#about other people's writings

[autolenaphilia]

Cuckoo by Gretchen Felker-Martin is a really good book, and it really upset me.

The idea is actually simple. It's a horror book about the horrors of conversion therapy, mixed with Invasion of the Body Snatchers and a story structure similar to Stephen King's It.

The conversion therapy camp is actually a pod people scheme run by a grotesque alien, the poor queer kids are replaced with alien copies of themselves who are then sent home. So the abusive parents who sent the kids away to conversion therapy get the perfect cishet kid they wanted back, but it's actually an evil alien masquerading as their kid and it's going to eat them. The point about conversion therapy is obvious.

And the similarities to King's It is that it has a similar structure, where a group of kids survive the monster of the title, and then as adults have to regroup to defeat it.

And this simple idea works, like the body snatchers/pod people as representing cishetnormativity and the It-like plot structure just works, and it's well-written.

It confirmed something about what really upsets me in horror. The book revels in fairly grotesque body horror, lots of visceral scenes involving the title character, the alien “cuckoo”, and those didn’t upset me much at all. I can see why people can be deeply disturbed by these scenes, the body horror gets pretty out there, but mostly I thought it was cool and fun. And that’s because I know that the cuckoo wasn’t real, there are no grotesque flesh mass aliens on Earth shapeshifting into and replacing humans, that’s just fiction.

But there is more realistic horror in the book. The conversion therapy camp in the book doesn’t immediately reveal its literally alien nature to its victims, but keeps up the charade, however badly, of being a human conversion therapy camp. And that involves depicting the kind of abuse that goes on at real conversion therapy camps, everything from vicious beatings to slave labor.

And that upset me badly, I’ve never been to an US-style conversion therapy camp, but I’ve had experiences like that. In a reverse of my reaction to the alien monster, my knowledge that these kind of abuses are very much real, and are very much on-going, made reading fictional depictions rather upsetting. It took literally took me almost half of 2024 to slowly read this book, as I kept putting it down because things repeatedly got too real. And yes, I’m well aware that maybe the best decision wouldn’t have been to finish reading it. But now I did, and there was many parts that I enjoyed. I probably won’t ever re-read it though.

Not that I blame ms Gretchen Felker-Martin for her book upsetting me, unlike some people I could name. The fact that the book could disturb me so much was because of well-written it was, and because among all the alien monster horror, it also depicts things that are sadly real.

[bamsara]

I love blocking people I've never interacted with based off their replies on some random popular post. Wow random user on a post with 50k notes with the worst take ever, I hope I never meet you and will make sure we never do

[sanct1f1ed]

favorite stan twins characterization is that they're both equally insane. stanley just gets more air time to show it off. loosely inspired by a post i read earlier but here's some absolutely insane things both of them have done

stanley:

drugged a person and turned them into an exhibit in the mystery shack

had a vegas wedding to a prospector-themed novelty dispenser

gave mabel a grappling hook

failed to steal an animatronic badger

chewed his way out of the trunk of a car

punched at least three bald eagles

is multiply divorced, possibly even with the novelty dispenser

committed premeditated murder on a llama

faked a heart attack to get on Wheel of Fortune

took his clothes off in front of a live studio audience on Wheel of Fortune

has a rivalry with a fifth grader, a grandmother, and a man who exclusively dresses like a corn cob

stanford:

pulled a gun on a bus driver when he wouldn't let a pig on board

directly assisted in mind-controlling ronald reagan during his election in 1980

gave mabel a crossbow

got bitten by a vampire bat and subsequently began sampling human blood

owns contraband outlawed in 9000 dimensions; keeps it in an extremely flimsy plastic case

"accidentally" set a hawk on fire

has exes ranging from as normal as his old college buddy to as weird as a triangle and an alien with 7 eyes who put a metal plate in his head

wears turtlenecks because he's hiding multiple tattoos he regrets, including one themed around "all star" by smash mouth

is an Extremely wanted criminal across hundreds of dimensions; was completely kicked out of one for card counting

is, bizarrely, super into the band Eurythmics

can see shrimp colors

[inkskinned]

because sometimes there are invisible tests and invisible rules and you're just supposed to ... know the rule. someone you thought of as a friend asks you for book recommendations, so you give her a list of like 30 books, each with a brief blurb and why you like it. later, you find out she screenshotted the list and send it out to a group chat with the note: what an absolute freak can you believe this. you saw the responses: emojis where people are rolling over laughing. too much and obsessive and actually kind of creepy in the comments. you thought you'd been doing the right thing. she'd asked, right? an invisible rule: this is what happens when you get too excited.

