#graduate or die

[checkoutmybookshelf]

Graduate or Die

I'm not here to talk about specific books, but I do want to talk a bit about a trope (although ngl, I am SO tempted to call this a setting rather than a trope) that has been slowly evolving and getting popularized in books. Graduate or die is, generally speaking, applicable when a story is set in a school or college or training center and once you are accepted, you can only leave by surviving and graduating...or dying.

Yes, this is basically exactly what it says on the tin.

But I'm a bit intrigued by this spin on school fiction because as far as I'm aware, this is a recent development. Previous school stories didn't tend to be quite this deadly, and I'm seriously wondering if some of this is stemming from the shift in how North American (and let's be real, primarily US) schools are perceived by students. Given the massive rise in school shootings, is it any wonder that there might be more of an interest in stories where schools are no longer the safe-ish spaces they used to be in literature? Even literature like A Separate Peace, which focuses on a death in a school, doesn't have the graduate or die aspect. Phineas's death is a tragedy tied up in a metric boatload of guilt about culpability and intentions, but neither Gene nor Phineas EXPECTS to die going into school, and they don't expect a certain number of their classmates not to survive.

But that is very much the reality that Ikenna, Violet, and El walk into at the Praetorian Academy, Basgiath War College, and the Scholomance, respectively. They expect their classmates to die, are well aware they could die, and there really isn't a whole hell of a lot to do other than survive.

I feel like I'm just describing The Hunger Games with extra steps here, but there is a different feel to graduate or die stories than there was to the dystopian genre Suzanne Collins popularized. Possibly what I'm getting from at least Violet and Ikenna is a distinctly "grad school" feel. These protagonists aren't teenagers, these books aren't YA. Vi and Ikeena are grown-ass women who made choices and have specific, concrete goals in a way that Katniss never really did. Even El lacks some of the YA flailing, and I think that's from the structure of a school setting. It's much harder to flail around and be lost when you have teachers and a library RIGHT THERE.

I'm interested to see if the graduate or die mini boom expands at all and can actually be tied to a reaction to all the gun violence in schools and universities or if this is just a bit of a fluke. We shall have to see, and if anyone has any additional thoughts on this, please reblog with them!

[boldlypaletraveler]

THIS BOOK!!!!!! 🔥🔥🔥

[socksandcrocs]

AND EVERYONE LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER

[mintypsii]

yk adorable group hug and luffy moment aside, did zoro just kick the ground . after he was hugged . is this show even real

sorry but the way nami went 🤨🏳️‍🌈 TWICE

[bon-sides-sw]

Cal's account Pt1

Part 2

[anna-scribbles]

haven’t had enough time to draw s5 adrinette to convey just how much this is genuinely the only thing on my mind

[iisthings]

[foxstens]

are we ever gonna talk about this

[cloudysfluffs]

oh hey look i actually bothered to make the tickly version to this piece!! this is what was going on in my head when i drew the og

kink/nsfw/fetish blogs dni please!!!

[daily-dose-of-bucket]

can you let kugie and Kanna live happily ever after no kugie is not dead what r u talking sbout

Day 78: of course they lived happily ever after, here's Kanna's high school graduation photo!

[mvffinhamster]

I’M SORRY BUT CHARLIE SLIMECICLE ????

he’s always been fine but he’s evolving like a pokémon…

starting here: nerdy guy with big smile (so cute smile)

and suddenly he takes off his glasses…

and that’s okay, we’ve seen him without his glasses it’s okay, the messy hair is a bonus

BUT THEN???

SUDDENLY HE GRADUATED GAY HIGH SCHOOL

AND FUCKING GAY COLLEGE

EXCUSE ME ???? i am dead, i am actually 100% fucking dead

HE IS TOO HOT FOR HIS OWN GOOD

[amyriver]

amy, rory and river deserved a full episode focused on their relationship & i’ll never be over it

[iknowwhereyousnoozeatnight]

tennis

[limon-rat]

Thinking about domestic Lautski

Let them be happy

[isitfanon]

I speed-read The Scholomance trilogy in 4 days and I have never felt more like I've been run over by a train than right now

[mearcatsreturns]

I have a bookstagram, and I recently followed someone because they posted about the overconsumption issue that most bookish social media seems to have. Today, though, they posted another controversial "opinion": that listening to audiobooks isn't reading, and people who claim to have read a bunch of books that they listened to as audiobooks are lying and/or deluded. Listening to audiobooks, she said, is just consuming books.

I disagreed in a fairly politely worded reply, and I intend to unfollow/block, because I find it unlikely this person will change their mind, especially since I'm far from the only person to point out that this is exclusionary and ableist. But this is tumblr/my house, and now I'm going to be as blunt as I want to be.

I'm a librarian and archivist. So much of the work I and others in my field do focuses on making books and reading more accessible and less exclusionary. It is, in fact, incredibly ableist to negate how important audiobooks are for people who have certain disabilities or challenges, and I would in no universe say they aren’t reading. For that matter, a busy person who only has time for audiobooks and for people who just prefer them--it still counts, as far as I'm concerned.

See, there's a difference between an audiobook and a podcast or long song or radio program. An audiobook is still a book--it was written with a particular narrative structure, and the author plays a defined but limited role (once the book is written, it's written; the author isn't tuning in next episode with comments and corrections based on what listeners said). An audiobook is a book, ergo, listening to one is reading. Using braille is reading, and listening to audiobooks is reading.

The part that has me in full Captain Raymond Holt "apparently that is a trigger for me" mode is that this bookstagrammer called listening to audiobooks consumption. In the context of her other posts about overconsumption as an issue in the bookish community (again, agree, but also...mind your own business), this seems particularly insidious to me. Conflating influencer-driven (and capitalist hellscape) consumption with listening to an audiobook (again, a massive boon for the visually impaired and those with disabilities like ADHD, dyslexia, etc.) is rude at best and dangerously exclusionary at worst. Stop letting comparison be the thief of joy; mind your own business and stop looking at the pages that bother you. Focus on the kindness of leaning towards inclusion, meeting people where they are, and leaving judgment behind.*

*This person also said "feel free to comment if you disagree but please don't be mean or judgmental," as if they hadn't just posted the most ableist and judgmental sludge I've seen today.

tl;dr: don’t be a gatekeeping shithead, mind your own business, and

(gif by matalyn on tenor, couldn't find on tumblr)