#I've now made the font bigger so that you guys can read it better

[goodluckclove]

"literary junk food" reminder?

mm FUCK YOU'RE RIGHT.

Okay so like. I'm calmer now. I woke up, made a green tea, and had my daily Weekend Wife Look (That's when I look at my wife while they're still sleeping and think about how much I like my wife). But yes, I saw something on the internet that upset me yesterday and for some reason I've decided I need to talk about it.

Under the read more, though. I got. Rambly.

First off I should clarify a few things, as this is something I can see a certain type of person using as a way to dub me "anti-intellectual". I am not an anti-intellectual. I consider myself decently intelligent and above the norm in terms of the amount and variety of literature I've read. I won't call myself well-read because that's another label I do think is mostly bullshit. But I've read a lot of the "Smart Person" authors like Kafka and Vonnegut and Camus and Calvino. I tried reading James Joyce's Ulysses like three times and it sounds like something I'd love, but for some reason I can never get past the first 60 pages. I can enjoy shit like Naked Lunch and The Sound and the Fury fine but Joyce consistently exhausts me with his particular brand of Irish Incoherence.

What I mean to say is that I regularly enjoy the type of books - and culture as a whole, really - that on several occasions forced me into conversation with A Certain Type of Person. The kind of person who treats their tastes in art as a moral virtue. Who thinks the failings of society are at least partially due to the fact that not enough people have read and appreciated "The Classics". I actually was pushed towards dropping out of college by an interaction I had with a guy who was in the Master's program I was working towards. He saw I was reading J.D. Salinger's Franny and Zooey (I like it! I wish Salinger wrote more women) and took it as an opportunity to start raving about his opinions on Catcher in the Rye, a completely separate book I did not bring up at all.

People who do this make me unreasonably angry.

So the thing I saw was using "literary junk food" to talk about people who only read Young Adult fiction. I have so many issues with this that I don't know where to start. Because it plays into a bigger issue, I think. I see people on Youtube talk about the BookTok influencers who say they only read the dialogue in their books, or who complain about how a book has "so much text". They scoff at these people. Laugh at their inability to properly appreciate literature. These people are the problem.

And like. No? No. No, they're not. Some of them might be a reflection of a problem, sure. If a person of a certain age genuinely struggles with a dense book of a certain length, or if they only read books far below their age level, that could be an issue. But it's 100% not an issue with the reader. Much like how in the rising rates of younger people who struggle with fundamental reading skills, we shouldn't blame or make fun of the fucking kids, you weirdos. What? What are you doing? That's so weird. Stop it.

Most people aren't born with an innate love of reading. There are so many factors that can make developing that kind of passion incredibly difficult. Maybe they didn't grow up in a house with books and they weren't read to as kids. Maybe they're dyslexic or something and the fonts of most paperbacks are legitimately difficult to read. Maybe they were never exposed to the kinds of genres and authors they'd really enjoy. Maybe they saw some stupid fucking argument on the internet (Audiobooks aren't real reading! YA and comics aren't real reading! Mmm paperbacks are soo much better than e-readers I just want to shove them in my mouth yummy yummy I am so cool and smart) and decided they'd rather stay away from all of that entirely.

"Oh," the strawman I invent for this hypothetical exclaims, "but the internet exists! You can just look up more appropriate books to read! There's no excuse!"

Hey, Scarecrow I Reanimated Through the Dark Magic of my Rage? Do me a favor and try what you just suggested. I Googled "books for people moving past YA" and found a few lists on the subject, and the books were mainly:

modern novels I haven't read and might be fine

way-old classics that seem thrown in so people would think there was "variety"

some wack shit i'm very confused why people would suggest to those branching out from YA (Dune? The Martian? That's crazy, right? That's crazy to me.)

I was overwhelmed. I imagine if someone was only exposed to YA and saw a bunch of lists like these they'd could easily be discouraged. That is, if they weren't already discouraged by the dipshits online implying they're wronging themselves by enjoying the books they enjoy.

