#a poem i made for a literature class lol

[greenapplebling]

As a kid I thought of you as a rose,

As a grown up I saw all your thorns.

I know thorns are there to protect you,

But was it necessary to turn them on me?

Of the rose garden, you're the reddest.

Could it be that your petals are painted

With the blood of my wounds?

It didn't matter if it's by force or gentleness,

If it's by rigor or kindness, if it's by hate

Or love. Your thorns hurt me all the same.

[therealjustpeachesback]

Little rant about Sukuna’s backstories and some theories lol.

So we all know that Sukuna was cursed and unwanted child. His translation roughly means ‘child who shouldn’t have been born.’ But despite being shunned on in society- especially in an era with specific standards, he still managed to become a king and even had the Shogun shivering his boots ( I think..)

Sukuna’s mother was ill and starving when he and his twin was in the womb- which led to them being malnourished and Sukuna eating his twin brother.

BUT in the Yorozu fight- Sukuna mocks and corrects Yorozu’s haiku. It’s obvious he has a good knowledge in reading and writing to the point where he can enjoy and understand the arts during the Heian Era. The Heian Era was historically the golden age of Japan and was known for literature and poems such as ‘The Tale of Genji’ and etc. This education and art was only available to the upper class of society and the nobles.

It was clear Sukuna and his family were NOT nobles or an aristocratic family. If his mother was- she wouldn’t be starving and ill. It makes it clear that Sukuna learnt this along the way- and he wasn’t born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He definitely grew up in poverty and it made it even worse that he was born disabled and practiced cannibalism. This made him even more shunned upon aside the fact that he was poor- Sukuna must’ve learn this along the way of climbing up the social status.

In the Heian Era, it was actually easier for women (mostly noble women) to climb up the social status ladder- by being married off to a high ranking family was easy. But men on the other hand, were forced to work harder. Sukuna has a great knowledge of Jujutsu- but with such a refined technique and it might be from all the years of experience he had. BUT learning by yourself only takes you so far- I always thought that Sukuna must’ve learnt ( or maybe spied) on other sorcerers and learned how to fight. From a person who came from a poverty stricken background- you obviously need a high education and maybe he didn’t do it all by himself. Maybe that’s where the aspect of him already knowing what ‘true love’ is.

If my theories are correct please hmu 🔥

[hughungrybear]

15 people, 15 questions

I got tagged by @telomeke (the link to their post is here). Thanks for the tag! 😊

1. Are you named after anyone?

I came from a predominantly Catholic country so it is common to name babies after saints. Ironically, despite my saintly name, I was a real Tasmanian devil to my parents, teachers, and peers 😅

2. When was the last time you cried?

The last time that I sincerely cried was when my Dad passed away. I was eleven. After that, every event that made me "cry" barely wet my eyes 😅

3. Do you have kids?

No, and I don't plan to have any. I like kids - especially when I can hand them back to their respective mothers 😅 I don't have anything against motherhood, but I can barely support myself. Under the circumstances, it is not wise to bring another life into this world that I cannot support.

4. What sports do you play/have you played?

Oh boy. I used to do track and field, basketball, and soccer (football) when I was still in elementary (grade) school. However, my conservative home country deems these sports as too "manly" and therefore not appropriate for a growing 'lady'. So, they made me switch to cheer dance😤. Well, let's just say I have never danced again ever since lol.

5. Do you use sarcasm?

Let's just say that sometimes, using sarcasm is the only way to retain my sanity 😅

6. What’s the first thing you notice about people?

The tone and shift of voice when they talk. Not entirely sure why though 😅😅😅

7. What’s your eye color?

Hazel brown with hints of darkest grey.

8. Scary movies or happy endings?

Definitely happy endings. I will not subject myself to torture by watching horror films/series no matter how critically acclaimed it is. That's because I have a very vivid imagination and I really love a peaceful sleep 🥲

9. Any talents?

Does mixing chemicals and formulating new adhesive products count? 😅 I can play the keyboard, and write poems and short stories (although, it's been a long time since I wrote my last one). I also do embroidery during my spare time.

10. Where were you born?

Funny story. I was born on the eve of our town's patron saint's day. Before the feast day, the town's roads are closed in preparation for the upcoming festivities. Unfortunately, my mum's water broke during an intense cleaning session of our house on the eve of the feast. Since the roads were closed, my father and grandma (my mother's mum) were forced to call a midwife and perform a home birth. Curiously, I did not cry as my mum pushed my small baby form out of her womb. Fearing that I was a stillbirth, the midwife had put me near an electric stove to help warm me up. It was only then that poor baby me started to cry (to the relief of everyone around)😅

TLDR: I was born at home but only showed a definitive sign of life in our old family kitchen.

11. What are your hobbies?

Reading books, scrolling through various socmed (Nowadays, though, it's mostly Tumblr and Reddit), and listening to some brand new music.

12. Do you have any pets?

When I was still living in my home country, I used to have dogs. However, moving to Australia, I was forced to leave them behind with our trusted relatives. We still Facetime though, so there's that.

13. How tall are you?

Sadly, I'm five feet flat, I am still hoping for some (miracle) growth spurt even in my thirties lol

14. Favorite subject in school?

I love history. I love reading about the beginning of things. I also had high grades in literature simply because I am an advanced reader (that is, I have already read the books on my teacher's list even before they have released them to the class).

15. Dream job

Somewhere where deadlines are a mere suggestion lol

Onward tagging (I know some of you have already done this, but give this poor hungry bear a break, I'm running out of people to tag: @lost-my-sanity1, @sparklyeyedhimbo, @imlivingformyselfdontmindme, @waitmyturtles, @dimplesandfierceeyes, @plantsarepeopletoo, @actually-yikes, @dribs-and-drabbles, @ablazenqueen, @alan-apologist, @ellasaru12, @queersouthasian, @lamonnaie, @rei-the-head-shaker and anybody else who wants to play😊

[anglerflsh]

re: your poetry post, can you give some pointers as to where to learn the rhyming patterns in poetry and the like? i only ever see poetry from the ideas/feelings perspective, but ive never learned the logic and structure behind it lol

I've learned most of it from my literature and grammar classes, it's taught in our school since elementary, so I wouldn't know of any books or manuals that talk specifially about it - but I can give you a rundown of how I do it, anon, if it counts for anything lol

Prefacing that this will be starting from italian poetica because that's what I know best: any poem, but specifically the pre-futurism/1910s ones (A Lot) will have some kind of structure aside from just the ryming scheme; The structure I am most familiar with is accentual-sillabic, so for example any single verso will have its stressed syllable in a fixed potision and occasionally a set number of sillables (eg. an endecasillablic metre means a stress on the tenth syllable, usually penultimate, equally to 11 total syllables), but there are also only accentual, or only sillabic verses, common in French poetry (?), all of which count as types of qualitative metre - as well as quantitative metre, which was more widley used in Latin and Greek poetry and which rather based itself on patterns of syllable weight (something that I know little about tbh; I think it's based on the lenght of pronunciation of the actual syllable).

this, of course, goes without even mentioning free-verse structure and less well-known ones.

