#books i read in 2021

[the-cartoon-connoisseur]

The BEST line I have ever read from a Ford x Reader Fic

was something along the lines of "I want him to grab me like how he grabs that chicken sandwich."

I have searched endlessly for this one-shot. I haven't seen it in at least two years, (honestly probably more). I fear it has been deleted. But I think about this line all the time.

To whoever made this masterpiece, I hope life is treating you well and I love you

[freshbaked-bread]

i fear that after 3 and a half years i am once again back on my gravity falls bullshit

[rotomicity]

TGCF art from 2021 which were very experimental and very much something out of my comfort zone but am still so satisfied with

(gonna ramble more under the cut 👉 )

My main inspiration for these were definitely classic storybook illustration styles and the watercolor-like illustrations included inside the tgcf books which depict hualian's daily slice of life routines as seen below

I wanted to capture that feeling of warmth i got from reading but i also went with the storybook look because their relationship (and by extension broad strokes of the entire plot) really did feel like something out of actual myth or legend; i'm chinese indonesian and was raised surrounded by chinese culture + values so tgcf felt VERY familiar to me, it threw me back to my childhood reading or listening to tales about chinese deities, i'd say the storybook image definitely came into my mind pretty quickly bc of this

I find this style somewhat hard to replicate now but if i could or have the time to, i really want to continue the 'companion pieces to chapter titles ' concept i did with the last 2 pieces (which are of the same chapter title but i was just indecisive 😭😭), i even had 3 more planned based on my favorite titles before burning out back then

[chiropteracupola]

A very fine captain, and a finer friend.

[roseworth]

i love this one. btw. if you even care.

[estebunny]

bernie collins recalled the scene of esteban ocon's first win in hungary 2021

via her book How to Win a Grand Prix

[wynntermelon]

I really admire the scum villain fandom for surviving this long through sheer willpower and delusion alone

[butchlifeguard]

swimming <3

just add water, katie ledecky / tumblr / me / "how swimming helped an ocd writer quieten their mind," oprah daily / "how does swimming help shape my body?" plunge san diego / "simone manuel has already won," the ringer / pinterest / tumblr / aristotle and dante discver the secrets of the universe, benjamin alire sáenz / instagram / the swimmer, john cheever / me

[tigerbears]

[isdalinarhot]

Having Things To Look Forward To In The Near Future as a cosmere fan was super easy and simple in 2022 because it was like ok this november we get the lost metal (kinda mid not super exciting but thats okay) and then in 2023 we get Three Whole New Books (and said books from the previews that got shared sounded super interesting and good. and they were!) and then at some point in 2024 we get The Fifth Stormlight Book (wow!) and it was so great and wonderful. this will not be so for being a cosmere fan in 2025. like ok on one hand wind and truth just came out and that keeps you fed for a good solid 6 months of going WOOOOOAH WOOOOOW THE IMPLICATIONS WOOOAH but then when that wears off its not like ok next year/at the end of this year we get a cool book! its like 3 years from now we get elantris 2

[bleachbleachbleach]

I was taking a book recommendation quiz and now the only thing I can think about is the Seireitei Communications putting one out for shinigami (Hisagi's attempt to get buy-in for mass importation of books and movies and music and such from the Living World).

Like, how do you not read this question and think about comedic master Kuchiki Byakuya bemoaning the inability to choose more than one option:

I mean, like:

[wordvomit555]

As an autistic person with a very high hatred for injustice and a tendency for seeing the world in black & white, I had a very hard time with aftg at the beginning.

I still sometimes catch myself at trying to completely justify the actions of my faves instead of accepting them as human beings, who just make mistakes.

But that is why aftg is so beautiful and important. It taught me to look at things at a wider angle and even if the hyper fixation will fade at some point, I will forever hold those books close to my heart.

[lucapizzelles]

There were some mistakes in the original post which @sixteenthtryry pointed out, so I've edited this a bit! (a lot of the analysis was based on a small grammar thing that i misheard so :,,,D but still fun to me)

(Okay I spent like half an hour trying to find a specific post because brunosaderogatory made a post about how the Italian subs for Luca are different from the Italian dub, and also that the Italian subs are done by AI while the dub is actual human translators, but I can't find it. So jsyk that's the inspo for why-)

I've been transcribing the Italian dub for Luca and I noticed some really silly things already, but one in particular made me laugh/eyebrow raise/"jesus christ, Daniela."

In the lunch scene at the beginning of the movie Daniela says (parentheses are direct-ish translations (hence why it may seem a bit choppy). Disclaimer Italian is not my native language + I'm not super good at it, but I have some Spanish background + a friend who IS good at Italian that helped me translate):

English: Nope, nope! The end! Shut it down! [...] Well, the curious fish gets caught! We do not think, discuss, contemplate, or go anywhere near the surface. Got it?

Sub: No! No! Fine! Dacci un taglio! [...] Beh il pesce curioso viene pescato! Qui non si nomia, invoca, contempla, o sfiora mai e superficie. Intensi?

(No! No! The end! Give it a rest! [...] Well, the curious fish gets caught. We do not name, invoke, contemplate, or ever graze the surface. Understood?)

Dub: No! No! Fine! Dacci un taglio! [...] Sì, pesciolino curioso, finisce** in padella! Qui nessuno nomina, brama, invoca, contempla, o sfiora mai e superficie. Intesi? 

