#but like every review for the book is like ''this is the best book ive ever read these characters mean Everything to me''
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sharkneto · 6 days ago
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Reading Lonesome Dove is such a funny experience, because it's this 900 page cowboy epic that's Pulitzer Prize winning and apparently universally adored and I'd never fucking heard of it before
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librarycards · 1 year ago
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hello! i apologize in advance this is probably something that you get asked a lot. but do you have any recs on literary magazines to submit to? im a trans poet, ive been writing for over a decade but never shared anything and ive been wanting to try to send my stuff to get it published somewhere. obv ive been google searching but theres so many big and small publications and i was wondering if you have ones you like especially and/or tips on how to choose a magazine/journal to submit to. thanks a lot! <3
no worries, thank you for reaching out!! i've been publishing for like 8 years + an editor for almost 4, so i always appreciate the opportunity to help people new to the world find ethical publications that will treat their work with the care it deserves.
first and foremost: there are going to be pubs out there that are awesome and i don't know about. you may be the one to discover them for yourself! one aid in finding the best mag for your work is the wonderful, writer-created chillsubs. it's a fantastic platform that keeps a huge list of mags and presses and their relevant stats, and lets you create an account and bookmark those you're interested in. everyone i know uses them, and it's very worth it given the sheer volume of mags out there.
i also have some recs of my own, ofc. i'm going to list them below. if they pay (which i prioritize) I'll mark them with a $. some are trans/queer focused and some aren't, but all are pubs i've either edited and/or published with and can confirm their ethics + respect for writers.
manywor(l)ds - my mag! i'm co-founder and eic. break genre _ shapeshift with us. ($)
Sinister Wisdom - old, well-regarded lesbian+ lit mag, now open to everyone who is/loves a dyke. I'm guest-editing an issue on Madness with them, now open for submissions!
fifth wheel press - run by a beloved friend and comrade of mine. i've published here. excellent transparency, care, great for first-timers. ($).
kith books - headed by trans literary icon kat blair. a mag/press/community centered around bodymind non-conformity and noncompliance.
Honey Literary - QTPOC-centered, unabashedly pop-culture + social justice oriented. the vibes are simply immaculate.
Whale Road Review - not queer/trans focused, more oriented toward....'grown up' poetry/prose/pedagogy papers. Katie Manning (eic) is a fucking gem.
Graphic Violence Lit - just had my first experience publishing with them, and their care + consideration for the whole writer is amazing. they publish boundary-pushing work.
beestung - one of the brainchildren of Sarah Clark. nb/gq/2s SFF. I just edited a few guest issues w them and have published with them. amazing work. ($)
A Velvet Giant - genrequeer work. the editors are experienced, enthusiastic, and amazing at promoting writers long after publication. it's a family! ($)
Ethel Zine + Press - handmade with love by Sara Lefsyk (as you can see, trans/nonbinary/2s sarahs dominate indie publishing, as well we should :3). Sara is a sensitive and care-full editor and bookmaker whose every publication is a work of art.
Protean - pro- as in proletariat. awesome left mag with a mix of politics and culture and everything in between. they take reprints! ($)
Mudroom - publish your work along with a picture of your mudroom/shoe rack. very responsive editors who will hype you tf up. ($)
The Institutionalized Review - for psych survivors. the editors concreteness of vision and dedication to their community know no bounds.
Just Femme + Dandy - queer and fashion-focused! led by the inimitable Addie Tsai. They pay *handsomely*. ($)
In addition, there are also some "big" mags I have had excellent experiences publishing with and wanted to shout out. These are harder for a beginner to break into, but worth keeping on your radar + have been fantastic to me as a writer.
Electric Lit
Split Lip Magazine
The Offing
Nat. Brut
Santa Fe Writers' Project
Bodega
New Orleans Review
Augur Magazine
I hope this is helpful to you + others! the literary world is ever-changing and this is just a snapshot. Hopefully you find some that you like!
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luvhughes43 · 1 year ago
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say yes to heaven (track one) | tz11 x reader
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cruel world [masterlist]🕊
word count: 2.1k
Rolling Stone
Date: June 28th, 2023
Growing up, Yn Ln always dreamt that she would become a singer. Her inspirations were figures well beyond her years, taking inspiration from the likes of great artists from decades past. Her melancholic style became instantly notable when she first hit the scene a few short weeks ago with her debut single, video games. Of course, none of her earlier works can be found on streaming services anymore, but her style has remained consistent over the years as she now releases her debut album in 2023. 
interviewer: Yn, your album “Cruel World” has become an instant cult classic for music reviewers and fans alike. But what everyone really wants to know is what, and who, inspired you?
Yn laughs lightly, rubbing her palms on her jeans before she starts talking.
Yn Ln: It was [pause].. it was a long process. I was inspired by my real life [another pause] and my friends' lives. A lot of things went into creating the album. I’ve spent years working on it. 
interviewer: Are you aware of the rumours surrounding the album? That every song is about an ex of yours? Trevor I think his name is?
Yn tenses briefly at the mention of her ex and swipes her palms against her jeans once more.  
Yn Ln: Like I said, the album was inspired by things I've gone through. I don’t feel the need to put names to songs.
She laughs lightly trying to ease the tension of the room.
Interviewer: Well, regardless, Cruel World is an amazing album.
Yn smiled politely, taking a sip of her coffee.
when yn hughes first laid her eyes on trevor zegras, she felt a spark. when she went to bed that night she didn’t dream about her favourite characters, or books, she didn’t even create perfect little scenarios. no, she fell asleep to thoughts of her brothers best friend. his soft hair, the way he glided the puck across the ice, his smile and enthusiasm when his team did well… yn hughes was doomed from the start. 
‘cause ive got my mind on you
i’ve got my mind on you
you didn't actually meet trevor face to face till a week after first seeing him. your twin, Jack, had invited him and a few other friends over to the house for the day. you laid in bed, eyes closed listening to all the commotion below before you decided to go downstairs and greet everyone. 
when you finally made your way to the group, you stood awkwardly at the bottom of the stairs. the wood chilly as you watched your brother and his friends play fight. 
“I’m trevor!” one of the boys beamed as he stepped away from the group of rowdy boys. 
you smiled softly in response as trevor ruffled his hair. “i’m yn-”
“jacks twin! right, i've heard so much about you! you know, i always wondered if it was true that twins had like, intuition? Is that a thing?” trevor rambled, his words fast and inquisitive, a habit which presented itself quite frequently. 
you laughed, nodding in the small breaks of trevors words as he kept talking about twins and their behaviours he had apparently heard about. 
when he finally stopped his speech, yn answered his first of many questions. “i mean i dont know about intuition but…” 
“trev!” jack called, “get over here, stop talking to yn!”. he was shaking an xbox controller, gesturing for trevor to come join their group of friends who were lounging on the sofa ready to play. 
“but he always seems to pick up on when i'm having a good time” you smiled cheekily. 
trevors face burned red and he rubbed at his neck absentmindedly as he looked you up and down. you watched his eyes trail, and you had never felt so giddy in all of your life. butterflies fluttered in your stomach until trevor broke away from you. 
“Ill uh- ill.. i’ll see you around,” trevor finished lamely, clearly feeling the same giddiness you felt as he sharply turned away from you and sat next to your brother. you stood in your spot for another second, watching as trevor tried to hide his smile from your brother. 
the house was quiet as you made your way into your kitchen for a glass of water. you had fallen after working on some music and you woke up dazed and a little confused.
you open the fridge, the little light partially illuminating the kitchen. a figure moves out of the darkness causing you to jump and let out a little shriek. 
your breathing speeds up, one of your hand coming to rest over your mouth as trevor steps into the light of the fridge. 
“Its just me!” trevor says, voice hoarse with sleep. he lays a had on your shoulder, watching you with wide eyes as you try to calm yourself down.
“what are you doing here?” you asked breathlessly as your breathing started to slow. “uh your parents let me and a few other guys stay over tonight” trevor explained, hand still resting on your shoulder.
“what? when?” trevors hand falls from your shoulders and moves to brush through his hair. 
“after dinner. you were up in your room playing… the guitar was it? It sounded really nice”
“thanks…” your face heated and you were so glad that you hadn't decided to turn the kitchen light on. 
“what were you working on anyway?” trevor changed the subject as he opened the fridge and pulled out a jug of milk.
your nose crinkled as he grabbed his discarded cup and poured himself a glass. “oh you know,” you shrugged your shoulders. you didn’t know why you did it but you never wanted to talk about your music. with all your brother's talents and successes, you felt that you choosing music was an embarrassment to your family even though you knew at heart that it wasn’t true. 
trevor must have picked up on your hesitancy so he shrugged, bringing his glass of milk to his lips as he took another swig. 
“milk?” you questioned, and trevor held the glass out for you to take.
“want some?” he asked, tilting the glass towards you.
“definitely not”
“it makes your bones strong and stuff, you should try it” 
“Trevor i've drank milk before,” you say sarcastically.  
“well yeah but like, you know what i mean” 
you rolled your eyes playfully, “okay fine give me the glass,” you reached your hand out and trevor passed his cup to you. you peered into the cup.
“its just milk it's not gonna hurt you” trevor laughed as he leaned back against the kitchen counter. 
you tentatively took a sip and when you finished you passed the glass back to trevor. 
