2christel2-blog

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A recent cartoon for New Scientist magazine.

Also, my new comic book Mooncop is out now: http://www.tomgauld.com/index.php?/comics/mooncop/

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Happy Bi Awareness Week!

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New Studyblr

Hi there! I’m Brian, and I wanted to make a studyblr because I have alot of ideas I wanted to put out there. I am currently a high schooler, gonna be a junior soon. I’ll definitely post my summer school notes, my notebook ideas, and motivational/inspiration stuff :) I’m 16 and I love to have a bullet journal, it’s my favorite to just to jot down ideas and memories Here’s just a sample of my work

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(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKYL6BbSBSM)

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Malaysian makeup artist Saraswati (@QueenofLuna) uses her hijab to help transform herself into Disney characters. Amazing.

(Artist)

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The Writing Process as Seen by Me

The act of writing is different for everyone. You do not have to write in chronological order. Your first draft acts as the foundation, but is ultimately malleable. It's easier to edit crap than an empty page. Writing is a process. Your skill increases with every word you write.

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Magic Realism: Let’s Talk Genre

I have been reluctant to call magic realism a genre. I would call it a literary style. I often compare magic realism to the gothic, but gothic too is a style, even if it also happens to be a genre. 

Lately though, magic realism has come across my Goodreads dashboard one too many times to ignore. A few times I’ve even picked up books under the magic realism category, only to realize, these are often not at all examples of magic realism. Often they are urban fantasy or even gothic. This becomes even more problematic when writers come to me saying that they write magic realism (and I get all excited and want to talk about it) until I find out that what they thought was magic realism is not magic realism.  So today, I’m going to try to explain it. 

Magic realism is a literary style that originated in Latin American Literature. It was popularized by the writer Gabriel García Márquez. A great contemporary example of this style in use is in pieces of Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.  The key characteristic of magic realism is that magic is normalized. It exists in everyone’s normal day to day life, whether it be in the form of curses or talking animals and so on. It isn’t suddenly discovered. Magic is not the conflict, though it can create situations for conflict (eg: “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” by Gabriel García Márquez). It exists and is real and most importantly, magic in itself is not feared - this is the biggest thing I emphasize. 

In a gothic, magic is scary. Magic or the belief in magic is often the conflict. It can be questionable whether the magic is real or not, but it causes fear regardless (eg: “The Thorn” a gothic poem by William Wordsworth). Curses are also common in gothics and animals too often play significant roles, but the difference is that these things will likely be the central conflict for these characters. Magic is still pretty believed by characters in these stories, but it is not normalized. In fact, magic is abnormal and that is why it is so frightening. Gothic is a genre that was popularized in the 19th century. Often gothic influence creep into today’s literature and that is more of a style than it is fitting with that historic genre. Stylistically, gothics and magic realism tend to fit more within the literary genre than they do horror or fantasy. 

Urban fantasy is a genre that is more recently popular. It commonly includes hidden worlds or the discovery of magic whether it be positive or negative. The point is that in urban fantasy, magic is not part of the every day. Curses and talking animals are also present in this genre. Magic has to be discovered. Characters need to convince someone to believe in it. Magic can be fun and uplifting, but still, it is not part of the norm, or at least normal for the entire world as we know it. Urban fantasy books can be very lyrical and fresh and are most often what I see people mistake for instances of magic realism. Urban fantasy is one of my favorite genres and unfortunately, it’s one that a lot of new writers are very hesitant to identity with. 

Due to lots of questions and criticism, I should note, magic realism is not the same as the fantasy genre. They exist separately. I cannot say the I have read a fantasy story I would say includes magic realism, because nearly all examples I’ve named and others I am aware of tend to be literary fiction. I will not say that all are because I have not read everything and I believe that it’s a popular style that has a lot of room to grow. In fact, I would love to see it grow and expand. If you want to become more familiar with magic realism, I highly recommend reading some of the examples I’d mentioned. 

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You are more than everything they ever called you, or everything they did not. You will never be limited by the boundaries they set for you, you are more than just another sheep following down the same tired path. You are limitless. You are as free as you so wish and your dreams are valid no matter how big or small. They try to define you and keep you down because they are afraid. Afraid to see you do better, afraid to see you live a way they do not understand. Afraid to let you be you, but that is all you will ever be.

You are more than they tell you by Amy Kennedy

19/06/16

(via satiricalwords)

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I will not attend one more ‘Moment of Silence’ on the Floor. Our silence does not honor the victims, it mocks them.     “The Moments of Silence in the House have become an abomination. God will ask you, 'How did you keep my children safe’? Silence.

Jim Hines (D- Connecticut) 

This right here is political courage. This is exactly the sort of thing that Hillary Clinton does not have.

(via wilwheaton)

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Memoirist Daisy Hernández learned the ropes of dating men from her mother and aunts, but couldn’t quite do the same when she started dating women.

This excerpt from bisexual author Daisy Hernández’s memoir is fucking gorgeous and it makes me want to read it like RIGHT NOW. 

- Sarah

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10 Rad Poetry Slam Videos You Must Watch

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Drinkware shapes and uses - left in a home goods store.

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Fairy Tale Reform School  by Michael Heath 

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AU where everything is the same, but Kylo Ren admires his grandmother too

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I made this long Twilight summary a while back but I never shared the whole thing with you tumblr. I should probably point out that I’ve only seen 2 of the movies and not read any of the books so there might be 1 or 2 teensy errors…. 

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Literary tights - including custom text - by TightsShop on Etsy

• So Super Awesome is also on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest •

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Please help…