Going back to the rhyming scheme, that also comes into play with structure in the sense that ... there are just a lot of them to pick from. The classic is the repeated AABB one, where each verse will rhyme with the one underneath (''kissing rhyme'' in italian), or the alterning ABAB, the crossed ABBA, the 'chained' or third rhyme ABA BCB CDC used for terzine, and plenty more! That's not all the ways to classify rhymes of course: you have plain rhyme between words accented on the penultimate syllable, cut rhyme between words accented on the last, sdrucciola with accents on the third-to-last, bisdrucciola on the fourth-to-last... etc etc

Then, of course, come the classifications in stanza lenghts! Groups of three verses are a terzina, well known for being Dante's favourite number (joke inserted to lighten this infodump), groups of four a quatrina, etc -

and depending on the number of single groups and on the type of verses in them, you have further classification as canzone, ode, madrigale, carme, filastrocca, ballata, sonetto... the latter for example is made of fourteen endecasyllabic verses grouped in two quartine, one in the beginning and one in the end, in crossed or alternate rhyme, and two terzine with any kind of rhyme structre.

this of course doesn't touch on the inner things and games of poem structure like the falling rhyme, spaces in between groups, enjambement, alliteration, allegorical figures, anafore, onomatopee, and all that fun stuff! Essentially when you see a poem look for the number of syllables in each verse, where the stressed syllable falls, how the rhymes are put, how many verses are in each stanza and strofa...

[pacifymebby]

Do you have any fave LGBTQ+ literature, tv, movies, content creators?

Okay so I'm still trying really hard to find queer books that I like because beyond Allen Ginsburg in college we weren't taught any LGBTQ+ authors/poets (except Carol Ann Duffy but the only thing I'd recommend about her work is to stay away because I hate it haha)(I probably hate it because of school tbh, sorry Carol) so anyway yeah, when it comes to this I've had to do all the searching myself and I don't really know how well I've done.

But for books:

🍂 Orlando / Virginia Woolf

I kind of can't believe Virginia Woolf wasn't on my other recommendations because The Waves is one of my favourite books (again I think you have to have a lot of patience but it is beautiful) and this one is brilliant too. A man wakes up in a woman's body and gender roles are revealed to be a little bit silly.

🍂 Thérèse and Isabelle / Violet Leduc

Erotic novella about two girls at boarding school, low-key spoke to me as a bi girl who kind of started realising her bisexuality when exploring sexuality was sort of thrust upon me by female friends at school I guess. It's just a good example of feminine sexuality and desire written by someone who knows.

🍂 Chelsea Girls / Eileen Myles

I'm very into Eileen Myles as a poet and these stories are so so so so so fucking good too!!!!

🍂 In The Dream House / Carmen María Machado

I got into this because it's what Google recs when you finish The Dangers of Smoking in Bed / Mariana Enriquez and honestly, I didn't enjoy it as much but it was still amazing. It's gothic horror af but also a really important work on abusive relationships within the queer community which the author has personal experience of and thinks isn't spoken about enough. Its really haunting, did fuck me up a bit but ultimately in a good way. But be careful because it does chronical abuse and that can be upsetting.

🍂 On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous/ Ocean Vuong

Another one where I love their poetry and think they can do no wrong tbh, I haven't finished this yet (I keep getting distracted but don't be put off by that I'm just really easily distracted!!) And I think it's wonderful idk. It's also written in quite a cool style which is always a bonus I find.

🍂 Our Wives Under the Sea / Julia Armfield

I actually only read this because I read an essay on the Exorcist and body horror by the author where she talks about her experience with having a cyst that had to be operated on twice. The essay was so stunning that I was like damn, gonna have to read that book everyone's talking about now and bestie, was worth it. The books class also.

🍂 Sister Outsider / Audre Lorde

I just think everyone should read Audre Lorde, Audre Lorde should have been on the curriculum instead of endless Simon Armitage idk. I read this and Your Silence Will Not Protect You as a 19 year old and they changed the course of my life idk.

🍂 Communion / bell hookes

Read this and broke up with my shitty ex boyfriend. It's not entirely about lesbianism but more kind of, love in general, platonic, romantic, what it really means to love. She talks about the feminist choice to choose lesbianism which was a phenomenon in the 70s and also discusses a lot to do with how misogyny impacts womens ability to love and be loved. It was a really important read for me, made all the more important because when I picked up the book my boyfriend ripped into her name and tried to be like lol what would you read her for...and then I read it and was like oh HE'S the problem.

Poetry:

🐇Howl / Allen Ginsburg

I know he's problematic but for me Howl was the prototype, the first massive poem I read and loved as an adult, the first one where language really sounded musical to me, the first poem I heard that Hurt. If you can you should listen to the YouTube of him reading it in San Francisco,that's amazing.

I also really like A Supermarket in California.

🐇 Sappho

Just all of it I guess, I think we're all eventually pushed towards Sappho and for good reason.

🐇Emily Dickinson

Read her letters to Sue, Open Me Carefully. I read these one summer between school years and I think they changed me. Her poetry in general is wonderful, some of it occasionally comes off as very old fashioned (shock horror our girl was born in the 1800s) but there's much to savour there. Also apparently there's a TV series about her life on Apple TV, I don't have Apple TV though so I haven't seen it.

As for TV and movies I don't think I have anything at all. I don't watch a lot of TV and I mostly only watch the same 5 old man movies on repeat. I think books have always been my thing, I can concentrate on reading in a way I can't concentrate on TV and also just the fact you can put your book in your pocket and get it out on the bus, in the staff room, at school, at the pub when you're waiting for your pals etc... I was always a headphones and books gal so I don't really have any recs for TV. Sorry :/

EDIT: Kill Your Darlings!!!! As in the movie, if you're into the beats you should watch it, it's very good and a real insight into what was in reality a pretty nasty little scene.

[dairy-farmer]

Continuation of the vampire coven au (I’m ignoring the pregnancy part cus it’s not really my thing srry)

I think Tim would very quickly develop a sort of self-aware Stockholm syndrome in regards to Jason? I mean, I’ve always viewed Tim as a bit of stoic, where he just kind of resigns himself to situations and tries to be content within the realistic constraints they put him in.

And he has a pretty low bar! I mean, Jason pays more attention and is arguably nicer than his parents ever were, and the fuss about his blood is creepy but ultimately kind of flattering.

He def develops a sort of hero worship for Jason because he protects him from Dick and Bruce in his eyes. This is partially because Jason is more understanding of human customs and culture because he used to be human himself, which def makes him act more sympathetic.

I could see Tim very quickly becoming very very loyal to Jason. As somebody who didn’t really have a purpose in life before, he might dedicate himself to ‘serving’ Jason, viewing it as his purpose. Especially since that’s his only real choice, so he might as well do it on purpose.

Though Dick and Bruce might see Tim as a pet at best, I think Jason very quickly develops a sort of dependence on Tim. He knows he’s loved dearly by his family, of course, but as a turned instead of the rarer and more prestigious ‘born’ vampires, he’s isolated and faces discrimination in the upper class vampire society the Wayne’s are a part of. He’s terribly lonely.

In this way, Tim kind of becomes his everything. He’s his pet, his girlfriend, and most often, his best friend, depending on the situation. And Tim is always so understanding and loyal and soft...how could Jason not adore him?