The thing that pisses me off is that Those People who say that aren't entirely incorrect. If someone only consumes one type of art, they are denying themselves a bunch of styles and stories and perspectives that might profoundly change the way they look at the world and at themselves. This applies to the person who only reads dystopian trilogies and romantasy epics, and it also applies to the person who only reads fucking Tolstoy or whatever. It applies to me, as a majority of the fiction I read up until like five years ago was written by men during like the 40s-90's (I don't know why but that ended up being my Era of Choice).

Variety in art is cool and good. If someone feels like they don't have the option to explore different stories, that belief is the issue. The person is not the one at fault, even if their reasoning for not branching out is incorrect. Yes, there are more adult-orientated writers who aren't old white straight men. There are adult-orientated writers that might be more engaging then the ones from the 19th and early 20th century. Not every adult-orientated book is Ripe With Ideas and Philosophical Concepts. There are fiction books written for adults in mind that make their prose as accessible as their dialogue. There are nonfiction books, even, that are written by intelligent authorities with a genuine love for their subject that makes their writing super enjoyable to read and not at all like a textbook.

But also it's not a bad thing if your main genre is young adult fiction. My main genre is probably post-modernism. The only difference between us is that post-modernism sounds esoteric enough that a lot of people won't question it, where as a ton of people feel super comfortable assuming a YA book is lesser. These are usually the same people who assume young adults are inherently unable to grasp complex ideas.

I don't read a ton of YA. At the same time, I will never go as far as to claim the entire genre has nothing to offer adults, because that's an absolutely insane take. That's nonsense. I've read fucking picture books as an adult that touched my heart (Has anyone read The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds? Oh god I teared up.). Cynthia Voigt's book Homecoming was an early step in me realizing my mom was abusive. I'm pretty sure Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events played a huge part in my want to become a writer.

"But you moved on," the Scarecrow breathes, voice weakening as the dark magic seeps out from the thin veil of hay and burlap, "adults are supposed to move on and read Grown-Up books."

Yeah man, maybe. There's a lot of shit that adults should be able to do, and people are so satisfied with those milestones of Adult Development that they sometimes forget that age is not the only factor in those things happening. If other reading options aren't presented in a way that seems welcoming and engaging, what are they supposed to do? Just walk to a library and grab the most boring looking book because that might be their only frame of reference for a "grown-up" book? Slog through it like they're in high school again? All to feel worthy in the eyes of someone who publicly condescends what might be the only type of literature they've enjoyed and connected to so far?

Why? Why would they want do that?

Anyways I'm getting hungry and the scarecrow I enchanted has lost its sentience, so I'll cut it short. There are a lot of intellectual pursuits - brilliant artists in a variety of mediums - that I am consistently bummed out that people feel like they can't get into. But I also understand, because a lot of people who like Adult Books or Abstract Art or Improvisational Jazz or Experimental Theater tend to not like the art itself as much as they really enjoy being perceived as a person who likes those kinds of things. And ultimately that's - fine.

That's a fine way to live, Scarecrow Corpse. You're allowed to base a majority of your identity out of truly understanding Infinite Jest or Koyaanisqatsi or Derek Jarman's Blue. But like don't expect that to change or improve the lack of culture you claim to hate so much.

[extratrrestrial]

TYPEFACES I THINK THE MOBSAI MAIN CAST WOULD USE

Decided to be insane and come up with some headcanons on the typefaces each character would use. Please shout at me about it on the psychohelmet forum if you get the chance. I've copied and pasted the headcanons under the read more for your viewing pleasure.

I wanted to share my headcanons for the different fonts (using this term very generally) each of the mobsai main cast would use (if we are imagining that they were given free rein to do so for some reason, and also that they wrote using a latin alphabet, obviously) which I just made up off the top of my head right now.

