#if you want us to annotate it

[everyones-internet-little-sis]

My professor gave my class a 64-page reading to print out and annotate over the weekend I’m about to go feral

[the-judicial-assistants-notebook]

not enough discussion about the gavins' complicated relationship with feminine-coded/beauty products, i don't think.

[spottedgardeneelstan]

shen qingqiu’s narration in svsss is generally regarded as very unreliable. but how unreliable truly is he? how many times in the novels does he either intentionally mislead both himself and the reader? how many times does he mislead us by being dumb as hell and just getting it wrong? when one is plagued by questions such as these, there is only one course of action!!!!!!

i went to the store and bought physical copies of vol1-4, a highlighter, and a blank book jacket. my next few weeks at work will be spent 1/4 doing my job, and 3/4 doing my more IMPORTANT job- ACADEMIC(?) RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS!!!!!!!!!!!

i’ll compile them into a comprehensive list once i’m done reading and post it on here! when it’s posted, if you notice missing sqq lie, please let me know so i can update the list!

[kingofattolia]

me: I'm actually mostly normal about Star Wars now

also me:

[rithmeres]

*starts listening to the thg playlist*

augh -1 health

oof -1 health

ugh! -1 health

mmf -1 health

ugh! -1 health

augh -1 health

etc

GOOD that’s the effect i wanted >:)

[virmillion]

local idiot reads book titled 'icarus,' is shocked when it contains references to falling and the sun, more at eleven

[dylidali]

ok so i'm gonna say something controversial

voting. i'm probably still gonna do it this election if i'm given the opportunity (i don't have reliable transportation to polling locations), so don't get mad at me. but like. the vote blue no matter who crowd is.. a bit concerning? people are blaming the average voter for the 2016 election not being a win for democrats, but if i recall correctly, hillary won the popular vote. the only reason trump won was because the electoral college voted for trump, which happened because of swing state loopholes. the conditions we're in right now are not uniquely unprecedented. project 2025 is not going to be stopped by kamala being president. after all, biden being in office didn't stop roe v wade from being overturned, and a lot of the promises of the 2020 biden campaign have fallen through. i don't think it's "doomerposting" or whatever to point any of this out, and i think it's obtuse to pretend like even if dems win this election any of the terrible shit that's being cooked up is going to be prevented.

i find it concerning that people are calling other people selfish and saying they don't care about ""harm reduction"" when they point out that voting is pretty much the thoughts and prayers of leftist action. i find it concerning that people are saying that this is unprecedented and has never happened before, and then coincidentally have never read up on US history outside of what they were taught in high school. i am begging you all to read up, become informed, and hopefully come back with a mindset of community work. no offense, but if you think that voting is the end all be all, i do not think you have read up on US history.

my point is not that you shouldn't vote, just like i wouldn't say you shouldn't think or pray about something. but please, PLEASE, add more to your roster of political activism than putting in a ticket to the polling booth. if you're not sure where to start on us history, i would recommend starting with a people's history of the united states, then go through beacon press's revisioning united states history series, and then go from there. there are free copies of those books/audiobooks online, they're not hard to find. you will learn so much about historical precedent, historical action, and historical community, and i promise that you will not regret learning more.

voting is not the end all be all, and it has never been. anyone who tries to convince you that it is the end all be all is either misinformed or has ulterior motives.

i promise you that you are not the only one that feels upset about the way things are right now. remember: strength in numbers.

[soularsss]

it has occurred to me that i need to read more books if i want to write this au because i am currently sitting here with zero clue how to formulate the formless amalgamation in my brain

what are words? why are words.

no but genuinely I have such an issue with finding the right word for what i’m trying to say i constantly feel like it’s on the tip of my tongue 😭 the entire thought IS THERE and i’m like oh yes i know the perfect word for this.. right?.. i know this word.. ?

soularsss needs to read a dictionary

[arson-09]

in case anyone was wondering my search for a used copy of acotar is still ongoing🧍🏻

[badolmen]

The satisfaction of finding an efficient way to clean up your data frame without using your advisor’s working but unannotated code…effervescent

[fancyshooting]

in mgs3, although we hear english, the majority of the characters are actually mostly speaking russian. ocelot is definitely always speaking russian, except in his phone call with the director of the CIA

NOT!!

during the motorcycle chase towards the end of the game, volgin purposely activates the shagohod's boosters and burns ocelot, causing him to lose control of his vehicle. he then yells, "SON OF A BITCH!"

