#is it poetry because the structure is important to me and specifically that it's not in long blocky paragraphs?

[homey-worshiper]

pen pals with lady hestia

{a little concept i thought of recently}

i love communicating with my deities, listening to them, feeling their presence, but i am not the best when it comes to speaking. talking no matter to who is quite uncomfortable for me, so i have been looking for different ways of communication.

and i think i settled on letter writing.

the concept of pen pals is very appealing for me. having a sense of community, bonding with someone and not speaking. also i love writing in general, journaling, poetry, etc.

what my pen-pal letters look like

very similar to "normal" letter you can see when searing for pen pals, on tumblr, pinterest. the only difference is that the person that i am writing to will not anwear me with a letter of the same structure.

what do i include

the most important - the letter, it can be something like venting, asking for help, thanking or simply just talking about whatever i feel like

poetry, specifically about dedicated to her things, concept that reminds me of her, or just poetry written when i was feeling cozy

prayer, i have a few that i wrote for her, and for pen-paling i try to write it more elegantly, on a nice piece of paper with a nice pen

drawings, doodles, even if it's just a doodle of a hot cup of coffee

tea bags, i don't have any coffee beans or bags so i run with tea, something that smells nice, and reminds me of her

a recipe card - something i plan to make and dedicate to her

quotes - it is usually from media that i consume and that reminds me of her, sometimes i include little phrases i came up with throughout the day

of course, every letter i make is different, and so for you it will do so much different too, i only want to share to inspire you, and maybe help you communicate with your deities, because of course feel free to use this idea to communicate with other deities not only lady hestia

[thejournallo]

Explain the basic: Offerings

Desclaimer: Everything I will talk about is information that I got from books and sites online and even videos on YouTube. In my years of practice, I learned as much as I could out of curiosity and what works best for me. I suggest you do the same by learning as much as you can on your own (I will be here making posts teaching this kind of stuff) from multiple sources.

Offering to deities and entities in general is a practice found in many cultures and religions around the world. Every deity or entity that you make an offering for has its own symbol. For example, Apollo is the god of the sun; music, art, and poetry; writing something or singing for him can be offerings. 

There are many religions that take on the act of offering as a sign of respect and devotion to that specific religion. Here are some examples:

Hinduism: Offerings (puja) often include fruits, flowers, incense, and food, placed before images of deities in temples or home altars.

Buddhism: Offerings may include candles, incense, flowers, and food, placed before statues of the Buddha and bodhisattvas.

Christianity: Candles, bread, and wine are common offerings, especially in the context of the Eucharist.

Shinto: Offerings of rice, sake, and other food items are made at shrines to honor kami (spirits or gods).

Paganism and Wicca: Offerings might include seasonal fruits, flowers, wine, and personal tokens, placed on altars dedicated to specific deities or nature spirits.

All these religions have common practices that we can see and see over time; all of those are not rules but more something you can do or not do. (Especially because no one has the same opportunities.)

Altars: A dedicated space where offerings are made. This can be a simple shelf at home or an elaborate structure in a temple.

Purity: Many traditions emphasize the importance of purity in the offerings, meaning they should be clean and handled with respect.

Timing: Offerings are often made at specific times, such as during festivals, holy days, or particular phases of the moon.

Intention: The mindset and intention behind the offering are crucial. It should be given with respect, devotion, and a pure heart.

These offerings can take various forms, each carrying its own significance and purpose. Here's an overview of the different types of offerings and the common practices associated with them:

Types of Offerings

Food and Drink:

Fruits, grains, and vegetables: Often used in offerings to symbolize abundance and gratitude.

Cooked meals: Specific dishes that are favored by the deity or entity.

Drinks: This can include water, wine, milk, or other beverages. In some traditions, alcoholic drinks like mead or sake are common.

Sweets and desserts: Cakes, candies, or other sweet treats, especially those that are traditional or culturally significant.

Flowers and Plants:

Fresh flowers: Often chosen for their beauty and fragrance. Certain flowers are associated with specific deities.

Herbs:: Sacred or medicinal herbs may be offered for their symbolic properties.