Anyway, here we go:

Mob - Calibri

I think this one makes a lot of sense, just off the bat. I really don't think Mob would be a serif sort of guy, he's too plain and unassuming for that. What better than to make him a very default font. I honestly don't think you can even get more default than calibri. It even sounds a little lame when you say it. Despite that, it's a pretty dependable font, it appears everywhere, and I would argue is very powerful due to its universality and legibility on any-sized devices. But don't just take my word for it, here's what Microsoft has to say about it: "Its proportions allow high impact in tightly set lines of big and small text alike. Calibri’s many curves and the new rasteriser team up in bigger sizes to reveal a warm and soft character." I would argue that this clearly reflects Mob's welcoming character and desire to understand and empathise with any number of characters within the show.

Reigen - Arial

Again, I do feel like this just makes sense to me. Reigen is also a real sans-serif sort of guy, he's the greatest psychic of the 21st century, he's spice city's bro! Arial I feel is also a little more professional than calibri, while still being quite similar in appearance, which I feel reflects the influence Reigen has over Mob's character and development within the story. Described by Microsoft as an "extremely versatile" typeface, especially "for display use in newspapers, advertising and promotions", I think this works well for Reigen's character. It's also a pretty dyslexia friendly font, which I think would be a fun fact he'd shoot at Mob.

Dimple - Papyrus

This one was a little tricky. I wanted it to look dated, considering Dimple's been dead for some time, while also being a little flashy to reflect his desires for godhood. I settled on papyrus because, well, look at it. It's definitely what I'd consider a meme typeface (which I think is fitting for a sentient fart, honestly), but it's also loud without being too out there, and a popular and fun font to use. It's unapologetic and real, which I think Dimple represents as a character, and the complete opposite of a font like calibri. It also looks good in green.

Ritsu - Times New Roman

Ritsu is absolutely a serif guy, through and through. He's always on that 12pt Times New Roman shit, even if he's just writing a casual email to someone. Ritsu is someone who takes things seriously, and has a reputation he wants/needs to uphold. I'm sure he read somewhere that TNR (I'm not writing that shit out again) was the professional font and just made it his whole personality or something. It looks good, so I'm not complaining. I've also heard that TNR is a good font to make study notes in, because you remember it better (I think this was a myth uni students used to tell each other though) but I'm sure he stands behind this fact wholeheartedly.

Teru - Blackadder ITC

Just listen to what Microsoft has to say here in its overview of this font: "Blackadder ITC font is an elegant, yet menacing display face is perfect for theatrical uses and scare tactics." Not only is it elegant and swirly, but works well with his flashy appearances and fashion choices throughout the show. It's impressive and makes a scene when it appears, and walks the line between impressive and gaudy very well for someone as in-TERU-sting as Hanazawa. I do think he'd switch around fonts a little, but this would be his favourite for sure.

Serizawa - Roboto

This one was also hard, and I'm not sure I did him justice. I think, given Serizawa's lack of real-life experience outside of a terrorist organisation as well as his time online, I wanted to go with a font that was professionally acceptable, but still a bit of an outlier. Roboto is also the default font on android devices, and all other google services, which I figured would reflect the 'shut in' phase of his life. It's sorta plain, but does the job and follows the rules without asking too many questions. I think if we were talking specifics, he'd be Roboto Mono.

Tome - Courier New

I need to preface this explanation by saying I love Tome. More than almost all of the characters in this show. She reminds me a lot of myself as a kid. This one's personal. Tome is obsessed with proving the existence of aliens, or any sort of extraterrestrial and paranormal activity. She starts the Telepathy club to research these phenomena, she's absolutely committed (apart from in that one episode) to show the world she's right, to have her friends take her interests seriously. I think she'd want to use a font that was interesting to look at, while still being serious-enough to reflect her passion for pursuing the truth. She probably watched the X-Files as a kid and really wanted to type up some legit-looking reports on the unexplained. No I'm not projecting.

