negativity. If they do something well, then they want to do it again and perhaps see if it can be done a bit better next time even though better isn’t necessary, but if it doesn't go well, I think it's discouraging ("I didn't do a good job at all so I should give up”). You’re doing well and teaching everyone more about Ireland at the same time.
I have to say, I really love Shane. My friend read the first chapter a while ago and she said "I hate the horrible brother!" which now makes me laugh. Shane's a very Irish man. If you've been here or ever come you will see carbon copies of him everywhere you go, the same clothes, the same haircut, probably holding a hurl and beating a ball against the wall, and I never fit in with people like him in real life, but in the story I've developed such a soft spot for him. I've written further than all of you have read, but there's a moment with him in chapter eight that just makes me fall in love with him. He's the hero to me. He's always, always there for the people he cares about, even in his own gruff, stilted way.
Aha! Alain was such a handsome man, and I totally get what you mean. In a 60s version of this story maybe Claire would have compared him to Alain rather than Johnny Depp
Yeah the family scene was meant to be a bit revealing of aspects of him, but we'll revisit that a bit later!!
@haneul
Yeah I felt that way when writing him too. Like, I was determined not to make him perfect, because honestly what teen boy is, so he's nice sometimes and not so nice other times. He can care about his friends and be nasty to people he doesn't like and there's nothing particularly alarming about that, I'm sure we're all like that.
You forget what a minefield writing is until you do it, and the absolute hardest thing about it is the self doubt and the questioning. I feel you could write something over and over and still not be happy with it, so it comes to the point where you just have to say, okay, enough. My weekly update plan helps with this. I'm always about 3 chapters ahead, so I have 3 weeks to fuss over the chapter and then it's published. There's a limit on the agonizing.
Let's dive into Catholic Ireland for a moment and get a taste of how we do it on the Emerald Isle.
https://luckygirlstory.wordpress.com/2023/02/10/chapter-seven-2/
Read Sim 66 here:https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/978195/sim-66/p1
https://kelloggjkellogg.blogspot.com/2020/10/sim-66-prologue.html
Read Sim 66 here:https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/978195/sim-66/p1
https://kelloggjkellogg.blogspot.com/2020/10/sim-66-prologue.html
perhaps it's true that Evie is becoming a snob, and I'm very interested in what you said about her relationship with her working class roots! I viewed her thoughts as more of a pushback against the patriarchal structures within her family that she never had the language to point out before. It's unfair that she and the other women should have to work to make the dinner while the men sit around eating sweets and watching films. The other women have accepted this as normal, but Evie has discovered that she feels differently about what should be expected of her, and them, and her opinion is probably offensive to everyone who wants things to stay the way they are.
Also! LOL. I've never had bread sauce because I am unfortunately
but it does not sound that good to me! I had to have Fabiana balk at it because people from countries with delicious food always think classic Irish and English food is gross
However, you've previously had chapters where Evie is exposed to a more modern, metropolitan way of thinking...especially from Marnie who is a bit on the woke side. So the tension between the family tradition on the one side and Evie's influences on the other is there and the catalyst for an argument is her father's drinking and her mothers'....well, her issues for she has many. It's telling that the person Evie latches on to in that group environment isn't a family member...it's the outsider who probably has more in common with Evie's social circle than the rest of the family.
Everything is interconnecting...well done.
Read Sim 66 here:https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/978195/sim-66/p1
https://kelloggjkellogg.blogspot.com/2020/10/sim-66-prologue.html
• Are Ms.McCarthy and Agnes Crumplebottom the same person?? I can't remember what Agnes looks like and I never set foot in Henford on Bagley so I woudn't know for sure haha
• Kelly is still unsufferable but I'm glad they didn't speak to one another!
Wait... why is she still mad at Evie but not Claire... what? I thought the whole thing started between Claire and Kelly in the first place, and that Evie ended up as collateral damage. But I guess her standing up for herself and making her own choices was harder to swallow for Kelly than just Claire being Claire.
Part of me thinks that she's just trying to hurt Evie. It's likely that Claire doesn't care what Kelly thinks anymore but Evie's too sensitive still, it definitely sounds like one of her mind games. That or she tolerates Claire because she knows she doesn't have a choice if she wants to hang out with her brother. Both might apply.
• Family dramaaa! No Christmas dinner was ever spared in human History
• I will never understand why everybody is so obsessed with Evie being single. It blows my mind. Why so much pressuuuuure?? Poor Evie, she's only eighteen
• With everything that's apparently going on with her uncles and cousins, I didn't actually expect Evie and her mom to be the ones to cause a scene first. Like there's so much drama potential! It's like everyone around Evie know where to hit where it hurts it's really sad...
