#chapters books and coffee

[shawnrealty]

Saturdays in Newberg, Oregon

Our daughter Jin-Olivia Yu played in the ITA Regional Championships for Whitman College, which was in Newberg, Oregon, one of my favorite towns.  We got to cheer her on to the semifinals in singles and finals in doubles while also enjoying a great breakfast at J’s restaurant and our favorite, Chapters Books and Coffee, where they make their own waffle cone right in front of you, so that the cold…

[isbergillustration]

Something something becoming a city

[demonicseries]

apparently Deadpool and Wolverine kiss in one of the comics and I didn’t know about this??????

[subway-boss-jericho]

Emmet and Ingo's Back Office from Steady Tracks Do Not Waver!

I've been holding on to this one to post on a bad day. guess who is learning how to 3d model. This bitch. my power is unlimited ST!Ingo getting hit with the 3D beam as soon as classes let up on me

more on the way soon (relatively)

Steady Tracks Masterpost

[cessreads]

I AM EMOTIONAL AGAIN

[aphantomslibrary]

❄️ Early December mornings ❄️

I really enjoyed Secret Santa by Andrew Shaffer! It was goofy and fun, a perfect start to my holiday reading. I was excited about the commentary on the evil we all carry; it was cleverly done and designed to make you think, while still maintaining that holiday feel. A great exploration of holiday horror!

[chimerahyperfix]

You’re looking for something— no, someone, too, aren’t you?

(I can’t comprehend how you understand what’s going on, with your lifeless shell. Craft as you are.)

[fictionadventurer]

As I make my way through Vanity Fair, I'm a little bit obsessed with how Thackeray is so brutal in pointing out his characters' flaws and sarcastic about everything, so you wonder if he can see the good in anything or if he's just here to tear everything and everyone down--and yet he still manages to make you genuinely care about these people. He'll point out all the ways his heroine is stupid and weak--and then turn upon the imagined reader who might be criticizing her for those very things and be like, "I'd like to see you do better." He'll drown you in this tidal wave of satire and then suddenly take your breath away with the most heartfelt emotional moment.

He somehow manages to blend these two different approaches to the story in a way that feels completely natural. It's like he's the cynical wit showing off how smart he is and how much he doesn't care, except that underneath it all he cares so much. Or like the sarcasm is driven not by cynicism, but by idealism that can see how no one lives up to those ideals, so he has to laugh at everyone to avoid falling into despair. I don't know. I haven't finished the book yet so I can't say where he's going with this, but it's fascinating.

[life-spire]

[raamitsu]

ONE is like the other guy that I know...

[longagoitwastuesday]

I am liking Jujutsu Kaisen, way more than I imagined I would, but I foresee it will let me down and it's keeping me from enjoying this as much as I could haha

I think the characters and dynamics are well set, and I think many of them have an incredibly good and deep potential, but I would be willing to bet they'll not get a proper development, enough for them to really hit. A well assembled set of gears is not enough to make the movement go, you have to wind the clockwork.

I think Gojo and Megumi have a fascinating and very complex dynamic, but I doubt it will be given the time and care that imo it needs to actually work. And it is going well enough for now! One could see the intimacy between them was deeper than the one Gojo had with, say, Yuji and Nobara ever since the very first few episodes despite the fact Fushiguro too was a first year. But the pieces forming what they have are extremely complex, and it just wouldn't be realistic if it doesn't show, even if in a not showing way, or if it doesn't have consequences or implications.

It's one of those dynamics that shape one's life, the way one regards the world, the way one establishes or not relationships with other people. It's one of those dynamics that could be full of fondness, gratitude, resentment, admiration, trust, and that imply intimacy, the good kind or the bad, even if in just the knowledge of someone who's been a constant through your life. It could, and would, imply a myriad of feelings, and probably in such a mix it could imply contradictory feelings too. Even the nothingness would weight, even the nothingness would be significant and meaningful.

Gojo took Megumi and his sister under his wing, the son of a man who murdered him, because of both selfish and selfless reasons. Megumi looks like Toji. What does Gojo feel about this? How does Gojo deal with this? How does Gojo go about taking care of Megumi? Would he walk him to school? Make him breakfast? Celebrate his birthdays making him blow candles? Did he take him to the zoo? Does the relationship between them feel professional or is it something more? Gojo appreciates his students, but is Megumi to him just another student? When Gojo faces Sukuna in Megumi's body, did he see the kid he raised, or does he just see Sukuna in one of his students' body? Did he have one faint wavering instant? And how does Megumi feel about this? Is he resentful of him? Resentful of the situation? Of the selfishness behind his actions? Does he feel like a pawn? Is he grateful? Does he resent feeling grateful? Would he rather not? Does he love Gojo? Does he feel nothing about him other than what he could feel about a teacher that sort of annoys him but knows he's reliable in his strength? Does he think it unfair, cruel or unfeeling that Gojo is close, closer perhaps, with Yuuji or Yuta, considering their story? When Sukuna slices Gojo in two, does the remnants of Megumi's soul tremble?

