#but i have 50 pages to read so

[riaki]

Thinking about flaming you again tbh because ily 🥰🥰 /hj

sigh. i love you too

[windienine]

everyone has to be a little less mean to themselves about not reading enough books. letting go of reading as a pride thing is the first step to relearning how to actually enjoy reading for pleasure again. it's totally fine to start with a novella or with a comic or with a field guide or with literature meant for someone younger instead of being mad at yourself for not grokking ulysses in a week. just vary your diet and you'll be good.

i'm a literature scholar, i'm the one who has to be strict with myself about page counts and citations. you all? do what you want, just read and have fun.

[rebornrosess]

A WORLD OF NOISE: THE ZABAJABA JUNGLE

ZABA by Glass Animals is 10 YEARS OLD TODAY.

A poem/stream of consciousness I wrote about ZABA on a rainy September night in 2022, one month after seeing Glass Animals live. ZABA was the album by which I found Glass Animals in 2018, and its abstract yet visceral nature continues to fascinate me. The more I listened, the more I felt I could understand the imagery drawn across its 11 tracks.

Essentially, I believe ZABA can be understood as a Queer reading and apologue of Plato’s allegory of the cave. There are many lines that allude to a (Queer) awakening from perceived societal constraints such as in Walla Walla (“it’s a ruse, all these creatures are a lie” & “i clap my hand and they’re gone into the night”), likely referencing the shadows projected by the puppet showmen in Plato’s allegory. Thus, the anguish expressed in songs predating ZABA’s release such as in Golden Antlers and in Exxus are symptomatic of a speaker trapped in a cave, unable to escape a deeper feeling of unease because they are only seeing the reality projected to them by a cisheteronormative system. It is only when the speaker escapes this metaphorical cave in Flip, the opening track of ZABA, (“I’m gonna shake my fetters / I’m breaking loose”), that they finally enter the confusing, overwhelming, but beautiful and fluid “world of noise” mentioned in Pools (and sonically created in Intruxx). Over the course of ZABA, the speaker wrestles with their preconceived notions of reality (Walla Walla uses a ton of imagery from The Matrix), relationships, gender, and sexuality, while simultaneously feeling betrayed by their family and society (Hazey and Toes).

The B-Side of ZABA dips into existential dread, as the speaker mourns the time they lost to the incomplete reality they had accepted in the cave, and the effects it had on their mental health (Wyrd), climaxing in Cocoa Hooves, as the speaker (or someone else), confronts them(selves) and the changes they have undergone in the ZABAJABA jungle. The speaker must choose if they wish to stay in the confusing yet euphoric jungle, or self-destruct (“set [their] wings on fire”) and return to the cave after flying too close to the sun and after indulging too deeply in their primal instinct. However, just as the freed prisoner in Plato’s allegory, the speaker runs the risk of never being able to live in blissful ignorance again, as their eyes may never re-adjust to the incomplete, crafted reality of the cave.

The last track of the album, JDNT, presents a conclusion as ambiguous as the title Dave refuses to explain. It is possible the speaker is accepting their doomed fate as prophecized to them by the antagonist in Wyrd, or radically accepting their outcast status, enjoying the “life untamed.” And perhaps, in the end, they triumph over their internal turmoil by recognizing it only has power over them if they allow it to, as it cannot “breathe without [them].” And thus, they return to the Earth, unfettered and born anew.

[ded-lime]

some time ago god knows why i set on a journey of reading through gaster tag (with plenty of picking and choosing) and when a fic goes on about sans being depressed and trying to bring him back my mental image meanwhile goes something like this

[chadlesbianjasontodd]

Closely connected to the act of name signing was the act of writing poems on walls. As scholars have already pointed out, with beginnings traceable to the Six Dynasties, wall poems (tibishi) were already very widespread during the Tang. By Christopher Nugent's count, well over one thousand entries in the Complete Tang Poems had titles indicating that they began as inscriptions on some surface other than paper or scrolls. These surfaces included walls at places of gathering and transit, such as post stations, scenic sites, inns, and increasingly in the latter part of the Tang, Buddhist temples, which also served public roles for lay gatherings and performances. (100)