Incense and Aromatics:

incense: Burned to create a fragrant smoke that is believed to please the deities.

Essential oils: Used for anointing or in diffusers to create a sacred atmosphere.

Candles and Lights:

Candles: Lit to symbolize light, purity, and the presence of the divine.

Oil lamps: Used in many traditions, often with ghee or olive oil.

Objects and Symbols:

Statues or images: Placed on altars as representations of the deity or entity.

Jewelry or precious items: Offered as a sign of respect and devotion.

Money and Valuables:

Coins or currency: Offered in temples or shrines, sometimes used to support the upkeep of the place of worship.

Jewelry or precious items: Given as a form of sacrifice or in seeking favor.

Actions and Devotions:

Prayers and chants: Recited to honor the deity or entity.

Songs and music: Played or sung as a form of praise.

Dance: Performed in some cultures as an offering of movement and energy.

Conclusion

Offering to deities and entities is a deeply personal and culturally rich practice. It serves as a way to connect with the divine, show gratitude, seek blessings, and maintain a reciprocal relationship with the spiritual world. The specific items and practices may vary, but the underlying principles of respect, devotion, and intention remain consistent across different traditions.

[malusokay]

serious, important, gigantic question i have . how do i start writing poetry? i'm really interested but just can't get myself started, lol. also what're some of ur fav books currently? i'm trying to get more into literature. love ur blog btw!

oh I love this question!! 

I believe becoming a poet begins with being an avid reader. Once you develop a love for reading, writing will come naturally as you start to note simple observations from your daily life or random thoughts that come to mind... As you continue to write, you'll gradually develop a better understanding of words. This will allow you to become more discerning in your writing, carefully selecting words and being mindful of how you structure your sentences to convey emotions and imagery... slowly You'll probably begin to dip into poetry, even if it's terrible at first, it's a necessary stage that everyone goes through (I could write an entire post on why creating bad art is so critical lol). The key is to keep writing. Write. Write. Write. And write. It's strange how addictive writing becomes once you get the hang of it… this year alone, I wrote hundreds of poems!!

So to summarize: Reading -> writing -> Poetry

here are some writers and writings I'd recommend to anyone who wants to get into poetry:

 (I got a bit carried away while writing this list lol…)

T.S. Eliot: The Waste Land, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, Four Quartets

Edgar Allan Poe: The Raven, Annabel Lee, The Tell-Tale Heart

Homer: The Odyssey

Walt Whitman: Leaves of Grass, Song of Myself

Dante Alighieri: The Divine Comedy (includes Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso)

John Milton: Paradise Lost

Geoffrey Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales

Emily Dickinson: Because I could not stop for Death, Hope is the thing with feathers, I’m Nobody! Who are you?

Sylvia Plath: Ariel, Lady Lazarus, Daddy

Maya Angelou: Still I Rise, Phenomenal Woman, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (autobiographical prose)

Elizabeth Barrett Browning: Sonnet 43 (How Do I Love Thee?), Aurora Leigh (a novel in verse)

my personal obsession lies in ancient poetry (Greek, to be specific), though I understand that it may not be everyone's cup of tea. But if you want to know more about that — or have any more literature-related questions in general — please let me know or send me another ask, and I'll be happy to share more!! <3

[lungfishpoem]

Woah huge IMSCARED text/analysis I made...

Tbh this is like, a mix of many many texts and analyses I made. Because Eh. Have fun!

I feel like people have a tendency, when it comes to indie horror games, to be really interested in a story, in a narrative. When you search for videos about these games, you may sometimes see something different, but they are mostly "what happened". This obsession with a narrative, with a prose, isn't necessarily bad.

IMSCARED is a game that doesn't fit in a proper narrative. It has themes, and ideas, and traces of a small sequence of events. But is it like prose? No. It isn’t even a narrative poem. IMSCARED is a free verse, non-narrative piece of poetry made out of mixed media.

It may seem odd, to call a videogame poetry. And it is! It doesn’t have the structure of a poem... And it does seem a little bit exaggerated, pretentious to call it that. And it is! But isn’t a little bit of pretentiousness-filled analyses good for your mind? I think it is.