Jason really wants somebody he can confide in and care for and protect, and Tim really fits that.

Jason doesn’t need much sleep as a vampire, really only a few hours a week, but of course Tim as different needs. It makes Jason’s chest all soft and fluttery inside to go into his room and see the rumpled covers and blankets on his usually perfectly-made, mostly untouched bed. It reminds him every time that he has Tim now, and he’s not alone anymore.

I think he spends as much time as possibly cuddling Tim while he sleeps— partially because he thinks sleeping Tim is soft and cuddly and warm and adorable, and also because he knows Tim is terrified of Bruce and Dick sneaking in while he sleeps and sucking him dry. He’s his guard dog, lol.

Speaking of that, Jason wants Tim by his side at all times, and the feeling is mutual. Of course, for Tim this is partially derived from fear of Dick and Bruce, but he likes Jason. In time, he kind of worships him.

Jason loves having a captive audience for his rants about literature. Bruce doesn’t really get it though he’s supportive and Dick can’t sit still long enough to read a poem. But Tim will happily curl up in his arms or on a cushion at his feet and listen to him read with commentary. When he gets more comfortable, he even asks questions sometimes!

The manor’s temp usually hovers around a cool 50 F, so Tim is absolutely shivering up a storm when he first arrives— after all, he’s naked!

Jason, demonstrating his keen understanding of human needs, realizes very quickly that Tim is freezing. He likes to dress Tim in Jason’s oversized casual clothes— partially because he doesn’t want Tim showing skin outside their bedroom because he’s paranoid of Bruce and Dick being tempted. But also because it’s completely adorable the way a hoodie will dwarf him.

Jason loves to turn Tim into a little ‘blanket burrito’ and then cuddle him lol.

And of course, He likes Tim in *other* ways. He’s somehow both really domestic and sweet and also kinky as hell? Like he has a bunch of cute collars with leases he likes to have Tim wear and sort of tug him around with, but beefy time he puts it on he’s like it’s not too tight right 🥺🥺

He likes when he leaves out cute sheer lingerie with a note for Tim and comes back to see Tim curled up in his bed in nothing but a translucent pink nightie. He def is a gentle dom who likes to do most of the work most of the time— he loves it when Tim just lays back and clings to him and makes those perfect noises.

He’ll be fucking Tim missionary so gentle and loving and be like who do you belong to? Me? Who’s your master? But it’s all said like 🥺🥺🥺

One of his fave positions tho is Tim on his stomach on soft pillows, with Jason just completely pressed against his back, covering him entirely. He’ll be so close he can’t even really thrust, just grinding softly against Tim’s cunt and mouthing at his sweet neck.

He’s into master/slave and worshiper/worshipee but like in a really soft way? Like he loves to have Tim sit in pretty jewelry and skimpy lingerie and nothing else at his feet and let him kiss and muzzle at his clothed crotch, tilt his head for pets, just be his adoring little pet.

Jason’s honestly kind of insecure so he likes when Tim body-worships and happily submits to him like that because it makes him feel loved and he’s super lonely lol.

Jason doesn’t actually feed from Tim’s neck— it’s too easy to accidentally take too much, and it’s also kind of an awkward angle. His favorite place to drink from is near Tim’s groin, because it’s hot blood close to the surface, and because he gets to sit between his Timmy’s legs and tease him. He’ll suck a little spot near his hip, getting closer and closer to his labia, relishing in how relaxed and pliant Tim is with complete trust.

He likes to alternate between feeding and eating Tim out— the way the blood tastes just before or after an orgasm is beyond words.

And he loves the intimacy of it. I think he likes to suck on Tim even when he’s not feeding because it sort of satisfies the urge a little? It’s a comfort action. I think he’s actually really into clit-warming Tim— him just laying lazily between Tim’s legs and sucking and Tim just squirming against him until he falls asleep in his pile of blankets and piles. It’s like meditating for Jason, just hours of soft sucking and the taste of Tim on his tongue.

Alfred is happy to have another human in the house, and relieved that Jason intends upon keeping him long-term because he misses cooking for someone besides himself. Besides, getting ur blood sucked makes you loose a lot of calories....better made some cookies or other treats to get his blood sugar back up afterwards.

Jason will suck his blood, bandage the area, and go down to Alfred to get sweets to bring back to Tim lol. They’re def trying to work together to fatten Tim up lol.

Jason has a kink for how Tim will sometimes get a little giggly and dizzy after feeding, the way he’ll speak a little more freely and be happy and stupid. It’s called ‘feeding-drunkenness’ and Jason just loves how adorable it is, esp since most of what Tim says is how much he loves Jason and how into him he is.

Tim is not nearly as worried about accidentally taking too much as Jason is, because by this point the Stockholm syndrome is SEVERE and he’s like well it would be an honor to die for my master 💕 and Jason is like NO bby no

Bruce kind of falls in love with Tim second-hand because he loves how obviously happy Tim makes Jason. He often feels frustrated and lost because he loves his son so much but isn’t really able to reach him in a lot of ways because of their differing backgrounds. He doesn’t really understand him or the angst and baggage he has from his human life and the implications of his transformation (ie his dad was his predator, and he only loved him once he became a vampire, etc etc etc)

Before Tim Jason was def some kind of depressed and Bruce is just forever glad that Tim changed that.

Dick thinks Tim is adorable and he wants a taste :( cmonnnnnnn Jason. Blood or pussy, he’s not picky. Hopefully both.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ANON THIS IS AMAZING!!!!

just this line is so good in relation to tim's stockholm syndrom "Especially since that’s his only real choice, so he might as well do it on purpose."

tim really having nothing before jason and it making him more susceptible to this allure of having a purpose and someone wanting him!

but more than that!!! their relationship!!!! it's so soft and sweet 🥺🥺🥺🥺!!!!!!!!

the way jason treats tim so...softly...delicately because he was human once too and still remembers it...he dresses tim up and makes sure he's warm and comfortable 🥺

tim still being frightened of dick and bruce, bruce most especially. bruce was the one who found him and took him afterall.

but tim and jason!! the way they're so comfortably intimate with each other! the clit-warming!!!! jason only drinking tim's blood from near his cunt and testing out how tim tastes post orgasm!

bruce and jason's complex relationship and tim helping jason process the feelings he has about his and bruce's relationship-

and dick!! still begging for a taste! he'll take fucking tim or drinking from him!!! he's like this perfect blend of casual horny menace!

i loved this so much just the way tim and jason fit together so well!🥺🥺🥺

[coffeeandcalligraphy]

Hey, I'm going to uni this year but am stuck choosing Edinburgh (Literature) between Warwick (Creative Writing and Literature) but I don't know which one to pick. Edinburgh has a better lead on the world tables along with a fancy reputation in contrast to Warwick. Do I choose Edinburgh over something that has been burning for years (aka writing about stupid characters) or ya know...something more prestigious? It's really difficult because I don't trust the Creative Writing courses having the ability to give a good experience since they differ so widely and there really is no telling of how it goes.

And on top of that, a lot of my characters are HELLA QUEER and my conservative ass parents are going to be ashamed when they see me writing cute ass guys get along with each other. (Also what do your parents think about Lonan and Harrison in this context???)