“how was it?�� “gross”
“yeah okay,” trevor rolled his eyes, leaning his head back as he finished the rest of the glass. 
you reached past trevors shoulder, grabbing a glass to fill with water. 
“well, im going to go to bed,” trevor nods to you as he sets his now empty glass in the sink. 
“goodnight,” you respond as you fill your glass.
“yah night,” trevor walks out of the kitchen and you watch him leave.
what the hell was that? you whisper to yourself, downing the rest of your water before heading to bed yourself. 
the next few weeks followed similarly. you and trevor would have these weird random moments, and you would both awkwardly smile at each other and move on with your days. that was until the boys decided to have a bonfire now that your parents were out of town to celebrate the start of the summer. 
you felt the warm heat of the fire on your legs as you sat near the pit with your friend. you watched absentmindedly as trevor talked to his friends before you felt the weight of your friend's hand on your shoulder. 
“you know yn, if you want him that badly then…” you whipped your head around at your friends words.
“what?” your eyes were wide in shock. you hadn’t told anybody about your growing feelings for trevor. 
“I’m just saying you’re not being really secretive…”
“he's my brother's best friend” you shrugged, your eyes drifting from your friend and back to the boy in question. He was nursing a beer he had somehow managed to sneak past his own parents.
“okay… what does that have to do with anything? hes hot” your friend shrugs. 
“hes also jacks teammate it just, it wouldn't work out the way i’d want it to” you expressed your reasons on why you couldn't date trevor and it sounded more ridiculous each time. you knew you wanted to be with him, and honestly, jack wasn't what you were worried about. you were more worried of the possible rejection. sure you and trevor had spent time together and talked. but majority of that time was when the two of you were alone. what if trevor doesn't want anything more than the private meetups? 
“how do you want it to work out?”
you fiddled with your hands, ignoring your friends question.
“he clearly likes you though, if that's what you're worried about” you hummed in response, lazily turning your head to look at trevor again. He smiled at you when he caught you looking. you didn't have the energy to look away. you knew then that you'd rather be rejected then not with him at all. 
let the fear you have fall way
i’ve got my eye on you
i’ve got my eye on you
say yes to heaven
say yes to me
“trev!” you hear jack call from across the fire pit, “can you go get us more marshmallows?” the boy easily agrees as he stands up from his lawn chair and begins to make his way inside. 
“Yn im thirsty!” your friend quickly says, pushing you up and off your seat. “can you get me a root beer?” she pleads, causing your brothers and his friends to shift their attention to the two of you. you quickly catch on to what she's doing, and you nod with enthusiasm. 
“does anyone else want something?” you ask the group as you slowly back away. Jack asks for water, and you nod before following Trevor into your house. 
the house was silent as the two of you worked your way around the kitchen. just as trevor was about to make his way back outside again, you stopped him. your hand tugged on his wrist and he was turning back to face you.
“trevor,” you breathed out, a little shocked at your sudden courage.
“yn,” he whispered back. you could hear the faint sound of the fire crackling and everyone's laughter out in the backyard.
it felt magnetic, the pull that brought your lips up to meet his. the kiss was soft and innocent. something that could easily be explained away as a spur of the moment thing. you refused to let it.
“yn,” trevor whispered again, this time painfully.
“trevor,” you were hopeful. 
he kissed you again, one of his hands coming down to settle on your waist as your arm wrapped itself around his neck. 
when you both pulled apart, trevor rested his forehead against yours, his breath slowing down as you both relaxed. 
“we cant do this,” trevor said almost regretfully as his head turned at the sound of your brothers loud voice teasing cole. 
“we can do whatever we want” you replied, ignoring all the background noise.
“jacks your twin. he's my teammate. my best friend. i can't just-”
“say yes to me” you blurted and your face heated up instantly. 
“It's not that easy-”
“yes it is. trevor just say yes to me and we can figure out what to do with jack later,” 
trevor seemed unsure of what to say for the first time. 
“What's taking you so long! damn!” jacks voice pops the bubble you and trevor had built not even a minute earlier. 
“sorry i couldn't find the marshmallows,” trevor mumbles, stepping away from you and towards your brother. 
“why didn’t you help hin y/n? don't be rude” your brothers voice seemed to pierce the quiet of the kitchen.
“he didn’t want me to help,” you replied quietly, reaching behind you for the water bottle jack had asked for earlier. 
“well that was stupid. she literally lives here z she knows where everything is,” jack responded cluelessly.
“Yeah, right, my bad” trevor nodded along with his words as he watched jack reach into a corner cabinet to retrieve a bag of marshmallows. 
I’ll put my red dress on, get it on
and if you fight, i’ll fight
it doesn’t matter, now its all gone
i got my mind on you
ynhughes
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ynhughes ❤️
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yourbff hottest bff ever🤤
ynhughes love u
jackhughes “❤️”
ynhughes if u dont leave me alone…
[insta dms]
trevorzegras: I’m sorry about that night
trevorzegras: I just don't want jack mad at me yk? I do really like you and I shouldn't have just left things like that
ynhughes: what are you trying to say?
trevorzegras: That i'm saying yes to you
trevorzegras: and that i’m sorry
present day
ynhughes
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liked by lhughes_06, colecaufield, yourbff, and others
ynhughes say yes to heaven, mv out now❤️ i love u all so much
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yourbff im crying real tears i love you so so much
ynhughes i love u more forever
fan01 just listened to say yes to heaven for the first time and it's soo beautiful
fan02 love you so much yn
liked by ynhughes
lhughes_06 very cool
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linghxr · 11 months ago
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My trip to Taiwan
I took a break from posting because...I went to Taiwan! This was my first time going there, and I was mostly in Taipei. I had a great time and took many, many photos. I'll share some highlights here (along with commentary) to commemorate my trip.
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Left: Liberty Square 自由廣場 Right: Chiang Kai-shek Memorial 中正紀念堂
You can't tell here, but there was a row of porta-potties directly to the left of the archway. That was a funny sight. There was also a stage in the middle of the square. Maybe they do outdoor concerts?
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Left: Tamsui Old Street 淡水老街 Right: "Sidewalk"
Besides the main roads, most streets lacked raised sidewalks. Instead, they had a painted path. I had to get comfortable being very, very close to cars and other vehicles.
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Left: Motorbike parking lot near Tamsui Old Street Right: Covered sidewalk.
I’ve seen motorbikes before in China, but Taipei took things to a new level. Motorbikes were absolutely everywhere. I even saw this parking lot exclusively for motorbikes. They rule the streets.
In the busy downtown districts, you often don’t need an umbrella due to the covered sidewalks. You can walk for blocks and blocks while staying covered. This was pretty convenient on rainy days.
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Left: Jadeite Cabbage 翠玉白菜 at the National Palace Museum 國立故宮博物院 Right: Umbrella rack (also at the museum)
Confession—I didn't think the National Palace Museum was that good. Probably because I've been to the actual Forbidden City in Beijing. And sadly, the Meat-Shaped Stone wasn't on exhibit.
In the US, some stores will provide a plastic bag for your wet umbrella. In Taipei, many stores had a rack or basket outside instead. Most were not as secure or elaborate as the one pictured.
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Left: Eslite Xinyi Store (bookstore) 誠品信義店 Right: Sun Yat-sen Memorial 國父紀念館
I bought a couple books and a Yoga Lin CD at the Eslite 24-hour bookstore. I only planned to swing by, but I think I spent 2 hours there. I definitely recommend checking it out if you're in Taipei.
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Taipei 101 台北101
It was overcast when I went to Taipei 101, but the view was still nice. On the bright side, there was NO line. 101 is by far the tallest building around, so you really feel that you're looking down at the city.
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Taroko National Park 太魯閣國家公園
Taroko was the only place I visited outside of the Taipei/New Taipei City area. It's in Hualien county on the east coast. There were so many betel nut stores in the countryside on the way there.
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Left: Pond at NTU 國立臺灣大學 Right: 228 Peace Memorial Park 二二八和平紀念公園
Taipei has the best parks! They really put American parks to shame. Before going, I didn't understand why so many Taipei parks are tourist destinations with 4.5+ star reviews, but now I totally get it.
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Elephant Mountain 象山
I didn’t realize how mountainous Taiwan is. Taipei is cradled by mountains, so there are many places to hike, even within city limits. I braved the rain for the famous view from Elephant Mountain.
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Subway billboard 臺北捷運
The Taipei Metro/MRT was amazing. So fast, clean, frequent, and convenient. US subway systems are a joke in comparison. These are from an amusing series of billboards promoting riding etiquette.
Some other observations:
I was quite impressed by all of the English signage in Taipei. I think it would be very easy to navigate even if you don’t know Chinese. Many stores and small eateries had menus, signs, etc. in English.
I knew Taiwan had many convenience stores, but I was not prepared to see a Family Mart or 7/11 on every block. Someone needs to open this style convenience store in the US ASAP.
I saw numerous adds featuring Korean actors like Son Ye-jin and also kpop groups like IVE and NewJeans. I also heard kpop playing at various stores, whereas in America, I only hear it at Hmart.
I was struck by how many street signs and subway stops names used pinyin romanization. There was a lot of inconsistency and mixing of different romanization systems. For example, you have Taipei vs. Beitou (same character: 北).
There were many Japanese stores, pharmacies, and restaurants. Upon further consideration, this makes sense given Taiwan's history, but it stood out to me nonetheless.