The text files, the little bits of dialogue. They're all compressed in small, cut, separated phrases.

Take the first parts of White Face's breakdown in consideration:

"I begged You and You ignored my request

What do You think will happen next?

You made this game unplayable

I made this game unplayable

I don't want You to kill me

I will live here forever

I will look at You forever

I don't want to die

I'm scared"

This specific little quirk of short spasms of text present in IMSCARED only helps in the classification of it as poetry, like, at the very least in some bits of it. And isn’t that cool?

It isn’t a narrative (although, as I mentioned, poetry can, well, narrate things)... so, well, of course IMSCARED videos and such tend to be... poor.

There isn’t much to talk about in the sense of story. And people want stories. So they tell, well, stories. But IMSCARED isn’t a story, it's, as the complete name suggests, "a pixelated nightmare".

And, a pixelated nightmare. But whose? It definitely is the player's, and it is not groundbreaking to say it is White Face's too. But what is it so scared about?

White Face has nothing. Not its room, not its own program. It, itself, is all there is. Everything is White Face and nothing is outside of it. This is the absolute state of loneliness. The infinite "I". Even the player, who has a consciousness of their own, used the entity's digital body. However, even if You possesses a fragment of White Face's (un)body, the situation is too new. It has never seen that, the "other" with a consciousness of their own, and if it has, it has been a long time since that happened, a long, long, digital and uncontable time. White Face is NOT used to this. It doesn't know how to interact with this "other". So, You becomes everything to it. It doesn't NEED to feel LOVE. It isn't NECESSARILY love. It's a mixture of obsession, curiosity, surprise and happiness, but most important of all: fear. I can't see love in White Face's relationship with You, it's strong, strong fear. Horror. It's a nightmare. It is so scared. So scared.

It's not only the strangeness of interaction, but the fear of abandonment. The game is filled of desperate attempts to catch You's attention. The fear is so great that White Face morphs itself into something else, Her, trying to hook You with a story, a beautiful figure, a different personality. Her is an attempt to be stronger, she is stronger, she is bolder (chases You and feels no fear in telling You to kill her). But this act of morphing is agonizing, because the lack of fear creates agony in the fear entity's heart. So it screams. It screams so loudly you can't tell if it's laughing, crying, happy, sad... angry? It's full of anger. Having a body it deems ideal and real (flesh, bleeding. Closer to You) is too much. So she wants to die. And White Face has no word in it, because it created too much, and so it became (almost) completely separated from it. But how?

White Face divides itself to fill the void of the cold, lonely digital world. Everything is White Face and White Face is everything. Because... well... IMSCARED is a program that holds White Face. It's an entity turned into data, and the data is the game and the game is the data. That's why when You kill it... the world is different. The world becomes a cadaver, a huge, huge cadaver. It doesn't hold fear anymore, it holds nothing, which is why it is brighter (fearless) but empty (nothingness). But White Face doesn't have that much control over the world, the things it creates. They become organs that you can't really control, but they are a part of you, they're still there, still in you. This is Her. She was created and then slowly split herself from White Face, although she was still it and it was still her. She couldn't handle the agony as an immitation of flesh and blood, and begged to die (but not without a fight). But then... the gun which (who) killed her... is also White Face (exemplified by the player having White Face's face)...

This is very scary, to be holding the gun but not the (Your) nerve of the finger that pulls the trigger. But this other... the "other" is great! White Face has never been happier! But it has never been more scared. It is, again, a horrifying mixture of feelings.

"Play with me forever. I love you" doesn't contradict White Face's fear. It proves its confusion and need to stay with You. Stay with it. Please don't make the fear stop, being scared seems so much better than being lonely.