I would agree that Marnie is to thank for Evie's change in mindset here, but college can do that to you, it would have been difficult to escape social justice oriented discourse on campus at that time - and the same now, I expect. The late 00s, early 10s were a real "awakening" time here as our country began to rapidly lean into more liberal politics and reject the traditional & often intolerant mindsets of past decades. (there are loads of complex reasons for this that are very boring so I won't explain.) Evie is rejecting traditionalism too, which is one of the things that taught her how to hate herself. You cannot respect yourself if your family views women as lesser, so she's breaking away from it in her own ways.
@Velvet_Lilies
Right - so actually, Agnes was in the church during that scene and I wanted to use her as Ms. McCarthy because I thought it might be a funny little easter egg, but she left before I had a chance to talk to her! I just put her outfit on another random sim. So no, it's unfortunately not her
It's always mind games with Kelly, but I expect she's more used to tolerating Claire because she has to see her often and at least pretend to be nice to her so that Shane doesn't give her an earful. Also yeah I think you're right, Kelly wants Evie to be quiet and agreeable and was furious when she changed her tune, so her betrayal was somehow worse to her. Claire would be expected to be independent, Evie should not be.
Ugh, there is always something! But I think that Evie is the one who's obsessed with being single. Her mother was trying to bring up her alcohol consumption but Evie freaked out and made it about her singleness. Marian was only saying that girls who drink are unattractive and didn't disagree when Evie asked her if that's why she thinks she's single, but that's not the point she was making. Evie is so obsessed with being defective that it seeps into everything, she's actually the one that brings it up - poor pet.
@mightysprite
Yes exactly! She does not want to discuss the alcohol, she doesn't see that as the primary issue, only that she's single, which likely. nobody at that table cared about.
That's interesting, my impression was sort of the opposite? At first yeah especially in the first part Evie seemed obsessed with feeling defective for still being a virgin at seventeen but like who never had a tought like this? I remember being fourteen and feeling the same way when some girls I knew from school were starting to jump from boyfriend to boyfriend haha.
But even at the beginning it's really insidious: first because of Kelly of course, who kept trying to "fix" Evie and "find someone for her", I can't remember but I think Claire participated a little too, so from the very beginning she was surrounded by ideas reinforcing her feelings of defectiveness. And then the whole thing with Jude happened, and it was sooo obvious that she was putting him on a pedestal, acting like her whole world revolved around him, it would've been extraordinarily toxic even if the relationship had blossomed without obstacles. Then once that was over, Marnie showed up and again there was someone heavily pressuring Evie to flirt with random people because "it doesn't matter who!" as long as she's flirting/sleeping with people that means she's "normal". And now her mom, so yeah it's likely that she was just scared about Evie drinking excessively because of her husband having issues, and that's understandable, but the point she makes is sooo clumsy "girls who drink are unattractive" sounds a bit like "no one will ever want to marry you"
I find it very realistic though, in a way where the mom is just feeling powerless and panicky and like her daughter is slipping away from her so she tries to push whatever buttons she can still reach, but the damage is real. I'm a little worried about Evie, it's like no matter what she does or where she goes everyone around her is obsessed with the fact that she won't be whole, or worthy, unless she gets an SO. Now granted I'm not saying she should be only be happy by herself and move to a remote island to raise chickens but I feel that as long as she doesn't realize her inherent value, she'll always struggle
Agreed - when you're seventeen virginity seems like the most embarrassing thing ever because you're looking at all the people with more experience than you and wondering what's wrong with you. I learned that everyone was lying about what they'd done anyway, and I like to think that this was the case for Kelly in part one. She probably had not done the things she told her friends about.
At the beginning Kelly - and Claire to a lesser degree - would have projected their own insecurities onto poor Evie. When Kelly feels like what she's done and how far she's gone is the most important thing about her, she would see her pressure on Evie as her way of "helping" her become more worthy. I guess setting her up with a boy she thought was a bit of a loser was a way of simultaneously keeping her in her place and not allowing her to be with someone who was too good for Kelly. Hence her fury at the Jude situation, Kelly could never have scored with Jude, so how is it fair that Evie, the defective friend, can?
Regarding Jude, flat out, he was too much for her to the point that you could say he was on a completely different plane of existence. He would have destroyed her, he was just too adult and she put too much stock in him and acted like he was the love interest in some romantic movie, it's too much pressure to put on a person and she would have never viewed him as mortal. Either he would have become frustrated by her desire to move slowly with him (and her obvious immaturity in other ways) or she would have jumped into bed with him before she was ready in order to prove something to him.