Overall, I had a lovely time in (mostly) Taipei. As a big city (but not too big) surrounded by beautiful nature, there's something for everyone. I already want to go back! Of course I also want to see some other areas of Taiwan too. Maybe next year.
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chlobliviate · 5 months ago
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Wolfstar Microfics - Sickfic
Words: 984 🥲
@wolfstarmicrofic
TW for non graphic mentions of vomiting and covid
***
The Marauders had booked a cottage by the sea for a fortnight. Lily and James hadn’t been away since their honeymoon and Pete needed a break after his recent breakup with Sybil. (She told him she didn’t see a future with him, it was brutal.)
The plan was for Remus and Sirius to drive down on Friday, do a big food shop, and wait for the others to show up on Monday. Sirius had been thanking whatever gods arranged cricket matches for Pete and James’ team having one organised for the Sunday afternoon.
Since Remus had moved into his own place the previous year, Sirius had realised a couple of things. The first being that he couldn’t cook, at all. Remus was by no means a chef, but he understood what flavours went together somehow and how to know when things were cooked. The second was that he was absolutely head over heels in love with his best friend and had been for a long time.
There had been a very confusing drunken conversation with James where he was baffled to learn that James didn’t also want to lick Remus’ neck every time he reached for a mug in the top cabinet. He had peer-reviewed this data by asking Pete, Gideon, Fabian, Dorcas, Marlene, Mary, Lily, and Benjy Fenwick the same thing. None of them saw ‘neck licking’ as a platonic activity and among them, only Benjy was also interested in licking Remus’ neck, which, honestly, only made Sirius want to invite him to hang out with them all less.
But he’d figured it out eventually and now he was excited for a weekend of domestic bliss with his Moony before the others arrived. Just like old times.
Things started to go wonky on the drive down. Remus had developed a splitting headache somewhere around Bristol and Sirius took over driving. By the time they reached Plymouth, Remus was asleep.
They hadn’t made it halfway across Cornwall before Remus declared that Sirius needed to pull over immediately. He flung himself from the car and almost instantly vomited into the hedge. After five minutes of Remus propping himself against the hedge while his body heaved, he stumbled back to the car. Sirius handed him a bottle of water, some mints, and a plastic bag.
“Just in case.” He said, giving Remus’ hand a squeeze. “Are you ok to keep going now, or do you want to find a cafe and take a break?”
“It’s less than half an hour now, might as well keep going,” Remus said, hoarsely.
“Alright, let me know if you change your mind. It’s not a big deal, even if we’re only five minutes away, ok?”
They made it to St Ives with only one further stop where Remus threw up the water. They checked into the cottage and Sirius got their bags in before going to park the car. When he got back, Remus was lying on the sofa under his coat. Sirius dragged him upstairs and got him settled in the master bedroom in a nest of pillows and blankets. Then he put the kettle on and made them both a cup of tea, knowing Remus would probably be asleep by the time it was drinking temperature. He went into the bathroom, sat down on the edge of the bath, and fired off a text to the group chat.
Pads
Moony is sick. He had a headache a few hours ago and he threw up and now he’s burning up and sleeping. Trying not to panic.
James
You’re just worried your Flat 6 throwback weekend might not happen lol
Pads
Fuck off
I’m genuinely worried about him
Pete
So, I also felt really ill today and I think I know what’s wrong with him
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Lily
Fuck.
Are you ok Pete? Do you need anything?
James
No way 😭 oh shit is that why I’m so achy?
Lily
Fuuuuuuuuuck
Pads
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck!!!
Ok, nobody panic.
James
You’re the only one panicking
Pads
Yeah well, I meant me.
Ok, cool, so we both have covid probably. How do I get a test? I don’t even have a mask to go and get one.
Lily
You know Remus will have packed masks just in case. He has an emergency supply of everything I swear.
Pads
Ooh, good call.
I don’t want to wake him up but I’m not going to go through his bags.
Dilemma!
Moony
I can hear you pacing in the bathroom
I have masks
backpack front pocket
Lily
Re!
Are you ok?
Moony
No
Goodnight
Sirius went back into the bedroom and found Remus sitting up against the pillows.
“I’m dizzy when I lie down. It’s like being drunk.”
“That’s the worst.” Sirius knelt down and found the masks in Remus’ backpack. “I’m gonna go to Boots, get some tests and some cold and flu stuff. Will you be ok for ten minutes?”
“I’m sick, not an infant.” Remus rolled his eyes. “Thanks, sweetheart, you’re the best.”
As Remus snuggled back under the duvet, Sirius let himself out and headed across the road to Boots, trying not to implode at being called sweetheart, willing his hands to stop shaking.
He woke Remus up to swab his nose twenty minutes later and within seconds of putting the liquid on the test, it was positive.
“You’ve got covid, moons,” Sirius said quietly.
“I think you mean we’ve got covid. Let’s be real.” Remus groaned, “I wanted to go to the beach.”
“We’re here for two weeks, we’ll be able to go to the beach at some point.” Sirius perched next to him on the bed and pushed his hair back off his clammy forehead. “This time next week, we’ll be fine.”
Remus scoffed, “Speak for yourself.”
“Nah you’ll be fine. You’ve got me to look after you.” Remus smiled up at him sleepily and Sirius’s stomach did a flip. Oh, this was bad.
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isdalinarhot · 5 months ago
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everyone talked about how obvious the charlie/huck twist was in like every review ive ever seen of tress (either to be like oh this book sucked because the main twist was so obvious! or like this book ruled because even though the main twist was obvious it was still a super fun story!) but the thing is i didnt pick up on it at all. the first scene with tress and huck where tress is like im trying to rescue my boyfriend and huck says something along the lines of "girl, you shouldn't put yourself in danger for a man" (i know he called her girl i remember this specifically) i was like. oh okay tress is getting a gay best friend rat good for her ^-^ and thus did not consider at any point whatsoever that huck could be attracted to tress because he was charlie. so it blew my entire mind
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blackhyena · 12 days ago
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tagged by lovely @sacrificialcrisis 🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡
last song: punish by ethel cain.... im still struggling to get into her but i still think this is my fav thing ive heard so far???
last book: im doing tons of reviewing work atm so just poring over literary criticism right now and losing my miiiiiiiiiind
last movie: umm. i don't watch enough movies. OH wait julia and i watched Ghost Stories (2017) and it was..... fine !
last television show: every time it starts getting colder i want to rewatch ghosts. i showed it to the researcher im sharing accommodation with and she was like oh no is it going to be scary!!!!!!!! it was so cute haha. she loves Kitty!
sweet/savoury/spicy: savoury BUT a bit of all three is the best
relationship status: single
last thing I looked up on the internet: exuma island. idk i had a morbid curiosity about fyre fest
current obsession: i was just contemplating this and i kind of feel like i don't have these anymore and it made me kind of sad? im still playing bg3 i suppose. i managed to get mods working again and im playing a dwarf called VILBJORN
looking forward to: christmas but not like the day, the extended period! going 2 the christmas markets & seeing my friend rach for festive drinks & new years eve!!! and my new research project hehe
tagging @zaegreus @dykejohnmilton @sirgawin @forgetimabluedreamer @northseas @raffaella-cerullo @cordeliaflyte @aurpiment @h0
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gaylittlerichie · 27 days ago
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FINISHED READING CHRISTINE HERE IS MY REVIEW!!!!! 🚘❤️
pros:
* the kills in this were FANTASTIQUE. the final showdown especially and i am notorious for always tuning out during a final showdown. i loooove how relentless christine is and how she keeps regenerating it’s so much fun to read
* the way arnie and christine r high key In Love with each other is so good and camp. obsessed w the way he sweet talks her when he’s fixing her up or starting the engine
* love love love dennis and arnie’s love for each other. i find relationships where they set out to Protect one another (exhibit a the losers club) so endearing and dennis’ loyalty to the very end is SWEET. did indeed shed a tear over the ant farm passage
* further to that i will say this is the gayest king novel ive read yet lol
* arnie is such a tragic character. the repetition of the idea that he’s just a loser and just Needed something to survive (which just so happened to be christine) is fucking heartbreaking. loved his slow descent
* so many good eerie details w the car….the smell of rot, the way she always flips back to the oldies channel, the way her handles feel like warm skin. although i have some issues with the roland d lebay of it all i did also find the image of Decomposing Zombie Driving Car really fun
* i love the time that was given to the issues in the cunningham house and how christinegate bled out to effect all of them. like amongst all the crazy corky car murder i really enjoyed just watching regina and michael struggling to cope w their perfect son deciding he’s not going to college. king is so good at that (thinking of herb and vera in the dead zone my beloved)
* the metaphor i kind of got from it all was to do w childhood best friends growing apart and losing each other and as u can probably guess. broke me
* I LOVED BUDDY REPPERTON…
cons:
* starting this book in dennis pov really put me off. i don’t love 1st person generally but this was also just so….especially dude-y. listening to dennis rant on about how girls’ll never understand the pain of whacking ur balls and the Epic Highs And Lows Of Navigating The High School Hierarchy was just like. straight up annoying
* listen. i have read a lot of early king now i am not trying to retrospectively cancel a 1980s book and know that this comes w the territory. however. the misogyny in this one was almost too much to an uncomfortable degree. again going back to how this is a very DudeCore novel in parts
* she’s only a small part but the way elaine guilder was written was so insanely groanworthy. every single FREAKING line about this freshly 15yo girl is about her Just Budding Breasts and how hyper aware of them her big brother is
* similar issues w leigh. her character truly does not go beyond love interest beautiful girl to me. in general these are all definitely some of king’s weaker characters but leigh especially
* i mentioned it above but i didn’t really like how christine is kind of her own entity but the ghost(?) of lebay is also what’s animating her??? some of the Lore around him was very fun and creepy but i would’ve preferred christine to just be the big bad
TLDR:
in general this took a while to grow on me but grow on me it sure the fuck did. like this book is like my beautiful daughter that i kind of hate a little bit. it’s kidnapping and torturing me but i’ve got an intense case of stockholm syndrome and have fallen in love. super fucking excited to watch the movie
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rosekasa · 8 months ago
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HELLO PERSON WHO DEFINITELY DIDNT REBLOG THAT ASK GAME JUST BECAUSE I WANTED TO ASK QUESTIONS HAHAHA NO DEFINITELY THAT WAS NOT ABOUT ME
💖 Which of your fics is your pride and joy? (is this like asking you which is your favorite child)
🎭What genre of writing comes easiest to you? (hee hee it doesnt just have to be about fanfiction either !!)
