#Essays

[metamorphesque]

  ― Billy-Ray Belcourt, A History of My Brief Body

[text ID: To love someone is firstly to confess: I'm prepared to be devastated by you.]

[papenathys]

In light of the recent attack upon an elderly Muslim gentleman in India, who was assaulted by Hindu extremist sanghis on a train for carrying beef, here are more essays to read, demonstrating how the concept of "pure vegetarianism" in India cannot be separated from ideas of caste hierarchy, oppression of marginalized groups and how foods and diets of different groups are shaped as much by economic disparities as by belief and spirituality:

Note: I know this shall breach containment soon but yeah, white vegans, "pure" vegetarians, and sanghis don't touch this post.

[sluttyquarantinetheory]

I see a lot of people talking about chat gpt as a uniquely evil way teenagers are shirking their homework. And don't get me wrong I hate chat j'ai pété so fucking much. But also a decade and a half ago half my senior english class got caught for plagiarism because they all copied and turned in the exact same essay on Macbeth from the internet.

The same type of students who weren't writing their essays then are the same type who are not writing their essays now. The tech has changed but the work ethic is the same.

[luthienne]

Arundhati Roy, ‘Our country has lost its moral compass’

[minyard-05]

how does the story go? orpheus loved eurydice, more than the sun loved the moon, more than the ocean loved the stars. the child of a muse, orpheus had a gift for beautiful things, for music, an unshakeable love for the world.

orpheus loved eurydice, and eurydice loved him back, and in every telling of the story, this is one of the unchangeable facts.

in every version, katelyn and aaron's relationship is hard. it's hard to start it and keep it and believe in it when their first couple of years are hiding and off-and-on, and it only feels real in study sessions and empty dorm rooms and coffee shops at six am before anybody they know can see them. between them they know it's real, they've talked about it, they've agreed, but that doesn't make saying i love you any easier, it doesn't mean katelyn knows how to answer the bombarding questions she gets from the vixens about whether it's worth it, it doesn't mean aaron wants to have to ignore her smiles from the sidelines after games. but as long as the good parts outweigh the hard parts, it's okay, right?

how does the story go? orpheus lost eurydice. fate, chance, bad luck, call it what you will, but death came and took her with it, and orpheus found himself lost without her. music lost melody, light lost warmth, and he vowed to do whatever it took to get her back.

orpheus lost eurydice, and eurydice lost orpheus, and as certain as the sun follows the moon, they were torn apart from each other. in every telling of the story, this is the second unchangeable fact.

the harder their second year gets, the more aaron starts to pull away. he's not trying to hurt katelyn, he never would, but it just gets easier to keep distance. seth dies, the whole team is on edge, campus security is increased, it's just too much. so he starts getting to the library earlier and leaving later than her, starts holding back in conversation, falling asleep in his classes. katelyn's worried about him, but she tries not to push too hard, just wanting to be there, but she knows he'd never try and burden her.

then thanksgiving. then they're apart, and katelyn's at home with her family, picking out nursery colors with her sister when she gets a call. aaron doesn't call her on holidays, texting's easier, but no, he's calling her. she steps out to take it and all she can hear for a moment is him breathing, shaky and faint. "everything okay?" no response, just half a sob that sounds like aaron's pushed the phone away to hide the sound. "come on, baby, talk to me." nothing again, then a deep breath and "how was your break?" she almost asks if he's kidding, if he's really calling her like this just to ask how she is, but she answers, in the end, she talks like it's any other conversation, and on the line she can hear aaron's breathing start to level, start to slow, like he's calming down. when she's done, he doesn't speak. she asks him one more time if he's okay. he says "i love you" and then the call cuts off suddenly. it's not until she gets a call from dan that she finds out what happened. that aaron was handcuffed when he asked her how her break was, that she was his one phone call from the holding cell because the rest of his family already knew where he was. when she sees him again, she holds on as if he's going to fall right through her arms.

how does the story go? orpheus goes back for eurydice, because that is what love is. orpheus travels below the earth, into the underworld to find her, disturbing hades, who hears his story and makes orpheus a deal: lead eurydice out of hell, but never turn back to look at her, or they will lose each other forever.

christmas without andrew is the hardest stretch kate and aaron have ever been through. they should have some semblance of freedom for the first time, but every time they're together it's stilted and they don't know what to say, but every time they're apart aaron just feels untethered. he tries to end it three times, because she deserves better than this but the words always fail.

but she doesn't give up on him. every time he wakes up with blood on his hands and sobs trapped in his throat, and all their walks late at night when aaron's too restless to think, and every time she holds his hand to stop him picking at his skin and every whispered stay here and every chaste kiss and every i've got you and every savored moment of closeness because it might be all they have.

and yes, orpheus looked back. he lost eurydice in the end. it is the third unalterable fact of the story. but isn't love looking back. isn't love letting go. we can argue when orpheus turned back, we can debate meanings and morals until the world stops spinning. but what can never be called to question is that orpheus loved eurydice.