And not just Megumi and Gojo. Yuuji and Nanami, Gojo and Nanami, Yuuji and Fushiguro, Nobara and the boys, or Nobara and Maki, Todo and Yuuji or Yuta, Gojo and Yuta, Megumi and his sister. Gojo and Geto, even! If the pieces are well set, the dynamics are intriguing, interesting, and have potential to be deep, but then the characters have like two plot relevant scenes that punch you hard, but little more, it's not nearly enough. Especially not nearly enough for the enormity that is shonen dynamics and situations. And the potential existing at all, and then not delivering, makes it all the more frustrating when you're left with something mediocre that could have been so good.

The development of dynamics through not only a few plot relevant gut wrenching moving scenes, but also the smallness of life, is important. The friend who recommended this to me said that those things were just unnecessary filler, but I disagree. I think there's a big difference between a large amount of anime-only filler episodes whose existence is based on the fact they had run out of manga chapters to animate, and moments of quietness. The low stakes character-driven moments of quietness can be so telling and so insightful, and they are so satisfactory when brought back later in higher stakes situations. My friend teased me there was no scene of Gojo making breakfast to Megumi, that it would be an idiotic idea, but it would be so telling. How he makes breakfast, what they eat, if he tries hard or if it's all mechanised, if they have personal bowls or if they use whatever, if he just buys them some pastry on the way to school, if the way they have breakfast changes through the years, or if he doesn't make them breakfast at all! All that would be very insightful on their dynamic and its evolution. All that would give a glimpse on how they regard each other and why, even in the present. All that could become meaningful in tense situations and high stakes scenes.

These moments also let the plot breath; if a lot is happening all the time, if every character is always experiencing trauma after trauma, the entire story is so emotionally draining that at some point you don't even care all that much. Besides, these nothing moments or low stakes plot arcs, besides deepening and developing dynamics, also let some in-world time pass, which would make the intimacy and bond between characters more believable imo; between Yuuji eating Sukuna's finger and their last confrontation in December how much time has passed? A few months? Am I truly to believe these characters are so everything to each other in only a few months?

Without some smallness, some repetition, some daily life, some low stakes not plot-centric development, the dynamics don't hit, they don't truly feel fleshed out, and dynamics as complex as the ones Megumi and Gojo have, or as supposedly meaningful as the one Megumi has with Yuuji or his sister, should be fleshed out if they're going to exist at all. Otherwise they'd risk making the writing feel awkward and fake. Besides, if the dynamics felt well fleshed out and realistic, they would shape the way the characters interact and act, and how they deal with situations, thus being plot relevant.

The shonen genre has so much happening all the time, the stakes are so high, the dynamics are so rooted in big events and the relationships carry enormous weight and implications. Yet they barely get developed, and it feels so stupid, so plain, the absence of something so important noticeable like a constant void, a shapeless nothingness present in every scene. It makes the characters feel like cardboard figures. Jujutsu Kaisen is already getting a better job than many, but I doubt it will do enough for what I've heard, and I fear I am bound to feel let down, and bound to feel unmoved.

After all, if not enough time and care has been given to develop a dynamic, I am not going to feel pressured by the high stakes; if not enough time and care has been given to develop the dynamic between Megumi and Yuuji, as good potential as it has I am bound to feel little for this last confrontation between Sukuna and Itadori, and his effort in getting Megumi back.

[chrryblsssm]

its crazy the way this year has passed so quickly like i made irl friends when i joined a book club in january and i am now admining/planning/hosting said book club, im going to a romance book convention with a friend tomorrow, we already have tickets to romantasy con for next year, im going to my first hockey game on the 15th, who tf is this social butterfly bitch like before january i did not do anything like this and now ive been going practically nonstop since august like ive had so much to do i havent had a single week where i wasnt doing something since august (really july but that was not. fun stuff. that was. tragedy.) and im going to fucking ireland in january to see jos.hua bas.sett again???? like???

[qeyond]

Ok for real tho they went off hard with the aesthetic of the physical LABB Murder Cases novel. Like they did not have to make it so damn sexy but they did and god bless em for that

[jinxedwood]

Today is the day I discovered that one of my fave bookstores, Chapters, has opened a cafe on its upper floors - and my Nanowrimo group is going to camp out there for its write in sessions

I'm going to try and cling onto my wallet for dear life (my bank balance is doomed).

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

Books of 2023. BLACK HELICOPTERS and THE TINDALOS ASSET by Caitlin R. Kiernan.

Books two and three of the Tinfoil Dossier, reporting for duty! I finished HELICOPTERS last night (crushing my second half of year reading goals already), and I'm excited to start ASSET tonight! What deeply weird and fucked up little books!!

[crayonurchin]

Does scrolling on my phone for hours give me little hits of dopamine?

Yes.

Does FINALLY finishing another chapter of my book after months of writers block give me the most wonderful low level but blissful high of delayed gratification?

Yeees