🙌What's a line or paragraph of yours that you're proud of? (your writing is so beautiful if someone else already asked you this PLEASE still answer it again with another line or paragraph 🥺 I'm begging)
🍎What's something you learned while researching for a fic? (I KNOW you look up and learn lots of things while writing)
⏳If you could go back in time and tell your younger writer self something, what would it be? (🥺🥺 you always have such insight)
HI PERSON I DEFINITELY DIDNT REBLOG THIS FOR I LOVE YOU AHDJSJS
💖 Which of your fics is your pride and joy?
like poles of a magnet for SURE. i adore that fic. im not really sure why im so attached to it but it's really my baby. i love it so much
🎭What genre of writing comes easiest to you?
oh youre gonna think im so lame. it's essay writing. ahdjsjdkaksk. i think i told you before but i write book reviews for every book i read and my writing feels so Natural then because it's like. every line has a purpose to prove my point about the book. whenever im feeling rusty with narrative writing i find myself telling myself 'okay pretend this is an essay and this whole story is trying to prove your thesis about the characters' ahdjsj
🙌What's a line or paragraph of yours that you're proud of?
bren 🥹 ily. my hanahaki wip is really fun and i feel like has a lot of good writing because it really demands a lot of descriptiveness. i have this section when adrien sees gabriel for the first time in a while that i kept scrolling up and rereading
He knows, logically, that this is his father. You can't forget a face like that, the face you searched for in vain at every fencing tournament, piano recital, fashion gala that you knew full well he hadn’t attended but you were tired and wanted an adult to hold your hand and guide you around the crowds. 
It is that face. But a mimicry of it, like a portrait with the wrong proportions.
He’s gaunt — it’s the first word that comes to mind. His eyes sit deep in their sockets beneath his glasses, jaw a sharp trapezoid attached to his cheeks. It’s not just a matter of losing weight over the months — which, even if it was, would be a surprising deviation from the seventy-five kilos he had not shifted a decimal of a gram from in thirty years. It’s everything else, the biology hidden behind the layers of perfectly-tailored clothing, and well-combed hair, and skin, although pristine, textured like paper over the canvas of his skull. 
🍎What's something you learned while researching for a fic?
did i ever tell you about how when i went to paris last year i literally knew where everything was by arrondissements because ive searched them up so many times for ml fics. i think it was even specifically rue lepic that i remember the most because i once wrote about ladynoir patrolling around there and it turned out to be the road right next to my hotel (yes, we got a hotel in pigalle, my paris knowledge did not supply me with what exactly pigalle is known for,)
⏳If you could go back in time and tell your younger writer self something, what would it be?
literally not to lose that unwarranted confidence i had. at age eleven i was pounding out 50k+ word multichapter fics for my first fandom and like. the plots are so questionable. but when i reread them now im genuinely impressed at the quality of writing i had at that age. i think as i hit 13/14 i went through that phase where i was like ohhh my god i was sooo embarrassing when i was a kid and that insecurity really hindered my writing progress! i think creativity needs you to be unapologetic and cringe. that's when the best stuff is made because it's Real
i love you bren!!!
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commander-gloryforge · 6 months ago
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okay bit of a ramble incoming but. me and writing, we havent had the best relationship lately, mostly because ive been dealing with imposter syndrome a lot, and writer spaces dont seem to be as welcome as they used to be to me. but for the past months ive been trying to get into a more healthy mindset about writing. its just difficult because many of the author communities im apart of dont seem to agree with said mindset.
so. heres a thing that happened. theres this book series, a ya romantasy, that kind of went viral on booktube/booktok for being mostly shitty. i've watched a couple of reviews of it, most of them negative, can generally agree with most criticisms of the book, and it is, in my mind, ticked off as a "bad book". dont be like that author, dont do what she does, dont write like this, everyone will hate your book.
me and my father were sitting in the garden, next to eachother, me writing and him listening to an audiobook. he tells me about how good it is and how much he likes it. theres dragons, its so cool, its such an interesting world, he's at book two now and cant wait for the third one to be released. to my surprise, its the exact book that booktubers everywhere talk shit about. now ive seen people on the internet that liked the book, but theyre just some guys on the web and i dont know them and their opinion doesnt mean much. but my dad? i know him. i know his tastes. and he likes it.
and i think that made me realise something. i still dont like that book, but someone, a person whose taste and opinions i (usually) value, does. he doesnt care about the plot holes that others see, he doesnt know about the discourse surrounding certain tropes, he likes it because its fantasy, and theres dragons, and theres magic, the fact that theres a disabled protagonist is cool to him, and THERES DRAGONS! and so many other people also like it. for whatever reason.
its a "bad book", apparently, thats what most people call it, but to some its a good book. and if someone just constantly keeps finding issues with a book, then it wasnt for them in the first place wasnt it? critiques and negative reviews and rants are still valid and, i'd say, needed. but in the end, they dont matter much. the book isnt offensive or "problematic" or anything but it really is just kinda bad and people still like it and it really is fine.
my writing is gonna be bad to someone. my writing style is convoluted and kind of silly and just. bad. okay. and there are people that still like it. that doesnt mean i dont want to improve and get better as a writer, i do. for the people that like my stuff, for myself, i will get better, but like. its fine. im fine. someone will like what i write. there will be bad parts of my writing that some people will hate, and some will ignore, and thats the fact for every book and every kind of art.
ill be fine. ill just keep writing and things will be fine.
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popculturebuffet · 1 month ago
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James Earl Jones Memorial Halloween Special: Treehouse of Horror I Review! (Comission by WeirdKev27)
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Happy Halloween all you happy people! I"m amped not just because I love spooky season: the decoratoins, the candy, the excuse to inject horror into my veins but that we get to talk about one of my faviorite shows. Despite the many, MANY simpsons refrences that grace this fair blog, largely thanks to the site frinkiac for making it easy to meme any simpsons refrence that ops into my dome, I don't cover the show itself often. A lot of it is simple: I just forget to and what retrospectives me or kev have had ideas for have never materialized. Still Kevin, my producer and frequent comissioner, found a perfect episode to cover for the perfect reason: last month legendary actor, voice actor and voice in general James Earl Jones sadly passed and while trying to think of something, Kev brought up how James is present in all three seconds of the first treehouse of horror.
It was a great prospect both to honor james, as he has a sizeable role in the second segment and is essentailly the star of the third as the narrator, and to explore an episode of simpsons I don't really watch. I didn't watch season 2 much to begin wtih as a kid, and don't really now, and didn't like the middle segment. Petty I know, it's the same reason I don't watch Treehouse of Horror IV as much as I should when I can just.. skip the middle segment and enjoy devil flanders and dracula burns. So it was a chance to explore a treehouse I really didnt' know that well and to honor a man who was a part of my childhood and adulthood and general seemed like a kind, resonable person. So in honor of james and to give this episode a fair shake, join me under the cut for some halloween fun with everyone's faviorite family.
We open with Marge warning everybody, a fun idea that works well and would get played with in later specials. The insperation for this one according to writer Al Jean was EC Comics, doing that sort of horror anthology thing tales of the crypt used to do in comics and would again.
The wraparound is a fun and simple one. I also miss them doing these as while I get why it stopped, to give the segments more times, they were a lot of fun, paticuarlly III's halloween party. This one has Bart telling scary stories to lisa in the treehouse, a fun little premise. Homer is listening in because he just finished trick or treating, none of which is suprising but is still entertaining. We'll come back to this at the end for now let's dive into the meat of this special
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Soooo hot take.. this was my faviorite of the three segments. I love the raven and will gush about it later, but this was a very nice suprise, having a more rapid fire pace from the seasons to come compared to the rest of season 2 or even it's fellow segments.
This wasn't a huge shock when I found out who wrote it: John Swartzwelder, a singularly weird simpsons writer who smokes and who did all his writing in a diner booth and continued to even after smoking bands by purchasing one, who tends to shy away from the public, to the point they called him on a commentary track just to prove that yes, he exists.
