geminalie

[geminalie]

goddamnit if i'm crying all of you guys are going to have to cry too

hamlet knows he’s the hero of a revenge tragedy.

of course he knows he’s the hero of a revenge tragedy; it’s pretty obvious. he knows enough about the theater to identify the genre that best describes his life (and because he’s an overly simplistic teenager, he does describe his life as a story.) he spends the whole play referencing actors and acting, he consciously makes claudius into a villain and himself into the hero— he knows what he’s doing.

he’s playing the part, of course. when he fakes madness, that’s playing the part. when he makes up elaborate plans and schemes, that’s playing the part.

but revenge tragedies are called tragedies for a reason. it’s because at the end, even the hero dies.

hamlet casts himself as a hero doomed to die. hamlet identifies as someone who is going to die. hamlet knows he is going to die from the moment the play begins.

but a revenge tragedy only ends when the revenge has been had; a revenge tragedy only ends when not only the hero but the villain is dead.

it’s the great question of the play: why does it take hamlet so goddamn long to kill his uncle? what is the cause his indecision and inaction? why can’t he just get on with it and stab the man, for god’s sake?

hamlet doesn’t want to die.

hamlet isn’t ready to die. he can see the curve of his destiny approaching, and he doesn’t want it to. he wants to hold off that climax just a little longer, because he doesn’t want to die yet.

at the beginning of the last scene of the play, he’s invited to a duel organized by a man who’s tried to kill him already. hamlet figured out r & g were working for claudius in about five minutes; he knows this is sketchy, for god’s sake. and horatio tells him, horatio begs him, don’t go if there’s something that frightens you. be cautious. be afraid. don’t go, stay with me.

hamlet walks into his death with open eyes, because he is ready to fulfill his destiny, because he is ready to kill his uncle as his father told him, because he is ready to do the last thing the hero of a revenge tragedy will ever do. he knows how this story ends and he chooses this ending. he knows he will die and he chooses to die.

the rest is silence - it’s almost surprised. there’s nothing else. there’s no more to tell.

what do you say to children, once the storybook has been read and put away?

good night, sweet prince. flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.

i’ll see you in the morning.

[geminalie]

“Hold my hand in yours, and we will not fear what hands like ours can do.”

— The Epic of Gilgamesh (Danny P. Jackson translation)

[geminalie]

Donna Tartt

[geminalie]

a girlhood’s death by ashiqin m. : archived poems of teenage years spanning from 2011 to 2016. 40 pages. 55 prose. chronological. semi-biographical. truer yesterday than it is today.

the chapbook is available for download here. 

[geminalie]

ancient greek word of the day: δακέθυμος (dakethumos), heart-eating, heart-vexing

[geminalie]

“It is only the sacred things that are worth touching.”

Oscar Wilde, from The Picture of Dorian Gray (x)

[geminalie]

What’s closer to god:thirst or confession?

Kristin Chang, from “Outcall #,” published in The Wanderer (via skyeosbourne)

[geminalie]

There’s a certain slant of light, On winter afternoons, That opresses, like the weight Of Cathedral tunes.

Emily Dickinson, from “There’s a certain slant of light,” in EMILY DICKINSON (The Laurel Poetry Series). (via existential-celestial)

[geminalie]

“The sweet small clumsy feet of April came / into the ragged meadow of my soul.”

— e.e. cummings, from 100 Poems; “if i have made, my lady,”

[geminalie]

“God is fluent in language and ruin.”

— Meghan Privitello, from The Encyclopedia of Sexual Positions with God, published in Waxwing (via lifeinpoetry)

[geminalie]

IPHIGENIA : —But dreams have ensavaged me.

Euripides, Iphigenia Among the Taurians (tr. by Anne Carson)

[geminalie]

Can you rec some mlm books by mlm authors?