So is it social security over passion?

I really am so lost, it's been months and my brain cannot think. I just think that if I have that degree, than it would give me the validation of being a decent writer. BUT like - I've always enjoyed essay writing? This is so bipolar😭

But the main question is, do you think your time in uni was worth the shot of just breathing author air and not giving a fuck about what other people think? (Sos if that sounds harsh, it's the artists attitude of being the wild cards of society).

(I'm in London btw, if you're wondering).

(Also, I LOVE YOUR WRITING LIKE PLEASE I WANT TO EAT IT!!!)

Hiii! Happy you're eating my writing HEHEHE! Okay lots to talk about here, but to answer your main question:

Do you think your time in uni was worth the shot of just breathing author air and not giving a fuck about what other people think?

Okay so, for me... My experience with my degree is complicated but I wouldn't necessarily say the experience was worth it in the ways I thought it would be. To be very fair, my education was VEYR interrupted by COVID (all of second year online, third year had a hybrid mix with some online classes and some on campus, fourth year is the only "normal" year I had besides first, which was interrupted toward the end by the pandemic--I started school in fall 2019). I want to say that because my experience is very much defined by that--I'm sure the culture of uni has changed since 2020, it just didn't change personally for me (i.e., I don't do social gatherings still, so I didn't invite friends over, go out with people, etc, just went to class then went home for 3rd and 4th year, which made socializing hard, more than usual LOL, for me--I'm sure folks who are doing those things had a different experience in my program).

Something you said is super intriguing to me: "I just think that if I have that degree, than it would give me the validation of being a decent writer."

If I can say something for relatively certain, a degree isn't going to give you the validation of whether you're a good writer or not (and I wouldn't recommend people go into a CW degree with that hope in mind--tbh, studying CW isn't "practical" and without a strong financial plan, etc, I would feel veryyyyy reckless/irresponsible on my platform to just go "ahhh yes! study creative writing!!")

If I can be honest, I was a good writer going into my program and I'm a better one coming out--but that isn't majorly because of the degree, to be upfront (I don't want people to think "ohhh rachel studied CW and she's such a good writer now, and she must be a good writer because she studied writing, and therefore I'm going to study writing to be a good writer"--I reaaaallllyyy want to be transparent with my audience about this because I know it's a privilege to study CW and I don't want to give people the wrong idea). I'm a better writer because it's been four years and I wrote 3.5 books in that time, ~20 short stories, ~20 poems, etc. Of course, some of that was for the degree but MOST was not (except for the poems). Hundreds of thousands of words.

How much you get out of a CW program depends on sooo many things like how the program actually functions (if you're not sure--I would ABSOLUTELY try to get that info from either an open house or some alumni if you can get in contact, I wouldn't go into a CW program at all without an idea of how the program runs--but that's just my advice!). Can also depend on your cohort for that year, whether there's a pandemic (looool), the profs, who's on sabbatical, who just got hired, etc, etc, etc. So I don't have concrete advice for whether you should study literature or CW, or if you feel you're in a position where you can choose passion over social security (that could be something to think about with an adult in your life!).

I also think it's important to know where YOU are in your writing journey. If I could go back in time and talk to seventeen year old Rachel, I'd probably advise her to go down a different path, to be honest. It's not that I found my degree completely hopeless, not at all, I met some AMAZING educators and writers who taught me SO MUCH (I worked with a writer I'd looked up to for years!!! like what!!! made some great writer buds, and would NOT be a poet without this degree), and I have great memories! But I also know myself now looking back, and I struggled in the early half of my degree to feel "settled" because I was in a different place than was typical for writing students.

I'm nervous to talk about this because I don't want it to seem egotistical, etc, but I'd developed a writing & editing process/style before I got to school, which isn't really typical for my program. I started writing and publishing extreeeemely young, and have been told by faculty that they don't really... see students like this in undergrad. When I entered my program, I was faarrrrr from a fantastic writer, and I was still "settling" into my style, but I'd found one (wrote a majority of Moth Work before my degree, for example).

My degree helped me with many things and I'm so grateful to have had a chance to study CW at the post-secondary level, but I also would've been fine without it (and I'm saying this NOT to dig at my program or school, not at allllll, but because I have an audience of young people who I *know* may be considering studying CW because I did it, and I want to be honest in saying that you can absolutely be a great writer without studying CW at all--and coming in a bit too defined might not make the experience the *most* useful, but that is just my experience ofc).

ALSO EXTREMELY IMPORTANT to know: I had a four year scholarship that paid for all of my tuition that I earned by stressing SO HARD in high school (my high school GPA was literally 99% which is actually so concerning to me now because the amount of stress I was under??? But I did it because I knew I needed that scholarship to study CW--the min. for this particular one at the time was a 96%, and I was anxious about not making that, hence the average). That scholarship was 26k in total, spread out at $6500CAD/year (which was the price of my tuition).

I had to work extremely hard in first, second, and third year to keep a particular GPA which was I think about an 83% to keep it--to be fair, I was so anxious about losing it that I went wayyyy above that which made me :) so stressed :) but I did keep up that scholarship, so I'm graduating without debt for tuition. I'd also won an external scholarship and bursary that paid for about 30% of my first year housing, and the rest was covered by my parents who'd had savings for my education.

I didn't work a typical job during my undergrad (in third year I did some diversity/equity/inclusion volunteer work that paid at a min. wage part-time rate for about a year though), and was extreeeemely lucky to have my parents' financial support for housing and food.

It is *sooooo* important to have a plan about finances if you're going to study CW, because this isn't going to be a field where you can look for a *particular* job after you graduate (and I know even that's complicated in other fields too, not to generalize!).

I hope this was helpful! Also not to scare you!!!! But I get some high school students asking me this question and I just really want you to have all the info about what my experience was like, because I know this is an impractical degree (I'm leaving with sooo many practical skills that fall nicely into the industry I want to work in, but still, I'm aware that not everyone can do this--so I want to be honest!).

Also to answer the last bit about queer characters:

And on top of that, a lot of my characters are HELLA QUEER and my conservative ass parents are going to be ashamed when they see me writing cute ass guys get along with each other. (Also what do your parents think about Lonan and Harrison in this context???)

My parents don't know much about my writing, haha (my mom reads my published short fiction/poems & my dad reads whatever I send him from LinkTree, but they don't read my personal projects because I would PERISH--they are very aware of the characters though, but not specific things). They sometimes ask me if Lonan and Harrison are dating (but I ask myself that question too lol--they've known about them since maybe 2018, so it's been a while!). They're LGBTQ+ affirming & always have been!

Anyway, I hope this was useful! Message me if you'd like more details, but it's critical to me that people are also aware that the experience CAN be multi-faceted.

[everdares]

thank you so much for tagging me @waywardangel-wilds and @thegreatmelodrama 🥰

List 5 books that made you The Way You Are (got this idea from another old post). You don't have to explain why if it's cringe/too personal, but I'm curious about how old you were when you read it, if you're comfortable adding that!