[annlillyjose]

Green Room – WIP Intro

hiii cuties!

have you ever been overcome by an irresistible urge to write a memoir at the age of twenty, or are you normal? i'm definitely not, so here's a new project (again)

green room is an experimental memoir that delves into my teenage years as a writer. i started writing seriously at the age of thirteen and self-published my first book at fourteen, which is something that haunts me to date. but here's the thing – i feel like i've learned a lot in the last six to seven years and wanted to explore it with another writing project.

i don't really know what this book is going to be yet. i'm going to start drafting during nanowrimo as a side project and hopefully finish it by the end of the year, but i'm not in a rush. i want to enjoy the process of writing this so i might take my sweet time.

now because this is an intro post, let's get to some specifics.

disclaimer: this is my original work. plagiarism of any kind will not be tolerated.

genre: creative/literary non-fiction

pov: first person retrospective

structure: a combination of chapters, vignettes, and poetry maybe

projected word count: 50k

concept: literary memoir on a writer's journey through teenage as they navigate genre, form, tense, character, story, plot, theme, atmosphere, and setting.

aesthetics/vibes: abandoned art galleries, mountaintops, beaches at midnight, falling asleep on the terrace, coffee mugs, word documents, cute stationery that never gets used, rejection e-mails, daydreaming, moon phases, still rivers, birds flying in groups, rain, academic validation, morally gray people, the colour green

THE ORIGIN STORY

i had always wanted to write something in retrospect of my teenage and document my growth, but didn't want to be so didactic in doing so. the memoir seemed like a serious piece of writing so i didn't really know if i was qualified enough to start. but if i've learned anything about writing in the last few years, it is that you can write whatever you feel like writing. so here i am with a new wip.

a little bit about the title – i struggled with this the most. but the novel i wrote during my late teens (dairy whiskey) was an entirely green book and i found myself finding thousands of green things every single day. my life had turned a shade of green. i was very inspired by the books bluets by maggie nelson and the white book by kan hang. i decided to make the colour green an important aspect of the book.

i don't know how this is going to turn out or if i'm going to do updates for this one, but who knows, i just might. until then, i hope you enjoy my other writing and shitposting. until next time, goodbye.

– ann.

general taglist (ask to be added or removed)

@shaonsim @heartfullkings @vnsmiles @dallonwrites @wannabeauthorclive @sienna-writes @violetpeso @flip-phones @silassghost @ambidextrousarcher @zoe-louvre @writing-with-l @magic-is-something-we-create @femmeniism @frozenstillicide @wizardfromthesea @rose-bookblood @coffeeandcalligraphy @rodentwrites @saltwaterbells @snehithiye @at-thezenith

[rosewaterandivy]

I love your writing style and after stalking your blog I found out that you studied English. Got any writing advice for someone who's still trying to figure out and develop their own style? I feel like I have so many ideas but the execution is 👎

Hello sweet thing! 🥰 Thanks for reading and a quick disclaimer before I dive in here: I don’t really even understand my own process/style yet and that is perfectly fine. I think it’s important to take risks in writing to develop skills and see what vibes with you and what doesn’t. So, while I have two degrees in English, I’ve never taken a creative writing class— just wanna get that out there. Now, onto the advice!

Read. Read often and voraciously. This method is tried and true for a reason, and that’s because it works. When I’m lacking in the inspiration department, I read poetry, novels, non-fiction, works by other writers in the community, maybe do a deep-dive with some lyrical analysis— if you know, you know. Seeking out other voices to inspire and teach is paramount.

(Continued under the cut)

To grow as a writer (or, really as a person), you can’t exist in your own silo. You need to engage with other stories. On some level, you should be listening to other’s voices and studying their styles. Otherwise, you’ll stunt your development as a writer. You could also, inadvertently, reinforce bad writing habits, if you’re not expanding your horizons by consuming other author’s works.

And this conversation has been making its run in the community as well as my corner of academia, but I’d be remiss not to touch on it here: there is no such thing as originality in literature. Everything from the Carolingian Cycle to Homeric Hymns to tropes, etc. has already been said and done. But what matters here, truly, is how you can put your spin on something. Have soulmate AUs been done to death? Yes. Is that gonna stop me? Hell to the no! I love that shit, of course I want to engage with that trope and see what I can do with it.