Swartzwelder has written 59 episodes with heighlights including Bart the General, Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish, Homer at the Bat, Whacking Day, Krusty Gets Kanclled, Homer the Vigilante, Itchy and Scratchyland, Homer the Great, Homer's Enemy, Attack of the 50 Foot Eyesores, Homer Vs the Eighteenth Amendment, and Homer's enemy among many others. While he did loose a bit of his sheen as he went on, it can't be denied his peak stuff is some of the series best and this is no exception.
The premise is simple: the simpsons take on the amityville horror, the film based on the book that used a real tragedy to make money. The Simpsons move into a spooky house, nearly murder each other and escape alive. Which isn't a guarantee with Treehouse of Horror NOW but seemed to be a requirement early on as the simpsons don't impliclity die till Treehouse of Horror V and don't die on screne till Treenhouse of Horror X.
It's mainly an excuse to just pack the things with joke after joke, all hitting: the moving man, played by james earl jones mutters under his breath he's glad the house will kill them. There's a random vortex in the kitchen that theyt hrow an orange into.. that throws back a piece of paper asking them to stop throwing garbage in that dimension. The walls bleeding barely bothers marge and Bart getting choked by a lamp has Homer asking how he'll explain his way out. It's just joke after great joke, with Harry Shearer doing a great job as the house which frequently bellows GET OUT. My second faviorite joke of this segment is when Marge decides indeed to get out, and the house puts the kids coats on them for them. Just a simple hilarous gag. I also like homer being bounced into the celing and trying to act like it's fine.
He does get them to stay overnight which leads to the creepiest part of the specail as a whole and a great bit of horror: the house convinces the rest of the family minus marge to kill each other. The expressions here are truly disturbing, and i'ts unsettling to see the simpsons all in a trance ready to murder each other.
Thankfully the humor right after not only deflates it, but is great: Marge is seen grabbing a knife like the rest of her family.. but is making a sandwitch, easily lectures them out of it then plans to leave spouting the awesome quote I choose to use as the image. I'ts just such a marge thing to brush off something this horrid like it's some new conflict in the family.
The simpsons soon find the old racist trope of the house being built on a native burial ground.. which is a thorny concepts for sure, but this is an old enough episode to get away with it and I like homer angrily calling his realtor only to find out the guy mentioned it 5 or 6 times. The house tries to give a meancing speech.. only for marge to angrily tell it off, a bit I love, from Julie Kavner's delivery to how it works. She demands it either leave them alone or live with them in peace.... it chooses to collapse on itself after shooing them outside instead. Aw well can'jt please everyone. Just several minutes of great jokes with some great horror sprinkled in.
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Not a fan of this one. It IS better than I remembered as it packs in some good jokes. That's courtsey of writers Jay Kogan and Wally Woodarsky, who while having a slow start, finished their run on the show with classics Bart's Friend Falls in Love, Treehouse of Horror III and Last Exit to Sprinfield
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The premise is a riff on the Twilight Zone Classic , To Serve Man. For those of you who don't know what the Twilight Zone is, you just made me feel very old, but it was a classic Science Fiction anthology series, running the gamut of genres and often falling into horror. The simpsons would go to the twilight zone a LOT for Treehouse of Horror: They'd riff on at least one episode a year for the first four treehouses and would still return to the well on occasions. The simpsons has parodied A Good Life (Bart's Nightmare), Living Doll (Clown Without Pity), Nightmare at 20,000 Feet (Terror at 5 1/2 Feet) , Little Girl Lost (Homer^3), and finally A Kind of Stopwatch (Stop the World I Want to Goof Off). As the show went on they drifted into parodying horror films more as Twilgiht Zone faded, but I miss it and hope they do one again some day or as a special since their now doing Treehouse of Horror Presents.
At any rate it's a pretty basic parody: Kang and Kodos in their first apperance kidnap the simpsons along with Sorak the Preparer, played by JEJ, and have them eat a lot, making vauge hints they'll eat the simpsons and droolling a lot. There's a gag or two I love: the ufo they abduct the simpsons in having to put out an extra beam to pick up homer, tilting to the side otherwise, the aliens admitting to having thousands of channels except hbo "That costs extra", and the aliens defensifiness when how primitive pong is is brought upop "Raise your hand if your capable of intergalactic travel". I love bart sticking up his hand and homer slapping it down. Good stuff.
Most of it though.. is eh. The twist is that. .they aren't trying ot eat them and are hurt Lisa assumes it with the book being how to cook FOR humans. Then how to cook FORTY humans, then how to cook for FORTY humans. I love Sorek's hurt feelings and what not, but it's a pretty bland parody compared to Bad Dream House, which nailed it. It feels like a bland middle to two pretty dope piece sof bread. It has some good jokes nad gave us Kang and Kodos, so it's not without merit, but it's easily the weakest segment in an otherwise good episode.
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For our finale Lisa reads Edgar Allen Poe's classic Poem the Raven. In the second best refrence to it the shows ever done
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It's the breakout of the segments and while I prefer Bad Dream House and stand by that, The Raven is very close and a very creative flex. Matt Groening was nervous it'd come off too pretentious, but instead we get a great break from formula. The first two segments, while fun breaks from teh simpsons mostly grounded reality, at this point anyway, do feel lik ea standard episode that just happens to be about a murder house. The Raven.. is something entirley diffrent.
It's a mostly straight adaptation of the poem: James Earl Jones does an impressive and haunting reading of Poe's narrations, while Dan Castlenatea does an awesome job as homer, injecting some humor into it but reading moments like the main character lashing out at the raven and his sorrow with such convection. While we'd see plenty of range from homer as the show went on, this was an early indicatior of just what dan was capable of with the character.
The show also nicely breaks tension in places: Homer is literally reading a book of forgotten lore, Bart chimes in with his commentary, and there's some good physical gags. But the heart of it, a tale of greving, loss and ultimate death, as the narrator gets haunted by a raven (Played by bart naturally, with Lenore played in a painting by marge (with the nice gag of her hair extending into another painting and Lisa and Maggie playing Serapphim), i'ts a wonderful segment that is hilarous.. yet also heartwrenching and haunting. I haven't read the poem, but this segment makes me feel it, a haunting wonderful piece. James Earl Jones kills it with the utmost conviction in his reading, upping the intsnesity was we go and really getting into it. He did a marvelous job and apparently went the extra mile for his performance in the second segment by eating a cookie while recording to get the drool right. What a man
So we end the specail with the kids fine but homer scared and Marge refusin gto help him because.. I dunno she's a dick tonight. A great end to a fantastic start to a wonderful tradition. Thanks for reading.. and james wherever you are up there... thank you.
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thatscarletflycatcher · 1 month ago
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A review of Elizabeth Gaskell's Wives and Daughters (1865) by Henry James (1866)
WE cannot help thinking that in “Wives and Daughters” the late Mrs. Gaskell has added to the number of those works of fiction — of which we cannot perhaps count more than a score as having been produced in our time — which will outlast the duration of their novelty and continue for years to come to be read and relished for a higher order of merits. Besides being the best of the author’s own tales — putting aside “Cranford”, that is, which as a work of quite other pretensions ought not to be weighed against it, and which seems to us manifestly destined in its modest way to become a classic — it is also one of the very best novels of its kind. So delicately, so elaborately, so artistically, so truthfully, and heartily is the story wrought out, that the hours given to its perusal seem like hours actually spent, in the flesh as well as the spirit, among the scenes and people described, in the atmosphere of their motives, feelings, traditions, associations. The gentle skill with which the reader is slowly involved in the tissue of the story; the delicacy of the handwork which has perfected every mesh of the net in which he finds himself ultimately entangled; the lightness of touch which, while he stands all unsuspicious of literary artifice, has stopped every issue into the real world; the admirable, inaudible, invisible exercise of creative power, in short, with which a new and arbitrary world is reared over his heedless head — a world insidiously inclusive of him (such is the assoupissement of his critical sense), complete in every particular, from the divine blue of the summer sky to the June-bugs in the roses, from Cynthia Kirkpatrick and her infinite revelations of human nature to old Mrs. Goodenough and her provincial bad grammar — these marvellous results, we say, are such as to compel the reader’s very warmest admiration, and to make him feel, in his gratitude for this seeming accession of social and moral knowledge, as if he made but a poor return to the author in testifying, no matter how strongly, to the fact of her genius.
For Mrs. Gaskell’s genius was so very composite as a quality, it was so obviously the offspring of her affections, her feelings, her associations, and (considering that, after all, it was genius) was so little of an intellectual matter, that it seems almost like slighting these charming facts to talk of them under a collective name, especially when that name is a term so coarsely and disrespectfully synthetic as the word genius has grown to be. But genius is of many kinds, and we are almost tempted to say that that of Mrs. Gaskell strikes us as being little else than a peculiar play of her personal character. In saying this we wish to be understood as valuing not her intellect the less, but her character the more. Were we touching upon her literary character at large, we should say that in her literary career as a whole she displayed, considering her success, a minimum of head. Her career was marked by several little literary indiscretions, which show how much writing was a matter of pure feeling with her. Her “Life of Miss Brontë,” for instance, although a very readable and delightful book, is one which a woman of strong head could not possibly have written, for, full as it is of fine qualities, of affection, of generosity, of sympathy, of imagination, it lacks the prime requisites of a good biography. It is written with a signal want of judgment and of critical power; and it has always seemed to us that it tells the reader considerably more about Mrs. Gaskell than about Miss Brontë. In the tale before us this same want of judgment, as we may still call J AMES REVIEWS W IVES AND DAUGHTERS NATION, F EB. 1866 2 it in the absence of a better name, presuming that the term applies to it only as it stands contrasted with richer gifts, is shown; not in the general management of the story, nor yet in the details, most of which are as good as perfect, but in the way in which, as the tale progresses, the author loses herself in its current very much as we have seen that she causes the reader to do.