1. the percy jackson series. it singlehandedly brought me to where i am in life. to WHO i am, really. i literally taught myself english just so i could read more fanfiction since it was almost nonexistent in my language 😭 and then tumblr came; friendships made and all of the experiences i've had, everything i've been through were all because one day at age 11 i decided to open a book to "look, i didn't want to be a half-blood."

2. a bolsa amarela (the yellow bag) by lygia bojunga nunes. tbh i haven't read it in so long i don't quite remember the details of the story, but whenever i think of a book that changed my perspective i think first of this one. it was the first book that resonated with me so deeply that when i think of it, the emotion i felt reading the very last page comes back to me all over again. which i can only describe as finding the last piece of the puzzle i've been trying to complete my entire life

3. the hunger games trilogy. first time i've ever read it was earlier this year, at age 22, but it quickly became my anchor to this world. i decided to finally give it a try during one of the worst moments of my life, and while i feel that the hard times are still not over yet, i can easily say the hunger games keeps me afloat when all i want to do is drown

4. the song of achilles by madeline miller. it was one of my first challenges to myself. it was the first book i read completely in english without having read the portuguese version first. at least once in every single paragraph, i had to stop and look a word up. i also made myself NOT look for the translation but instead the definition of the word in english. it was a lot more of a study than a read at the time, but it improved me sooo much. it made me more comfortable with myself and my words in english

5. poema de sete faces (seven-sided poem) by carlos drummond de andrade. it's not a book, it's a small poem, but i just HAD to include it here. it resonated with me in the middle of a literature class in high school lol i still remember leaving the class with tears in my eyes, but they were not sad tears. not quite happy either? it was just. the feeling of being understood. not alone in this life, as much as it feels like it

phew this was deep but i loved every second 😭💖 i tag my lovelies @thesmileykate @tobistark @loungemermaid @springmagpies @softchouli @millennium-queen @eroticeverlark @runwiththethieves @catastrxblues

[run-down-that-dream]

🎅

That version of Darlin' slaps ahrd!

exactly! I'm 99% certain everyone is sick of hearing about Carl, but it's fine! I wore my two best friends out of Tom Petty last year, but it's fine, it meant more Tom for me!

Roy is brilliant! Mystery Girl is such a good album. And that video, wow! I love him so much, I'm lowkey in love with his sideburns (sideburns are a selling point for me I stg), love the Mike cameo!

Lucky! My brain can barely count to ten (which isn't great as I'm a supervisor who has to count money at the end of each day in the shop I work in lmao), but fair enough!

Literature is fun! One of my modules allows me to write my own poems, which has been really fun. Although, one of my tutors scares me as he went on a very very passionate rant about gay sex and grass back to back, I'm not quite sure how he went from one to the other, but I guess that's lit for you!

Oooh cool! Being a photographer would be fun! I'd love to be an author/publisher. I know writing isn't really a qualification thing necessarily, but my brain is only wired to write fanfiction at this point

Random question of the day:

Besides English, do you speak any other languages? Or are there any languages you'd like to learn?

Santa

ooh yes!! more tom for you, I love that way of thinking

the mike cameo yeahhh 🥰 every time I see him I'm just like. that's my guyyyy 🥰 proud girlfriend over here 🙋‍♀️😂 but anyway yes you're so right actually, roy looks great with the sideburns.

what do you think of tom's sideburns from '85??

what you said about counting money reminds me of one of my friends lol we used to work at a shop together and that was one of the tasks at the end of the night. she always made me do it 'cause she was so worried about messing up. which worked out perfectly because she would mop instead and I personally hate mopping for some reason?? so we had a good system going on.

ok writing poems for school sounds amazing. I took a short story class, had the opportunity to write a short story, but I ended up having to drop. very disappointing. of course now I write fanfic so I guess that can count lol

I don't speak any other languages but I took french in high school. not that I remember much but I remember a little! I wouldn't mind relearning. and I'd love to learn italian too!! what about you??

[bloomingbora]

i really don't talk enough how i was aroace all these times, just didn't know there were words for it

example 1: when i was 12 i wrote an avengers fanfic with an aroace mc out of pure spite because all the stories on wattpad ended up with the girl married to [choose one male avenger]

example 2: "oh, i just really want to focus on school" i said, just like the year before and the year before and the–

example 3: yeah remember that one time u had to make up a love poem in a literature class? hahaha i did and my classmates were 100% sure i was crushing on some blue eyed guy even though i just made up some cheesy lines to get an extra credit... yeah

example 4: preteen me joking about that one communistic poster with the guy refusing a drink, saying "lol that's me about sexy times"

[your-local-fools-treasury]

For the non-american ask set...

All of them pls >:)

Suffer <3

hold on- I fell asleep

uh

not gonna give too many explanations cuz that would take WAAAY too long

so

1. dripstone cave of Aggtelek

2. if by holidays the list meant like Christmas, then at home, if it meant summer break then I'm okay with whatever

3. nope, it did before 1920 but not anymore

4. Gulash soup

5. almost any/every older song, like "Petroleum lámpa"

6. I don't really like newer songs, they make me feel weird in a bad way

7. Megszentségteleníthetetlenkedéseitekért, (uhhhh ←stopped remembering words) lángos, cinege

8. not really, or at least never happened

9. haven't been to too many but Romania (more specifically Transylvania) is pretty cool and I guess I know about I a little more than other neighbouring countries

10. well that's though.. I don't swear soo uhh.. giving you a fun one that has no actual swear words hehe: Hogy a villamos szabja rád a rövidnadrágot!

11. uhhh... I don't have one... so I'll just.. got with basic answer of Sándor Petöfi

12. never seen any, the only time I encounter poems is in literature class

13. Name day, definitely name days. also pulling each others ears when it's their name day or their birthday (that one is only done in my family I think)

14. I think older cartoons were pretty good, don't think there's any new made here actually

15. the "lopásvédő törölköző" when on a beach is the main thing we can recognize each other in neighbouring countries lol

16. apparently people think we ride horses everywhere (???) which is just plain stupid and not true (multiple sources said this stereotype) — I do somewhat agree with us liking to drink. Like if someone is here as a guest for longer than an hour (and we rarely see the person) you can bet your life on someone asking them if they want some Pálinka

17. eh.. not really. I guess maybe like the very begging of it. Like how we got here and all

18. lol yeah. There's even a wikipedia article on the dialect. (szigetköz dialect)

19. I think it's fine, I mean... I may or may not had my room painted red, white and green for a while so I got no say in this... The emblem is near and I only hate the national anthem because I had to memorize the whole thing for class in middle school

20. I'm pretty sure either it's soccer or basketball

21. hmmm... túró rudi and Pálinka I guess

22. that our language is still alive somehow?? Like damn. I am ashamed of the fact that we're incredibly hateful and stubborn

23. Pálinka, next question

24. we hate on Belgium but that's a collective European thing. So I'd say uhh neighbouring countries..? + Russia perhaps..???