Rhythm. Cadence, flow, whatever you call it— this is crucial to me as a writer and academic. And honestly? I’m still figuring this one out for myself. I tend to talk or ramble as I write, mostly to test out dialogue for how it sounds but also as an editing trick. I tell my students all the time, read your work out loud before assuming it’s all said and done! You’d be amazed at how many things you’ll catch by stumbling over words and phrases that the eye would skip over.

I think a lot of this comes from patterns I’ve picked up from reading. Because I read and listen to other author’s voices and styles, I’m more equipped to see mistakes in my own syntax and voice because I’ve diversified my exposure to other styles of sentence structure, etc. So, yes, this does go back to reading and finding other voices— but it truly does help!

Feel it out. First and foremost, I am a chaotic writer— my GDrive is a mess and I can’t even imagine how many WIPs I have that are just a single sentence or phrase at this point. But everyone has to start somewhere, and for most of us, that takes the form of a sentence, phrase, or occasionally, a single word.

I just kind of just go for it in the docs, to be honest. I’ll get frustrated, walk away, delete (keep a doc designated as a graveyard/junkyard for this purpose, trust me!), get distracted, etc. But that’s okay and to be expected with the creative process. Flow can’t happen without a little resistance at first.

Play with syntax. Would a longer sentence be more meaningful here? Shorter? What about repetition? Think about word choice as well— identify the tone and mood you want to project.

Word Choice. Specific words are used for a calculated focus or effect— think about it. Would you want to hear the smacking of lips from a few tables over on a first date? Or hear the sounds of your roommate going to town on an apple while you’re putting the moves on that hottie from said first date?

Readers can feel the significance and weight of a word, how much space it occupies in a sentence: they have real influence. It’s not just morphemes and phonemes and phonetics; words project experience and sensation, so it’s important to tie your words to your intent or the mood you’re attempting to create.

If I’m writing an intimate scene, I’m not going to use abrasive words that will jar the reader from the tone I’m working so hard to craft. I’ll choose soft words, immersive words — a little repetition, as a treat, so we can sink more gently into the scene. Mention light, texture, employ the softness the surrounds the characters and kinesthetic imagery (imagery describing the actions or movements of the body), but above all, keep it soft.

Synonyms are a wonderful thing! Have a word that’s too clunky for that specific phrase? Find a shorter one; too harsh, find a gentler one; so on and so forth.

This is where reading other stories will help (she says, circling back to point 1). Inevitably, it will diversify your personal vocabularly and your ability to string words together in sentences. The tricks I’ve absorbed by just reading? Innumerous, incalculable and lucky for me, they’re instinct by now.

Format. What’s the goal? If the scene is action heavy, keep the sentences short. Urgent. Focus on the senses we should be aware of in a fight scene. Looking for something more intimate? Stretch things out, suspend time and let people ease into the moment gently.

Short sentences can narrow your focus; longer sentences, the ones that ebb and flow and gather multiple senses, those are some of my favorites— so enriching and immersive.

What view is most important in a given scene? Would a character be more focused on the feel of their beloved’s skin against theirs or the how the hurt reflects in their eyes?

Synesthesia. Ah, yes, my favorite. Synesthasia is a technique adopted by writers to present ideas, characters, or places in such a manner that they appeal to more than one sense, like hearing, sight, smell, and touch at a given time. I am guilty of using this whenever I possibly can because I think being able to embody a scene is crucial to effective writing.

Sensory experience is something that helps me find my way in a narrative. It allows me to settle in. Think about the various qualities of differing sensory experiences, and their consequence. Every sense doesn’t need to be included, just because you can does not mean you should.

Plus, it’s quite convenient for implying intimacy. A character who notices that another character smells of bergamot, cinnamon, or home accomplishes a lot of things in a few words. It immerses the reader in the scene in a very real way; it’s a quick, easy avenue into establishing a history and a relationship between the two characters; and it implies something deeper than a passing acquaintance/platonic interest.

But, I’m also an olfactory snob, so what do I know!

Oof, yeesh, sorry for the ramble here! I think the truth of it is this: I don’t make a lot of these choices consciously. I get stuck somewhere and feel my way around until I can make sense of it again, laying puzzle pieces or clues that I hope others will be able to find when they read it.

