#World Literature Today

[tarufai]

[usefulquotes7]

Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself. Unknown

[fairydrowning]

Happy Father's Day to all the fathers who are kind to their children, who respects their kids decisions and support in every matter of their life. Happy Father's Day to all those fathers who become a better person for their child, who loves their child, who makes sure to give each and everything to their child. Happy Father's Day to all those who didn't get the chance to become a father and who didn't raise their voice at home.

[sharry-arry-odd]

Ever wonder what happens to those final girls? After all their plans go belly up and all their weapons fail? After their defenses crumble and they've been shot in the head? After they've trusted the wrong people, made the wrong choices, and opened themselves up at the worst possible moments? After their lives are ruined and they're left at thirty-eight years old with nothing in the bank, no kids, no lover, and nothing to their name but a couple of ghosts and a handful of broken-down friends? I know what happens to those girls. They turn into women. And they live.

The Final Girl Support Group, by Grady Hendrix

[admiral-arelami]

AITA If My Favorite Character is a Fascist?

Uh oh. The Fascsplainers are at it again. Yes, we know what fascism is, thx.

[virtuouslibertines69]

"I had a lover’s quarrel with the world." - Robert Frost, from The Complete Poems; “The Lesson for Today

Art by Michael Carson

[criticaalmiss]

Frankenstein but its only victor who gives a shit about adam’s (the monster) eyes

[palatinewolfsblog]

“Whenever you read

a good book,

somewhere in the world

a door opens

to allow in more light.”

Vera Nazarian.

[twilight-good-yall-dumb]

a part of me dies every time I see fanart of a book character depicted with the most bland, conventionally attractive, instagram face features possible and there's somebody commenting "wow, this is exactly how I pictured them!"

okay so you have no imagination? so you can't fathom a reality where your favorite characters aren't a perfect mold of contemporary beauty standards? this is simply a mannequin with the same hair and eye color as your character. where is the soul? where is the individuality? your mind is so corrupt by the onslaught of artificial beauty that not even fictional people can escape the standards you've developed.

dumb. boring. lame. unsexy

and these are the same people who will see the most gorgeous, well developed fanart of a character who's been given (oftentimes book accurate) "imperfections" or unconventional features and will comment "why'd you make them ugly?"

grow up!!!!!!!!!!

[imidori-ya]

Screaming crying scratching at the walls of my enclosure because it’s now somehow necessary to not just use social media but excel at it to even be considered for any of my dreams jobs??!?! Since when do I need 30k followers to be good at something other than a popularity contest?? Why does follower count matter to how good of an artist, writer, or general creator I am? I shouldn’t be required to know how to market and pander to the masses when all I want to do is create art! I just want to make things! I don’t care about selling them to the most people ever! I don’t care about notoriety! I’m a creator! I. JUST. WANT. TO. CREATE!!!

[newvesselpress]

CAFÉ UNFILTERED is on World Literature Today’s Summer Reading List and should be on yours: "Are you a people-watcher? In his follow-up to the hit novel The 6:41 to Paris, Jean-Philippe Blondel peers into the lives of various characters who share a Parisian café as their nexus. WLT contributor and former Neustadt Prize juror Alison Anderson provides the English translation."

https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2023/july/summer-reading-editors-wlt

[the-woild-is-y-erster]

he is my everything, actually

[mysteriouspresence]

a comparison of themes

a brief comparison of the shared/juxtaposed themes between the works "the stranger" by albert camus, "no longer human" by osamu dazai, and "notes from the underground" by fyodor dostoevsky (will try to keep this spoiler-free as possible!)

opening notes: themes: alienation, apathy and envy, misanthropy and understanding others, pride versus conformity main characters meursault from "the stranger" yozo from "no longer human" underground man from "notes from the underground" premise meursault is a man who lives in french algeria. his initial characterization is established when his mother dies, and he doesn't care much. later on, he happens to commit a crime, and we are shown his detached nature throughout the legal/penal process yozo deems himself "disqualified as a human being" while examining his life; he finds himself unable to understand other people and is frightened by their strange emotions and behaviors while he spirals in and out of addiction and depression the underground man is a spiteful loner who drives away the people around him and favors his own fantasies over his real life; he chooses to indulge in his romanticized, emotionally charged perspective, which in turn causes him more pain

alienation: -- all three main characters are shown to be outcasts, unable to participate "properly" in society. in a narrative sense, all three end up "punished" by society for being different (either literally or as they perceive) -- all three characters try to form romantic relationships, only to be thwarted at some point (note: meursault was arguably most successful). in each case, their prospective partners were interested, only to leave them under circumstances that all arguablely stemmed from the protagonist's actions.

apathy: -- meursault is apathetic towards his uncaring nature in-of-itself. he is not bothered by his apparent loneliness and callousness, nor how other people perceive him. in fact, he barely sees himself as different, unlike our other two protagonists -- meanwhile, the underground man tries hard to appear "cool" and unaffected by what he sees as slights upon his honor, but he ends up raging anyway; he envies the status, wealth, and social connections that other people have and emulates those in his fantasies -- on the other hand, yozo is painfully affected by everything around him and overthinks every action both he and other people make. he determines himself as thoroughly unable to be human

misanthropy and understanding others: -- the underground man and yozo find themselves disturbed and perplexed by other's actions. both distrust others, believing society to be maliciously out to get them. they're ultimately hindered by this self-consciousness. -- yozo tried hard to "fit in" to the expectations around him, only to deviate more as he cracked under pressure -- the underground man tried a few times to be sociable but ultimately gave up and declared himself a member of the "underground", retreating into his own world -- opposing this is meursault, who is seen as the frightening, perplexing being by other people due to his apparent lack of emotion by the end of the book. however, before the climatic incident of the novel, he was seen as an ordinary, albeit bland, man who just goes through his life. he never tried "too hard" to fit in, even though through his narration, we can tell that he was already apathetic, to begin with. the incident merely called everyone's attention to him

pride versus conformity: -- ultimately, all three men chose pride, consciously or not. they refused (or were not able) to become molded to society's standards, and all chose the "wrong" path in the end, even though they tried to live "normally" at some point -- they stayed true to their nature (as outlined above) to the end of their respective novels. each novel resolved with a respective resignation/acceptance of their fates

[thetourturedwritersclub]

Dam... This hits hard.

[quotessentially]

Attributed to Coretta Scott King in <i>Understanding Cultural Diversity in Today’s Complex World</i> by Leo Parvis

[indeedgoodman]