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zynart · 2 years ago

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“book lovers” don’t love anything about books and it’s weird (or, defending classic novels)

kevin durant is talking about basketball fans but you’ll understand exactly what he means in a much broader sense if you’re on the basketball side of twitter and immediately recognize the mindset he’s describing — that it’s a sentiment that isn’t really about basketball fans at all, but about how we engage with all sorts of things especially in the social media era. but this tweet is just table-setting. the important thing here is that the rest of this post, about many writers and english teachers and book bloggers and overall people who describe themselves as book-lovers on the internet, can be summed up as a caption to this screenshot that just says “same energy”.

same energy. many writers and supposed booklovers on the internet actively dislike and disparage most literature. and actively dislike and disparage the entire literary tradition of the novel, and the novel as a form, and all the tools or frames of engaging with art, and many of the writers or novels known for beautiful writing, and the books that made up the history and development of the medium and inspired so many more of its writers and inspired stylistic shifts, so much fundamental context for any kind of novel… i’m losing my thread here but the point is, many people who describe themselves as book-lovers, many of them authors themselves or english teachers, will proudly and vocally announce their dislike and hatred of so many classic novels. often what seems like almost all of them.

and will not just proudly say so, but won’t shut up about it. and will bring it up constantly among themselves. it’s not a one-off thing either, this comes up con-fucking-stantly in what feels like almost any conversation about literature. often fully unprompted. and will somehow pretend it's an original insight and that they're being bold and brave and controversial and starting a conversation for saying it, when it's all been discourse every two months for as long as an online commons has existed, and when we all know they got that take from endless cycles of online discourse, and when the reason they say it is because they know people will agree with them, because we've seen how that plays out a million times already, b e c a u s e so many other people who like to imagine themselves as brave bold original thinkers for having picked up that opinion in a previous online cycle themselves will respond enthusiastically through some kind of collective pretense that it's a new conversation.

that's part of it too, everyone involved in that discussion collectively performs some kind of amnesia where this is a take they're hearing for the very first time, and speaking a truth they've always thought but never felt like it was socially acceptable to say. because that way, you get to feel like an original critical thinker without having to do any critical thinking, or to feel like you have a superior understanding of a piece of media without having any media literacy. and you get to feel some self-flattery about your superior insight for having the originality and courage to believe what is now a pretty mainstream view — maybe not mainstream among literati, but absolutely mainstream in the online commons, enough that you know many people agree with you already because you've seen the same agreement and mutual self-congratulation play out in a million online cycles already.

(it feels very disingenuous. maybe it's not consciously and intentionally disingenuous, maybe it's just a lack of self-awareness, but it's like.. you know how we could say a great joke at a family function that we once read on the internet, and they wouldn't know and would just think you're just that witty for coming up wiht it? like that, except we're all on the same internet and we'd all read the same joke already but we all have to pretend we'd never heard it before so we don't break kayfabe, because that way you can convince yourself that nobody else had seen it before and they all thought you were witty. everyone just performs the exact same roles every time discourse about any given book happens every 2-6 months on the internet. next time, can we all at least not pretend like this isn't the 26th time we've seen this conversation and spare all the "FINALLY someone said it!" "someone needed to start this conversation!" schtick? is that too harsh?)

but anyway. the thing is, alright. if you think jane austen is boring. and that the great gatsby is overrated. and also that the bronte sisters' books were super problematic (bc heathcliff and rochester with mad wife in the attic are both kinda misogynistic). and also that hemingway is boring posturing. and catcher in the rye is overrated (because the abused kid processing his brother's death is "annoying"). and that shakespeare is too old english style to be worth reading.

and that only pretentious wannabes read tolstoy or dostoevsky. and as for ursula k le guin or isaac asimov or philip k dick, sci-fi is a boring genre. and that nabokov is weird and kinda suss, and kundera seems like he has an ego and philosophizes too much (will claim to have liked one hundred years of solitude tho bc that’s still seen as fashionable). and only pretentious hipsters read david foster wallace or pynchon or franzen. none of them seem to remember that edith wharton exists. some quote george eliot as another white man, or just don’t mention her at all.

and never even mention chinua achebe or toni morrison or james baldwin or arundhati roy. and — this is something i actually saw being said on twitter in conversations between english teachers, authors, and people who call themselves book bloggers — say "kazuo ishiguro is only read by white people who want to feel smart but is actually full of weird stuff" while including a screenshot from a haruki murakami novel. even though ishiguro and murakami write very different books in very different styles, one has lived in the uk his whole life and his best known books are all set in the uk while the other is a japanese pop writer, and they have very little in common aside from a kinda sparse prose style and being ethnically asian…

at that point, do you even like literature?

having a few or couple of those opinions is one thing, people’s tastes vary and i don’t expect everyone to love every supposed literary classic, i’ll admit to not enjoying ‘a separate peace’ at all — but so many writers online proudly announce pretty much all of this. and it’s usually not even with specific justification about the specific author or book, just broad strokes commentary. a lot of it seems to be half-remembered from bored high school years, books where they barely remember what even happened during them but retained their opinions on them with full unwavering confidence, a lot of the comments that sound like someone who’s only vaguely heard of the book and not even to the level of reading the wikipedia page to check, who misunderstood the main themes and seems to not have tried to critically engage with it at all.

honestly, i know most people online's clever opinions about books are just regurgitated from the internet. i’m pretty convinced this applies to 80% of all mentions of the catcher in the rye online, for example. fuck it, here’s the screenshot of the ishiguro/murakami incident i mentioned a couple paragraphs back:

how is this not, really, just the hardcore marvel-only fan types of the book world? people who aren’t happy with their movies basically being so dominant they’ve outcompeted every other kind of movie in cinemas and make a trillion dollars, but also demand they get the critical appraisal of the godfather, and that martin scorsese praises them without reservation as high art, and also that they should get the same kind of respect and cachet among film artsy types as people who love all the classics of cinema or whatever. it’s the exact same mindset.

in a way, i feel like a lot of how gen x-millennial-zoomers are about art is like a relatively harmless version of how maga boomers are about society, in the sense of.. having the smallest expectation made of you or the smallest amount of effort/inconvenience asked or anything that isn’t super familiar exactly the way things were unchallenging or anyone not praising you for all of it is some kind of horrific thing that shouldn’t be allowed. i think this is a pretty terrible cultural development, as those go. its some kind of social collective self-infantilizing, all propped up by a whole circle of mutual reflexive defensiveness at any criticism of this way of being. and it’s a bit stressful saying all this knowing that there’s a pretty good chance that if the shoe fits, the response is likely not going to be a careful consideration — i mean, why would this somewhat incoherent and sloppily edited rant by some random on the internet warrant a level of careful consideration that people are proud of denying f scott fitzgerald or toni morrison?

its normal to have to put in a little tiny bit of effort and accommodation to access great things, like good art or a functional society. it’s good, even. it’s part of what makes life beautiful. there’s so much beauty to be found in art that you have to sit with and dwell on and read criticism of and analyze to find more and more layers of beauty, to find complexity, to develop a personal relationship between yourself and the art that’s so much deeper than just superficial infatuation because it’s something you built. you cant be mad about that expectation and demand praise for not following it. it’s fine to enjoy art on a simple and escapist level, but that’s not all that art is meant to be. insisting that it’s all that art has to be, or that expecting art to also be more is somehow morally wrong or elitist, is just philistinism and i’m only being a little bit hyperbolic when i say the normalization of that understanding of art is detrimental to society.

art is also meant to be something where you understand and respect the amount of craft and learning and attention to detail and thought and transcendent talent goes into making beautiful things, and you want to engage with it to the level that it deserves, to peel through the layers. to see how you interpret and find meaning and emotion in it based on the person you are at that moment in time, the most salient experiences and thoughts as you encountered that piece of art, the setting, the memories, an understanding that you can look back on and see change as you yourself change. to create an emotional correspondence with a mind you’ve never met, one that might have died decades ago and that lived in a world unimaginably different from your own but shared so many familiar thoughts and feelings and hopes and fears.

that carried the torch of a beautiful tradition of the form — the novel from miguel de cervantes through flaubert and tolstoy into the novels of the lost generation, the development of internal life as an art form in a way that’s unique to the medium and that can’t be shown in a play or film, the transition from novels as storytelling similar to a play in its earliest days to novels coming into its own as a unique art form that allows the reader to truly inhabit someone else’s mind, to think their thoughts and feel their feelings, in a way you can’t get from anything else. not from visual mediums, where you can see the action but can’t inhabit the inner minds of characters, only infer it. not from short stories, which even at their most introspective and internally oriented still don’t give you enough time.

i'll quote milan kundera from the art of the novel here, about what i mean when i talk about the development and tradition of the novel, and what only the novel can do: "Since its very beginnings, the novel has always tried to escape the unilinear, to open rifts in the continuous narration of a story ... Through its own logic, the novel discovered the various dimensions of existence one by one: with Cervantes and his contemporaries, it inquires into the nature of adventure; with Richardson, it begins to examine "what happens inside," to unmask the secret life of the feelings; with Balzac, it discovers man's rootedness in history; with Flaubert, it explores the terra previously incognita of the everyday; with Tolstoy, it focuses on the intrusion of the irrational in human behavior and decisions. It probes time: the elusive past with Proust, the elusive present with Joyce. With Thomas Mann, it examines the role of the myths from the remote past that control our present actions. Et cetera ..."