there is a note on this line in the script that says, "instinctively, he blurts out in american english"

for ocelot to have spent the past four years speaking russian to russians in the ussr, only to switch to english in a moment of intensity and high emotion suggests that english is his first language, even though his staff profile in mgsv indicates that it's russian (I think this might be related more to frequency of usage but idk. maybe they changed it. maybe it's wrong. maybe I'm wrong. maybe it doesn't matter at all)

[serenfire]

ever read a book that you can’t underline that you’re desperate to underline & highlight & mark up? for me: giovanni’s room

[erstwhilesparrow]

sparrow's short story and poetry recs (incomplete)

@desultorydenouement requested some recommendations for [generally stuff i've read that inspires / influences my writing]. i don't know if these all fit that requirement exactly, but. i sure do think about these ones a lot. here you go, hope you enjoy!

poetry:

Per Fumum by Jamaal May - My father was an astronomer / for forty minutes in a row / the first time a bus took us so far / from streetlights he could point out constellations / that may or may not have been Draco, / Orion, Aquila, or Crux. Sometimes I still catch myself using the phrasing of "[someone] was [a role / profession] for [some number of units of time] in a row" in my own writing. I like... the idea of curiosity / wonder / experimentation as something that puts you in a tradition of all the scientists and thinkers that have come before you.

Evolution by Linda Bierds - You know that feeling when it occurs to you for maybe the first time ever that hey, you're an adult now and you can decide what to do about your [fashion / food / leisure time] and you pick something you like that you wouldn't have tried to pick before and now that thing is special to you specifically? This poem is that, for poetry, for me. Alan Turing, and life, and all the dark mares on their dark shadows.

A Toast To The Alchemists by Laura Gilpin - Look, I like when people do poetry about science, and I love love love talking / thinking about the history of science, I don't know what to tell you. Last stanza makes me vaguely achy.

The Fish by Marianne Moore - If I had to pick a favourite poem ever, it'd be this one. First learned about it How to Read Poetry Like a Professor by Thomas Foster and it fills me with delight. I like how it looks on the page, I like its rhyme scheme, I like its language and imagery, I like the whole act of digging around in it. Did one of my favourite high school presentations on this poem.

NUMBERS by Mary Cornish - A joy to read out loud. I said this to a friend of mine and she immediately called me and demanded I read it to her and it was delightful! Highly recommended experience. It's... fun! Playful. Appreciative of something I think we are not appreciative of enough.

Rick Deckard Comes Home by Kanami Ayau - Even if this poem was just the phrase 'syncopated two-step dog-tag paramour' I would still love it. Have you ever heard anything condensed so perfectly well? Can you hear the drumbeat of it? I will never stop thinking about this.

Second Street Drifting by Austin Walker - You may have noticed this link takes you to a wiki page. I'm cheating with this one because the poem is from a podcast (Friends at the Table) and the podcast, really, is the thing that's a huge inspiration / influence for me, but this poem on its own, too: perfect. It is delicious to read out loud and delicious to hear read out loud -- Austin savours every syllable in his reading, and it is completely justified.

Catastrophe is Next to Godliness by Franny Choi - Lord, I confess I want the clarity of catastrophe but not the catastrophe. Just. Yeah. Big fan of Franny Choi in full generality. More of their work here!

Beautiful Short Loser by Ocean Vuong - Joy? Gender? Brilliance and confidence and that one interview he gave where he was like, and this is paraphrasing badly, "I insist on being a man and on using he/him specifically to complicate what those things can / should mean" ?

The Melancholy of Mechagirl by Catherynne M. Valente - Part of a collection of poems and short stories by the same name. I love this poem; it is fun and bright and touches things I care about (mechs, bodies, sci-fi concerned with the individual and the personal). The short stories I don't tend to feel as strongly about but some of them are stick-in-your-brain-for-days-after great. Recommend taking a look at the whole book!

I can't pick a Mary Oliver one. I simply cannot do it. But read her poems. They're excellent.

short stories:

The Library of Babel by Jorge Luis Borges - I love weird architecture. I love buildings and structures that make no fucking sense. I love infinity. I love finding horror or wonder or despair or meaning in those things. This story is about more than that, but mostly it's about an infinite library that our narrator moves through and describes to us. Don't ask me why it's on genius dot com of all places.

I Am In Eskew Episode 1: Correspondence - This is cheating because it's a podcast transcript. It's not cheating because this first episode is entirely stand-alone, really excellent, and caters to (almost) all of the interests I like to talk about on Tumblr: architectural horror, unusual intimacies, meat, locations that are alive and have a lot of feelings about you. A man named David, a relatively recent arrival in the city of Eskew, chases down the source(s) of a series of bizarre exchanges in the correspondences section of the local paper.