The book is very long and of an interest so quiet that not a few of its readers will be sure to vote it dull. In the early portion especially the details are so numerous and so minute that even a very well- isposed reader will be tempted to lay down the book and ask himself of what possible concern to him are the clean frocks and the French lessons of little Molly Gibson. But if he will have patience awhile he will see. As an end these modest domestic facts are indeed valueless; but as a means to what the author would probably have called a “realization” of her central idea, i. e., Molly Gibson, a product, to a certain extent, of clean frocks and French lessons, they hold an eminently respectable place. As he gets on in the story he is thankful for them. They have educated him to a proper degree of interest in the heroine. He feels that he knows her the better and loves her the more for a certain acquaintance with the minutia of her homely bourgeois life. Molly Gibson, however, in spite of the almost fraternal relation which is thus established between herself and the reader — or perhaps, indeed, because of it, for if no man is a hero to his valet de chambre, it may be said that no young lady is a heroine to one who, if we may so express our meaning, has known her since she was “so high” — Molly Gibson, we repeat, commands a slighter degree of interest than the companion figure of Cynthia Kirkpatrick. Of this figure, in a note affixed to the book in apology for the absence of the final chapter, which Mrs. Gaskell did not live to write, the editor of the magazine in which the story originally appeared speaks in terms of very high praise; and yet, as it seems to us, of praise thoroughly well deserved. To describe Cynthia as she stands in Mrs. Gaskell’s pages is impossible. The reader who cares to know her must trace her attentively out. She is a girl of whom, in life, any one of her friends, so challenged, would hesitate to attempt to give a general account, and yet whose specific sayings and doings and looks such a friend would probably delight to talk about. This latter has been Mrs. Gaskell’s course; and if, in a certain sense, it shows her weakness, it also shows her wisdom. She had probably known a Cynthia Kirkpatrick, a résumé [sic] of whose character she had given up as hopeless; and she has here accordingly taken a generous revenge in an analysis as admirably conducted as any we remember to have read. She contents herself with a simple record of the innumerable small facts of the young girl’s daily life, and leaves the reader to draw his conclusions. He draws them as he proceeds, and yet leaves them always subject to revision; and he derives from the author’s own marked abdication of the authoritative generalizing tone which, when the other characters are concerned, she has used as a right, a very delightful sense of the mystery of Cynthia’s nature and of those large proportions which mystery always suggests. The fact is that genius is always difficult to formulate, and that Cynthia had a genius for fascination. Her whole character subserved this end. Next after her we think her mother the best drawn character in the book. Less difficult indeed to draw than the daughter, the very nicest art was yet required to keep her from merging, in the reader’s sight, into an amusing caricature — a sort of commixture of a very mild solution ofBecky Sharp with an equally feeble decoction of Mrs. Nickleby. Touch by touch, under the reader’s eye, she builds herself up into her selfish and silly-and consummately natural completeness.
Mrs. Gaskell’s men are less successful than her women, and her hero in this book, making all allowance for the type of man intended, is hardly interesting enough in juxtaposition with his vivid sweethearts. Still his defects as a masculine being arenegative and not positive, which is something to be thankful for, now that lady-novelists are growing completely to eschew the use of simple and honest youths. Osborne Hamley, a much more ambitious figure than Roger, and ambitious as the figure of Cynthia is ambitious, is to our judgment less successful than either of these; and we think the praise given him in the editorial note above-mentioned is excessive. He has a place in the story, and he is delicately and even forcibly conceived, but he is practically little more than a suggestion. Mrs. Gaskell had exhausted her poetry upon Cynthia, and she could spare to Osborne’s very dramatic and even romantic predicaments little more than the close prosaic handling which she had found sufficient for the more vulgar creations. Where this handling accords thoroughly with the spirit of the figures, as in the case of Doctor Gibson and Squire Hamley, the result is admirable. It is good praise of these strongly marked, masculine, middle-aged men to say that they are as forcibly drawn as if a wise masculine hand had drawn them. Perhaps the best scene in the book (as the editor remarks) is the one in which the squire smokes a pipe with one of his sons after his high words with the other. We have intimated that this scene is prosaic; but let not the reader take fright at the word. If an author can be powerful, delicate, humorous, pathetic, dramatic, within the strict limits of homely prose, we see no need of his “dropping into poetry,” as Mr. Dickens says. It is Mrs. Gaskell’s highest praise to have been all of this, and yet to have written “an everyday story” (as, if we mistake not, the original title of “Wives and Daughters” ran) in an everyday style.
The Nation, February 22, 1866
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Book Review: Piranesi
Hi! This is my first review of a book ive read recently, and i want to remind anyone that reads this that i want to do this as a hobby!! No edits, nothing, just whatever my brain wanted to spit out when thinking about the book!!!
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First, I do want to say that this book blew my mind in ways that I do not believe appear as literal as written. Now it may be my understanding of this book in itself, the time of my life in which i was going through to understand it the way I did, or maybe that I understood what the writer meant to do.
Books like these I would not present it as either difficult to understand or to read, but I would say to not take this book (even when it could be a day reading) for granted and to read it with time and patience.
Piranesi, for me, is a great and interesting book that is about trauma, and dealing with it. Now, the book in itself is not directly about this, we begin first in a house, a house with multiple infinite rooms (the author herself said that she based this book on stories by Jorge Luis Borges, an amazing Argentinian author that I recommend as well, that talks about magical realism. I wouldn't say that this book is about magical realism because magical realism has a big history in Latin America, and even though it may be intertwined with the creation of this book, it would be simply incorrect to put it into this category.) and a main character ready to explore each and every one of those rooms. As the curious person that I am, I would have been able to love and read each description of the room that that house contains, and I´m more than happy with the number of descriptions that there are, which is not an opinion I´ve heard a lot either in Goodreads or in my group of friends.
Piranesi, the main character, which I´m not even sure if I should call Piranesi since he doesn't think that is his name (He simply calls himself “your friend” which I think is the best introduction to the innocent character we read about the whole book), is an innocent, goodhearted, curious person that ended up mysteriously in this house. Yes, I have to admit that I have gotten frustrated with this character, but thankfully his actions are not without reason, and I think that that is one of the reasons why it's so helpful to read this book from his point of view, his immense trust with the Other, how he tries to even speak with the birds and even !!! talks with !!! the bodies of !!! the people that were there before him !! You pity him before you even have the chance to hate him.
Now, I do realize that if another person who has read Piranesi may read this review and be like “Hey, you didn't talk about the statues, the birds, the messages” and yes, you would be right, but 1. my focus on the review of this book is not put on this because I was still not as enthralled as I became later on when this topic seemed the most important to me in the book and 2. I am not the best at deciphering secret messages in statues. But surely, if you ever want to read it and give it your own meaning, please do!! share it with me if you want, I would love to read all of the different opinions!!
Now, arriving at the main point ( in which I think I will have to warn about heavy spoilers) why do I think this book is mainly about trauma and going through it?
Well, I do have some main points that refer to the answer, but in a general sense, I did feel that way overall throughout the whole book. What happens after disaster? After the whole world has collapsed around us? After the reality that we thought was truly changed, and not only changed, but we were forced to change because of it? Are we still ourselves at the end of the path? Or are we some kind of Theseus ship, with all parts of us replaced, new and used?
Piranesi begins as a child would enter a new world, recollecting information as presented, never put to doubt, sort of a blank slate in this world, we are as lost as he seems, even in his comfortable way of living and knowing the closest rooms to him, there are some paths that he knows he has not gone to, some that he is aware he is afraid of going back again, he is from the moment that we meet him, like a vulnerable crab that has changed shell and is in its most delicate state, we see him longing for connection in a world that answers in its own, inexplicable way. He is always looking for an answer, for a message, but we are never sure what does that mean. This reminds me very well of the reconstruction of the self after a traumatic event, of course, in this case, his forgetfulness was the product of the “magic” of the house, but wouldn't it make sense if Piranesi, our friend, appeared to be so shocked, so unprepared for such change that his brain would choose block those memories? Because when he believes that his prison, the House, is his home, something to trust, to sleep in peace, to fish, to run around, he is able to continue on.
Now, continuing on the sense of the Magic of the House being the one that controls the memories of Piranesi, wouldn't it be Piranesi´s mind the actual House? Many memories, thoughts, messages, and people that circle our mind, we are not always aware or in control of which memories will rise to the surface, which ones will be forgotten, and how will we remember someone, a memory, in the future. The House is Kind, the book says, the House in its infinity is ultimately kind, and is this not a reflection of Piranesi, the man talking to the birds, pitying the stranger, believing the best of all the people around him, and many many things more? Even when the Other is about to shoot Piranesi, he wishes the Other would go back to the boat. He is the House, and his connection to the House, mysterious as everyone´s connection to our selves is, is also his connection to the world. Once the Other is washed up with the water of the House (and even though Piranesi did not want the Other to die, as it happens in a lot of traumatic events, when we do not think the person that did us wrong actually did us wrong) he is free to go to the Real World, which yeah, is uncomfortable, is not the House, it's not his home, but when are we ever comfortable when moving on?