i’m not 100% sure all these authors are mlm but i read the book and didn’t find any issues with the rep etc 

aristotle and dante discover the secrets of the universe by benjamin alire saenz

we are the ants by shaun david hutchinson

the five stages of andrew brawley by shaun david hutchinson

at the edge of the universe by shaun david hutchinson

history is all you left me by adam silvera

they both die at the end by adam silvera

more happy than not by adam silvera

the art of starving by sam j miller

avi cantor has six months to live by sacha lamb

wonders of the invisible world by christopher barzak

the great american whatever by tim federle

peter darling by austin chant

coffee boy by austin chant

true letters from a fictional life by kenneth logan

will grayson, will grayson by david levithan (& john green)

boy meets boy by david levithan

two boys kissing by david levithan

one man guy by michael barakiva

anything could happen by will walton

willful machines by tim floreen

and some anticipated 2018 releases

darius the great is not okay by adib khorram

what if it’s us by adam silvera (& becky albertalli)

social intercourse by greg howard

running with lions by julian winters

black wings beating by alex london

the dangerous art of blending in by angelo sumerlis

alan cole is not a coward by eric bell 

anger is a gift by mark oshiro

i felt a funeral in my brain by will walton

anatomy of a murderer by tim floreen 

white rabbit by caleb roehrig

[geminalie]

[…] flowers of living flesh scattered through starry woods.

Arthur Rimbaud, in an excerpt from Seven-Year-Old-Poet, featured in A Season in Hell & Other Poems (via minima–moralia)

[geminalie]

ancient greek word of the day: μελίχρυσος (melichrysos), gold-honey-colored

[geminalie]

let my love be a wolf. / i’ll lay my head on a bed of her teeth.

José Olivarez, from “I Wake in a Field of Wolves with the Moon,” published in The Shallow Ends (via lifeinpoetry)

[geminalie]

some of my favorite poems

sorted a-z by author’s first name

the glass essay by anne carson 

From girl to woman to who I am now, from love to anger to this cold marrow, from fire to shelter to fire

the kiss by anne sexton 

My mouth blooms like a cut

I’ve been wronged all year, tedious nights, nothing but rough elbows in them

courtney love prays to oregon by clementine von radics

What is a home if not the first place you learn to run from?

hyacinth by louise glück

There is no other immortality: in the cold spring, the purple violets open. And yet, the heart is black

hail by mary szybist 

I only   dream of your ankles brushed by dark violets, of honeybees above you   murmuring into a crown.

on the queer girl fantasy by natalie wee 

Question: if a girl kisses another girl with no witness, does that revelation make a sound?

on earth we’re briefly gorgeous by ocean vuong 

Stars falling one / by one in the cross hairs.

This means I won’t be / afraid if we’re already

here. Already more / than skin can hold.

someday i’ll love ocean vuong by ocean vuong

The most beautiful part of your body

is where it’s headed. & remember, loneliness is still time spent

with the world

saying your names by richard siken

All night I stretched my arms across him, rivers of blood, the dark woods, singing with all my skin and bone Please keep him safe. Let him lay his head on my chest and we will be like sailors, swimming in the sound of it, dashed to pieces.

snow and dirty rain by richard siken 

We have not touched the stars, nor are we forgiven, which brings us back to the hero’s shoulders and the gentleness that comes, not from the absence of violence, but despite the abundance of it

lady lazarus by sylvia plath

Dying Is an art, like everything else.   I do it exceptionally well.

mad girl’s love song by sylvia plath 

I should have loved a thunderbird instead; At least when spring comes they roar back again. I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead. (I think I made you up inside my head.)

trigger by topaz winters

I’ll say it like emergency exit, like / dismemberment. Yes, I love the girl. I love her like / glowing in the dark. I love her like animal.

the house by warsan shire 

Mother says there are locked rooms inside all women; kitchen of lust, bedroom of grief, bathroom of apathy.

[geminalie]

Hi M! Are there any books similar to IWWV that you could recommend? (preferably written by women) Thank you! P.S. One of my goals for the new year is to get my best friends to read your book, because I need someone to talk about it! I read it when it came out and the plot and details are still turning in my head, I'm still analysing random things about it. It's really a masterpiece, thank you so much for writing it.

A few of my favorite campus novels which just happen to be by women are Eleanor Catton’s The Rehearsal (with performing arts as an added bonus) and Meg Wolitzer’s Sleepwalking. If you want something more on the thriller side of the spectrum you might try Joanne Harris’s Gentlemen and Players, and if you want something more on the literary side, Iris Murdoch’s The Book and the Brotherhood (fair warning: this one is wonderful but very, very dense). Another favorite and very influential in the writing of Villains but alas, written by a man, is John Knowles’s A Separate Peace. Happy reading! Glad to hear you enjoyed the book, and thank you so much for reading.