#also the book is a collection of smaller fairy tale retellings and its fuckign called 'kissing the witch' how is that not gay

[shoezuki]

trying to restrict myself from tumblr to get my work done but im writin an essay on the story The Tale of the Rose by emma donoghue and its so good. its such a fucking good story. like. its the kind of one you read and afterwards just need to think about and it invades ur head. like im so fucked up over it rn.

its a queer/lesbian retelling of beauty and the beast and im writing my essay on it cuz when we discussed it in class, other students were like 'huh i didnt think it was queer i thought they just Became Friends' n i was so gobsmacked bout it and i still am. cuz im reading it now again and like . the basic premise is that the 'beast' is a woman who chose to isolate herself and wear a mask and lean into everyone seeing her as a 'beast' to avoid suitors and those who didnt understand her until beauty comes along and the part where its revealed she's a woman goes like this:

"I pulled and pulled until the padded mask lay uppermost. I breathed my heat on it, and kissed the spot I had warmed. I pulled off the veils one by one. I saw hair as black as rocks under water... I saw lips red as a rose just opening. I saw that the beast was a woman. And that she was breathing, which seemed to matter more" (p. 39)

and for one its phenomenal because through the story a rose is depicted as the only thing she desired at the beginning, now her comparing the beast's lips to a rose. is. EOUGH. but also how the fuck can someone read this and not be like woaw theyre in love. like 'i kissed the spot i had warmed' she kisses her through hte fuckign mask????? thats so much its SO MUCH