you aren't supposed to laugh at your own jokes, so you don't, but then you're too serious. you're not supposed to be too loud, but then people say you're too quiet. you aren't supposed to get passionate about things, but then you're shy, boring. you aren't supposed to talk too much, but then people are mad when you're not good at replying.

you fold yourself into a prettier paper crane. since you never know what is "selfish" and what is "charity," you give yourself over, fully. you'd rather be empty and over-generous - you'd rather eat your own boundaries than have even one person believe that you're mean. since you don't know what the thing is that will make them hate you, you simply scrub yourself clean of any form of roughness. if you are perfect and smiling and funny, they can love you. if you are always there for them and never admit what's happening and never mention your past and never make them uncomfortable - you can make up for it. you can earn it.

don't fuck up. they're all testing you, always. they're tolerating you. whatever secret club happened, over a summer somewhere - during some activity you didn't get to attend - everyone else just... figured it out. like they got some kind of award or examination that allowed them to know how-to-be-normal. how to fit. and for the rest of your life, you've been playing catch-up. you've been trying to prove that - haha! you get it! that the joke they're telling, the people they are, the manual they got- yeah, you've totally read it.

if you can just divide yourself in two - the lovable one, and the one that is you - you can do this. you can walk the line. they can laugh and accept you. if you are always-balanced, never burdensome, a delight to have in class, champagne and glittering and never gawky or florescent or god-forbid cringe: you can get away with it.

you stare at your therapist, whom you can make jokes with, and who laughs at your jokes, because you are so fucking good at people-pleasing. you smile at her, and she asks you how you're doing, and you automatically say i'm good, thanks, how are you? while the answer swims somewhere in your little lizard brain:

how long have you been doing this now? mastering the art of your body and mind like you're piloting a puppet. has it worked? what do you mean that all you feel is... just exhausted. pick yourself up, the tightrope has no net. after all, you're cheating, somehow, but nobody seems to know you actually flunked the test. it's working!

aren't you happy yet?

[mercutio-the-velaryon]

Mel and Viktor being drawn to each other but repelling each other at the same time... Ughhh you know I critique the fuck out of the writing sometimes but someone COOKED HERE

[pixlatedvampire]

It’s best to introduce your Hag slowly through the door first to not scare the others

[composeregg]

edit (10/23/2024) now that the poll is over: Original version, with 10 questions, from April 2023 here

And, given that the original is from April 2023, that means I can very easily say:

No, this was not an ISAT reference!

Just because I use parentheses and 2nd person pov and love the same concepts of what a time loop can do to a person doesn't mean it's ISAT

(Yes, I like ISAT, the original poll is why I was recommended the game! But if you look at the original, you can see all the origins of the options to choose from, including what spurred me on with the moss option from the replies)

If I were going to make something for ISAT, I would never be so vague, you can simply look at my ao3 for proof of that

[mischievous-thunder]

The Honey Badgers know everything

[dootznbootz]

Sorry, not sorry but I see this too often and it bothers me :)

Before people get mad: Notice how I put “Me and Penelope fans” there? I know there's others. this ain't about you <3

edit: This is about how people in the fandom prioritize Odysseus and Telemachus (and even Diomedes, who is not in the Odyssey) despite the Odyssey also being HER story as well. I've seen many fics about Odysseus and Telemachus in their youth, and never really seen that for Penelope.

[podcast-hemocytoblast]

What if when Michael got Distortioned he/they/it/(?) had just kept showing up to work? Imagine Gertrude comes into the archives and finds a bunch of paperwork filled out in yellow highlighter and folded into impossible shapes, and then Michael-Distortion just walks into the room door-style and sits down at his work computer so it can email Gertrude a phishing scam.

[cloudbends]

something I feel like isn't nearly appreciated enough about mob's arc in mp100 is that his background is... Completely normal. I see a lot of people interpreting mob's parents as neglectful or distant based on the few scenes we've seen of them, which greatly baffles me because their few scenes aim to establish his family life as.. completely normative. They have the normal, average quips of a normal family. And I think it's very unique and refreshing because it means mob's troubles and internal hardship isn't a product of his upbringing, it's a byproduct of a traumatic experience and of his own personality and how it coalesces with his psychic powers. And I personally think more media should acknowledge that some people, even with perfectly normative and healthy familial dynamics and circumstances, will still develop very complex internal issues and personal psychology. and on the same note, some people with perfectly normal upbringing won't feel comfortable to confide in their parents and seek an external authority figure to look up to, which doesn't necessarily mean them and their parents are estranged. I dont think mob's (or ritsu's) life have to be unhappy to legitimize or explain the fact he has the personal struggles he does. Embracing normalcy is the main theme of this series.