[my note: interrupting kundera here to note that all that's just up to pre-war early 20th century. there's still novels by the lost generation shaped by world wars and the great depression attending gertrude stein's salons in paris, the influence of fitzgerald and hemingway as branches of prose style, william faulkner and southern gothic, stream-of-consciousness and feminism with virginia woolf, chinua achebe and jean rhys with postcolonial inversions of older classics, magical realism with gabriel garcia marquez and salman rushdie and the like, big self-referential playful intertextual postmodern novels like david foster wallace through the weirdness of the 1990s, to this day there's still evolutions in form like jennifer egan with 'a visit from the goon squad', which such a great book by the way but i digress.. all that came after what kundera described here! and so much more that i'm likely forgetting right now]

but anyway, continuing kundera: "The characters in my novels are my own unrealized possibilities. The novel is not the author’s confession; it is an investigation of human life in the trap the world has become ... The novel has an extraordinary power of incorporation: whereas neither poetry nor philosophy can incorporate the novel, the novel can incorporate both poetry and philosophy without losing anything of its identity ... it can blend philosophy, narrative, and dream into one music ... it has [the ability to] marshall all intellectual means and all poetic forms to illuminate “what the novel alone can discover”: man’s being. ... I’ll never tire of repeating: The novel’s sole raison d’être is to say what only the novel can say."

i think that's very cool. i love thinking about what the novel can do and all the possibilities offered to me by its presence and what only the novel can do. when you’re reading a novel, the same little voice in your head that speaks out your own thoughts are speaking out someone else’s thoughts; the same body where you feel sadness or tension or excitement at events in your life, through the power of imagination, replicates those same feelings in you as you read someone else experience them. you get to understand situations and develop insights that you never could’ve if you’d only had your own experiences to rely on, because you could briefly borrow the direct experiences and emotional responses and realizations of others. having that lightbulb moment as you piece together some insight that the writer had laid out the breadcrumbs and guided you to discover. where things that wouldn’t have gotten through if you’d just been told it in bullet points become things you understand intimately because on some mini scale, in that brain-in-a-vat that’s your mind inside your skull inside your body, a book gave you the same experiential stimuli as being someone else and living a different life. that shit is fucking magical. learning about the journey, tracing that development, witnessing writers over the year gradually understand the full power and capabilities of the novel as a medium and experiment in finding ways to use the medium, is just fascinating to me.

reading classic novels to me is discovering a whole parallel history. not just events, not just ideas, but the way we think about stories. aren’t you interested in that? if you’re an english teacher, don’t your students deserve to experience that with your guidance? if you’re a writer, doesn’t taking your work seriously call for a more intimate knowledge of the clay you’re molding?

i think people give a lot of excuses for their reading choices where they can’t just admit it’s a simple choice with trade-offs, or a preference where what you value in the moment is just different. that’s fine. there’s no need to be ashamed of that and to try to make it out to be anything deeper than that. nobody has to act like a certain type of book is the only kind that’s sufficiently accessible or that has characters of a relevant age or certain background. i mean, there's just straight up books. all kinds of books, a whole wide world of them. i understand being unable to read out of attention span or language level or whatever, but if you can read and its just about needing the book to be unchallenging, there's many many books. relatively short books, readable books, even books with characters in their 20s.

and i would argue that even if there aren’t, its still valuable to read about people with different lives and experiences. marshall mcluhan has a point about how what we call narcissism is a misunderstanding of the actual myth of narcissus from which we get the word. i'll include the quote here first: "The Greek myth of Narcissus is directly concerned with a fact of human experience, as the word Narcissus indicates. It is from the Greek word narcosis, or numbness. The youth Narcissus mistook his own reflection in the water for another person. Now the point of this myth is the fact that men at once become fascinated by any extension of themselves in any material other than themselves... the wisdom of the Narcissus myth does not convey any idea that Narcissus fell in love with anything he regarded as himself. Obviously he would have had very different feelings about the image had he known it was [literally] himself. It is indicative of the bias of our intensely technological and, therefore, narcotic culture that we have long interpreted the Narcissus story to mean that he fell in love with himself, that he imagined the reflection to be Narcissus."

and i think this was really prescient about the state of a lot of modern online criticism and discussion of art. the organizing principle of how some "book lover" communities, whether on YA twitter or fandom tumblr or at your local library reading group, judge the value of media: by their "relatability", whether you can see yourself within the book and setting and characters being the ultimate arbiter of whether a piece of fiction is good or bad. i don't want to call it narcissistic per se, but it does mirror (pun intended...) the myth of narcissus, in that falling in love with a piece of fiction is about whether it's relatable, whether you can see yourself in it.

i'm going to head off a likely response here by emphasizing that this is different from the broader phrase of "feeling seen", which conflates "relatability" and "representation". i'm not here to quell the power of feeling seen, especially for people who have traditionally been surrounded by media where they haven't felt seen, but i think it'd be disingenuous to claim what mcluhan says here is referring to representation. representation is about seeing people *like* you, finding a sense of community in seeing someone who experiences the world in similar ways and would understand how you experience the world as a result. where the myth of narcissus would be applicable is about falling in love with media, even judging the objective value of media and whether it's good or bad as a work of art, based on how much you see yourself in it.

which i think kind of defeats the point of books, the reason why books and reading got this semi-mystical reputation in the first place. the concept of the empathy machine was coined, to my knowledge, by roger ebert referring to movies. art forms in general have the power to be empathy machines, compassion machines, tenderness machines, sympathy machines. empathy as feeling what it's actually like to be someone else, compassion as understanding that someone else also feels things you feel, tenderness as feeling seen and empathised with, sympathy as sorrow and commiseration because you see someone else, maybe the exact way you'd define them might be different but let's phrase them clumsily like this. the machine doesn't operate by itself, it needs you to plug directly into it, and the machine works differently based on your own nature and what you put into it and how you engage with it. most art has the capability to be empathy machines for someone empathetic willing to engage enough, but the barrier of entry is different

the magic of books is that they are a special kind of empathy machine that puts you directly inside the mind of another human being, almost like an other-selves simulator. other-interiority simulator, other-inner-self simulator, whatever you'd like to call it. which makes them uniquely powerful as an empathy machine, even compared to other types of art. how it feels to be someone else is the most unbreakable, most fundamental barrier in existence. it's the AT fields from evangelion and the argument for the human instrumentality project, the impenetrability of that barrier is the reason for wallfacers in the three-body problem, its how sufis and ascetics fall in love with god when nobody else but the omniscient can ever ever truly know what it's like to be you and feel what you feel

this can't be conveyed in the same way in mediums like movies or plays where the medium itself is from an external point of view and is viewed through this barrier of the mind, and is harder to convey in structured forms like poetry which may not be able to capture the endless variety of form and expression within our thoughts and feelings and experiences (or, going back to kundera, the freedom of form within the novel as enabling polyphony). i think the closest art forms in that sense may be music, which also has a relative freedom of form and the ability to express depths of feeling both individually and through the interaction of music with words and even the sequencing of tracks across an album, and video games, which may not directly put you in the mind of someone else the way books do and which may at first glance seem like they belong alongside movies in being seen through the AT field but where the difference is that in a video game your character makes *choices* and you feel how it feels to make those choices as an agent — even if you're not inhabiting someone else's thoughts, you're feeling how it feels to be someone who experienced and did certain things and made certain choices. but i think there's still plenty about books that is unique. the empathy machine has to be collaborative, your imagination is a necessary creative or generative aspect for it to be a novel and not just a report of events

"book lovers" often act like books have some kind of sacred and mystical power but don't seem to be able to justify this idea in how they engage with books as a whole, beyond this sense of books as an identity signifier or aesthetic or accessory. but books do have a certain sacred and mystical power — that they are invitations, almost portals, you could call them pensieves even, where someone gives you a window into another mind. (not necessarily their own mind — the mirror of books as an empathy machine is how even writing itself is an empathy machine of an activity that asks the writer to empathize up a creation — which is also partly why i think that to be a good writer you should also be a good reader).

in much of online, the idea that any book or piece of media that isn't personally relatable would naturally be boring and impossible to connect with is so widely accepted that it's never even really a point of dispute. i want to say it should be, and that we should start disputing it. because i think the magic of books and fiction in general is that it's a way for you to exercise your empathy muscles. the characters or settings don't have to be "relatable" for you to be able to relate to it: it's just about stretching your capacity for empathy a little bit, inhabiting someone different from you with a life different from yours, seeing the world through their eyes, and ultimately learning something about yourself, the world, and humanity as a result. i think it's important to make this argument forcefully and not let this narcotic view of art — that it's natural and expected for us to only be able to enjoy art that is relatable, that relatability is a merit and unrelatability is a flaw in itself — not become even more hegemonic.

but ultimately, prioritizing enjoyment or relatability is fine. there's no harm to the preference. life is short and exhausting, free time is limited, and what we do for leisure can just be about having a fun time, or about getting a guaranteed emotional hit from a genre or medium that you know will fill whatever you need emotionally from reading right now. it's fine to read romance because it's fun or sexy, or fanfic because it'll make you cry. even "narcotic" isn't an inherently bad thing to be: even in a very literal sense, we all accept that it's perfectly normal to unwind with a glass of wine or a joint. it’s fine to prioritize other things. but for people who make their whole brand being about books specifically, i think it deserves far more harsh criticism that so many are so wilfully against engaging with the majority of books. a lot of it is an echo chamber where everyone else in the same circles feels the same way, i guess, but society in general has given this obviously ridiculous state of affairs a free pass for so long.

maybe the internet just isn’t real life and i’m seeing an unrepresentative subset of people. but at least going from “book lover” twitter, which is a loose amalgam of authors and english teachers and people who run wordpress blogs with book reviews, it feels like a lot of it is a whole generation of people who got into writing through fanfic and exclusively read YA or fanfic and felt embarrassed about it being seen as dorky, so they made their whole identity and personality and mission to be about validating kids like their imagined younger selves, without ever really growing up in that aspect of their personalities, and without doing any further developing/exploration of their tastes.

you know what i really don’t understand coming from an author, or even an amateur writer? having zero interest in reading the classics, even just to see if there's anything worth learning from great prose stylists to improve your own craft. i mean, if you think there's nothing in classic novels worth learning from, not even like 5% of it to try find what details or specifics you might find from widely respected prose stylists or lauded writing, like that its not worth reading it even to find just a few points you can use to develop your own writing — let alone that whole thing about all that art has to teach us about the human experience, which is so much more than the ground covered by contemporary YA and fanfiction, and what value that could add to the actual lives of yourself or your students —

if you're blinkered enough to think that your subset of writing is all there is to take value from, and you're basically just doing the reverse of all your "people who respect the classics don’t bother to see that there is insight and value and quality to be found and learnt from within pop fiction like YA and fanfic!", and arrogant enough to believe that you don’t need any more than that —

clearly you don’t actually love writing, or language, in that case. and that’s the truth. none of it was ever about a love for literature or writing or language as much as it was about validating the child version of themselves by coddling it and saying it’s actually fine to feel superior about it. what’s missing is any process of validating what does bring them out further, for getting into writing/reading in the first place being a starting point for growing and branching out and discovering how much more there is to art, rather than using it as a reason to just double down and shut out anything else.