@reinekes-fox @absolutely-existing @tessasilverswan @you-know-i-get-itt @mostlyvoid-partiallyflowers

does anyone wanna hear about my kateaaron orpheus and eurydice thoughts

[mournfulroses]

Mary Oliver, from Long Life: Essays And Other Writings originally published in 2004

[soracities]

absolutely enraptured rn

[writer-logbook]

How to improve your writing style : a 5-steps guide.

Intro : I love the 5-steps format, don’t mind me. Again, this essay is based on my personal experience.

Read in different genres. Ok, I know you’ve probably heard this advice more than you can count but did you ask yourself why it is so important ? You probably wonder ‘‘How reading some historical fiction will help me writing my sci-fi novel ?’’ For that simple reason my friend : they meet different purposes. You don’t know how to describe a castle ? It’s okay, historical fiction got your back. Because it aims at something more realistic and accurate, it would tend to be more specific and detailed when it comes to describing clothes, furniture, places and so on. Why ? Because, most of the time, THEY ACTUALLY EXISTED. Take a closer look at how it is done and draw your inspiration from it (but please avoid plagiarism it’s bad - and illegal)

Take notes and CLASSIFY them. To make reading somehow useful, you have to actually make it concious, which means you have to write things down to remember them. When I come across a description I like, I tend to takes notes of the figures of speech that are used and class them, so when I have to write a similar scene, I have an idea of what have been already used, and weither or not it achieved its goal. I am NOT talking about COPY another author’s style !!!! It’s about finding inspiration and new approaches. I also tend to take notes of the new words I wish to incoporate into my writing. The thesaurus is my new bestie.

Rewrite the same scene from different POVs. First of all, it’s fun. And it’s a really good way to spot quirky formulations. For instance, if you describe a ship, the captain’s POV should be different from that of a simple observer. The first one would be naming each part princisely whereas the other would only be admiring the surface without knowing anything. If the caption is the same for both POVs, maybe you should consider write your passage again (or have a good reason, like a strong amateurism for the mere observer). It’s go hand in hand with coherence - but it would be an essay for another time (maybe).

Read your text aloud. I put major emphasis on that one because it’s as underated as reading books for various genres. You have no idea how much we DON’T speak the way we write. Even dialogues are crafted in our stories - so make sure to give them proper attention. (i even read my email aloud but-). I KNOW how cringey it might be as I am doing it MYSELF but the benefits are worth the 35-minutes shame I endure from my own mess. Before you can shine, you have to polish (shout out to the one who said that first if it’s not me).

Take a step back. I strongly advice you to let some time pass before reading your text again and profreading it. It will cast a new light upon your work and with fresh eyes you’d be more likely able to spot what needs to be erased or rephrased.

That’s all for me today. Since I would be entering my proofreading phase for my writing contest, the next essay would probably about proofreading (with examples from my own novel ?). Unless someone wants me to write on a specific subject first.

Gentle reminder that I’m still French and not a native so please forgive my dubious grammar and outrageous mispellings.

[covington-shenanigans]

I just want to point out that the text on this version of this post is 971 words (not including what I'm writing right now). just the first reply is 456 words.

most of us have written longer rants in discord than a 600 word essay requires. please use your beautiful brains and don't let my stupid industry take away your ability to express yourself.

[longreads]

The Top 5 Longreads of the Week

In this week’s Top 5: 

—Chilling Chilean forensic anthropology

—An empathetic park ranger

—Teaching migration to unruly birds

—Fear in America’s schools

—The Victorian vendors of cat meat 

Find out why our editors chose these incredible stories here.

[joytri]

[kitchen-light]

Regretfully, I had to leave all my books behind. I couldn’t bear to make the choice between my beloveds, so I left them all.   Give them back. Give us back our beds. Give us back our offices. And give us back our books.

Nabil S., from "It Was All Songs: A Letter From Gaza" translated from the Arabic by Sarah Aziza, published in Mizna on February 12th, 2024. You can read the entire essay here.

[papenathys]

Absolutely insane lines to just drop in the middle of an academic text btw. Feeling so normal about this.

[ A Critical History of English Literature, Vol. 1, Prof. David Daiches, first published in 1960 ]

[lucidloving]

@heavensghost // Erin Moran, "940 Main Street" // Jason Schneiderman, "Little Red Riding Wolf" // @mah_hirano on tw // Adrienne Rich, "Planetarium" // Richard Siken, Editor's Pages: Black Telephone // Molly McCully Brown, Places I've Taken my Body: Essays // @loputyn // Mason O'Hern, "You Are Not Just Anything" // Friedrich Nietzsche, Good and Evil

[luthienne]

Fady Joudah, from A Palestinian Meditation in a Time of Annihilation