25. nah, in the end of the day I like it here

26. Fun fact! many times they shoot parts of movies here because it's way cheaper than others, yet architecturely it's still pretty nice I guess. It's always fun when parts of Budapest is in big movies lol

27. I don't have any

28. a near by city is literally dubbed as the "the city of rivers" so I guess. There's two major lakes but you can only go swim in lake Balaton (and lots of smaller lakes scattered all around). There are some mountains, but there are more plains than them. No favorite place

29. Not to my knowledge, no

30. from my moms mom side German, from her (my moms) dad's side Székely (no clue of the eng translation). And from my dads side, only guessing by our surname, we probably have ancestry from Slavic people (not sure if this is what the question was asking..

anyways, this took waaay too long and I'm not built for knowing stuff about this wretched place

(had to edit, forgot the 20th question)

[amazingmsme]

Laughter as Sweet as a Poem

AN: My life may be falling apart rn but I’m in too deep to give up on tickletober now. It’s how I cope 🙃 Played Doki Doki Literature Club for a class so I thought I’d show these girls some love! They could really use it lol

Natsuki wasn't a fan of the whole "sharing our poems" thing, but she supposed it could be worse. It was only the second day of doing so, but she felt pretty proud of this one. Sayori bounded up to her, swapping the pages on each other's hand as they both read the poems.

"Wow, this is really good. Who knew you had this in you?" she teased. Sayori giggled, grinning from ear to ear.

"Aww, thanks! Yours is sooo good!" Sayori said, hugging it to her chest. The smaller girl beamed with pride, puffing out her chest.

"You bet it is! Took me less than 20 minutes too!" she bragged.

"Is this about how people are mean to you because you read mang-"

"Jeez Sayori, tell it to the world why don't ya!" she snapped, her body going completely stiff. Sayori winced at her harsh tone.

"Ehehe, sorry, I forgot you don't like people mentioning that," she apologized. Natsuki crossed her arms and looked down, blowing a lock of hair away from her eyes.

"It's fine since it's you. Just- watch who you say that around," she mumbled, continuing to advert her gaze.

"So... do you like spiders?" she asked as she handed her back the poem. Natsuki made a face of disgust and shook her head.

"No way! Spiders are not my thing!" Sayori giggled, taking a step closer.

"Well I didn't wanna freak you out, but there's a spider on you." She squealed and immediately started scanning her body, smacking herself to kill the offending bug.

"What? Where? Get it off, get it off!" she demanded, spinning in a circle in her haste to save herself.

"Hold still, it's riiiight here!" she exclaimed, pouncing on Natauki and lightly scribbling over her tummy. She shrieked, smacking Sayori's hands.

"Y-you lihihiar! Thehere was nohoho spider wahahas there?" she claimed, turning around to flee. She didn't get far because Sayori was able to wrap her in a tickle hug before she managed to escape.

I'm sorry Natsuki, this spider is just too fast for me to get!" she teased, fluttering her fingers up and down her sides. Bubbly giggles and shrieks flew from her mouth between thinly veiled threats.

The rest of the club members watched on in amusement, though Yuri was blushing profusely and kept looking away.

Sayori let her go, giggling nervously as Natsuki glared at her.

"What the heck? Why'd you do that for?"

"Sorry, I couldn't help it! I saw the opportunity and I  just took it. You have such a cute laugh Natsuki!"

Her cheeks glowed a bright red and she turned away. "I-I do not!"

"It's nothing to be embarrassed about. She was just playing around," Monika intervened, feeling the need to diffuse the situation before it had the chance to escalate.

"Pft, whatever. You better not do that again!" she warned, hands on her hips.

"No promises!" Sayori chirped. Natsuki growled and turned on her heels, storming off to the classroom closet.

It hadn't been the worst thing ever, but she'd take that secret to her grave.

[octaviasdread]

thanks sm for posting about the free poetry course! is there other affordable literature courses or similar you can rec? thanks bestie :) i love da but i’m dumb lol

I know you’re probs half-joking but I want to make something clear. No one in the dark academia community (or wider) is dumb.

Everyone I’ve interacted with has been curious, creative, and appreciative of others' work. Those are the important traits, not a grade, a completed reading list, or a privileged education.

I'm passionate about making academic resources more widely accessible so any academia related links I see are reblogged under the tag ‘accessible resource.’ I remember posting about the Louvre online art collection a while ago if that's something you'd be interested in <3

Other recs:

1. Future Learn: A website that allows you to sign up for short, part time online courses offered FREE by Universities. There are so many to choose from. I also love the ability to interact with others on the course while you study.

I've just made a profile for a poetry course and I've added lots of other courses to my Wishlist. Feel free to drop me an ask or message if you're joining lit/history courses and you want to find me!!

2. Open Learn: A catalogue of FREE short, part-time/study at your own pace courses in a range of subjects (mostly introductory level) provided by the Open University

3. BBC In Our Time Culture Podcast: FREE on BBC Sounds, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts. Hour long conversations between University professors on different subjects (authors, novels, poems, literary movements, etc). My University accept the podcast as a reliable academic source to cite in essays so you know it's high quality academia

4. The History Chicks Podcast: I listen FREE on Apple Podcasts but it's also available on amazon music and wondery. Each episode or two-part episode focuses on a famous woman from history (writers, queens, scientists, actors/singers, and even the women of the Wild West, etc). The hosts are engaging, funny, and excellent at giving their research reading lists

5. Academia.edu: Millions of Academic papers uploaded for open access. You can find papers usually hidden behind pay walls or University membership for FREE. You can also follow the profiles of academics to keep up with their research

6. YaleCourses Youtube Channel: Recorded Yale University lectures uploaded for FREE access. Playlists are sorted by classes. A quick look showed me:

- Modern Poetry with Langdon Hammers (25 vids)

- Hemmingway, Fitzgerald, Faulkner with Wai Chee Dimock (25 vids)

- Cervantes' Don Quixote with Roberto González Echevarría (24 vids)

- Introduction to the Theory of Literature with Paul H.Fry (26 vids)

- Milton with John Rogers (24 vids)

- The American Novel Since 1945 with Amy Hungerford (26 vids)

[rein-ette]

Hi!

I was inspired by your asks, so I wanted to hear from you! What do you think of Canada as a country? I had a bit of a Canadian phase long ago and I tried to consume as much literature and history as I could, but reading about a place and living in it are very different experiences, so is there anything you'd like to share about Canada, about the culture or the people? Do you like living there? What are some of your favorites things? How do you survive the winters?

And also, as a character, what do you think of Matt?

(´｡• ᵕ •｡`) ♡

Aaaaaaaaah okay okay *ahem*

If you’re not here for a Ted talk the exit is to your left, have a great day!

I do love Canada very much! I was born and pretty much grew up here, and as I’ve grown older I’ve become more and more grateful for everything that my country has provided for me! I remember my history teacher in high school said once that by being born into the middle class and as a Canadian, you’ve already won the lottery of life. That was not to disparage other countries, but to remind us of how remarkably privileged we are and how much we take for granted.

One of the first things you hear when you ask people what does it mean to Canadian is the word “multicultural.” I find this word realllyyyyyy cringeyyyy and not really reflective of reality, but I suppose it’s a good starting point for more in depth discussion. People often say Canada is a “cultural melting pot”, but the indigenous poet Marilyn Dumont pointed out in her poems that in some ways it’s more of a mosaic — there are many cultures, but they don’t always meld together. To say it’s a melting pot is ignoring the fact that racism and discrimination certainly have and do still exist here.