i may not be able to do some critical meta-analysis of all new literature but look, a generation of writers filling a whole genre not actually wanting to learn from all the lauded writers before them to improve their prose style or get ideas or insights isn’t going to be doing the best job they can. it’s a mindset that is actively damaging to the genres you claim to love, one that’s going to lead to stagnancy and decay, and one that disrespects an audience of voracious readers who want to get the best art they can. i don’t think this should be all that controversial. people might try to argue with me about whether old books are better than new books or whatever, but that’s not a point i’m interested in arguing — survival bias does mean that often only the very best from the past is what makes it through the decades to still be widely known to us, and i’m not qualified to compare the absolute very best of modern literature to that of the past and i’m not even sure that’s possible — but that’s not a point i’m interested in arguing.

thing is, it doesn’t matter which were better, what matters is that there’s definitely unquestionably indisputably a lot to be learned from books that have connected with millions across generations, and inspired movements and moved critics, and led literature lovers to their spark of love, and that passing up all of that is a cynical, nihilistically arrogant, aggressively anti-intellectual approach to art. if i tried to build a plane engine without ever really studying, i might wing something that gets you off the ground by watching some youtube videos, but it's likely not going to run a plane as well as something built by engineers who've spent years learning from the lessons of masters and geniuses before them honed through the mistakes of thousands before them.

and if i respected the craft, i’d bother learning. and when i pick up those textbooks, they’re going to be boring or hard if i never bother doing much study, or doing any complementary readings, or doing the exercises or discussions of the material, or even doing any close reading at all. i can’t slack on all of that and then say the textbooks or lectures are just impenetrable and too hard to bother with. that would be an asinine way to approach any other craft or skill. and i think authors and english teachers and people who love books should respect the art enough to take it seriously, and not just blow it off as “who needs to study or learn or read up on it? anyone can write, it’s just putting some words down!”. we shouldn’t be saying that. that’s for my parents to say

work with me here. at least try put aside your prejudices about some of those classics, or what you vaguely remember as your first impressions, and actually engage with them in good faith. reading commentary or discussions and critics' views on them, paying attention to spot the metaphors and turns of phrase and motifs and how the sentences are structured to make something sound beautiful or how something is set up to come together later. you don’t have to love it, but you can at least engage with it in good faith first, with an approach of respect and seriousness. it’s a fun way of socializing with like-minded people when you can make it an identity signifier thing, where you have an imagined view of classic novel lovers as aloof opponents making fun of you in class and you stake out an identity as being anti-that and pro-ya or fanfic, like a fanfic or YA protagonist who learns to embrace their differences and acknowledge their specialness against the world or whatever.

where it genuinely depresses me is to see it coming from english teachers. from anyone who influences what young people get to read, really, but especially coming from english teachers who take pride in denying their students the opportunity to learn many of the great novels that they could be learning, and that they could be finding beauty in and enjoying if you could bring that same passion and approach to teaching them instead of letting your dislike show. i understand that the way those english teachers may have initially been introduced to the classics in their high school years was probably not pedagogically ideal, but it's really not an excuse for an adult making a career out of it. at that point you have a responsibility to your students and sometimes that responsibility requires you to get over yourself and do right by your students. no copouts here. no avoiding responsibility. it's an understandable excuse for why any random adult might not be a fan of the classics. if that same random adult claims to be a book lover literature fan i may find them a bit of a fraud for it, but they aren't doing wrong by anyone. an author who does it should think their readers deserve better. an english teacher doing it is self-centered and malpractice.

if what you’re modeling for your students is that they should also feel comfortable or even empowered flippantly dismissing the books they’ve been told make up part of a great education, you’re not all that far removed from the people in school telling kids that books are lame and for nerds and that they should just watch a movie. it’s only different in degree, but it still communicates the exact same concept to students. what an english teacher is meant to do is to at least try inculcate a love of books in students, a sense of awe and respect for the power of the written word. that books are amazing and that there’s so many kinds of books out there that they should give a real chance to and that they’ll find some book they love and that it’ll open up whole new worlds. don’t you think that out of all your students, the book which makes some of your students fall in love with reading might be one of those great novels of history?

i’m not saying that assigning books that kids will find easier to read and engage with isn’t a perfectly fine approach to involving students, especially if other approaches aren’t getting them as involved. but anyone reading this essay in good faith already knows that thinking that’s what i’m criticizing is defensively propping up a strawman, because i’m not talking about the english teacher who clearly loves novels and goes with a book at the class’s overall level while still encouraging students to go seek out more and pointing them toward the wide world of great novels out there that they can try read and engage with in their own time if they want. i’m talking about this very common attitude and phenomenon of people disparaging most novels, this often being english teachers who discuss this mindset informing how they teach their students. who proudly tweet about how they shut down some kid’s curious question about the catcher in the rye or the great gatsby or the grapes of wrath with some soundbite from the internet detritus that’d do great for clout, telling their students something like “ugh, those books are so boring”. which i think is something that an english teacher should feel embarrassed to admit.

at that point, it’s not really about those kids’ education at all, its about the teacher themselves. or it’s not about their young readers, it’s about the author’s need for personal validation in their tastes and choices, and seeking that validation from people who are influenced by and take cues from them in the first place because that’s a way to receive uncritical validation without much pushback. it's just a kind of self-laudatory narcissism that claims to be supporting kids, when it’s really just about those teachers or authors themselves in some ways never having moved on from childhood. not saying they're immature or childish as a whole in their lives but in this specific aspect, it is absolutely an immature and childish approach that casts themselves and their students/readers as characters in a high school setting fanfiction or YA story. just people congratulating themselves for teaching their students that a lot of reading is lame and uncool and boring and elitist beyond an entertaining subset of it. which, to clarify, is something which i think should be considered malpractice for an english teacher.

that’s just doing the kids they're teaching (or writing for) a disservice. it’s basically making them just a prop in your exercise of validating your aggrieved younger self, while dismissing the possibility of actual real kids' intelligence or interest in expanding their tastes or intellectual curiosity — a perspective where you can look down on everyone else, including those other kids who want more from class, as somehow being snobby villains in your life story or in the life story of an imagined self-insert high school version of yourself that you're projecting on some poor kids you identify with in class. i think this is something people who do this to their students need to sit with and be introspective about, because personal psychodrama shouldn’t be taken out on students.

you can’t dismiss the classic novel or literary canon like that. that dismissal is either a bad-faith argument or an unserious and ignorant one. there is so much literature that has so much to say about actual cultural evolution from gender repression in victorian times (jane austen, bronte sisters) or the force of tradition in 19th century russia (tolstoy) to the world wars (elie wiesel, erich maria remarque) to the despair of the lost generation after the world wars (fitzgerald, hemingway) to 60s counterculture (hunter thompson, kerouac, ginsberg) to life through postcolonial revolutions (achebe, rushdie, camus) to socialist republics and revolutions (kundera) and latin american corporatist coups (gabriel garcia marquez) and indian caste conflict (arundhati roy) and postmodern disillusionment and absurdism (david foster wallace, delillo, pynchon, etc) and warnings of futures like theocratic conservatism or authoritarianism or classifications (atwood, orwell, huxley, ishiguro, philip k dick)…

and i do think calling the overall literary canon of classic novels "straight white male" (notably, a claim often made by straight white people) is often just a crutch to moralize their own personal dislike of something for aesthetic reasons. and i often find that just fundamentally dishonest, because its not like they're replacing hemingway with chinua achebe or james baldwin or allen ginsberg or ralph ellison or toni morrison or edith wharton or arundhati roy or gabriel garcia marquez or salman rushdie or kazuo ishiguro or ursula k le guin or margaret atwood, all of whom are either people of color or gay or women or some combination of the three. they're dumping all of those out too as distaste of classic novels and replacing it with diverse YA novels.

the real truth is that it’s not about straight white maleness at all. there’s plenty of novels universally considered ‘great novels’, ranked in lists of the great novels, available for teaching in schools, subject of plenty of critical praise, with huge legacies in the development of the medium and of culture as a whole. it’s not about that. its about genre and about the idea that literature should just be a rollicking read that is nice for the imagination and feels fun, and this continued idea that any art being challenging is bad.

and thing is, ironically enough, this is actually erasing the contributions of those famous and respected and influential non-white/straight/male literary figures, and the art that they created engaging with and in reaction to their circumstances, while doing so. because discarding the classic novel or literary fiction or whatever you want to call it, swapping out influential classic novels for ya, is just throwing out all of their work and their legacies. you can’t pretend that that recognizing diversity is your actual justification when you're throwing out the study of classic novels alongside their historical and cultural context, which includes a ton of the contributions of non-white/straight/male people.

and the charitable interpretation of that for me is that it’s just a bullshit excuse and lying to themselves. that a lot of it is just people working out their own personal insecurities about not being taken seriously, by digging in the trenches real pre-emptively and casting themselves in the role of righteous rebels overturning an establishment that propped up bad things while suppressing the good things they liked. none of this is to be dismissive of either the young adult genre or fanfiction, which i’m fully sympathetic to as genres that have put out a lot of great art that shouldn’t be summarily dismissed but often have been. but at this point, all of it begins to feels like a whole psychological mess that's making childhood resentments and aggrieved persecution complex about not having your tastes be universally praised no matter how mainstream or popular or successful they become.

