#I could write a book of recs

[fictionadventurer]

I'm fascinated by the ways in which the things a creator is good at making don't necessarily line up with the kind of art that they respect or even enjoy.

This has haunted me ever since I saw a Youtube video about the downfall of The Band Perry, a country band that I had liked until their music got weird and they kind of fell off the face of the earth. Well, it turns out that they tried to reinvent their image and their style of music several times before the band finally fell apart. When they started, they had this weird Southern Gothic homeschooler style that really worked for them and was reasonably popular, but then they tried to switch to a cooler type of pop music--a style they supposedly admired and enjoyed--and it just did not work at all. They failed because they chased what they wanted to make instead of sticking with the style that they were good at.

It's a tension that's present in all creative work. At one point does "going outside the box" go too far? Can one be happy making good work even if it's not the kind of stuff they like or admire? Are the techniques and styles that are most appealing to us appealing because they're things that we can't create ourselves? As in, our minds don't work that way, so seeing these things from other creators is exciting, but the fact that our minds don't work that way is exactly why we can't imitate those things. Where's the line between creative integrity--pushing yourself to make better things--and pride--wanting to make something more prestigious and impressive instead of humbly making the type of art you're best suited to make? Can one even clearly see what they're best at making, and appreciate the good that's there rather than chasing after styles and techniques that seem better? There are no solid answers, which is why I'm going to be endlessly thinking about this.

[koshercosplay]

BOOK REC TIME

I pre-ordered this book way back in March and well, it finally arrived and I read it over shabbos, and it was SUCH an enjoyable read!

seriously I do very much recommend this book. it reminded me somewhat of when the angels left the old country in terms of how much yiddish and jewish intra-community terminology was peppered into the plot, and funnily enough sacha lamb the author did in fact give it a blurb

this book has everything: jewish vampire women who shapeshift into owls and yiddish theater and syrian jewish history and an israeli lesbian possessed by a dybbuk! what more could you want honestly

jumblr please give this a read 🦉🌙🌃🦉

get the book here

[lovesodeepandwideandwell]

Dare I say it, the way Parks and Rec failed in its conclusion was by succumbing to the capitalist construction of the self as an infinite growth optimization machine (where the optimized self is the work self)

[rapha-reads]

To those of you wondering (aka no one), I finished both The Vampire Armand and Merrick and I have a lot of thoughts and feels. I'm skipping Blood and Gold for now to go directly to Blackwood Farm (I'll read B&G later), but first I'm going to read something else, just to take a break.

TVA thoughts: man, Armand is messed up. And extremely compelling. But so messed up. As always, the theme of faith crisis, which seriously reaches new heights with these bitchy vampires, is not something I can fully immerse myself in, but it was fascinating to see his numerous metamorphosis. I liked how he bridges Western and Eastern Christianisme, especially through art. Now I'm thinking that if Rolin Jones makes him originally Muslim in the show, that could expand even more the conversation on how faith, and especially Abrahamic faith, has been in conversation for thousands of years and could be such a rich, diverse and spiritual, intellectual and artistic theme. I can already imagine some fascinating discussions comparing (not in a superior way but in a complementary way) coming from Muslim faith to Roman Catholic faith, the way book!Armand talks about the richness of his life in Kiev Rus despite the poverty and ascetism, and the richness of his life in Venecia despite the luxury and abundance.

As for Benamin and Sybille... I don't have much thoughts about them. Sybille is one of those female characters AR seemingly favors, not so much human as a nymph or a dryad, "perfectly splendid". And Benji is a caricature of an Arab child. Nuance? 401 not found.

Merrick thoughts: David for the love if everything, shut. The. Fuck. Up. Holy moly. I like David, I do, but damn the entire recollection of his history with Merrick was looooooong. I'm here to see Louis haunted by Claudia and haunting Lestat's coma, not how hard you're pining for the kid you practically raised! Also. ALSO. You're just going to leave that whole thing with the Olmec or possibly another more ancient Mesoamerican civilisation without ever giving us more? That was the most interesting part of it all! The vodoo history, the connection between Louisiana and Caribbean vodoo and old Native South-American religions! More about this, less about Merrick's perfect breasts, I am begging you. (It is at this point that the reader of this post realises OP is 100% definitely ace and more interested in books and witchcraft than breasts and whether a 70yo man can still get it up - also, hey, Anne Rice's vampires are practically asexual and their lust and pleasure is mostly derivated from blood, with some notable exceptions like Armand and Marius, and a love relationship between two vampires is then based on romantic love and blood sharing, so can I hear a hell yeah for some ace representation or are we still conflating eroticism with sex)

Another thing I kept thinking about throughout the book is how Louis is perceived by his fellow vampires. Since basically the second book, since we've lost his own POV, everybody who's ever said anything about him (so Lestat, Armand and David) have insisted on two points: how very weak and meek Louis is, and also how irresistible, beautiful and charming. Granted, I've known Louis first through his portrayal on the show (hi Jacob you're so fiiiiiiine), and then through his own narration in the first book, but I've never had the impression that he was weak. Beautiful and seductive, yes. Weak? I see a human man going through tragedies and still enduring, going through vampiric transformation and then suffering for decades the loss of his humanity, struggling with reconciliating both sides of himself, but mostly I see a vampire who rebuilt himself after losing everything without sacrificing his sense of self. I see Louis as very strong actually (up to the point where resilience breaks, because resilience cannot be sustained on a long term, but that's another debate). He knows who he is, and don't you know how hard that is? He doesn't cling to faith or pride. He knows he's doomed, he knows he's monstrous, he knows there's nothing he can do to change that, and instead of railing against his fate, he goes on about his undead life. He gets his books and he reads them, he surrounds himself with literature and what little comforts he thinks in his shattered self-esteem he deserves (his ragged sweaters and soft trousers); let's not lie to ourselves tho, Louis doesn't like himself, or more exactly he doesn't care about his corporeal body - what matters to him is his mind, and once again, this author is extremely ace and also very aro and very nonbinary, so Louis to me is very much ace and agender coded, though really not aro, because his love for Lestat (and sometimes his fondness, shall we say, for Armand) is the only thing that can rouse him up from his literary slumber.