True about her mother, she absolutely could have taken the health approach, but it's telling that she hit Evie where it hurts. She was embarrassed by her husbands behavior at the dinner table and took it out on her daughter instead. Mothers and daughters can often have extremely complex relationships, they may be a lot that Marian sees of herself in Evie, and is afraid of her making the same mistakes, or projecting her own self loathing onto her, it's truly a tangled mess.
Yes! This is the central theme of the story - whether she can be worthy as her own person. The pursuit of joy in a society that keeps telling you that the most important thing in life is the companionship of another person.
I love that theme
Unless alcohol is going to become a thing that she's hung up on, in "Act 2"? Recent episodes have focused more and more on drinking...
I'm conflicted between my enjoyment of all the drama in Lucky Girl and the fact that I just want to give Evie a hug and tell her it gets better haha
@Velvet_Lilies
oh and believe me, me too. I want to give her a good shake all the time.
I don't understand why they have to suffer in the cold either. Evie hasn't raised any environmental issues. Her concerns seem to be entirely financial and if I were Claire, I would be annoyed with Evie about this and pay the bill so it becomes a non-issue. This doesn't need to be a point of stress for either of them. Also as working class as Evie is (and I hope she bonds with Dean over it in the future), she's also privileged and benefiting from Claire's father's wealth and Claire's father's having conveniently evicted the previous tenants. It's disgusting to consider how difficult things would be for her without her basically having her rent subsidized. She's already struggling with money. It must be so hard for working class students who only have themselves to rely on.
Evie's reaction to Dean's criticism is interesting. Based on her shyness to discuss and show others her work in the past, I would have thought that she wouldn't be so sensitive to criticism from fellow art students. Dean's rudeness is too much, but he's clearly good and being criticized by someone who is decent is refreshing? a welcome challenge? The rude parts and his poor word choice (using words like "lazy") can be ignored. I understand Evie's POV too, but as an alternative I imagined her reacting positively to finally being criticized by someone with standards and out of the twilight zone where people unhelpfully and blindly praise everything. Dean definitely needs to work on his delivery, though.
Marnie is a mess. I find her odd, interesting, clueless, shallow and incredibly offensive. Poor Evie seems to attract and tolerate people who have little sense and little consideration for her. I feel like Marnie parrots ideas because she thinks they're cool, but she doesn’t understand them and she doesn't have any actual convictions.
This screams internalized misogyny. I feel like if she actually discussed and had the interests she claims to have (politics, anti-gentrification…) she would have been called out so many times by now that she wouldn't say such things. I hope Evie dumps her as a friend because she's a user who seems incapable of having any deep thoughts and plays at understanding the working class/being poor because she thinks it's cool.
There's so much going on with the Christmas family dinner. Wow…
I feel for Evie and wish her family was more supportive of her. She must have been a sweet, passive, agreeable child to not have had fights with her family about some of these things in the past. I can understand if her behavior now shocks them. I don't have a sexist family, but I was born a troublemaker, so I was caught off-guard by Evie having these conversations with her family as a college student instead of as a primary school kid. I think Evie being quiet and finally calling out her mother (of all people) as being sexist is an interesting choice. Even though she was provoked, she seems to be going for the easiest target.
And you never question the church. So here's Evie with all these very normal thoughts, that hey, wait a minute, who says I'm lesser than a man. At the same time she's a people pleaser and pushing back against these norms being thrown at her by people she wants to please causes anxiety and stress. She wants to break free and be her own woman, but she feels a misplaced obligation to be the young woman other people want her to be. The people pleaser aspect of her personality makes it difficult to break free of the specter of Kelly. She doesn't really care what Kelly thinks of her but it still gnaws at her that a relationship went wrong. So she keeps trying to figure out why, instead of accepting that sometimes friendships really weren't meant to be, or it was the other person that changed or was a user and a false friend.
There is so much more to unpack in this chapter. It is one of those that I need to read and reread more than once to try and take in all the nuances. This is a marvelous chapter and so well written with so many layers.
That's a fair point, Claire's parents could pay the whole bill, as they clearly could afford to. I imagine that the electricity and gas bill arrangement is just something they agreed upon because it seems fair, and since Evie is living there she should have to pay for her half of it. I feel she's aware of how lucky she is to be in that situation and get that apartment for cheap so probably wants to feel like she's contributing fairly, maybe she just wasn't prepared for how lax Claire is with leaving the heat and lights on. Maybe i'll revisit this later! & Yeah, college is always difficult when you don't have money. The fees are not expensive at all, but everything else including accommodation, transport and bills are. It'd be impossible for anyone from a working class background to go if they depended on their parents money, hence why financial aid is available for everyone below a certain bracket.