[update to add above screenshot from a similar post i saw recently]

i compared it to maga boomers or marvel fans before. to paraphrase dril, i’m not going to “hand it to” maga boomers and have no reason to. but at least marvel fans who act like that have much less weird psychodrama going on, because most of them don’t go on to become filmmakers or film studies teachers themselves and aren’t producing art where they imagine themselves in the position of the superhero. they're just occasionally annoying fans, who don’t really have much negative impact beyond their dollars dictating what gets made. which i don’t really blame ppl for because its individual tastes driving their individual ticket purchases that adds up to a lot of money and makes it profitable. but your average marvel fan doesn’t themselves either teach or create content where they can perpetuate it within culture. and at least marvel fans just call themselves marvel fans, they don’t insist they're the true actual film fans while shitting on the godfather and proudly announcing how they won’t watch anything from before 2008. many “book lovers” and “literature fans” who actually hate pretty much most literature and great novels could do with that level of specificity, without trying to take on the mantle of being so in love with books and the english language and the written word. it’s not true. it’s denial. it’s a cope.

and that’s the charitable interpretation. because the alternative is just being too ignorant of the presence of all those writers and their contributions within the canon in the first place. in which case, why do people talk so confidently disparaging classic novels if they don’t actually know anything about them beyond recognizing maybe the great gatsby and moby dick, and don’t actually know enough to even know about all these non-straight/white/male writers of classic novels and their role in the evolution of the novel as a medium? it’s just a fully unjustified level of confidence in that situation. and neither one of ignorance about their subject or uninformed confidence, let alone both, paints a great picture of people who've supposedly made a career out of writing or literature or the english language.

i don’t love getting into neat little psychological explanations for things but then again, fuck it. all the “essays” on here are just ruminations on culture and whatever psychology it feels like is driving that culture, after all. it’s not like that’s out of the overall scope of what’s going on here so why not. the reason i hesitate here is because there’s a lot of reflexive thin-skinned defensiveness that seems to be part and parcel with this attitude, given that i think a lot of it is birthed in a sort of understandable insecurity anyway — and i don’t say insecurity as an insult, i think insecurity is a very understandable and pretty universal aspect of being human — but the rest of this is going to be pretty harsh. and maybe that harshness isn’t the right approach to persuade people who i’d hope would be persuaded, but i don’t know, honestly i think we’re long overdue to start being harsh about it and i’m going to give that a little nudge. at this point, my visceral reaction to seeing this is just thinking “grow up”, and that they've been indulged and welcomed and catered to enough already now.

that’s my screed. me to classic novels, the most dickish love letter in the world

update, now that people have discovered this post and are actually reading it: i don't mind any of this being shared or reprinted anywhere if it's with attribution. whatever gets people to read it to change the conversation works for me. i hope it reaches enough of an audience to make the right people mad, to be honest.

if you liked this, feel free to check out my other 'essays' on internet/pop culture stuff on my homepage. here's a selection:

· humanity is worth loving, humans are worth saving

· there are things we owe to each other

· i trained a neural net on 10,000 irony-poisoned tweets and it just gave me cringe?

· what makes someone good, bad, cancelled, or redeemed? i don't know either!

· please tell me if you have a definitive answer on what makes someone a bad person

· ok, fine, my social justice politics feel a bit like religion sometimes and that’s ok

· after the deluge (short story) (dispatch from an island state post climate apocalypse)

#literature #books #novels #english #teaching #fiction #literary fiction #writing #lit #booktok #booktwt #god every time there's discourse about #the catcher in the rye #catcher in the rye #holden caulfield #its always the same lazy as fuck take thats been brought up every week for the past 12 years #that people pretend is a bold brave thing to say when they got it from the internet and already know the internet will agree

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femsolid · 3 years ago

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"She had her own reservations. Niggling fears of not getting a job; disappointing her family. But when her hairdresser tried to talk her out of it, she knew she'd made up her mind. She wanted short hair. And it wasn't just a matter of taste — it was a statement.

Sohee is part of the growing 'escape the corset' movement taking hold in South Korea, with women taking a stand against rigid beauty ideals and unlacing the metaphorical corset. "I realised that the makeup and outfits were not my decision and I do not actually like it," says Sohee, 26. "So I choose to take off the corset."

Here, K-pop musicians aren't just stars; they're 'idols'. They attract millions of dedicated fans who have fallen for more than just their shiny, catchy lyrics. "They are just beautiful, they are just handsome," Yaejin, 20, tells me later at a tree-lined university campus in the capital's north-west. "They have so many surgeries, they lose weight, they put on so much makeup, they wear so many expensive shirts and clothes. They make teenagers want to be like them."

Lauren Lee, the founder of a company importing K-beauty products to Australia, says many K-pop stars are emblematic of unrealistic beauty expectations. "They've been chosen for their looks … and they're the people that you see represented over and over again in advertisements," she says. "And they're impossibly skinny. One thing that really, really shocks me is when these girls publish their diets, and they're basically starving themselves. They're eating an apple and a couple of pieces of fruit a day and coffee, and that's their diet." In the space of three months, three different K-pop stars have taken their own lives — prompting concerns about mental health in the industry, and mental health taboos in the country.

In May 2016, a 23-year-old woman was murdered in a public toilet; picked at random by a man who later claimed to have been "ignored" by women throughout his life. Korean women turned to social media to air their frustration and share their experiences of sexual violence. They covered the dome walls of Gangnam Station with multi-coloured post-it notes bearing sobering messages. "It was misogyny that killed her." "If we are in solidarity we can be strong." They marched. And in the past few years, women have increasingly been rallying around a mounting list of concerns. In October, a woman reportedly suicided after finding out she was secretly filmed in a hospital change room, the latest in a string of spy-camera victims.

It comes after over 12,000 women protested in Seoul's Hyehwa Station in 2018 against illegal spy-camera filming — many of the videos end up on pornography websites. Korean women have also taken to the streets as part of #MeToo rallies; 70,000 turned up to this year's International Women's Day demonstration.

Aside from forgoing makeup, Sohee is also shying away from relationships (with men). "Getting married is probably quite common in Korean culture," she tells me. "So when you get to your mid-20s, people are talking about 'when are you getting married?' or that kind of thing. (...) I don't need someone else to fulfil myself." She's not alone.

Growing numbers of South Korean women are turning their backs on marriage and children; the country's fertility rate fell to world-wide record low in 2019 (at one child per woman). "There are four movements promoted by women in their 20s in Korea," Professor NaYoung Lee explains. "No sex, no sexual romantic relationship, no marriage, no birth." MinYoung says having children is also a distant blip on her future horizon. "Many of my friends are doing no relationship … I don't like getting into relationships with men sometimes," she says. "When I become a mother, in Korean society, I have to give up one thing: career or baby." Sohee isn't ready to give up her career just yet, with ambitions to one day become a lawyer. With a job interview coming up, she's considering growing her hair out. She doesn't want to harm her prospects. Change comes slowly, MinYoung says with bitter conviction, recounting a recent example of a woman who was fired from a part-time café job for cutting her hair short.

"Aren't you lonely?" This is a question student Moensan is used to being asked. The 26-year-old, who lives in a provincial city in South Korea, is unmarried and childless — and plans to keep it that way. "There are many things I want to do in life that you can't do if you get married," she said. "I saw with my own eyes how married women are treated and discriminated against, so I decided marriage does not help women at all." agrees Jung Se-Young. Moensan told the ABC she was spurred to action after hearing "the voice of many women" in youtubers' Jung and Baeck's calls to fight back against societal pressures and patriarchal expectations. It was, she said, "what married women go through, what has happened vividly around me, even what I went through that made me want to join in the #nomarriage movement. My father assaulted my mother, which is more common than I thought in Korea — I'm glad my mum and I didn't die," she said. The student said she never wanted to get married or have children because pregnancy and childbirth were "big risks for women in Korea", while marrying "narrows a woman's position".

Sohee says that while many of her university friends are joining the #escapethecorset movement, many outside campus are reluctant. "I know it is quite a hard decision," she says. "But I want I just want some other women to see me and get confidence."

The country where a simple haircut can be a radical political statement

#NoMarriage movement sees South Korean women reject Government pressures to marry and have kids

#korea #korean women #korean feminism #escape the corset #radfem #mp #asw

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onehundredandeleventropicalfish · 2 years ago

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you know for ostensibly a delirium fan blog, i end up talking disproportionally about dream and desire, so lets even those scales a little, because there's plenty interesting to talk about with my girl

and one thing that i think is really important to delirium's characterisation is that she is not a child

she's impulsive, yes. she can be absent minded, she enjoys playing, and has little care about being perceived as weird. she struggles to communicate her thoughts in a 'normal' way, all things common amongst various neurodivergences. but she's extremely aware of her surroundings, and her realm is home to every fucked up thought anyone's ever had, she's in no way naive (like look at how many of her ramblings involve sex or death or other things that would be censored in kids media)

the very first time we meet delirium in the comics, we get this bit of narration, which has stuck in my head since i read it

because that battle between who delirium is and who people see her as is fascinating to me

she's older than every being that's ever lived, mortal or not, bar 8 (her siblings and her parents)

and celestial bodies are also people in this universe, they're all younger than her too, she's watched the stars grow up

she is the 9th oldest being ever

but we see so much of this story through the eyes of the other endless, and they don't think of her as the 9th eldest being in existence. they think of her as their baby sister

some more than others. i think destruction was one of the people most willing to see her as she actually is. and while i'm not sure if dream is always on the list of good siblings here (he has a tendency to be condescending), someone commented on my post about a dream and delirium scene that despite delirium making no sense, dream doesn't talk down to her

he may not see her as on his level (he does, after all, agree to go with delirium at first because he assumes it's something she'll get bored of and forget about eventually, he doesn't expect her to be right), but dream at least has an abstract enough domain that he sees through her words to the meaning behind them, and he respects her way of communicating

but with most of her siblings, it's a fight to be taken seriously, and we do see a few moments where she's angry enough to remind them she's their equal

and i love her so much as neurodivergent representation, because how many of us have had to deal with the whole adult physically child mentally thing? oh they're mentally a 5 year old, no, they're mentally an adult, they just think differently to you. and i love del for the fact that she doesn't let certain things being 'childish' stop her from doing them if they feel right, she doesn't let anyone else make her hide things about herself. but also she stands up for herself and reminds her siblings that she knows more than any of them.

and she does, she's the only endless who's been through a change like that. she sees so much more than they do, and just because she can't always communicate it doesn't mean she doesn't understand

her realm is described as the easiest for people to reach, the closest to humanity (but one of the hardest to leave). death gets all the credit for spending the most time with humanity, not distancing herself from that like the other endless, but neither does delirium. del was perhaps the first to figure out what it was the endless were missing. just because her mind is in pieces doesn't mean she isn't whole

(the best characterisations of del in fics will always be the ones that remember her dialogue isn't just random rambling, the rambling has to come hand in hand with extremely perceptive observations of the people around her)

(she's the one of the few people who can make dream speechless in her analysis of his issues)

and yes, her physical presentation is younger than that of her siblings. but she doesn't present as a child, she hasn't since she was delight, she presents as a teenager

because what other physical form perfectly represents that frustration to be seen as the adult you know you are in your head when everyone in your life can only see you as a child?

