#anyway cf that one quote about how it's really easy to feel patient and sympathetic in the abstract

[aeide-thea]

i love literature but this sort of literary chauvinism drives me fucking batty. like. you’re really going to pat yourself on the back about how

Tenderness is deep emotional concern about another being, its fragility, its unique nature, and its lack of immunity to suffering and the effects of time. Tenderness perceives the bonds that connect us, the similarities and sameness between us. It is a way of looking that shows the world as being alive, living, interconnected, cooperating with, and codependent on itself. Literature is built on tenderness…

when the original blog is the commonplace book of, and reblogged by, hedgehog-moss, who used to be vicious terf sespursongles before she remade and went crypto (i don’t have receipts offhand but i have seen them), and blocked me for objecting to her claim that a designer getting excited about concepts and forgetting about practical concerns was somehow an Inherently Male phenomenon?? like... clearly all her engagement with literature, which is obviously pretty extensive, has not in fact instilled much humanism in her when it comes to not just writing men off categorically!

and in general i just feel like—sitting by yourself imagining your way into sympathy with another imagined person or people is great! but absolutely does not necessarily translate into actual interactions with actual people you can’t just shut the book on when you aren’t in the mood to deal with them.