#FINISHED MY LIT REVIEW!!!!!

[iamthepulta]

*stares at 30 reblogs of "deep down you want to bite someone with 100% power just once"*

*writes: "m00t is reincarnated crocodile (beloved)" on notepad*

[midnight-mourning]

three promptobers tomorrow chat, ya girl was in the lab for like four hours today and I didn't get home until like 8, I have a lot of work to catch up on but I'll get back on track soon hopefully

[iknowwhereyousleepatnight]

oughhhh five million articles with tiny fonts but it's a pdf so i cant increase the text size without zooming in and having to manually scroll side to side to read everything or just suffer with the small font because i can only use half my screen for reading because the other half of my screen for writing in my word doc my DETESTED

[baeshijima]

the worst thing about writing academic papers is knowing the basis, theme, and the references u will write with (usually all open in separate tabs/noted down) but being unable to encapsulate it when actually at the document.

actually, this is just writing in general ;w;

[the-blue-phantom]

the thing about writing is that its like pulling teeth and i hate every second except for when i dont. this means that writing a fanfic i think about constantly just doesnt happen and the same applies to original fiction. this also applies to my thesis. now sometimes if i hate writing something i'll just switch over to another project and make progress and then bounce back to the one i originally was avoiding. now its time to see if nancy drew or viruses will win this battle and which will be finished first

[blinkbones]

Nana, Émile Zola

Finally getting some French lit in. To be completely honest, I've had this book for almost a decade, and I never read it. Well, actually, apparently I tried at some point, because I found some underlined bits very early on -- but it's clear that I gave up. I remember struggling with it back then. I didn't, this time. It's nice to see proof of my improvement, although I'm not sure what specific skill is concerned.

For a quick & anachronistic summary, it's the story of a 19th century escort girl who makes it big in paris.

I was actually surprised by how easy to read this was. I kind of expected very difficult language. It is poetic, but not actually difficult. The text is easy to follow, almost journalistic. Poetic journalism.

I really, really enjoyed Nana. It's a long ride, and what a ride. It reads, at times, like a soap opera, with how she has a roster of desperate men orbiting around her. She really is the sun of her novel -- and it is her novel. I entered this book ignorantly (despite being French and a ~lit student, I'm not actually well-versed in my country's literature) and it kept surprising me. Where I expected a moralizing tale, or at least a pessimistic outlook on the arrogant seductress, I got the unstoppable, inescapable success of Nana. It's almost a power fantasy, although I doubt Zola saw it through this angle. I mean, it does end badly. Spoilers, but she fully dies in a disfiguring manner. And there is this underlying theme of Nana, the beautiful Venus from the lower classes, bringing the rot of the sewers to the silk sheets of the aristocracy. She all but ruins the entire upper class with the raw power of her sex-appeal, and I thought that there was something cosmic about it. By the time she's at her apex, she herself does not have control of her situation. She becomes like an empire, constantly conquering further reaches to maintain peace and prosperity throughout her imperial reign. She devours. And yet she's so incredibly human. She felt to me like a deity unaware of its power, and, in that sense, her death (especially because it's in the full bloom of her youth and legendary status) felt more like a shedding of the mortal form. Admittedly, I also just find it more fun to interpret it that way. I'm reading for fun, after all. Ah, the specter of academic seriousness hangs over me.

I think Nana is an easy entry point into that sort of literature. Yes, it's part of some long-ass series, but no, you don't need to read the previous books (I didn't). It's very self-contained. It's a long, very eventful ride, through Nana's chaotic and glamorous world. It's long but it feels like going downhill on a bike, and like everything's going too fast still. And it's fucking funny.

And for you, tumblr, my beloved, yes, you will find some messy queers in there. I only talked about Nana herself here, but Nana holds a whole ensemble cast of secondary characters, many interesting women (a wealth of them, really), that are really a whole other serving of delights that I just didn't have time to talk about here. But seriously, just about every character, especially the women, is interesting.