Lastly, at the end of the book, Piranesi does not reflect himself with this Piranesi persona (the first person we met, living in the house) nor with the person that he was before Piranesi, Matthew Rose Sorensen, he is someone new, containing yes Piranesi and Matthew, but not one nor the other. After the tides of life have washed us over and over again, could we have the same kindness we had before?
Thanks for reading! Before I finish this post, I do want to leave this very interesting reddit post that I saw while writing this, that has a very similar pov from what i was thinking! and many others.
Anyways, Happy Reading!
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mendedrum · 1 year ago
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My discworld review after the first 17 books
1. Rincewind Series
I think the writing got stronger over time as the narratives became more plot driven. I still like the mystery/nondirectional aspect of TCOM and TLF though. There was an unpredictability about it that would be challenging to replicate with a main character that isnt like Rincewind: i.e someone who pretty much wants to live in boring times. Sourcery still bothers me the most. Firstly because the Wizards didnt get true repercussions about the damage they did. Secondly, while Sourcery ended on strong note, the sequel Faust Eric betrayed everything we've learned about Rincewind and the Dungeon Dimensions. It cheapened the drama invested on Sourcery and I found that aspect annoying. Interesting Times tho, picks up Rincewind's characterization once again and puts it back on the track, except that it doesnt explain what happened to Rincewind's status as a demon-bound-to-a-mortal kind of creature. It was great to see Rincewind showing off his political skills though. It's a good nod to his character being more attached and connected to the wider world compared to his wizard colleagues.
2. Wizards subseries
It's great that they've been fleshed out over time and over so many books. I like that since they're in Ankh-Mopork, they'd eventually get involved in many of the events that happen there. I like that their politics and power struggles are contained to mostly their own and don't really bother with the rest of the world. It's a refreshing POV to be in. Most surprising were their involvement in Mort, Moving Pictures, Reaper Man, Lords and Ladies, Men at Arms and Soul Music. They help expand the worldbuilding better. I still dont like The Bursar's characterization being sacrificed to make Ridcully a bit more respectable tho.
3. Death
Why is it that every major Death story just revolve around the thesis of "what happens when death gets distracted from his job"? Like I know why of course, he's so damn efficient that without him doing the work, everything in time-space just falls apart and tries to correct itself. Anyhow. Pratchett's Death is still the best take on real world death for me. It has helped me go thru difficult times, over grief and over the celebration of life. Death being one of the heart of Discworld is what makes Discworld truly a gift. You'll probably have to pull teeth for me to finish Reaper Man tho.
4. City Watch / Night Watch / The Watch
I haven't gotten far in these subseries but I do know that whenever cops are involved their ought to be high stakes suspense/thriller/action and drama. It's where Pratchett can truly flex on his whoddunit writing style. I find a lot of the narratives pretty standard action-thriller wise. Samuel Vimes is still my favorite of the bunch. I just cant get behind the character of Carrot, unfortunately (stop chasing me with pitchforks)
5. Witches
I'm gonna be honest. I dread the Witches subseries the most not because they're bad but because they tend to be dragging. With the exception of Equal Rites, the coven trio of Esmeralda Weatherwax, Gytha Ogg and Magrat Garlick leads the reader to familiar fairytale paths only for it to get upturned at the end. There are always lessons in the ongoing battle of what it means to be good, to be evil and most of all to be human. That's what make them slow at first. Reader must endure that feeling of "yeah ive been here before" for quite a long while. The payoff is always interesting nd thought provoking though, which makes everything worth it. I still dont know what to feel about Esmeralda Weatherwax being the universe's ultimate trump card. (Kinda same like rincewind and they both hate it)
6. Industrial Revolution
My favorite of all the subseries. Not a lot of people like them and they always get skipped in most reading lists but I often find the stories as the most shocking and creative. I like how they expand on the worldbuilding. I like the blatant parody on how the real world works. I like it when new character, beliefs and industries are introduced. I always thought I'd prefer the other subseries more but here I am lol. Cant wait to read the others.
Anyhow these are my discworld thoughts afer reading the first 17 books. Up next is Maskerade (which is making me groan coz i just finished Witches Abroad, which was very cool in fact and Maskerade is still Witch-centric)
But you can always not read them in publication order, one might say. But i wont do that. I'm a masochist unfortunately.
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manonamora-if · 1 year ago
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ive been looking at the ifcomp and i think im gonna do it. any advice for a firsttimer? what should i expect? what was your experience?
Hi Anon!
First of all, congrats on taking the leap! I know it can be quite daunting to participate in one of the biggest and oldest IF Competition there is currently. Takes quite a bit of guts to do it! Yay, you!
Suuuper long ask answer because you asked questions requiring long answers, where I probably repeated myself multiple times.
IFComp Advice
What to expect?
What was my experience?
TLDR: it's hard but also fun. Def recommend at one point (unless ranking makes you go blerg... then do the SpringThing or an unranked game jam).
IFComp Advice
I do have some advice for you, especially if you are planning on submitting a game to the IFComp this year, which is less than a month away:
Be Ready for your work to be judged and reviewed by people. Some will be harsh, some will be kind, most will be fair. If you are not fully open to criticism, especially negative one, the voting period will sting like hell. It is also fine not to read any review or comment about your entry, but a head's up is important.
Be prepared to rank low. If you follow the advice below, you probably won't end up last place. But the competition is stiff. Authors often spend a year or two on their entries before they submit. If you know you can't handle rankings, go for the SpringThing instead. More chill.
Submit your intent to participate NOW! The deadline is Sept 1st, but it's easy to put it off and forget. And intent to participate doesn't mean you have to submit something. You can back out at any moment (even during the voting period).
Check the rules and timeline of the comp (@ifcomp). You don't want to disqualify yourself by mistake...
Keep it short: 15 to 30 min of gameplay. There is less than one month left, and you want plenty of time to make sure your entry is as polish as possible! I took 3 months last time and it was a buggy mess on Day 1 of the voting period.
Use a program you know, or a simple one with good documentation or guides. You might have time in a month to learn how to use a complex program, but I wouldn't recommend it. List at the end.
Create something simple but airtight. You are racing against time. Shooting for the moon with something complex could work, or it could land you in the bottom. Usually, it is best to create a game which is doing little, but doing it very well, than submitting a behemoth that can't even do its core gameplay loop right every time (dissing myself, yes). Sam Ashwell has some good article for choice-based, Emily Short for parser puzzles.
Your prose should have as little grammar mistakes as possible. Pass your text through as many grammar checkers, and maybe some human testers (beta). The more eyes you have on it, the better. Hate to say it but, avoid word crimes there...
Have some impactful interactivity, that makes sense with the story. Puzzle, branching of variation, etc... Even if all of it is fake, and you are pushing the player through a linear story, the player shouldn't feel like they are just flipping pages of a book. I am not talking about the quantity, but the quality of the interactivity. Emily Short has some great article about that stuff.
Don't have bugs. Should be obvious, but you know... I didn't follow that one and got (rightly) roasted for it in the reviews. Test your game (and have people test your game) A LOT.
Style your project a little bit (if possible). It doesn't have to be fancy, but as simple as changing the colour of the background and the text, maybe the font of the text as well (!!! it should still be readable) can go a long way. Also appreciated but never mandatory: different formatting for different bits of text, some animation in the text, having images, having audio, having accessibility settings (theme, font, visual, audio)... Again, those are pointers. Leave this for last.
Credit where credit is due. Code, assets, beta-tester, etc... anything you did not make from scratch, or anyone helping you along the way, should be added in a credit page. Also credit yourself for what you did :P you deserve to show off your efforts!
Test your game relentlessly. Yes it bares repeating, I've done that mistake. Don't be me. Test your stuff again. Have people break your game.
Edit your submission page with care. Have a grabbing hook for your synopsis, an eye catching image, and any relevant documents the players would need (i.e. walkthrough). DON'T FORGET TO ADD A WAY FOR PLAYER REACH YOU FOR BUGS!
MOST IMPORTANTLY: Have fun! If you have fun making your entry, it will show in the writing and how the game is constructed.
Hypertext/Choice-based: Twine (Harlowe, SugarCube), Ink/Inklewriter, Moiki, ChoiceScript Parser: Adventuron
Oh... and good luck. You'll need it :P
If you are thinking of next year instead, most of these advice applies. You can just rule out the intent submission for now, the length of the game (1h gameplay is usually the sweet spot), and the program to use (though take one you understand). The rest could work for any comp honestly.
What to Expect?
The IFComp period in an exciting time where many people gather to play games and talk about them. Many people submit stuff yearly, sometimes with good results, sometimes it's atrocious. Sometimes, authors who haven't been seen in a while reappear to show off their labour of love or review other people's games. It can be very intense and overwhelming if you are participating (author or player).