The Narrative Implications of Your Untimely Death by Isabel J. Kim - Judging by where I remember seeing your username around, you will also care about this. Get fucked up about characters that know they are characters with me. Get fucked up about people who are constantly putting on a performance, forever aware of where the audience is and what they might inflict on you, intentionally or not. (Second person POV story about someone signing on to a reality TV show and trying to play the part just the right way to get to leave.)

Exhalation by Ted Chiang - A thoughtful, melancholy, wonderful exploration of a different world, where people explode into showers of gold when they die, and the narrator learns about and comes to terms with how utterly temporary and completely doomed their people are. Makes me sad, but in a slow and gentle way, you know?

A Guide for Working Breeds by Vina Jie-Min Prasad - Two robots become friends by bonding over the following: dogs, killing, and the horrors of capitalism. Very sweet, very [sunshine x storm cloud] pair of characters. I feel fondly about it and managed to make me very sad by shuffling some numbers around in a list of unread notifications. (Also, I've found Tor.com has a lot of cool SFF stuff in general?)

A Very Special Pigeon by Cao Wenxuan, translated by Helen Wang - Pigeons. Friendship. Something complicated and difficult to describe but nevertheless recognizably sad. Reading this definitely Did Something to my writing style, but it's hard to tell what. Two boys somewhere in China are joined by the fact of pigeons, and the racing thereof.

Alien Hand Syndrome (Nth Street) by Molly Ofgeography - Utterly charming. When I say I want to write characters that are strange and specific and charming and alive, I mean like this. Cavendish Grotto (what a name, right!!) does not control his left hand; it does what it will. Cavendish Grotto lives his life.

[“Power absorption?” you ask him over your pasta, which you are currently absorbing powerfully.] by inkskinned - Written for a prompt, about how someone with a fairly mediocre superpower gets to be considered one of the top ten most powerful superheros. There's plenty of stuff on Tumblr that's in this wheelhouse or adjacent to it that I also really enjoy, but this is one of the first I read and it still sticks in my brain.

The Magician's Apprentice by Tasmyn Muir - Power and hunger and eating people. Welcome to All Of My Interests. A magician teaches his apprentice the utterly laborious art of performing magic. It's horrifying, it's glorious.

The Hydraulic Emperor by Arkady Martine - That vaguely sick feeling of trying to tally up some numbers and realizing, as you redo the calculations with increasing desperation, that it doesn't add up, that you're going to fall short? You can assume I'm being metaphorical or literal, but this story is like that. It's gorgeous, it's terrific, it's about how much you are willing to give up and for what. (It's about a collector on the hunt for a film that is effectively lost media. To win access to a print of it, they go to an auction where people are made to sacrifice irreplaceable parts of themselves or of history.)

Sestu Hunts the Last Deer in Heaven by M. H. Cheung - This one just feels good to read? Wild and lovely. It doesn't feel like it tries very hard or wants very much to explain itself, just drags you into its world and makes you keep up. I think the title gives you enough of a premise. I couldn't offer anything better, sorry.

A Farce to Suit the New Girl by Rebecca Fraimow - A new girl joins a Yiddish theatre troupe travelling through Russia right after the Tsar has been killed. (I don't know / recall which Tsar.) Everyone's trying to get through in one piece and help each other out, and everyone is so insistently themselves in a way I wish I could do more.

Texts from the Ghost War by Alex Yuschik - There's a war, because there are ghosts. People fight them in mechs. One of those mech pilots accidentally strikes up a friendship with a prince. This story is the development of that relationship, as told through texts. Describing it as sweet feels insufficient, though it is that. I like when things are true in SFF worlds without trying to explain themselves, I think.

L'Esprit de L'Escalier by Catherynne M. Valente - I did just say I am not particularly taken by some of her short stories. HOWEVER. THIS ONE IS VERY GOOD. Orpheus succeeds in getting Eurydice back. This is what happens after, and it sucks massively for everyone involved. Graphic depictions of decomposing bodies, which is both content warning, and reason I am so admiring of it.

[A scorpion, not knowing how to swim, asked a frog to carry it across the river.] by sadoeuphemist - I think about this one frequently. The scorpion and the frog, across many iterations.

[fujimen]

I'm resisting the urge to type "i told you before not to use it" in the work chat so bravely. I'm the God's strongest warrior

[coldflasher]

i got a kindle scribe for christmas and im having such a good time finally reading all the ARCs i neglected all year and making my little notes!! maybe i will finally recover my netgalley score after literally a year of not writing a single review

[potatoesandsunshine]

thinking about taryn becoming the inquisitor in the classic 'other protagonist winds up in da:i' premise and it's so funny. she would be incredibly good at being the herald of andraste because her greatest strength is lying. but Watch Out