#the sandman #sandman comic spoilers #delirium of the endless #meta #mine

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na-na-namine · 3 years ago

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If y’all could indulge with my big-brain for a moment...

Most of y’all probably read Matt’s message about Sashannarcy and how it was essentially de-confirming the ship within the confines of the show’s canon.

Now, many of you have understandably took his message at face value. Heck, some of you probably even praised him for the decision. However, I for one am not entirely convinced that what he said was the entire truth.

To explain why I feel this way, let’s wind back a bit...

Remember this moment? Let’s put a pin on it, we’ll get back to it shortly.

Anton Chekhov, who is the widely cited “master of the short story,” said: “If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it’s not going to be fired, it shouldn’t be hanging there.”

The quote has been understood as “Chekhov’s Gun,” where an insignificant object later turns out to be important. In many of the best works of fiction, every detail given is important. If isn’t important, it shouldn’t be included in the story.

Let’s unpin the prom flyer. Myself and many others saw this detail as an intentional hint or foreshadowing to how much Marcy truly loves her friends, regardless if it meant romantically or platonically with some catching-feelings.

In light of Matt’s statement about the Sashannarcy ship, it’s reasonable to assume that this detail is irrelevant, that the crew simply placed it in Marcy’s nightmare sequence as a background prop.

However, if that were the case...

Why was it the only thing placed on those lockers?

Look, a whole lot of us have been in schools with lockers before; there will never be a shortage of flyers, posters, notes, etc. placed everywhere (it’s a constant irritation for custodians, that’s for sure). It would’ve been ideal for the production crew to include different pieces of art and visual gags/references/shout-outs on those lockers, especially since we know they love doing those sorts of things.

Strange is it then that only the one prom poster was used. Stranger then that it is made visibly clear for the audience to see. There was no way anyone couldn’t have noticed it, so it had to be intentional. I want to assume it’s the case because Matt Braly and crew aren’t terrible writers.

Throughout the show, there have been numerous references and call-backs to past events and characters. Even minor details - most notably in my mind Toady’s low self-esteem and confidence in himself making him a bit of a doormat - are brought back in importance despite how irrelevant it might’ve seemed at the time of introduction.

This reason is why I believe the prom poster will be relevant somehow, and is why I don’t buy the idea that Sashannarcy is completely off the table for the show’s finale.

I’m particularly hung up on Matt’s choice of words here. If there was absolutely no way the main characters would get together romantically he could’ve just said so, similar to the what the creator of The Ghost and Molly McGee did over on Twitter. He also didn’t issue an ambiguous statement over the characters’ friendship being the most important thing, which is a common non-statement against queer rep in media. No, Matt’s words as specifically outline above are to keep the Calamity Trio’s friendship “constructive and open” and that Sashannarcy in fandom “do right by the show and its themes.”

After all, an often overlooked part of romance is that the strongest romantic relationships are founded on the strongest friendships. Heteronormative/allonormative society likes to convince people there’s a clear distinction between friendship and romance; that romance is somehow deeper than friendship or that friendship inevitably becomes romance, etc. etc. But it’s never that simple.

For there to be a healthy romantic relationship, a healthy friendship is a requirement. So many failed-romances would’ve taken this matter for granted and end badly as a result. Issues of trust, respect, intimacy and boundaries are present in all relationships, and if platonic relationships can struggle through those can come out stronger for it, just as what happened with the Calamity Trio, there is absolutely no reason to assume the three couldn’t carry those lessons and feelings into a romantic relationship much later down the line.

With that, lemme put forth my big-brain prediction for what Anne, Sasha and Marcy’s relationship might look like by the series’ finale.

I think after the big battle is over, no matter the outcome, there will be a little time skip where the three girls go to prom together.

Not as a polycule, but as friends.

Friends that have went through hell together and back.

Friends that are rebuilding their friendship and learning be better people.

Friends that are each other’s most important person, who love each other unconditionally no matter what, regardless of when - not “if” - they may begin to catch feelings.

Because that’s what friends do.

Finally, I believe that Marcy should be the one to ask Anne and Sasha to prom. Her character journey began and ended with her desire to have the other girls stay with her forever, so much so that she tricked them into another world to realize it.

Therefore it’s only fitting that Marcy be the one to ask them out, only this time giving them choice to stay with her and having trust in them that they will.

And the answer will be “Yes.” It will always be “Yes.”

#thank you for coming to my ted talk #amphibia #amphibia spoilers #all in #sashannarcy #sashanne #marcanne #sasharcy #anne bounchoy #sasha waybright #marcy wu #calamity trio #matt braly #shipping #shipping discourse #long post

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juicyquinn · 2 years ago

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joseph quinn x actress fem!reader

can you do when joseph and reader are both filming for different movies and it starts to conflict with their relationship and they start having fights which starts to affect how they both work. many people and the media start to catch on and they start getting asked questions in interviews and from paps

yesss i can !

publicity stunt

tw // cussing, drinking, gaslighting, name calling, arguing.

“so, joseph you & y/n are both currently working on different projects. tell me, how are you guys finding time for each other with your busy schedules?” an interviewer sat up in his seat. the cameras were everywhere & the lights were bright and hot. joseph answered with articulation, “it’s not hard, we stay in touch & see each other frequently. she’s actually here now!” joseph pointed through the cameras directly at you & blew a kiss towards you. “that’s awesome, it’s gotta be a struggle to find that balance though right?” the interviewer eased in, “what’s the secret?” joseph laughed & made eye contact with you, “unconditional love,” he panned back to the man, “and patience of course… it doesn’t always work out perfectly but we’re both patient.” the man smiled at joseph, “you two are lovely!”

6 months had passed & you & joseph have only seen eachother a handful of times. you were talking/texting regularly but it’s turned into shorter, stagnant responses over time. you had just filmed the final take for this scene & was ready to see joseph. you two had planned this dinner two weeks ago after he cancelled the other one. after the long week you had you desperately needed this time with him. your car was waiting for you once you finished talking & grabbing your things. as soon as you got into the car you decided to text joe. *hey still on for tonight? xx* a bit of time passed before he replied, *of course love, see you soon :) x* you put your phone away for the rest of the ride. as soon as you got home you decided to shower & get ready. it’s been almost a month since you actually seen & get to have more than 10 minutes of time with joseph so you wanted to wear something that he couldn’t wait to rip off. "little black dress of course." you held the revealing piece up to your body in front of the mirror & smirked. once you got your hair and makeup done you slipped on the strapless dress that hugged your figure. your red bottom louis vuitton’s seemed to call out your name. your car was arriving soon so you took it upon yourself to give joseph a call, to check in. it rung all the way through to voicemail so you texted. *about to leave here in 5, i’ll see you at dinner!* a black suburban was buzzed through your gate so you put your phone in your purse, grabbed your jacket & made your way out of the house. knowing how busy joseph is you decided not to blow his phone up, didn’t want to ruin the night before it started. your security, dillon, was in the front seat next to the driver. “how’re you doing today miss y/l/n? excited for dinner with joe?” he beamed, dillon was always so sweet and supportive. you thought of him more as a best friend than your body guard. “i’m good! very excited. it’s been way too long.” the excitement oozed as the driver pulled off.

the vehicle pulled up in front of the elegant restaurant. the sun was starting to set, it looked gorgeous. the sight made you even more excited for tonight. paparazzi seen the tinted windows & automatically knew someone important was in there. dillon turned around in his seat to face you, “they’re like roaches, everywhere all the time.” he rolled his eyes, “are you ready miss?” you put your blacked out shades on, “ready!” dillon got out of the vehicle holding his arm in front of the paps to make room for your door to open. as soon as it opened the flashing & yelling started. “y/n! how’s filming for Point Blank going?” one yelled while being shoved to the side by another pap, “hey y/n! where’s joseph at? haven’t seen you two together in awhile.” another interrupts him, “yeah! did you guys break up, finally?” your ears perked up when he said 'finally' & you rolled your eyes. dillon got you out of the car & pushed through the paparazzi to eventually get you inside of the restaurant. a waiter asked for the reservation name & you quickly said “Quinn.” he pulled two menus out & motioned towards the seating area. “if you can just follow me.” he lead you through the perfectly lit dining room to a secluded booth. your stomach dropped when you didn’t see joseph already seated. “can i interest you in a glass of sauvignon blanc?” he asked while holding a big bottle & a wine glass. you sat down, “of course! thank you.” you flashed a nice smile to try & hide the fact that you were a bit hurt. the waiter poured you a glass of the wine & took a step back, “your server will be with you soon. enjoy!” you nodded back in assurance before he walked away. you grabbed your phone & called joseph, no answer. again, voicemail. you figured he’s running late so you left him a text. *just got seated. call me when you’re on your way! excited to see you, hun xx* you set your phone down & took a sip of your wine, waiting.

