#im here for the book.

[tillman]

put in an offer for an item out of lost media desperation but god the difference in the keychains is so sad. the x+ dx has this wonderful so ugly kyle kiske for your keychains while the ac+ dx collectors edition just has this loser hunk of metal. rolling eyes.

[dzknik]

fellas is it gay to cover my entire house with imagery of my muse, the centre of my life, the sun in my galaxy

[inkskinned]

this is just my opinion but i think any good media needs obsession behind it. it needs passion, the kind of passion that's no longer "gentle scented candle" and is now "oh shit the house caught on fire". it needs a creator that's biting the floorboards and gnawing the story off their skin. creators are supposed to be wild animals. they are supposed to want to tell a story with the ferocity of eating a good stone fruit while standing over the sink. the same protective, strange instinct as being 7 and making mud potions in pink teacups: you gotta get weird with it.

good media needs unhinged, googling-at-midnight kind of energy. it needs "what kind of seams are invented on this planet" energy and "im just gonna trust the audience to roll with me about this" energy. it needs one person (at least) screaming into the void with so much drive and energy that it forces the story to be real.

sometimes people are baffled when fanfic has some stunning jaw-dropping tattoo-it-on-you lines. and i'm like - well, i don't go here, but that makes sense to me. of fucking course people who have this amount of passion are going to create something good. they moved from a place of genuine love and enjoyment.

so yeah, duh! saturday cartoons have banger lines. random street art is sometimes the most precious heart-wrenching shit you've ever seen. someone singing on tiktok ends up creating your next favorite song. youtubers are giving us 5 hours of carefully researched content. all of this is the impossible equation to latestage capitalism. like, you can't force something to be good. AI cannot make it good. no amount of focus-group testing or market research. what makes a story worth listening to is that someone cares so much about telling it - through dance, art, music, whatever it takes - that they are just a little unhinged about it.

one time my friend told me he stayed up all night researching how many ways there are to peel an orange. he wrote me a poem that made me cry on public transportation. the love came through it like pith, you know? the words all came apart in my hands. it tasted like breakfast.

[kesopan]

warmth in the cold

[doctormori]

the devil made me do it

[chase-solidago]

Loving reminder from your land history auntie:

North American golf courses have had 50-100 years of arsenic and mercury based fungicide and herbicides applied to their soils.

Do not eat anything that has been grown on a golf course or downstream from a golf course. I know it sounds cool and radical, but you are too valuable to poison yourself with heavy metals.

Protect each other, turn your local golf course into a pollinator garden, not a sex forest or community garden.

[the-ramshackle-prefect]

THE WHOLE GANG IS HERE AND MALLEUS'S BITCHASS DEADBEAT DAD IS STILL NOWHERE TO BE FOUND LMFAOOOO

[wasyago]

Can you draw that snail? You know the one who got out of Grian's power and started to eat Gem's lighthouse?

little guy <3

alternatively: big guy.

[fordtato]

Ford's arc in the Book of Bill is literally how he overcame the trauma of the abusive ex-partner who ruined his life, and how Ford learned to not be consumed by that fear through the help of his family and IF I NEED TO BE THE ONLY ONE WRITING TUMBLR THINKPIECES ON IT, I'LL DO IT, BUT WHY AREN'T MORE PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT THIS?!?!?!?!?!

Bill literally lays out how he preyed on Ford's insecurities and his quirks, how he saw Ford as the perfect candidate for Bill to take full advantage of, and how Bill purposefully did what he could to convince Ford that NO ONE ELSE WOULD LOVE HIM if he got rid of Bill, that he was nothing without him.

And it's the story of how Ford overcame, how Ford shot Bill with a shotgun and spat on the ground where he stood, how Ford does everything he can to warn the reader before realizing that Bill is not an all-powerful being to be feared, but a sad pathetic man. Bill is charismatic, but he's not a god. He's just someone Ford can leave behind.

It's not even subtext, it's text. It's a story told with queer undertones, with the language of abuse built in. AND NO ONE IS TALKING ABOUT THIS?

[umblrspectrum]

infinitely funnier visuals in my head, likely because they werent subject to my actual skill level in art

[conflictedemma]

[inkskinned]

you know, you know. no gods, no masters, no kings on pedestals. everyone is fallible. death of the author. you know! you are balanced about your intake of media - you allow the wiggle room, the grace, the gratitude, the skepticism. nobody above criticism.

but still. a weird gut-punch feeling, something akin to betrayal. you read the article. surprise! an author you love is actually: a serial fucking predator.

well, shit. what now. no, you knew he was a person (all people are), but now you're wondering - what have i overlooked by accident? what messages have i internalized that are strange and cruel? and also, like, what the fuck?

his actions lay a thick glaze on top of everything. like each place is now ruined, opaque in a new way. but okay, fine, you've done this before. you knew better, right? you've been betrayed by many a cherished childhood author.

still, this stickiness. fuck. can you pick up that book again. will you read it to your children. you've recommended it to others - will you ever do that again? and of course, of course, no parasocial relationships. you were theoretically above this kind of sentiment. but the artist informs the art, right.

so it's not something as clear-cut as feeling he owed you, specifically (a stranger) better behavior - just that you kind of, in a distant and odd way... sort of trusted him to do better. it's not like a real trust or something speakable, just the faint hope that the product (good books) was a thin representation of the soul. now it feels like the product (good? books?) was a mask. in some small or insignificant way, your previous support of this person lent them power. your money and your time and your laughter.

and the thing is - you have this terrible, echoing sensation. how many times will this happen? over and over. you find out that the singer you love is actually a predator. you learn over drinks that your favorite high school english teacher is in jail for what he did to her. you listen to the news idly and suddenly discover that a woman you used to idolize has been abusing her kids for an actual eon.

what can you touch without the static melting off. you can't even really complain about it too much (you were supposed to know better, and besides, you don't want the same re-split "it's not your fault, love what you love" basic advice), but now it's here. somehow, it feels like - you let him into your life.

it's not that things need to be pure or an artist has to be like, endlessly perfect, mindful. demure. it's more just this terrible truth that has been replayed through your veins so often it feels criminally vain. power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. did you want any one person to be worth that power?

it's just that he wrote books where he seemed to understand that. he seemed to know about hierarchies and unfair systems and bigotry and privilege. you thought they were books about what it means to struggle. you thought they were about having power and still using it for good rather than for control. he spooned you a narrative of being a good guy, a kind soul. you fucking bought what that fucking monster sold.

maybe that's why they were fantasies, after all.

[stump-not-found]

post canon shenanigans

[leafspiritz]

VI; six for the truth above solace in lies

[aishime]

I CANT KEEP BUYING DIFFERENT EDITIONS OF THE SAME BOOK I CANT BUT THIS IS SO CUTE IM OBSSESED

Ilustrator: Pilar Hernandez

[a-kind-of-merry-war]

Girl help my silly hansry marketing video has 86k views on tiktok