But I would argue that in some areas it is a “melting pot”, even if I kinda hate that word. I prefer to think of where I live as cultural delta — a place where many mighty tributaries meet as they thunder into the sea. (It is also literally a delta, funnily enough) Here, I grew up absorbing Canadian ideas, studying British history, reading American literature, learning French — but I also grew up listening to Kpop, watching Ghibli, eating rice. When I meet up with friends, we don’t grab a coffee, we grab milk tea. If you ask people here where they would like to visit or live, they will most likely say New York, London, Hong Kong, or Seoul — which tells you a bit about both how powerful and diverse the cultural influences here are.

Perhaps the thing most indicative of Canada’s “multiculturalism” and what I am most grateful for, however, is that I grew up here without fear. I didn’t even know the words “chink” or other words existed until I could access the internet. Recently, the beatings of Asian immigrants in the UK and US brought this home for me — how lucky I am to have such a privileged childhood. And I know this kind of privilege is hard won; in my research of WW2 I found that one of the amusement parks that I used to frequent as a child was built on land that once housed a Japanese internment camp. How fragile our lives are!

But enough about the serious stuff. I can’t really answer your question about how to survive winters in Canada lol, except to say that where I am in Canada it is absolutely necessary everyone own at least 3-4 umbrellas. That’s because this side of the Rockies in BC, the temperatures are pretty mild year round — the coldest it gets is usually 0, and the hottest around 25. But, by god, it rains. I did go to Ottawa in the winter though, where it was -13 one day, but honestly? Everything below 0 feels pretty much the same. Once it gets that cold, you can’t even tell anymore. I wore a skirt and tights that day, with a good, thick winter coat. And I survived :D

Besides not being heckled on the street for being Asian, my favourite things about Canada are probably the amazing diversity of good food and how tremendously beautiful the wilderness here is. And I say this as someone who loses her mind when a mosquito flies past (ie. I am not a nature person). You can kinda tell from these photos here, but the trees and water and whatnot here, are like, real. Maybe I just find that amazing because I lived in Tianjin, but it just feels like this is a city built among the trees and the sky and water that was always here, and not a city where humans have brought in nature for our amusement.

Okay, gotta move on to your other questions or I’ll go on forever. As a state I think Canada does a fairly good job of providing for its own people, but I wish we had a greater global influence. A lot of youth especially express the view that Canada is kinda...boring if your career doesn’t have to do with, like, sports, nature, or medicine, and I would tend to agree. We have great universities, but as someone who studies international relations I often wish Canada would like? Do more? On the global scale. The only thing we really have under our name is the UN peacekeeping, which PM Pearson started after the Suez Canal Crisis. I mean, I’ve heard that many people abroad identify Canada with peace and like ofc I’m not complaining about that, but I just wish our history was a little spicier, ya know? We did kick Americas ass that one time in 1812 and that was amazing. No regrets.

So that brings me to Matt. A lot of Canada’s existence has just been dominated by trying to carve a way between the US and the British while not being swallowed by either. Britain gave us the protection and strength and diversification of identity to not be annexed by the US, but at the same time it hobbled Canada’s relation with our only neighbour. One of the very first treaties Canada negotiated alone, if I’m recalling correctly, was a trade contract with the US over fishing (?) in BC and Alaska, where London was like no you can’t and Canada was like uh we gotta make money too, bro. So yes, while I do believe Mattie is just a very loyal person in general, he was also loyal to the empire because he needed to survive. A lot of Canadian identity was solidified around our prompt assistance of England and the sacrifices made in the two world wars, especially the campaigns in the Low Countries and Italy. Essentially, Canada has historically differentiated itself from the US through its loyalty.

Uuuuh just realized that has nothing to do with my opinion of Matt. Um. I like him? He’s real best friend/big brother material, and I do hc him as far more cunning and capable than canon portrays him to be. However, sometimes he’s just...too nice. He doesn’t have that edge that England has that makes me wanna slap him tf up and sob and call him my baby at the same time. Also, as oumaheroes mentioned here, that kind of selflessness can get pretty toxic. After all, by consistently not voicing or examining your own needs, you make it incredibly and unnecessarily frustrating for the people who care about you to help you, and that creates a relationship just as one sided as one where the person is extremely selfish. Actually, now that I think about it, my biggest gripe with Mattie as a character and Canada as a country is in that word: selfless. Without self. Perhaps because Canada is still so young, but it feels a little lost, a little like it doesn’t know quite know yet why it exists.

TLDR: If you’re under 18 or over 60, Canada is the place to be. If, however, you’re like me and wish you could touch a building that’s over 150 years old and maybe visit a square somebody’s been guillotined in, perhaps try someplace else. Personally Portugal’s golden visa is lookin especially tempting lately

[hetaestoniahq]

Please elaborate on the teacher thing, I'm curious now

|| OK SO LIKE

I just got this new teacher alright? New teacher to give Estonian and literature classes. First off got a male teacher for the first time that isn't for a subject like PE or woodcraft wow -

And like, he has a whole resume of just all these known schools he's worked for (like the French school in Tallinn for example), he's a Tartu Uni graduate and even stated how he studied together with the poet we ended up later talking about in our class because her poems were in our literature books. ALSO he's a writer who has taken trips to places in Estonia to gather folktales and such and write books about it, he's even published some and has stated is currently working on more! He really seems to care about Estonian folklore and mythology from the looks of things.

The reason he left the previous big school he worked for was because he wanted to go somewhere smaller and more chill, and from this Facebook Estonian teacher group thing he saw the message about our school being in desperate need for an Estonian and literature teacher and our school is small and next to rich forest life so it's just a really nice place.

He is like, very active with his job in a sense, he often adds to the topic we're learning that the book may not mention and makes sure we are truly aware and educated. He doesn't want us to stress about grades and encourages being active in class which can be what can earn you grades - also from time to time he makes us all get up and stretch our legs a bit to make sure we stay healthy in the long run lol.

He doesn't entirely go by the book and chooses his own path on how to teach the subject, sometimes we watch a video on a website and then analyze, sometimes we make a quick poster presentation about something (although I don't like those very much, we've done like.. 3 at this point and I suck at making them look good by design HELP 😭)

Although it's probably because that's just the topics in class in general, he clearly is proud to be an Estonian and wants us to be proud too, wanting us to be informed about our identity, culture and what makes us unique haha.

Bro he made us learn Livonian for a good moment, use our brains to translate a text and then showed the video by ILoveLanguages! to have us make our own dialogue in Livonian with a partner, it was really fun and I actually ain't ever really bored in class. He is kind and encourages to not hesitate to answer even if you're wrong - because being wrong helps you learn from your mistake.

Also omg when did we ever last time sing in Estonian class - don't know but we did now! We listened to and sung Meil on elu keset metsa which we then analyzed the lyrics of. I already had known this song before haH.

The way he dresses is just - lmao, he dresses so formal like he is about to go meet the president or something - also his clothes is completely black and white + a blue bowtie omg he really just has the blue-black-white set huh 😭 dresses kinda like an old man despite not looking that old tbh (looks like he's in his 30's)

Also

When talking about the value of learning the language of the country you're going to possibly live in - he just casually stated how he learned Lithuanian in a few months when living there as an example how it's very possible to pick up languages.