I guess my main advice is to read. Read often and well, experience other voices and styles, go outside your comfort zone! If you lock yourself away in that silo or echo chamber, you’ll only reinforce one style or approach— you’ll miss out on so much beauty and creative experiences that the world has to offer!

To close, I’m going to list and tag a few works and authors I’ve found to be instrumental in my reading and writing experience.

Best of luck anon!

QuinAnderson’s The Ultimate Guide to Writing Smut Fic

@loveshotzz , @carolmunson, @jo-harrington, @wroteclassicaly , @stevenose , @bettyfrommars (and I’m sure I’m forgetting some at this moment!! I’m sorry 😩) have their own special way of weaving a story, breathing emotion and life into it.

My fic rec tag

Poetry:

Crush by Richard Siken

Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz

Night Sky With Exit Wounds & Time Is A Mother by Ocean Vuong

The works of Louise Gluck, Elizabeth Bishop, Gloria Anzaldua, Slyvia Plath, Rilke, Ilya Kaminsky, and Jeanette Winslterson

Movies:

In the Mood for Love

Y tu mamá también

Moonlight

Atonement

[ihavedonenothingright]

Working on a side-by-side comparison of The Song of Achilles (Madeline Miller) and The Persian Boy (Mary Renault) because I hold that a large volume of the issues in TSOA's characterization of Patroclus come directly from Miller's attempts to make him a similar viewpoint character to Bagoas, and therefore, cast Achilles in a similar light to Renault's Alexander. I will note that Miller has not yet (to my knowledge) named The Alexander Trilogy specifically as an inspiration for The Song of Achilles, but she has named Renault as an inspiration, as well as a few other books of hers, so I think the likelihood is high she was referencing it. It's fairly obvious to me that the first line of The Song of Achilles is in the same vein as the first line of The Persian Boy, and I suspect that is intentional; both as a form of homage to the structure of epic poetry, and as a means of emphasizing the importance familial ties will play in the text.

"My father was a king and the son of kings" vs. "Lest anyone should suppose I am a son of nobody..."

Miller's Patroclus is not beat-for-beat Renault's Bagoas, but I do believe he's inspired by and designed to almost contrast with him. Bagoas identifies deeply with his lineage and his father, who were taken from him early, while Patroclus does not identify with his lineage and was rejected by his father. Bagoas wants to be a man by the terms of his society, but is prevented from doing so, while Patroclus rejects most of his culture's aspects of manhood, and the one time he meets them he is killed. It's important, however, that both of them are noncombatants (by choice or no) because it positions them away from the acts of killing, rape, and destruction their Special Blond Guys are doing, thereby making the blondies more likable. But while Bagoas's position as a noncombatant is rooted in history, Patroclus's is a notable departure from his position in The Iliad.

I'll go more in depth on all of this once I have the time, but if you haven't read any of Renault's works, I highly recommend them. Prepare yourself for a... flawed portrayal of Persia though.

[monstersinthecosmos]

I was asked in that Fanfic Writer Asks thing 💛 What is the most impactful lesson you’ve learned about writing? and I wanted to break it out into its own space.

The No. 1 Most Impactful Lesson is Write What You Want to Read

But I do want to speak about this for a minute because like everything important that I know about writing ALWAYS comes back to this idea, and there's two main points I want to make about it.

Your "VOICE" is about your taste and your ideas more than it is about your technical skill, language, and structure.

People I think stress about "voice" thinking that they need to develop their language and prose and rhythm and all the flowery poetry. I don't think it matters, personally. I think if you have an idea, the idea itself is the thing that drives the story.

Fanfic is awesome to use to learn how to write because it's accessible to everyone, and you get such a wide sampling of skill in one place. And sometimes you can see a really atrocious fic and it kinda teaches you what not to do, and helps you understand what you do or don't like as a reader, but sometimes you also see the good idea peeking through and you can enjoy it anyway. There are fics I ADORE that are so sloppily written, break all the rules, formatted like shit LOL, and I'm still HERE FOR IT because the author had such great ideas.