“are you ready to order ma’am?” the waiter circled back around a few moments later. “i’d like to wait please, if that’s okay?” you said while swirling your wine in the glass & taking the last drink. the server quickly filled it again as you nodded in appreciation. about 45 minutes passed. text after text & phone call after phone call. still no answer. at this point you felt like you were being stood up. you had a few more glasses of wine than you’d have liked so you decided it’s time to go home. you called dillon and told him you were ready & he was already waiting by the entrance for you. there weren’t any paps outside thankfully, it’s gotten pretty late so you’re hoping they found someone else to berate or just went home, doubtful on that one though. you paid the tab & dillon ran in front of you to open the door. as you two walked outside another black suburban pulled up in behind your vehicle. of course, out hopped joseph. he looked so unfazed it was disrespectful. “hi my darling, i’m so sorry i’m late. filming went past time a bit and-” he stopped as you interrupted him, “save it, joe. i texted & called plenty of times. you could’ve had SOMEONE call me, instead i looked stupid sitting in that fancy place all dressed up by myself.” joseph’s whole demeanor changed when he seen you visibly upset. “it’s been a whole month joseph, we had this planned for weeks after you cancelled the last date.” joseph took a few stops closer to you & grabbed your waist to pull you closer, “from the bottom of my heart, im sorry my love. production was having errors, i should’ve texted you.” you almost believed him until the smell of liquor rolled off his tongue along with those words & your stomach turned. “you have to be fucking kidding me. your breath reeks of liquor & you’re gonna tell me you were stuck filming?” you pushed joe off of you & he stood back & rubbed his forehead, “it was only a few drinks, y/n. don’t worry i’ll be fine.” your jaw dropped in amazement, “you think i give a damn how many drinks you had? you lied about what you were doing when WE had plans. or did you just forget about your own girlfriend?” you were visibly getting angry with joseph. “so what i had a couple drinks, y/n! these hours are stressful.” joseph whined. it really set you off how he pulled the stressful hours card, knowing you have the exact same job & bad hours as well. “you’re an asshole dude.” the argument went on for a bit longer, getting heated at times. finally, you put your hand up to his face & walked away towards your car that was waiting. dillon had the door open & shut in seconds. “drive, please.” you pushed your words out, trying to hold back the tears. it was a quiet drive home. once you finally arrived, you kicked your heels off & got into bed, full face, dress on and all. you honestly just wanted to go to bed & forget tonight even happened. you opened twitter just to mindlessly scroll but instead found your notifications blown up. the first notification you see is headlined “y/f/n stood up by joe quinn tonight” with photos attached. in the first couple of photos it was you walking into the restaurant & sitting at the table by yourself. the next few were long distance shots of you & joseph mid arguement. you didn’t realize how heated it actually got until you seen it from an outside point of view. you sighed & locked your phone, throwing it next to you. your eyes began to water so you shut them tight & rolled over to force yourself to go to sleep.

8:32am, you woke up to your doorbell being spammed & 10 missed calls from joseph. you decided to be petty & make him wait longer, just like he made you wait. you changed out of your dress into a large t-shirt & threw your hair up. you made your way downstairs to open the door. joseph stood tall over you, “look, i’m sorry for lying to you. i shouldn’t have. i did go have a few drinks after texting you back that i’d see you soon. i lost track of time. please forgive me.” he pretty much begged. “honestly i have nothing to say to you at the moment, i’m mad. i’m pissed & hurt. we barely speak & seeing you is getting harder & harder. i get that we’re both busy with our projects but i’m putting more of an effort than you are joseph & it sucks.” your eyes watered, you felt like you guys were slowly growing apart. “don’t you think you’re overreacting? it was one dinner.” he sighed. you were taken back that he had the nerve to say that. “one dinner? one fucking dinner? what about the other dates you cancelled last minute. were you drinking then too? what about our conversations? you act like you couldn’t be bothered to message me back joseph. i’m always the one calling first to ask you how your day was. the past 4 months have been nothing but paparazzi & interviewers asking if we’re still together or not,” you fully reamed him not giving him a chance to speak, “they must be seeing something i wasn’t but now i see it. leave me alone until you figure out whether you want to be with me or not.” joseph couldn’t even get a word out before you slammed the door in his face.

another month passed. you focused hard on your movie & it was finally finished. joseph was in the last stretch of finishing his. he tried texting and calling here & there but it felt so strained you didn’t have the energy to reply. tonight you had your big movie premiere & it was gonna be the first time you seen joseph since everything happened, if he even decides to show up. “i love him so much but he lied straight to my face. lied about something he didn’t even need to lie about. he made me feel like shit the entire course of those months.” you vented to your friend olivia, who was also your makeup artist, as she did your foundation. “babe, you two are movie stars. it’s going to happen where you two get busy & barely talk. it’s up to you two to figure out whether you want to keep fighting about it or if you want to get through it.” she said softly as you played with your rings. “i want to, i don’t want this to ruin us.” your eyes began to water. “aht aht! no crying,” olivia grabbed a qtip to soak up the tears before the dripped, “i did too good for you to go and wash it all away!” she turned you towards the mirror to show you your finished face. “ya look gorgeous my friend. you two will figure it out.” olivia kissed the side of your head & you smiled. once you were completely ready & got some pictures for social media out of the way it was time to walk the carpet. you & joseph always walked the carpets together for your premiers/award shows. you felt extremely lonely. standing at the beginning of the carpet everyone was faced towards you already, cameras & lights pointed. you nervously took a step but before you could go any farther you felt a hand gently pressed to your lower back. you turned in surprise to see joseph’s dimpled cheeks & brown eyes. “you came?” your voice broke. “of course, i would never miss any of your moments.” you took a deep breath in & out nervously, “thank you joe, so much. i needed you here.” he leaned in to kiss you on the cheek & you felt your face burn up. “let’s get you on this carpet, love.” once everyone seen you two on the carpet together they went crazy. they asked questions about whether you two were broken up or not, still friends, etc. it only just made you think more of the conversation you & joseph needed to have. “we need to talk.” you whispered to joe as you reached the end of the carpet. he nodded in agreement. before you two even took the last step off of the carpet he grabbed your hand & made you follow him to a secluded area. “look joe-” you hesitated as joe interrupted, “no don’t say anything. i am so sorry for hurting you, for making you feel unimportant. i genuinely don’t know what got into me. i was being an asshole to you & you didn’t deserve that.” joseph paused, “god, y/n. i’m so madly in love with you. i can’t lose you over this.” your eyes began to water. “you’re the love of my life. we will figure out something to make it work. all of this shit wouldn’t be worth it if you weren’t doing it with me.” by the time he finished you had tears streaming down your face, not even caring about your makeup. “i love you so much joe. i couldn’t possibly do this without having you by my side. we will figure this out.” joe’s eyes were watery, “don’t be a crybaby now, quinn.” his laugh filled the air, “shush look at you! you better call olivia.” he wiped a black mascara tear from dripping off of your chin onto your dress. in the same motion he tilted your chin up to make your eyes meet his. without missing a beat your lips met for the first time in months, feeling like no time has passed since you last kissed him. the kiss lasted for a few long seconds. you pulled away remembering you still needed to get your makeup fixed before you two went out there. “i have to find olivia, can i meet you at the table?” you ran your fingers through his curly hair as he still held onto you, “of course, love. i’ll be waiting for you.” he snuck another kiss in before letting go of you. your heart felt so full again, beating out of your chest as you walked away from him.

you found olivia & got everything fixed before you went back to the main area to find joseph. his face lit up as soon as he seen you & waved you his way. everything felt so perfect & good. you sat down beside joe & he leaned in to peck you on the lips, leaving you with a blushed smile. the premier was great, so many friends & people you considered family. you & joseph had your stuff figured out & you couldn’t be happier. once the director of the movie started speaking joseph grabbed your hand and squeezed it 3 times, meaning ‘i love you’. so you did the same back.

a/n: hi omg sorry it’s so long, it also took me v long to finish it bc i had work but i rly hope u enjoy :p xx

#joe quinn #joseph quinn edit #josephquinnimagine #joseph quinn blurb #joseph quinn masterlist #joseph quinn fanfiction #joseph quinn stranger things #joseph quinn x y/n #joseph quinn #joseph quinn fic #eddie stranger things #eddie munson fic #fanfic #joseph quinn imagine #eddie munson #joseph quinn x fem!reader #stranger things

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catocomet · 2 years ago

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sumeru

ok yall. lets get into this. im sorry if this isnt coherent, i’m angry and needed to ramble academically

i really don’t care what white people have to say about sumeru. i mean this, genuinely and truly, i do not care about your opinion on the matter. this is not something you should insert yourself in. i would, however, appreciate if you sat down and listened to south asian and swana people such as myself talk about this. fellow bipoc, feel free to join the discussion.

to understand the racist caricature that is sumeru, lets talk about orientalism and the exoticization of west and south asians throughout the ages. the “middle east” itself is an orientalist creation, being named for its proximity to europe instead of its actual region of west asia, and continues to be referred to as the “middle east” to this day. the french and english also had a huge role in the geopolitical breakup of both south asian countries (the biggest example being india) and almost the entirety of west asia. a side effect of this was the commodification of asian women into sex objects, and asian men into several different unsavory categories (too feminine, too scary, or just downright dirty and undesirable) or oversexualize them too.

you can see this happening in western media constantly, and may have even noticed the repetitive portrayal of SWANA nations and people. women are always beautiful, but not free, because many white westerners refuse to believe that women can have rights within islam (read about islamic feminism here!). there’s always a camel or something, they’re in the desert, and there’s a snake charmer somewhere. it’s repetitive, boring, and lumps every swana country together despite regional, cultural, and phenotypical differences between people.

so, what does all this have to do with sumeru? maybe it’s the fact that three out of five of the upcoming female characters are in bellydancing costume. or that they erased all culture and meaning from the names of certain characters, al haitham being the father of modern optics and tighnari an important botantist, author, poet, and physician. or that literally every character, save for dehya, is white as snow.

that, specifically, can be chalked up to genshin’s rampant colorism / racism and the constant whitewashing of darker skinned characters. in the most recent event, xinyan just had a slight tan, and kaeya gets lighter in every piece of art that’s drawn for him.

if you’ve ever met an asian person, you know that we come in all sorts of shades, sizes, heights, etc., and this is just not representative of south and west asia at all. the north african elements have also been entirely scrubbed, leaving a glorified jungle mondstadt.

the issue also lies in the amount and the size of the regions they chose to base sumeru off of. west asia contains 17 countries, south asia contains 8, and north africa contains 7. though there’s been a lot of cultural trade and some things are similar, there just isn’t enough homogeny to get a good feel of what sumeru is or will be.

tldr; sumeru’s bad. its not just the orientalism (from a chinese company nonetheless?), the colorism, and the racism, but also the blatant disregard for SWANA and south asian people throughout the entire creation process. i’m sick of people chalking it up to ignorance. they could have looked anything up at any time, but they simply chose not to. hoyoverse is not innocent. sumeru is terrible, and i’m afraid that natlan will be worse.