As an author, you should expect (not exhaustive):
deadline (intent/game/voting),
potentially getting comments for bugs (and having to update, which you are allowed to),
seeing reviews and discussions about your entry (mainly on the IntFiction Forum, but sometimes on blogs too): good stuff, negative stuff, and people missing the point entirely or having bad take, or takes you didn't think about.
seeing people rating your entry on the IFDB (rating =/= vote, but can be a flawed indicator)
feelings galore (good, bad, ugly, anxious), especially stressing about the results
having to remind yourself that no one can judge everything completely objectively (expect when it comes to bugs, it is or it isn't), and that people vote for what they like.
following the rules on the IFComp website
a special private group on the IntFiction forum to discuss with other authors when the voting period starts, as well as posting reviews,
maybe get a prize at the end? (depends on your placement)
Honestly, it can be pretty rough. This is not an easy competition. Most people have been working on those projects for months or years. Some have for just a few weeks, but their pieces can be out of this world. Only the organisers have an idea of who is competing ahead of time, and how competitive it could be from year to year (i.e. did big names come out or not).
While reviews and ratings can give you an indication of how your game is faring with players, you will not be able to know until the votes are actually out (case and point: me, thought I did much better than reality). Either way, it will be a surprise, good, bad, disappointing...
Speaking of reviewers, most will try to be as partial as possible and going into every entry with an open mind. But, there are harsh reviewers out there, as well as kind ones. It is not unusual to see blunt reviews, especially if something ticked the player (bugs usually).
But also, it's loads of fun! You have a bunch of very serious people debating on minor things, newcomers trying out the comp and sometimes even reaching the stars, oldcomers popping by for a cup promising they will review ever game and then disappearing after three, a lot of very very very good games to play, so many different perspectives on what if IF, and feeling like you have a voice in what should be crowned the best of the competition!
It's weird, it's serious, it's goofy...
Prepare for the worst, hope for the best... but most importantly, have some fun. And do what's best for your mental health!
What was my experience?
I think I've talked about it quite extensively in my Post-Mortem for The Thick Table Tavern. Read that before the end of this, for context.
And almost a year after this experience (on this day, I was frantically writing), I think my feelings have changed quite a bit. I went into the competition guns-blazing without understanding the importance of things (bugs/grammar especially) and thinking I had done the absolute most and breaking the genre, believed I did sooooo much better than any other entry, got very dramatic when the first non-positive reviews came in, and was about to throw my shit when I saw the 1s in the voting curve. I am only a bit over-exaggerating here.
I definitely deserved the placement I got. Don't misunderstand, I am incredibly proud of what I achieved there! But... there were major issues for sure. And I've come around to recognise those.
Those 1s-2s were warranted, those negative comments were warranted: the first version was buggy as hell (which I think was the version in the mass downloadable packet? and I updated the game like 20 times), there are still a bunch of issues with the prose (I learned my em dash lesson!), the pacing is aaaalll the way off (I thought I was being cheeky, but didn't always land)... This was something way different for the comp, maybe more experimental than people expected (I mean, who does a click-only bar for a text-based comp...)? But most importantly, while it looked polished, you just needed to play a few minutes to see the varnish crack...
To say the least, I got slapped back to reality. HARD. This was a mediocre good-looking game. Real pretty, big flaws. And that's ok (not putting myself down). Not every game can be winners (unless it's La Petite Mort or DOL-OS :P), not every game will work as intended. You can rack all the trophies all the times. Sometimes you're just at the bottom.
All this might sound hella negative, but I am incredibly grateful for this experience. I have learned so much about game creation, coding, writing, what to do and avoid... There are things I probably wouldn't have learned had I not participated (or not as early). I have created friendships (and rivalries /jk) and found a community where I feel comfortable being this experimental with my work (hey, it worked for DOL-OS!) and continuing breaking the codes. It's renewed my drive to create and do more: games, experiments, trying new program, but also for the community, helping out, creating guides and templates, giving advice...
And I've found a bit of love for reviewing stuff it turns out.
I've made my peace.
And I have plans for a new pretty weird game for a future IFComp ;) I will make people cringe again :P Hopefully not because of bugs!
Final sidenote: I am still not taking my advice. No one tested DOL-OS before it was submitted, and it won. But also, other games placed poorly... I am still speed-running through competitions (not the IFComp this time), and tripping all over all the time. I still submit thing thinking I'm the hottest stuff and that no one else will be better than me. Completely delusional here. Be better than me, for your sake.
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rigelmejo · 5 months ago
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More progress updates, because I'm having fun!
Glossika japanese: did 1248 sentences, 10,055 reps so far, it says I'm High A1 20.4%. I believe that based on the sentence quality I am getting, they are A1 sentences vocabulary wise. The grammar includes various higher level stuff, but the vocabulary is fairly basic and mostly review of stuff I've learned before and just forgotten or gotten rusty with). Glossika has articles that claim a good first goal is 25,000 sentence repetitions for a noticeable improvement in speaking. So i'll give a little review on progress compared to glossika's claim, when I get to 25,000 reps. Their articles also indicate the eventual goal is to do 100,000 reps in glossika for speaking fluency (i'd argue i'll probably have B1 speaking skills at best by then, but glossika's app claims B2 or C1 so i'm going to score them a bit harshly regardless). I dont think it will be especially hard to do 100,000 reps, as Ive done 10k from around 1000 sentences, and the app has 6500+ sentences, so just going through all sentences ill be around 65,000 reps and then its just a few weeks of reviews.
Reading 默读 by priest: I've read 3 chapters now. Both extensively (not looking up words) and intensively (looking up every word I don't fully know/remember the definition of or pronunciation of). My conclusion is that I am comprehending about 86% percent (like yesterday's calculation) CLEARLY and then another 10% I can guess roughly what's going on and be close enough to use those guesses to learn, or I can guess based on the plot I remember. With that much at least roughly comprehended, it makes reading 默读 extensively doable if I want to do it. I recognize most the hanzi, so when I slow down and read very slowly, I understand closer to 90% of the words (just having forgotten pronunciation), and then using context guess the few unknown hanzi and the words they make, so there's not a huge hit in story understanding. If I read fast, reading along with audio as it plays, I make vaguer guesses about what descriptions mean that use hanzi I know/one I dont in ways I'm unfamiliar with. So far my guesses have been rough, but generally in the ballpark, so I've been able to keep reading without pausing to look stuff up if I choose to.
I am thinking of doing an experiment with 默读. I will read it while listening, because that forces me to practice reading at a faster pace (speaking speed). I will only look words up if I feel like it (so not all the time, probably only occasionally). And I will note if in 20 chapters, 40 chapters etc, I am noticing if I have "learned" significantly more words, noticing if I've gotten better at comprehending words I know quicker while following along to spoken speed (so clearer understanding). The idea of reading comprehensible material to you (say 95% words you know or more), is in theory you pick up more vocabulary through context, and improve reading skills, over the course of reading. Growing up, literature classes and reading assignments basically give you mostly comphrehensible materials to read and that's a major way your vocabulary and reading skills build in your native language. Yes, some classes make you look up vocabulary for a particular literature book assigned (or defined terms in a science textbook). But the vast majority of free reading time is: pick a book for your age level, teacher encourages something slightly challenging but comprehensible. I have read simpler chinese novels extensively, and made progress. But 默读 would probably be the highest unique-vocab book I'd try it with. The upside is? I could potentially learn more new vocabulary from this book. And then in the future it will make reading other stuff easier. So yeah, I'll update on progress later.
Read chapter 3 of 默读. Listened to modu audiobook chapters 1-3. I noticed my listening skills just... fucking suck lol. I can read so much better than I can listen. I was getfing through the audiobook based on phrases I recognized and the dialogues, despite being able to READ those chapters... listening to them I just couldnt recognize as many words. I will also be extensively listening to the audiobook, as see how much sheer Volume of audio listened to helps me improve. I guess on the upside: i used to not comprehend the audiobook much, so this does feel essier, even if its still miles away from full comprehension.
Other things of note:
i find it funny that after a week of getting back into things, im quietly saying the hanzi as i read again. Apparently pronunciatioj WAS locked in my read somewhere, it was just rustier than visual recognition.
I may watch Absolute BL/zettai bl season 3 in japanese. Since its out?!! It exists!!! Which is news to me. It isnt fully translated yet. However, my japanese sucks so i might fail miserably. I Cannot Reach You On Netflix would be another choice (wirh japanese subs available and english). But i miss Mobu. ToT
Its shockingly weird how much reading skill works? Like... it rusts and you "forget" but then if you use it, it always comes back within a week or two. Thats what happens with reading french for me, and apparently with chinese too. I havent read in 6 months ish. Last week I tried to read SCI, i was fucking terrible. Confused as hell, even though it should be easier than modu. Well this week I'm reading modu, which has more unique words in it, and it feels fine and doable and fairly okay to understand. And to be fair, part of that is I just am much more comfortable parsing priest's writing style. So I go back to try reading SCI again today. Well? Easy. What the fuck. It was barely parseable last week. Now I can read: 办公室的门在受到撞击前的一刹那打开了,两人刹车不及,直接摔了进去,双双落地,正中地板。就听楼下有人隔着窗户朝上大喊:“你们刑警队的就不能消停一天?再这样下去,哪天真的地震了,整个楼里的人都不知道跑啦……” 张龙和王朝从地板上爬起来,就见白玉堂手上端着杯咖啡,靠在办公桌边似笑非笑地看着他俩。just fine. It's easy. Okay then.
Oh and also. Tao rans name? 陶然 the fact its the same ran as huran/turan/mengran so many "suddenly" words that come up at the beginning of a sentence, and tao ran's name Also comes up at the beginning of sentences, keeps throwing me off when I listen.
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