...

Oh, man, I have a lot to say about Louis, for how little he appears in the books so far. Still have BF, BC and the PL trilogy to devour. So I guess you can say, for as much as Lestat is occupying my entire brain, very much like him, my favorite is Louis? Yeah, that tracks. Melancholy, quiet, dark-haired green-eyed monster with more humanity than humans, preferring his solitude and the company of books to anyone else, hopelessly and helplessly devoted to one person, expert in brooding and grieving, literature specialist, not very attached to his physical self. Yeah. I'm not surprised.

[marlynnofmany]

Lookie what I got! The rarest of collector's editions, with only one in existence! (There's an @ symbol in place of a © on the title page.)

(There's only one because I fixed it after I ordered my proof copy.)

Someday this will be very valuable, for sure!

[vera-dauriac]

EEK!!!! I loooooooove the audiobooks of this series, but I'm incredibly excited to finally have the hard copies so I can make them sit still in that way that's easier with a copy you're reading instead of listening to. And I can make notes and add post its and all that sort of crazy shit. Now the only question is when do I start the reread. Book 4 has a UK release date of April, but no word of a US date. Don't want to start too soon or wait too long. It's rough being a fangirl.

[bharv]

Talking in the comments made me want to also say in the writing advice sphere of whatever this blog is…

So much of the best fic you’re gonna read is written by people for whom English is a second or maybe third language. And it’s wild and magical that people are so talented.

And also I hope knowing this encourages you to read literature in translation, because English as a language is formally very… uh… it’s a fucking mess, okay. And there are other languages and literary traditions that are much more robust, and there are subsequently some really fucking cool things that happen when you run these forms through the cold tap of an English translation.

Some of my favourite reads of the last few years have been Mexican, Russian, Swedish, French, Polish… and there’s not been much that was originally written in English that had touched them, at least in contemporary fiction.

A great place to start is to look at the long lists for the Booker International prize if you’re curious about contemporary work!

[raiswanson]

when a friend mentions they're trying to get back into reading and you have to hold off from dumping your entire 300+ book personal library over their head because you don't want to overwhelm them/scare them off

[tnt-zone]

I've had this song in my head for days now.

Something about it pulls at my chest and makes me want to cry but I can't. It feels familiar in an unknown way, reminding me of things I don't remember. Someone comfortingly takes me by the hand and says "your whole world is falling apart and changing, and you're going to deal with it on your own." If I could scream out any song into the darkness right now it would be this one.

But who knows how I'll feel in 5 years.

-Scary ⛈️

[agender-wolfie]

When you’re looking for physical Transmasc/Non binarymasc monster romance books and you find some where the monster is hot but the main character is a cis female and she looks the same as all the others 😒

Like c’mon, y’all. Where’s the diversity? I shouldn’t have to fight to find myself in media when everyone else gets it for doing nothing but existing. The closest I can get is cis male stories but it’s not the same 😔

[fictionadventurer]

I have three stories that I would like to write at least some part of before the deadline for the Inklings Challenge.

I am scrolling tumblr and obsessively looking up book recommendations online.

I see some problems here.

[noisesfrombeyondtheuniverse]

Hey so re: your tags “I should write a book on dragon genetics” (which like yeah you should I’m not trying to discourage that or say it’s already been done or anything): have you read the Lady Trend Memoirs series by Marie Brennan? It’s all about speculative dragon biology, speculative anthropology, and later speculative linguistics.

The first book is A Natural History of Dragons. It just sounds like it’d be up your alley, and I loved reading it :)

That sounds so cool!! I'm gonna check my libraries right now, Thank You! I love all of those things!

[compacflt]

Sorry for the ridiculous ask (really it's unforgivable), but:

Iceman went to NYC to see A Chorus Line in '87.

2. Confirmed watched Sound of Music with Carole for her birthday.

Am I connecting any dots here and did Ice have to go to Hamilton as a publicity stunt in the last year of the Obama presidency?

oh no anon im being very intentional with my ice-musical-theatre links. its easy lazy writing shorthand for him being gay lol. even if he isn’t actively seeing shows he does put the tonys on in the background every year just bc he likes the color and dancing

he’s not a fan of rap and he doesn’t like how Hamilton bastardized american history for its own political aims thereby convincing multiple generations of laymen of factoids that simply aren’t true (Hamilton was strictly speaking not an immigrant & could only extremely loosely be called an abolitionist of any stripe) but he’s also a milquetoast liberal so he says he likes it for clout but he’s also a military flag officer so no one is really expecting him to go see Hamilton for publicity purposes so idk

the pentagon circa 2016:

[vanhelsingapologist]

how's the weezer-taylor swift fusion goin?

well it wasn’t worse than raditude so it has that going for it. but! being slowly pressed to death by puritains from salem massachusetts is a better experience than listening to raditude so that’s where I’m at.

[dragpinkman]

just finished never let me go - kazuo ishiguro im so normal about this. watching the movie tonight 4 sure

[titan-meredith]

what happened to fics tho? almost all of them are character x reader now. no i do not want to remember that i exist. i do not want to be a part of it. i just wanna read about already existing characters and their interactions based on canon