#sumeru leaks #sumeru #genshin impact #anti hoyoverse #hoyoverse #tighnari genshin #al haitham genshin #tighnari #al haitham #orientalism #colorism #racism

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ot3 · 2 years ago

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i was wondering if youre so inclined if u would mind explaining whats so good about disco elysium? all i ever see ppl say is that its communist and theres old gay men which is like. well cool but that doesnt tell me anything about it actually. it seems like a lot of reading but its not like thats stopped me before (<- read all of orv on your reccommendation and hasnt stopped thinking about it since)

disco elysium is just a really meaningful piece of work. For starters, the prose is beautiful when it's not being funny as well, the world is rich and intricate and fully believable, and the characters are deeply compelling. Disco Elysium has you playing as an amnesiac detective coming out of the tail end of a more or less suicidally thorough bender a completely different person. It's up to you to pick what kind of person he is, but you can't choose to be Not a fuckup. You're still just a fuckup. You're always a fuckup.

I really found the way disco elysium dealt with mental illness to be super refreshing and honestly the most cathartic almost any media has been on the subject, for my personal tastes. I find a lot of media where mental illness comes into play leans either too indulgent or too saccharine for me. By indulgent i mean it really wants you to buy into How Sad we're supposed to feel about our character's mental state. And by saccharine I mean stuff that's focused almost exclusively in portraying mental illness in an almost hurt/comfort way, for lack of a better term. Disco elysium is not about the poignant, tragic beauty of mental illness nor is it about taking this character on a journey of Coping and Healing, although you could definitely play it closer to one way or another. Disco elysium is a game about being at war with your own brain and body, but also you still also need to work because. Well. It's your job, dipshit. It's humorous, it's crass, it's completely off the wall, capable of balancing the absurd and mundane in severe extremes to result in the realest feeling portrayal of mental illness I've come across. It handles addiction in what I'm sure is a similar way, but I can't speak as much on that subject because I don't have any firsthand experience with being an addict despite my best attempts to develop some sort of chemical dependency in the last two years.

But also yes, the game is very much about communism. Everyone saying that is absolutely correct but I think it's hard for people who haven't played it to understand just how About Communism it is. The author of the game and the novella its based off of is a self-proclaimed communist from estonia. This is not a western perspective on communism, nor is it a truly soviet one. It's a perspective on communism from someone who grew up in a country that was occupied by the soviet union multiple times and only regained its independence in 1991. It's a really fascinating thing to engage with because it just approaches politics so differently than any western stuff I've seen.

The game is in many ways miserably depressing and wholly pessimistic, but it's not the pessimism of the truly misanthropic doomer, it's the kind of pessimism you find in someone who is looking for any reason not to be pessimistic and just not finding any. It's a narrative that looks into it's main character, and looks into it's own world and is desperately searching for any reason to believe there's hope there and coming up empty handed every time but, god damn it, still looking. I think that right now something with that sort of message is important. It's a piece of writing that says to it's audience 'things are bad and getting worse, and we can't pretend otherwise, but this is your world. live in it.' And also it's really fucking funny. It's really one of those things I think as many as people a possible should experience. You won't find anything else like it in the world right now.

#one time back during the earlier covid months not too long after my last halfhearted suicide attempt #i got bored and decided to take some acid. but then my dad asked me to move the car off the driveway for some reason. and i couldnt do it #because i was tripping too hard to remember how to operate a stick shift #and all i had had in my body that day other than the acid was macadamia nuts and sprite #thats what disco elysium is about

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dailybayonetta · 2 years ago

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Why do people even say that Bayonetta 3 story sucked? Didn't like story was always bad in these games?

Okay, so here's one important thing I've already said before: Bayonetta 3 story is SO bad that people who didn't even cared in the slightest about Bayos story or thought it was bad before said / say THIS ONE was really bad.

And here's the thing - it's actual truth. Like sure, we can pretend that Bayos story was masterpiece here and it never done anything wrong but that's just a lie. By videogame standarts the story is bad, especially in recent years when storytelling has evolved. By media story standarts and is general it's even worse and even more rough. But thing is Bayos doesn't have to be more than just character AND fun. Because gameplay is what people are after (the general audience) and it's always been like that. Noone was expecting some God of War level narrative or even Nier that is riddled with good stuff. (you know, as more action game as an example) Like look at Metal gear rising in retrospect and how it's wacky story got more love over the years, despite being hated at start. BECAUSE IT'S FUN. AND BOTH BAYOS, with it's flaws but still, WERE FUN AND HAD CHARACTERS. AN HAD CHARACTER. Like the stories are a mess, but regardless of that, the characters were fun and therefore you as a viwer had fun. It had action pieces, there was drama (i'd say to some degree it's genuine), there was humor. And again I think one of parts that played into it - Bayonetta was a character I haven't seen in games before like that. Like her figurine and style was a priority, but she still SHOWN to have emotions - she cared for Cereza, she cared for Jeanne, she cared for Luka, she cared for Loki, she cared for Balder despite knowing his fate, same goes for Rosa, even if it was for a brief moment. Ahd these moments are memorable, some of the favorite parts for many people. And Bayo3 just doesn't have that. Bayo in Bayo3 is so stiff - no care for other versions not really (on the surface levels at best), her relationship with Viola is kind of cranky too like she cares but it's alright like it's probably the strongest one (ugh), no care for Jeanne (except some hesitation with Egyptian one I guess) REMEMBER HOW WORRIED SHE WAS ABOUT HER IN BAYO2???? SURE MISS THAT ONE. Sure love how she shoot her mother and barely shows emotion, SURE THAT IS FUN WHEN CHARACTERS DON'T GIVE A FUCK, RIGHT? OH THAT IS BADASS AHA. Even with Luka, it's like whatever, so supposedly the most important component of the story isn't there either. Like it was basic and not engaging in any moment. Like, it's just a simple formula imo: Baoy3 story is weak, because Bayonettas characterisation in Bayo3 is weak. I think the whole excuse of "well, that's Cereza not Bayo" is SOOOO lame. Like, she was a child, we've seen her as a child. IF ANYTHING, she would be MORE fun and MORE charasmatic and MORE joyful.

And, like, not a lot of action-slasher protagonist get development. Like, look at Dante - for his five games he's different in almost all of them and yet he saves the characteristics he has. Even if different people were writing him, they at least tried to be consistent and one important thing - even if they introduced Nero "to pass a torch" they didn't somehow a) killed Dante b) didn't killed his character, what he is and I think that just felt so refreshing when new character-kid gets introduced c) he still remained the most fun of the cast, because didn't took so seriously. and i hate when people compare them, but it's the best example of things done with action franchise rightfuly But Bayo3 is just tries soooooooo hard to be this serious narrative which it never should been in the first place. Like what could be fun than meeting four (plus two at end) different Bayos??? AND THEY FUCKED IT UP BY TREATING THIS CONFLICT SO SERIOUSLY, YOU DON'T EVEN GET TO KNOW THEM AND THEY JUST WASTED FOR NO REASON. Like at this point just make a fun ride. Instead cutscenes drag longer than they should, they are not as entertaining as they should, support cast gets aside but this Bayonetta can't carry this solo, Viola isn't there for long either so it doesn't commit to that part either. THIS GAME HAS A PLOT TWIST VILLIAN??????? LMAO BITCH??????? AND HIS MOTIVATIONS ARE CLEAR ONLY IN CODEX???????????? NEVER DO THAT?? (THAT'S REALLY BAD STORYTELLING) IN FACT A LOT STUFF IS IN THE CODEX????? LIKE U ARE NOT DARK SOULS, THAT'S NOT HOW LORE WORKS. Not to mention, I think this time the ending is the worst one out of all. Last bosses suck (they do in prevous too, but at least they are grand and epic or something), but you also have to sit through TWO endings and you get lame ass dance sequences at the end (the credits one is sooo much better). And it's just drags and drags, like it's not only shitty but story standarts, it's just shitty in a way it conveys things. I would say to some degree it's even worse. Like bad thing is already bad, but then it lasts longer - OOF.

#b3 #b3 spoilers #spoilers #long text #text heavy //#sorry i got a bit in my head #answered #anonymous

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hope-for-the-planet · 2 years ago

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I'm coming to your blog directly after having a panic attack about environmental stuff because I don't know where else to go. I'm a teen right now, and I'm scared out of my mind because I'm worried I won't have a future, or the one I have will be so shitty and terrible. everytime I feel better and hopeful after reading an article or something, I see someone online say how we're all fucked, or how this is the last generation to die comfortably. I'm sorry for pinning you with the task of alleviating my anxiety, but I don't know where else to go :(

Hi Anon,

I am so sorry that you are feeling this way and that it took me some time to get to your ask—you and your fears are always welcome here. You have been on my mind since I got this ask as I’ve been thinking about the best way to answer it.

It is deeply unfair that you are already feeling this burden so acutely as a teenager. Please know that you are not alone—there are so many extremely smart, dedicated, and talented people working to make sure that people like you have a future to look forward to. You are inheriting a legacy of generations of older humans who have fought and continue to fight to protect our planet and mitigate climate change. We are in a better situation now than we would have been without their actions and the number of people who care deeply about this issue gets bigger every day.

