#fereshteh rahimi

[kindaorangey]

there's something very interesting to me about the phenomenon of people reading iwbft for the first time and hating fereshteh but empathising with her and being able to justify her actions more and more upon reread. like the themes of iwbft do demand this kind of twofold approach: yes, obsessing over a band and making it your personality is detrimental to you and your relationship to the world/people around you, and yes, that obsession will always, always come from a profound sense of isolation

and i think you kind of have to bloodlet that frustration with her. as crazy as the fans are in iwbft, the point of the book is not to condemn them but to interrogate their very existence, and in the case of fereshteh, you can only do that by empathising with her.

like with the boys where everything about the week of iwbft is amped-up (because of the contract, all the media harrassment, the brickcident, etc.) and so all of their personal issues are amplified, fereshteh's isolation is amplified by the circumstances of the book. she's already stated to have no real-life friends back home, she's a non-academic person coming from quite a heavily academic family, she's a brown muslim girl who lives in a small british town. she is profoundly isolated before the book begins. and then she comes to london (new location), to this hellish situation (juliet inviting mac without telling fereshteh) after just having fought with her mum (while she keeps in contact with her dad throughout the book, she is emotionally removed from her family as a support system). and then there's the wealth gap between her and juliet that she tries so feverently to ignore.

i dunno. i think readers (myself included) get distracted by fereshteh's ignorance of juliet's issues on their first time reading the book. but the well of her loneliness seems to be pretty bottomless.

[willsolace-loml]

i fucking love i was born for this by alice oseman

its not like her other novels, for one, no tie to heartstopper in any way at all.

but it also doesnt feature perfect people and shows rhat the people arent perfect, yes that happens in her other books, the people aren't perfect, but iwbft characters rnt perfect in a self centered way, almost all of tjem r self centered, especially the two main characters

angel is self centered as she reallt only cares abt the ark, she ignores juliets feelings (and macs but i dont like him) for the ark, she ignores her own feelings for the ark, she ignores everything for the ark and herself, but she tries herself and still tries to treat people nicely when she isnt distracted by the ark

jimmy is self centered, he only cares abt his knife, his grandpa, and himself. he cares more as the book goes on, he does truly care about lister and rowan and his fans, but he doesnt often show it. and he acts vry self centered smtms, like when lister opened up to him abt being groomed and people not respecting him and him being used, jimmy asks why he only told rowan and not him, and ignored wut lister said,

rowan is self centered, he only cares abt his a bliss's failing relationship, the bands success and thats almost it, he doesnt completely respect bliss's feelings in tjeir relationship and refuses to see how it is failing, he doesnt give a shit abt his fans. granted a lot of them are crazy, but he doesnt take the time to acknowledge the ones that rnt and how he wouldn't be in his position of fame without them, he doesnt care how lister feels, or the people trying tk help him

lister is self centered (not as much tho), he doesnt care abt recovering and continues to drink constantly and refuses help when people offer it

juliet is self centered. she invites mac to hang out with her and angle because she decides she should get more time woth him over spending time with her best friend,

mac is self centered. hes a dick, a bitch, and ill fight him

bliss is pretty good, she prioritizes herself, but in a healthy way, and still cares about other people and does wuts best for her health and stability (ie breaking up with rowan)

all of tjem find a way to care about others tho, they all grow, they all realize how bitchy and assholish theyve been in the past, theyre still not perfecr by any fucking means but theyre more caring than they started off and they get their priorities and ideas straightened out, and good cuz they desperately needed too

but these characters r so fucking amazing for that, theres so much thought that goes into the characters and the longer u sit around with their thoughts and tje longer u think abt tjem and their actions, the more complex and cool theu become

[charliespringverse]

u can't expect me to do an activity during iwbft without me making it all about iwbft . so behold: mug was born for this

[tearsonthepage]

i was born for this by alice oseman

row 1: lister, row 2: jimmy, row 3: kinda rowan?? idk enough about him to be honest, row 4: fereshteh/angel

[greeen-bean]

Is this something?

(Aled is down below because he sint asexual but demisexual so its a lil different)

[bebop-robyn]

I'm just saying out of all of Alice Osemans books I Was Born for This is the one I would most love to get a sequel. Even though Solitaire is my favorite there's just so much more possibilities for an IWBFT sequel. Also I just would love to see what happens to the characters after IWBFT.

[vague-bisexual-crimes]

thought of this during the reread and forgot to make it until now

[ur-moms-hairline]

I know for a fact that Angel and Frances are tumblr mutuals

(let's ignore that they are in completely different fandoms)

[ijustreallylikepirates]

I've been reading I Was Born for This by Alice Oseman and it's kinda sad that I relate to Jimmy a lot...

Like with everything he's experiencing with his anxiety and all these thoughts he's having about someone killing him...

I think I need to seek therapeutical help

i wanna give poor old Jimmy a hug so bad :(

[raspberry-arev]

waitwaitwait I realized I made something like this before!!! 3-4 years difference I think? I'm actually kind of emo

[antigerrymanderingspiderman]

i’m reading i was born for this and my mind kept wandering so i started to read it out loud. and i don’t know what it is but this page genuinely had me sobbing

[charliespringverse]

fereshteh after she goes to therapy post-canon:

[chronic-pessimistic]

I just finished I was born for this AND I LOVED IT

Why isn’t there a sequel?:(

What are your thoughts about this book?

[georgiaswarr]

“All my Blu-Rays are still scattered over the cinema room floor. Whiplash is open on top of the Blu-Ray player.”

— Alice Oseman, I Was Born for This, page 97

this quote from the tuesday section iwbft isn’t merely a fun reference to a well-known movie. there’s also a lot of intertextuality there; themes of destroying yourself for art, striving for godhood through music, and much much more. that’s why, for this year’s fandom reread i will be hosting a whiplash watch party on tuesday the 22nd of august at 1pm BST !!!

you can check here which timezone that is for you

it will be hosted on kosmi.io; i will post a link about 20 minutes before the party starts, so keep an eye out for that :)

anyone who wants to can join !! i look forward to seeing as many people on tuesday as possible, so make sure to reblog this and get all your osemanverse mutuals and beyond on board😌

see you then :)

[svnflowermoon]

i need the angel to my juliet ugh

[greeen-bean]

Chapter One Thoughts:

Angel and Juliet are soooo QPR-coded. Not yet, obviously, but you can see it (Angel refers to Juliet as her soulmate on the second page). They still have a lot of growing to do, mostly communication. Juliet hides a lot from Angel, notably Mac in this chapter, (not intentionally but that's just not something you forget girly) but she just doesn't give much of herself away. Angel also hides a lot of her emotions from Juliet and lies about what she is thinking and feeling to try not to come across as awkward or too much

Angel is THE most autistic-coded Osemanverse character (Sorry Aled Last)

Angel's mummy issues are so !!! shes so 18-year-old girl

Also her relationship with school and her peers - a lot of it needs to be on her terms or she just can't deal with it, like she can't talk to people unless its about the ark (special interest) and she actively does not want to go to her school leavers to say goodbye to people (I'm assuming she has little to no close friends at school or irl) and this is just me saying AGAIN Fereshteh "Angel"Rahimi is autistic :)