[nohkalikai]

i got somewhere w my fucking literature review

[pinktinselmonstrosity]

wooooo had my second interview for my dissertation!! your girl's a proper researcher now 😌

[tytonnidaie]

seeing my supervisor tomorrow 🫡 purification ends up taking 2 days so ill only have started by the time i talk to him lmfao

[lambentplume]

my UI lit review just makes me want to make games

[artemismatchalatte]

Mostly WLW (and a few MLM) books I've bought in 2023

Passing Strange by Ellen Klages and The Night Watch by Sarah Waters (both are historic fiction WLW)

Like Water by Rebecca Podos (WLW YA) and One Last Stop by Casey McQuinston (WLW New Adult)

Cemetery Boys by Aidan Thomas (I think MLM YA with a trans MC?) and Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfeild (Contemporary Adult WLW)

The Unlit Lamp by Radclyffe Hall (implied WLW classic) and The Trials of Radclyffe Hall by Diana Souhani (Biography of gnc lesbian writer Radclyffe Hall)

What Makes Girls Sick and Tired by Lucile de Peslouan and Genivive Darling (Graphic Novel on Feminism) and Hear us out: Lesbian and Gay Stories of Progress, Struggle and Hope from the 1950s to the Present by Nancy Garden (2000s; WLW and MLM history and historic fiction)

I had an idea for a new kind of book photoshoot. These were all bought used via Thriftbooks.com this year.

[gaywriting]

The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy book review

The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee (2018)

⭐️⭐️⭐️✖️✖️

"I don’t know what you’re referencing, madam,” the chairman says, his voice raised over mine. “I’m talking about menstruation, sir!” I shout in return. It’s like I set the hall on fire, manifested a venomous snake from thin air, also set that snake on fire, and then threw it at the board.

I got this book after finishing The Gentleman's Guide and i finished it January 18, 2023

This sequel to The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue tells the story of Monty's younger sister Felicity, who were also a part of the adventure of the first book and came out of it a woman with a strong will and backbone for days. This takes place a year after the first book and after Monty and Felicity disowned their parents and went out on their own, Monty to be gay and happy and Felicity with the intention of becoming the first woman doctor, almost a more difficult task than Montys. This quest for finding someone who will teach her and give her a licence takes Felicity all over Europe and even further than that, to discover what lies underneath the Atlantic ocean, during which she rekindles old relationships and makes new ones and have to see how far she's willing to go to fight the patriachy of the world!

i got this book second hand, because i wasn't the biggest fan of the first book (but a fan none the less, thus giving this a chance) and while there were parts i really enjoyed and liked, i was also left kind of underwhelmed with this book. I dont know, maybe Lee's writing just isn't something for me...

but all in all not a bad book. i liked the viewpoints Lee explored about what it truly means to be a woman, challenging the downright prejudice against frilly girly girls and also girls who loves playing in mud. It's nice to read as a woman, to feel seen, heard and representated. 🌸 And not represenation in just feminism and womanhood! i went into this book thinking Felicity was gonna find a pirate wife and that kinda happens, i guess, but also kinda not. Felicity is definitely some kind of aro-ace and she's a queen for that! it's the first book ive read with an aro-ace main character and i really respect Lee for not forcing Felicity to enter a relationship, just to make it a fully romance lesbian story. Even if Felicity liked Sim, or at some point had some sort of feelings for Joanna, if romance and sex isn't for her, that's that. Queen, legend, icon! ✨

All in all, if you wanna read a story about a strong, independent woman fighting every man she comes across, want to laugh at all the "dumb white man" jokes or experience good aro-ace represenation in the main character, this book is a definite read and rec!

[inhistorysfootsteps]

they never tell you writing a thesis involves a lot of going around in circles

[biborispavlikovsky]

meeting with my advisor monday and i do NOT feel prepared but whatever

[burnthybread]

being the quiet nice girl pays off sometimes!

[musicrunsthroughmysoul]

I got a book of short stories from the library that I've been excited to read ever since I heard from the writer who I follow on IG that her debut book was coming out (I think it came out a little over a month ago now), and god, it is so, so good to not only read fiction again but to read it in a collection of short stories format! Not to be weird (but whatever; I'll be weird about it, I don't care) but the limitations of the short story form practically make me salivate because I am absolutely in awe of and savoring every single word, every single description, every single little piece of dialogue that is in each story. It's just amazing how writers can bring short stories to life - to choose to limit themselves to only the most essential elements of a story in order to tell it. Holy fuck it's good, and I'm realizing again that I might very well be obsessed with short stories. I do, after all, choose to read short story anthologies again and again and again, and books of short stories by a single author are also not in limited supply on my bookshelf. :') I love them, I love them, I love them.