If you are regularly having panic attacks or anxiety that feels beyond your control, please seek support from friends, family, or a mental health professional—or find a trusted friend or family member to help you access mental health resources if needed. We all need extra support sometimes (myself included!)—mental health professionals can help you build strategies and access resources to keep yourself regulated when you run into major anxiety triggers.

It is completely reasonable to have concerns about what the future will hold—but you absolutely still have a future and the chance to live a meaningful and fulfilling life even in the midst of this crisis. We will face new and different obstacles from past generations, but there is still ample opportunity to mitigate the scope of this crisis, to adapt our communities to weather the challenges of climate change, and to leverage this necessary change to build a better world.

On this journey there will continue to be times when there is bad news and setbacks and difficult change—and this means that cultivating resilience and coping strategies is an important part of building your own adaptability and preventing a constant drain on your mental health.

This includes 1) Building an arsenal of healthy coping strategies and mental health resources that work for you (climate anxiety can be treated with many of the same strategies as other types of anxiety). 2) Avoiding messages of despair and seeking out sources of hope and energy. Surround yourself with people and media that feed your hope, join communities working to make things better, focus on the piece of the puzzle you can help with and don’t dwell on bad news that you can’t do anything about. Anxiety isn’t activism. 3) Even when you get really good at the previous step, there are still times when the world throws setbacks and despair in your face and you have to grit your teeth and choose hope anyway. This is the hard one and it takes time and practice—but this is how you get through those rough patches when there is a slew of bad news and all seems to be for nothing.

On days when the world doesn’t offer hope, hope is a gift you give to yourself. It is the only way we have kept fighting this far and it is the only way we will succeed in the end. Go looking for something to be hopeful about, and if you cannot find it, make it yourself.

Imagining a future for yourself--a future with hope and meaning--is a big part of this.

I’ve linked a few other posts that I hope will help you here: (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X) (X)

I hope that this helps you. I wish I had an easy trick to tell you to switch off the anxiety. I wish that I could give you a hug through the internet and tell you that you aren’t alone and we are going to be ok. Please, please take care of yourself <3

#ask #anonymous #mental health #anxiety #panic attack #ecological grief #climate anxiety #climate dread

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chatonnoir · 2 years ago

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hi i wanted to let you know i have been into miraculous literally since PV days but have strayed from the fandom since around season 2-3 when "salt" stuff started getting really popular. i was tired of seeing my favorites being mangled beyond recognition to fit some weird revenge fantasy, so i just stopped. recently though i missed the blorbos. its people like you who genuinely love the show and the characters that have made my more recent experiences incredibly lovely and fulfilling. thank u :]

Aw thank you honey :’) truly as someone who got a little in to ML in 2016 and enjoyed the cute fan content and saw how much fans praised it but didn't keep up with it, only to come back to it a couple of seasons later and see how insane the fandom had become over those few years .... it is truly exhausting and baffling to see what people do to the show now. Ig this is the danger of too much self-projection and a lack of critical thinking. Even people who claimed to be done with the show in season 4 continue to run blogs obsessed with """criticizing""" the show for the stupidest and most petty things possible on a daily basis, instead of just ... walking away from it if it doesn’t appeal to them anymore. It can really give you a headache.

But it all makes me think of that one quote from the end of Ratatouille (the movie which is indisputably Pixar Animation Studios' magnum opus): "the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so." ML as a show means so much to so many people of all age groups and backgrounds across the world. ML is far more meaningful and loved and contributes far more to the world than any random schmuck's salt post/fic/comic/video essay about it on the internet. ML is a sweet show! It's a cute and fun show! It's a kind show about emotions and relationships (platonic and romantic) and the power of love but isn’t designated as a Girls Show(TM), as shows with these themes often are, so boys are watching it too! And it shows us a male superhero being soft and sensitive and a hopeless romantic and in touch with his emotions without shame and a female superhero who loves him for it! Which is so important!

Similar kids cartoons when I was growing up, things like Danny Phantom, always had the romance as not an A or B or even a C plot but basically a Z plot. Literally on the back burner. An afterthought. Not something that was created out of passion and a belief that the characters would love each other and rather just thrown in because a main heterosexual relationship for the protagonist Has to be there, for some reason. Romantic moments would be limited to The Romance Episode(TM), wherein the "romantic development" is just like ... the characters accidentally held hands or kissed or something, and would often boil down to "this boy and girl are friends so OBVIOUSLY they have to like each other," without ever really showing me why they actually love each other. And don't get me started on allll the pieces of media with a forced heterosexual romance that is little more than "this male and female character have romantic and sexual tension because they're a male and female character." Or all the pieces of animated kids media where the main male character immediately likes the main female character because she's The Pretty One (As much as I love ATLA and k/ataang, even ATLA did this in the first episode). This all always felt so lacking to me as someone who was so enamored by love even as a kid.

Then comes along ML. Chat Noir didn't fall for Ladybug because he saw her and was taken with how she was Pretty. We know he thinks she's beautiful but he was completely unaffected by this fact when he first met her!!! It wasn't until he saw her stand up to evil that he fell for her! A male character falling for a female character not because Wow She Pretty but because of her bravery and cleverness and determination to stand up to evil and do good? That shouldn't be groundbreaking but it is!!! And it's beautiful!!! And Marinette didn't fall for Adrien because he was The Hot Guy or The Cool Hero or just because he's the male character and she's the female character so she just Has To. She fell for him when she saw his vulnerability and kindness!!! I would've LOVED to have grown up with a show like ML.

God the romance? I’ve never seen so much delicious Yearning in any other western kid’s cartoon. The door scene? Hoowee.... The way each of them so desperately wants the other to see both sides of them. The ending scene of Glaciator, when Ladybug is supposed to be “rejecting” Chat Noir and Chat Noir is supposed to be giving her a platonic cheek kiss, and yet it’s one of the sweetest and most utterly romantic scenes in the show. The sad undertone of Ladynoir, of being best friends but not being able to know a single thing about each other’s lives. The pure romance of the umbrella scene. The coup de foudre.

And it doesn't matter if the episode is romance-centric or not because ML has given us a male and female hero duo with so much genuine love and affection for each other that it's palpable in every episode from the very first season (especially if you’re watching in French lmao). Just... the sweet way they talk to each other, where you can hear their fondness for each other in their voices. The way they tease and roast each other. The petnames. The way they support and protect and take care of each other in and out of battles (specific moments like Ladybug looking after and reassuring Scaredy-cat Chat Noir in Reverser and Chat Noir putting Ladybug’s yo-yo over her mouth for her so she could breathe underwater in Truth make me so insane). The whole concept of “them against the world.” The way that even while loving Ladybug, Chat Noir has no problem telling her when he disagrees with her. The way they will have disagreements/conflicts that are completely in line with their established character traits and weaknesses, but aren’t able to stay mad at each other for more than a minute because of their softness for each other, and always come back from it because above all else they care about and love each other. It’s so unmatched. That’s love bitch

Speaking of how their conflicts are completely in line with their established character traits and weaknesses - the characters are incredibly deep and human and consistently written with motivations and personalities and flaws that all make so much sense! And they’ve developed so much since the start of the show! And the two protagonists mean so much to and resonate with so many people, kids and adults alike. Plenty of people have gone in to the depth of Adrien’s character and why he’s meaningful to people for paragraphs on end so I won’t repeat that, but I rarely see people talking about the beauty of Marinette’s character so I just have to point out like... A female superhero who is not a Strong Flawless Girlboss Who Needs No Man but one who is basically a female Peter Parker? A female superhero who is awkward around her crush and kind of Ridiculous and a hopeless romantic who makes stupid lovestruck faces at pictures of said crush and likes girly things and the color pink and wants to hold her boy’s hand and barely has her shit together and sometimes makes bad choices but is ultimately trying her best to balance her Great Power and Great Responsibility with her civilian life and relationships? Like, I’m not in to comics so sorry if this is inaccurate because I’m only pulling from Spider-Verse, but even Marvel’s attempt at making a girl Spider-Man through Spider-Gwen made her this cool badass with an undercut. I don’t want another Black Widow or Captain Marvel or whatever!!!! I love that ML basically gave us a female Spider-Man who is just as much of a complete disaster as Peter Parker was (talking specifically about Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield versions). I love the way both Peter and Marinette fuck up and make mistakes and bad choices and struggle to balance their two lives and accidentally end up hurting or pushing away the people who are close to them while they’re trying so hard to do what they think is right and protect the people they love with no real guidance. The loneliness of keeping their identities a secret through all that knowing that one slip up could put everyone they love in grave danger. Not to mention Marinette’s very blatant neurodivergent coding that is so clear in everything she does? Seeing her ADHD brain basically become her strength when she’s Ladybug through the bizarre connections she can make with random objects in a split second, just like how someone with ADHD would go on seemingly bizarre and random tangents mid-conversation because their brain latched on to something and quickly made a whole bunch of connections in a short amount of time while the other person was talking? Chef’s fucking kiss baby.

And I love the episodic adventures format!!!! Lots of people do!!!! The rewatch value of every episode is so good!!! Not everything has to be a 10-ep-per-season HBO drama where each 1 hour long episode is solely focused on moving the plot? People who ask for which episodes are important and which ones are “filler” that they can skip when starting ML are so weird. The fun of ML is watching all of Ladybug and Chat Noir’s fun adventures together in every episode? I love watching them just Being Ladybug and Chat Noir while they fight bad guys and have their banter. Episodes can just be Fun!!! Episodes can just exist to BE fun and silly or to explore a specific friendship or relationship rather than being focused on the main villain plot and that’s not a flaw!!!!

tl;dr: ML is a fun and cute show with very relatable, human characters and shows a beautiful, deep, powerful loving relationship between its male and female superhero leads that a lot of similar cartoons and even movies aimed at adults can’t pull off and a lot of people genuinely love this show because of it.

#answers #ml sugar #miraculous ladybug

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