In one anecdote, a latecomer casts aspersions on a first writer's literary skills, comparing him to the general Xiang Yu (232-202 BCE), who was infamous for having learned just enough writing to manage his name: "Li Tang signed his name on a pavilion in Zhaoying County. When Wei Zhan [jinshi degree 865] saw it, he took a brush and dashed off a taunt: 'The rivers of Wei and Qin brighten the eyes, / but why is Xiren short on poetic spirit? / Perhaps he mastered only what Beauty Yu's husband could / learning to write just enough to put down his name.' " ... It would not be a stretch to imagine the sniggering of those who read this inscription in a frequented pavilion. (102)

For a degree seeker in Chang'an, these circuits of information and judgment received more discussion than the actual examination itself. Tang literati wrote copiously about activities such as name signing, public exposure, and triumph. It would not be an exaggeration to say that in ninth-century temples and popular recreation areas, the vertical spaces were teeming with verses that clamored for attention. (104)

selections on poetic graffiti from linda rui feng's city of marvel and transformation: chang'an and narratives of experience in tang dynasty china (university of hawaii press, 2015)

[wwillywonka]

SO!!! I FINALLY STARTED KILLING TIME AND UUUHH!!!! UUUUUUUHHHH!!!

[the--last-great-american-dynasty]

my human anatomy class is going to send me to an early grave istg

[graciouswings]

i forgot to share. the final tally for how many books i read in 2024 is 16. this is far less impressive when you consider that 11 are childrens books (guardians of ga-hoole and alice in wonderland) and 3 are short stories. but still. and if youre wondering, every single book was either in the hdm universe or s guardians of ga-hoole book except for my alice in wonderland re-read

[starswallowingsea]

If I am going to have any hope of meeting my reading goal this year I am going to have to get better about blocking out at least an hour to read every day and maybe not read as many 500+ page books.

[housefinches]

iwtv fans, spoilers allowed, is this a show i can watch on a good day or is it so sad that it’ll ruin me and i should wait?

i wanna watch it for claudia if that gives you any insight into what my experience will be

[tomurakii]

Bro I think I'm. A lesbian.

[sehtoast]

me: MY HAIRLINE IS RECEDING OH NO OH FUCK

also me: full time student (worth noting i wrote stupid here at first without realizing), 20-30 hours in customer service every week, teaching myself 3/4 classes, teaching myself advanced algebra with a teacher (basically just a proctor) who shuts down any/all asks for help, juggling college financial woes, navigating dying relationships/people abandoning and/or attacking me bc i don't have time for things i used to anymore, none of my hobbies are making me happy when and if i have time for them,, i have no time for myself, i'm on my second all-nighter this week, i'm perpetually exhausted in a way sleep isn't fixing, my body aches because i'm so tired, and i'm barely able to stay asleep when i do get the chance bc the anxiety wakes me up

my hairline: two hops this time!

[itmeblog]

While this does not excuse Fourth Wing's general... quality(?) I did not realize that NA (New Adult) was more than a genre for people who wanted the energy of YA novels with more mature themes. It's also a genre that serves as an intentionally easier read in terms of vocabulary and sentence structure.

Like it's purposefully designed to be more accessible! Which is great! (And probably explains the high rating of a lot of NA books because these are often the first books that rekindle people's love of reading! So things like tropes, analysis, messaging etc. weigh far less than comprehension and overall enjoyment! If I'd read Fourth Wing and had no idea of existing tropes and the problematic histories that surround some of them, I surely wouldn't have found it as predictable as I did and definitely would not have clocked Rhiannon at all.) It's what I would have read and enjoyed (without the sex) at like 12 or 14!

But also the need to make more accessible books for people 18+ like this concerns me in ways I could probably write a full essay on (particularly if we continue to insist on cutting the Dept of Education but I digress). And of course there's the problem of NA being mostly female because there's a general bias to putting femme written novels in YA by default because sexism is still a prevalent issue (the publishing industry is a mess) but y'know, the more you know.

[cowboyviolence]

Finishing books as an adult sucks now because you have to schedule your emotional breakdown

[kyouka-supremacy]

(˘･_･˘)

[mejomonster]

riddle me this. why can i read 100-600 pages of a nonfiction book in a day (most of the time), but not read more than 30 pages of a fiction book unless i manage to hyperfocus on it (which only happens once every few months)?