(No! No! The end! Give it a rest! [...] Yes, the curious fish finish in the pan! We do not name, invoke, yearn, contemplate, or ever graze the surface. Understood?)

under the cut for a crazy syntax analysis

**(said small grammar thing that I misheard, under the cut is analysis of if she had said "finisci" instead of "finisce," where it would have translated to a more direct "you" instead of being more general.)

A couple things I want to point out:

The sub is obviously a much more direct translation from English. Which is why the dub is important, there's certain nuances that non English speaking Italian readers of the sub wouldn't catch. And vice versa with a non Italian speaker reading English subs of the Italian dub. Namely, and you probably already saw it:

Daniela straight up tells Luca, directly speaking to and about him, that he, the curious fish, will be put into a pan if he goes near the surface. lmfao.

English has what's called a "generic you," which you're probably implicitly aware of, just maybe didn't there's a term for it. English speakers like to replace saying "one" (as a pronoun) with "you." I asked my friend Alex about this, if Italian has a way to distinguish this "generic you," and they do and it's the normal way of saying it:

my friend (shoutout): "The 'understood' you is called the 'impassive si' in Italian. ie: 'you (understood/generic) don't eat eggs with ketchup' -> 'non si mangia le uova con ketchup.' The Italian translates DIRECTLY to 'one does not eat eggs with ketchup.' The way it's formed is by just putting 'si' in front of the lui/lei conjugation of whatever the verb is. (me: so they have a way of distinguishing it? what's more common?) The 'you' thing is a translation thing specifically for English people. When talking specifically to someone you use 2nd person conjugations. When talking about everyone or the "understood/generic someone" you use 'si' + 3rd person singular. The way we say 'one' in English, which seems too formal/isn't used often, is the exact opposite in Italian, essentially."

TLDR: Italian has a specific way of saying the "generic you," like how English has the pronoun "one," which is primarily used above saying "you (generic)."

In an informal setting like at a family lunch, Daniela would not be using a "generic you." There is a specific way to say "one will finish in the pan" and she doesn't say that. As my friend put it:

The use of "finisci" is specifically saying "YOU finish." It's the present, 2nd person tense of finire (to finish). In English, she just generally talks about any fish that is curious being "caught." The curious fish is implied to be Luca, but she doesn't really say it is.* The audience, understanding context, just picks that up, but if you (one) were a robot, one might not. In Italian she uses 'curious fish' as a title for Luca specifically, she is talking to him directly, the curious fish is EXPLICITLY him. Even a robot, lacking contextual skills, would get that, given the nature of the language and syntax used.

This whole thing is super instinctual, and we don't necessarily think about it when speaking or comprehending language. BUT it is a very fun thing from a syntax analysis/language localization perspective.

* also, it's a play on the proverb "curiosity killed the cat." Italian doesn't have this saying afaik, and if it has a similar one, then the translators chose not to use it. (unless the pan thing IS the Italian version, but iunnow, I doubt it, considering context)

And finally, a PAN?? Instead of just a generic "caught," she straight up tells him they'll eat him. damn.

She also specifically adds "yearns" when listing the things they don't do about the surface, something not present in neither the English version NOR the subs (of course). I just found that cool and silly and funny.

Sorry if I drilled in the finisci thing too much it's just like. HA that is so brutal. I love it.

[lemon-wedges]

i used the dash teleporter today and went to 2012 and not only were you the only person i follow who was active back then, you were posting about benedict cumberbatch. you don't have to answer this ask but just know that i know this now

Just proves to me you don't know that this is ORIGINAL 2012 superwholock blog complete with me unironically reblogging that one "sherlock fandom grab your...." at some point

[youssefguedira]

Truly stunning how good Luca is at playing Guys With Something Wrong With Them.

true!! i imagine playing Guys With Something Wrong With Them is somewhat more compelling than Average Normal Well-Adjusted Guy. and also more difficult lending itself to a more interesting performance. i say as someone who has 0 acting experience. but it's about the Diversity of Guys With Something Wrong With Them.

take villainous roles only. fabio's dramatic and flamboyant and obsessed with fame and the manifestation of what's Wrong With Him is a lot of screaming and dancing and also mass murder plots. and violent killing. diabolik, in contrast, is a guy who was very evidently raised around a bunch of criminals until the age of 22 and therefore has 0 social skills. and also likes crime and killing. what's Wrong With Him is much more subtle but still very clear. and primo is. well. primo. his problem is everything (been a while since i watched trust but specifically power and ambition and all that). guess what? also kills! but can act nice when he wants and violent when he wants. a real enigma of a Guy With Something Wrong With Him.

and yet? all the Same Guy. same actor. without even getting into like, paolo il padre d'italia, which is another one of my favourite performances of his for personal reasons. and other more restrained dramatic roles. for my top 2 compare martin martin eden to pietro le otto montagne and they are both super different from each other AND paolo. and again even though i know in theory they're played by famous actor luca marinelli whenever i see the movie i am less like 'wow that's famous actor luca marinelli' and more like 'wow that's my good friend pietro le otto montagne'. which is not true for all actors. super diverse range of roles super skilled actor very good at his job. oscar when

[3am-thoughts-of-achilles]

i should be sleeping i just spent the last hour crying over patrochilles they loved each other so much it drives me insane