[autolenaphilia]

I think about the article "Don't Call Me Mister You Fucking Beast" from 1972 a lot. It was written by Transvestite, Transsexual and Drag Queen group of the Gay Liberation Front, the British organization. Among its authors was Roz Kaveney and Rachel Pollack. in fact I discovered the text by reading Kaveney's obituary about Pollack, where Kaveney says Pollack was the major mind behind their manifesto.

Now "Don't Call me mister" is a fascinating and important text in general, and a part of trans history. The Gay Liberation Front is often remembered as a cis gay organization, but the fact was that trans people were a part of it, especially transfems. As the article mentions, their group didn't have transmasc members at the time, it was all people we today would describe as transfem. Contrary to some claims in the transmisogynistic British press, transfems were a part of the modern UK queer liberation movement from its beginnings.

Also transvestites and transsexuals were organized together. There is no "medicalism", distinctions are made between those on hrt, those who want it but don't have it yet (in large part due to medical gatekeeping) and those who don't want it, but it isn't treated as important. The claim of "mere" transvestites to be women is treated as valid. The text openly speaks of "transvestite, transsexual and drag-queen women."

The writers also see their struggle as women as part of the broader feminist wave going on at the time. "Think how much more inspiring and beautiful the women's revolution will be when it joyously includes all women." The text in many ways anticipates the concept of intersectionality.

The discussion of passing too is complex, and defends wanting to pass from the young who are "quick to say be militant, don't hide." because the reality is "if you pass you're treated as a human being, if you don't you're treated as a pervert or a roadshow." But the text also notes "Yet there are also thrills to not passing, or more precisely, not caring if you pass." and defends that as well. And the text notes that not all of them conform to feminine stereotypes and that there are butch transfems among them.

I was most recently reminded of this article due to the recent f1nnster discourse, because the article discusses that question as well. "Why is Danny La Rue [a popular drag artist of the time] a West End institution, when we get kicked out of our flats for wearing a skirt? Apparently it's all right if you're doing it for money, but perverted if you do it for personal satisfaction." And that about sums up the divide between men who crossdress as part of a show, and ordinary transsexual women and transvestites even today. Crossdressing as a gag or part of a show has always been more accepted than crossdressing for personal reasons, or transitioning.

The values of the text holds up well overall, and reveals that the "old-school transsexuals" of the 70s often had similar views about medical gatekeeping and passing that young trans people today often have.

[wardingshout]

Zelda goes mushroom girl

[anachronistic-falsehood]

i need to sit down every fanfiction writer who writes smut about trans guys and i need to explain to them the effects testosterone can and will have on a transmasc person's body and also explain how depictions of trans guys in porn can come off as extremely fetishizing when written carelessly and they really need to speak to transmasc people and see them as People before throwing them into a fic to get fucked by some extremely masculine cis man

[lexosaurus]

If you're only commenting on a fic to ask for an update or worse, to be passive-aggressive about wanting an update, then please do both yourself and the writer a favor and don't comment at all.

Saying things like "Can't wait for the next update!" as part of a comment about how you enjoyed the chapter is one thing, but just going into the comments and being like "Where's the update?" or "You haven't finished writing the next chapter yet?" or something similar is not only rude, but also I ASSURE you it only serves to make the writer anxious about writing at all.

Fic writers are not content creators. We're not robots. We're real people with careers, families, and other irl responsibilities. Writing is something I do in my thirty minutes before I go to bed to wind down from the day. Whatever I want to write that evening is what ends up getting written.

So by making me anxious and putting pressure on me to update a fic, especially in that passive-aggressive way that so many people do, all you've ensured is that when I open up my folder that evening to see what I feel like writing, my eyes will completely skip over that WIP that I got the rude comment on that day because I Feel Bad about it and now I don't want to even look at it.

So please, just follow the golden rule of "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all."

[somnimagus]

My page for @sheikahzine; about Impaz's duty to her village, empty of people and full of memories.

[id in alt text]