Shou - Comic Sans MS

I mean, what did you expect. He uses Comic Sans for all his reports and thinks he's the funniest guy ever for doing so. He also just likes how it looks, I think he'd be into superhero comics and would love to make any work he does look similar. Not only is it a funny text face, Microsoft also calls it "useful" due to its readability. I think that definitely mirrors Shou's extraversion and his role as a helpful figure, both to Ritsu and to his father at the conclusion of his arc. I also bet he logs on to Toichiro's desktop sometimes and changes his default email font to comic sans too, probably makes the fantastic five or whatever they're called piss themselves with laughter. Also a frequent Wingdings user, for sure.

Toichiro - Futura

Guess I have to put him in here too, since I talked about Shou. I chose Futura here for what it stands for, a purely geometric and efficient typeface which I feel reflects Suzuki's ethos of wanting to be the best and creating a world where 'supreme beings' rule over normal humans. The progressive feel Futura has here becomes skewed, not towards a bright future but towards a descruction of the old order and a rebuilding of an ESPer-led world. An incredibly popular font, which I feel is all about appearances and precision, it wants its letters to stand in line, breaking away from the old 'grotesque' style of former sans-serif fonts. Do you see my vision?

Sample of their fonts below:

[clairvoyagesims]

Lower Mimosa Hill,  6: 23PM

after work.

After crying in bed for some time, Tia sits up, staring morosely at the polaroid of herself and Severus on the wall. 

She wishes to take it down, so that she doesn’t have to keep feeling haunted by it, but keeps it up anyway as it reminds her of a time when it was just them and no one else. A time when they were happy. 

In that picture, they were teenagers, who had just broken up for the Summer holidays, returning home on the Hawthorne Express after their fifth boarding school year had come to an end.

Her cat, Coco comes over after napping, hopping up into Tia’s bed and nudging her thigh with her tiny head. 

Tia sniffles, wiping her tearstained cheek. “You must be hungry, let’s make sure you eat something too.”

Entering the kitchen, she grabs cat food from the shelf and spoons it into Coco’s bowl, as soon as she puts it down, Coco runs between her legs, almost causing her to trip. 

“Can you not?!” She snaps, irritated at the minor incident. 

Everything which would be minor to some, seems so intense to her. 

And she can’t fathom how her mood had gotten so dark and icy lately, she thought she was patient with Clarissa and Severus, but today, that patience had been tested beyond its means and now she’s starting to feel things a lot deeper, the numbness wearing off. 

After some time, her icy mood thaws out into sludgy remorse as she watches the cat ravenously indulge in her food .Here I am upset over a boy I can’t have... when I should be looking after you... what kind of cat mom am I?” 

Sighing, she turns back to the kitchen to make something for herself. 

“I think I’ll just eat ramen for now.” 

 mood song ♫ 

[ohdarlingohsweetheart]

FIVE.

One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six

Second time's the charm~

A casual greeting at a book store turns into so much more.

[WARNING]: This is a YANDERE story! Stalking, murder, the whole nine yards!!! Read with caution!

If you find this story on any website NOT under misfitgirlwrites/misfitgirl3390 please let me know!

Font for book cover credit (x)

Cherri: Mary I'm so nervous ;;;

Mary: Nuuu it'll be okay! Did you find the flannel I told you to add to your outfit??

Cherri: Yeah, I did

Mary: Excellent you'll look so cute!!

   Leo didn't look at any pictures of the outfit. He wanted that to be a surprise.

Cherri: What if he is like Darius? He was nice too;;;

Mary: Bab I don't want you to overthink too much! You have every right to be nervous but don't let Darius ruin this for you. He is a meanie! And a jerkface >.> If you don't want to go on the date you don't have to

Mary: If you do go, you have Marcel on speed dial and trust me he will come to wherever you are

   Leo didn't like how much whatever Darius did bothers Cherri this much.

Cherri: You're right I shouldn't let what he did stop me from going

Cherri: It's just hard...

Mary: It won't be easy 😔 Darius is disgusting and not every guy is like him though it may seem like it

Cherri: Okay

Cherri: Thank you, Mary ☺️

Mary: Of course! So are you going? It's okay if you don't want to!