Like

I'm sorry what

Hold on hold on - you lived in Lithuania for a period of time? And you learned the language within a FEW MONTHS?

SIR- what other languages do you know omg?!?

That feels like such an Eduard moment, leave it for Eduard to learn a language that fast because he can.

Overall just the methods of teaching, the clear care and such for the job and the other things he's doing on the side - is just absolute Estonia energy. Probably the best teacher I've ever seen tbh

[spectralarchers]

I wanna know about the rant now 😅

Okay, so, since both you and @ohmystarsy​ messaged me about it, I’m gonna try and type it out again. It’s based on this post by @engulfes:

[Picture ID: A tumblr post by user @engulfes, quote: i’ve just been thinking about how english and americans online expect everyone to know their literature and poetry, their ~classics~ when literally every other country in the world also has an incredible and interesting literary history that is probably more relevant to it’s own citizens, like i’m not saying you shouldn’t branch out to intl lit because i think everyone should but that includes english first language speakers who have never picked up a translated book in their lives, unquote. The post has, at time of writing this, 13,669 notes. End Picture ID].

The rant I started writing was about how this is also about Modern Pop Culture and general American and/or English popular culture, and the sort of expectation that English-speaking online communities have that everyone will share their specific set of cultural standards.

I only saw The Princess Bride like... three years ago? When I was 25 years old? Mean Girls was a movie someone force fed me in 2017 because I told them I hadn’t seen it before. I still, to this day, being aged 27 years old, have not seen Home Alone, Die Hard, any of the Back to the Future movies, the old Ghostbusters movies (or I may have when I was a child, but I don’t remember ANYTHING about them), I haven’t seen Grease, I haven’t seen Saturday Night Fever, I haven’t even seen Top Gun or Dirty Dancing. I haven’t seen the Rocky Horror Picture Show nor The Labyrinth.

The whole sort of expectation that every single person online ever has seen these is very American (and to a certain extent, British)-centric, because it assumes that everyone, everywhere, had the same childhood and/or education growing up.

I was disappointed when I watched the Princess Bride because the memes and the general American-centric pop culture had made it out to be extremely quotable (and I mean, it is...) but... having grown up in a country that wasn’t English speaking just meant that all the quotables things I say in my day to day life aren’t from those movies specifically (and expecting everyone on the internet to understand the reference from Mean Girls and/or any of the aforementioned movies is English speaking-centric).

I grew up in France, which means that the movies I grew up with and revisit again, and again, and again are things like Rrrrrrr!, Astérix & Obélix: Mission Cléopatre, Brice de Nice, La Tour Montparnasse Infernale - and those are just the “newer” ones! Then there’s Le Dîner de Con, L’Aile ou la Cuisse, Les Bronzés, Les Bronzés Font du Ski, La Carioca, Les Visiteurs, etc. etc. AND THOSE ARE JUST THE COMEDIES! I feel utterly desperate when I’m in a movie theater in Denmark, filled with the urge to yell “Ca va être tout noir!” because I KNOW that if I do that in France, at least one person will respond with “Ta gueule!”. Same goes when someone happens to say “Bonne situation” because it triggers my will to quote the “Je ne pense pas qu’il y ait de bonne ou de mauvaise situation...”-monologue from Mission Cléopatre. 

I still don’t get the whole Bob Ross thing, but that’s probably because I had Art Attack on screen instead. Television show wise, I didn’t watch Sesame Street and it took me a long time to figure out who the different characters were, but I did grow up with the Minikeums, and being a Danish citizen as well, with Kaj & Andrea, Anna & Lotte and a whole bunch of other puppets (Vip & Viktor still give me nightmares to this day).

Culturally, the things that make me who I am - and I am a third culture kid, so that makes it even more difficult - is all of the above mentioned things but also the Guignols, Le Plus Grand Cabaret du Monde, NRJ Music Awards, Johnny Hallyday (yes, him), and more still that I’m forgetting right now, that American and British people have absolutely zero idea about. This isn’t a critic or to point fingers, but assuming that all non-English speaking people need to know the exact same cultural references as you is harmful to you and to others, because it diminishes the culture of other countries and assumes that yours is better. (It probably isn’t). 

I still feel behind on my own Danish culture because I didn’t grow up in Denmark (I still have issues differentiating the Skagen-painters, I still haven’t seen Matador, I still don’t think that Anders Mattesen is funny, I don’t get the Cirkus Revy culture, I still haven’t seen any Olsen Banden movies that I remember of, etc.), and it’s a full time job of having to learn the entire culture of a country you’re living in WHILE still entertaining and keeping up to date with the French culture (I read the French television program magazine Télé 7 Jours every single week so that I don’t get completely lost, and I try to watch Secrets d’Histoire when I can, and...), WHILE ALSO having to keep up with the whole English speaking craziness of the whole world and feeling like being one or two steps behind with getting up to date on everything because HOLY SHIT.

Assuming that everyone knows the US classics (I still haven’t read The Great Gatsby, and I have no intention of doing so) or the UK classics (Pride & Prejudice? Emma? Wuthering Heights?) means that you assume there are no other classics that have to be read. Same goes with some poetry - I’ll take Arthur Rimbaud’s poetry over Tennyson any day, but it doesn’t mean that Tennyson’s poetry was bad (it just isn’t “my” poetry, if that makes sense). 

I adore Candide by Voltaire, and I had to analyze more Apollinaire poems that I liked in high school, and reading Germinal by Victor Hugo was a pain, but somehow, those are still things I consider “my” classics. My “French classes” in French school, which are the equivalent to English in English schools, offered analysis of the French cultural landscape reaching back centuries and going forward too. 

Like I said, I’m a third culture kid and the only one person who will ever understand the potential myriad references I make across several languages is my sister, who grew up in the same environment as me (we often joke that if we were ever in a TV show to analyze our cultural language, they’d need at French, a Danish and an English-speaking analyst to understand what we’re referencing half of the time).

But, again, assuming or even more, EXPECTING that the US and UK English speaking cultural things that make up your culture are what should or can make up other people’s cultures is harmful and it erases the culture of the world, but also of minorities in your own countries (thinking specifically of Native American cultures, as well as more specific Irish and Scottish cultures for the British Isles), etc. 

And yet, I’m still privileged myself because I *have* a shitton of culture to look into, that has been preserved and is available to me to look at, and a lot of French classics have been translated (The Phantom of the Opera AND Les Misérables are the first things that pop into my mind because holy shit) into English and are readily available, the same goes to poetry, etc. Same goes for a lot of Danish stuff as well. A lot of culture around the world and throughout history was actively killed and erased specifically as part of genocidal colonialism (and I am acutely aware that both France and Denmark are former colonialist empires and still bear that mark on their own cultures).

I think I’ve lost the point of the rant, but I just wanted to specific that the “classics” aspect of culture isn’t the only aspect that falls under the above text post. It’s all of the cultural landscape that does so.

PS: I have seen quite a lot of movies like Life of Brian and The Holy Grail by the Monty Pythons though, and I have seen Strange Brew with Bob & Doug McKenzie because *something something Canadian friends* but I doubt that those qualify for the specific line of thought presented above, lol.