I was kinda trying to portray that feeling many art students get when they go to college after being used to being the big fish in a small pond back in school. Evie was always humble about her work, but at the same time when she did show it to people they always told her it was amazing. She's become attached to the idea that being a good artist is her main asset, and that it's one of the only things she has going for her which is why she sees Dean's comments as direct attacks on her. Even strict Ida likes her work, so why doesn't he? She feels that if she's not the best at this one thing then what does she have to show for herself.
UGH. Marnie - I hate her a lot, and unfortunately she's based around a group of people I was adjacent to when I lived in Dublin, so the things she's saying are real. She's into the feminism which is obviously very important but she just picks it up the wrong end of it and insults women who don't want to live her specific lifestyle. I feel like she's the type of person to not shave her armpits, and then criticize all the other women who choose to shave for various reasons.
Yes... Christmas dinner... Evie was exactly that! I think I touched on that briefly in earlier chapters, how she was overwhelmed by the way that Kelly and Shane behaved at home because she was used to being quiet and reading books. She was a really sweet, quiet kid, but to her detriment as she's only beginning to question her upbringing now. Hmm that is interesting and I never thought about it like that! I wonder would her criticism of sexism within the family be better directed at one of the various lazy men instead.
@DaniRose2143
I wanted to show that Evie is only at the church because she has to be. He's only going through the motions and the content of the mass has meant nothing to her. She was never given the choice to be catholic because everyone here just is one, and because you couldn't get enrolled into many country schools in the 90's if you weren't baptized so everyone just did it whether they liked it or not. Her grandmother is also obviously a traditional catholic woman who has instilled the family with ideas about what man are expected to do vs what women are expected to do, and nobody questions it because it's just normal to them. Evie didn't question it either and was potentially on a path to become just like all of the others until she was blown off course by the new things she's learned about in college. (For all the hate Marnie gets - and deserves - she did help out in this regard.)
The people pleaser thing is such a catholic trait! Women must be agreeable and serve! So many of her issues come down to this, and it's not just her need to be liked by everyone, Kelly, Jude, Dean etc, it's seeped into her self image and her relationship with sexuality. Catholic guilt is so real, it's the plight of the Irish woman.
I knew this was going to be a big chapter, but the response has been really great. I'm relived everyone seems to have understood what I was trying to say, because I feel like when it comes to religion it can be so touchy. Thank you so much for your comment
Got it. Thanks for explaining. I suppose that reading that scene made me feel that Evie may not be as into art as I originally thought. I guess I feel that being a big fish in a small pond is stifling and lonely, because it's hard to grow in such an environment. Your peers clearly aren't as good as you and it's hard to communicate with them about some things because they're just not on your level (and they just don't get it) and the teachers give lots of odd praise because they have to grade you on the same scale as everyone else. However, their praise always feels empty. They brush over the flaws in your work given that everyone else is much worse. So to come to an environment where others (including your peers finally!) see the flaws that you see in your own work and are willing to discuss with you how you can fix them to help you improve at what you love--I feel that that can be liberating and create a sense of community as opposed to the alien feeling that being a big fish in a small pond creates. So even though Dean is rude, I can imagine Evie being drawn to him because he gets it and he pushes her to become better. It's not that he doesn't like her work. He just sees that she's human and doesn't treat her as a talent robot. I hope this makes some sense.
I didn't really see her criticism of sexism as a criticism of sexism but as a quarrel with her mother. Her mother is also a victim, and despite her mother’s callous words, Marian seems to have done the most for Evie/cares for Evie the most and is the least able to fight back? If Evie wants to stand up and not just be mad at her mother, I feel like she would speak to her alcoholic father or even her uncle. Or if that's too much, she could simply ask her cousins to help earlier instead. She's supposedly close with Decky.
Empathy towards Marian is warranted, as she is a victim of the same things, she's just compliant in them. She certainly has done the most for Evie, and without her things would be so much worse off. Yes, if she wanted to really make a difference she likely would do that, but I can't see any of the men being very open to a conversation about sexism, unfortunately
It's really helpful to discuss these things, I feel it really helps to improve my writing and reminds me to think more about every aspect of the story as I'm writing it, so thanks for leaving such thoughtful responses
I totally see how a moderately gifted artist who prides herself on her art, and has a lot of insecurities, could react negatively to and be hurt/feel attacked by a classmate who gives mean critiques. I think Evie's actions during the dinner also make a ton of sense. I just think she's kind of compliant too (but less so than her mother). I can't see her confronting the men at dinner even in a polite way because of the real and negative consequences that might have for her.
Anyway, this is one of my favorite chapters and I can't explain why. I had a lot of fun creating the instagram screens in photoshop too!
https://luckygirlstory.wordpress.com/2023/02/17/chapter-eight-2/