Cherri: I'm still gonna go

Cherri: I like being with him

Mary: Have funnnn!

Cherri: Okayyy ❤

   Leo stood and grabbed his jacket as he started to text Cherri.

[Text]: Ready to see Little Women? 👀

Cherri: Yes!!

[Text]: I heard Arundel Mills Mall is pretty big and the theater is nice

Cherri: Arundel? I've never been out there ;;;

[Text]: If you don't want to go, White Marsh is much closer

[Text]: I figured since that mall was bigger, there's more to do

Cherri: Well, as long as I'm home before 6:30 I'm sure it'll be okay

[Text]: No time to waste then! Text me your address?

   Leo grabbed his car keys and looked at her address before smiling and leaving out to go and get her.

~~

   He was very excited to go and get Cherri and smiled when she came out of the house. Her outfit was cute; Mary did a good job helping her. Cherri got in the car and gave a small smile.

   "Hey." Leo grinned, "you look nice."

   "T-Thank you." Cherri smiled and looked down.

   "Let's get going then."

   The drive was comfortable and Leo was glad that she wasn't as nervous as he thought she'd be. She did get tenser once she realized how far the mall was but he did a good job distracting her. It was clear by her actions that her curfew wasn't flexible. Leo found a parking spot and looked at the time. It just became one in the afternoon.

   "We can get a ticket for the movie now and go see it without missing too many trailers and then grab some food. If you want, we can do something in the city after that so you'll be less tense." He spoke softly and she looked at him.

   "That sounds good. I'm sorry if I'm ruining the mood or anything. I just, I've never--"

   "You're not ruining the mood, I just want to make sure you're comfortable."

   "Okay."

   Cherri felt much better after that. She enjoyed the movie a lot and after she convinced Leo to take her to Dave and Buster's since she's never been. They ended up eating there and they didn't even leave right away. Leo enjoyed seeing Cherri so excited and happy, he managed to sneak a few pictures of her. When they left, it was nearly 5 and Leo wanted to make sure she was back on time.

   "That was so much fun!" Cherri held a big purple stuffed unicorn that Leo had won for her.

   "I'm glad you had fun. We should do something like this again." Leo put his arm around her and she looked up at him.

   "I-I would like that."

   "Cherri?"

   The redhead tensed up and Leo quickly looked over once he heard the familiar voice. Darius made his way over to them and arched a brow, "what are you doing all the way out here?" His brown eyes went to Leo. "And who the hell is this?"

   Leo's grip tightened just a bit and Cherri inched a bit closer.

   "I-I was just--"

   "On a date. How cute. Does your dad know?"

   "Don't tell him--"

   "What? Don't tell him that you decided upon yourself to go out on a date with some guy?"

   "Why is who she goes out with your concern?" Leo didn't let Cherri try to respond. He could feel her shaking now.

   "Because she's mine."

   "Oh really?" His green eyes narrowed.

   "I don't care what she told you or what you think." Darius hissed.

   Leo clenched his jaw, "if you think she even remotely likes you, you're fucking delusional." He shot back.

   Darius scoffed and moved closer. Leo was about to as well but Cherri gripped his jacket and he looked down at her.

   "C-Can you take me home? Please? Don't--He wants you to do something to him so you'll get in trouble."

   Right. The Commissioner's son. Leo let out a breath and nodded. He glanced back at Darius.

   "Nice meeting you." He stated before leading Cherri to his car.

   The drive back was quiet. Cherri hugged her stuffed unicorn close to her and her eyes didn't meet his. He could tell that she was embarrassed and nervous all over again. So much for a good date. When he stopped in front of Cherri's house, he got out of his car with her.

   "Thanks for today...I-I'm sorry about what happened."

   "It's alright. Just, text me later?"

   Cherri nodded and made her way into the house. Leo closed his eyes and sighed.

   "Fuck." He got in his car and made his way back home.

~~~

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