I'm sure anyone who's learned a second language had learned this, but, I remember when I was studying abroad that the college president welcomed us to the program and gave us this huge pep talk about how like, when you're out in the world speaking a second language, your grammar isn't important. If you can COMMUNICATE, that's what's important. If you can point to the apple you want to buy and say "Apple buy", the person will understand what you're trying to say.

So I think of writing that way, too. Your ideas are more important than your technical skill. Share the ideas. Keep sharing the ideas. The skill will follow when you're putting the time in.

2. Writing for fun is just as valuable as writing for work.

I took a long break from fanfic writing in my 20s because I kinda thought I'd "moved on" and that it had been my teenager hobby. And I had gone to college for photography and becoming a professional photographer really killed a lot of my passion for the art. College really brainwashed me into thinking creativity is a waste of time if it's not monetized, so even though I always enjoyed writing, I spent a few years being hard on myself and thinking it was stupid to waste time on writing fic because I couldn't sell it.

And that's such bullshit?

Because the truth is that, by telling myself "Don't write stuff you can't sell" I just wound up not writing anything at all?

And writing is like, my lil thing that that I do for fun. I can do it for fun. It feels good. It's the space I've made to be creative where I specifically don't have to worry about money, and I value it so fucking much.

I'm sure there are other people who bypassed this life lesson by NOT falling into a capitalist trap LOL but if I can share that, to help others avoid it, I will!

Write what you want to read, because it's fun, because you want to! Because you have good taste and that's your voice! You can be confident and stand up and say "I think this idea is cool so I'm going to share it with you!"

Trust yourself and your taste!!!!!!!!!!!! Don't stress about the technical stuff, it will follow!

(Bonus point #3 is bonus because it's a little more about technical stuff but if you start thinking about write what you want to read WHEN YOU READ it really helps inform how you think about your story structure and pacing. Like when I get stuck on a pacing thing I'm always thinking "Would this bore me if I were reading it? Would I want to be slow burned? Would I want more time spent on this payoff?" etc. I think that shift in mindset really helps when it comes to your story structure!!!!!!!!!!!)

[fox-stuck]

I'm sooo interested in Riker's comments at the end of Schisms (6x05) re: the invasive and violent operations being proof that this group of aliens was, and he says this in a harsh and resentful tone - "more than curious." Because whoa, what a line to end this episode on!!! Obviously completely fair but also what a pointed reflection on contemporary scientific practices and mindset?

Human methods of scientific study (although I recognize we are several centuries behind tng) have been are brutal and cruel. Even if we ignore (which is a bold choice) the dehumanization we weaponize to perform procedures, testing, and experiments that are eugenic in nature on actual human beings, we are also horrid to creatures and things we do not view as having a worthwhile life or consciousness.

Like... scientific studies are notoriously cruel to jellyfish. Which I know may be a weird hill to die on but I will die on it. (sidenote: it's not actually a weird hill because we should treat every thing better regardless of internal structures and consciousness.) A short and simplified jellyfish brief, if you don't know, when jellyfish die their bodies age backwards and sink to the seafloor; growing into a polyp which will sprout numerous more jellies. This earned them a bit of a reputation for being immortal even though that's not really what's happening. In reality when they endure an intense enough amount of trauma to disrupt their body or its functions they regress, sink, and start the life cycle anew. As a result the methods by which we study jellyfish are violent.

“Scientists who study the regeneration of the immortal jellyfish know this well, and have developed a roster of abuses to “induce rejuvenation,” as one study calls it. One standard method of traumatizing the jellyfish is to place the creature in a solution of cesium chloride, a colorless salt. An alternative, called the needle treatment, asks you to pierce the gooey umbrella with a stainless-steel needle. Some scientists drag the needle through the creature’s body in a scribble, removing the needle as burst cells coagulate like cumulus. Others stab repeatedly, up to fifty times per jellyfish. You can also heat shock the jellyfish, raising the temperature of the surrounding water to nearly 100 degrees. Or you can simply starve it. If you do not give the jellyfish more than it can handle, it will not begin to regrow. If there is not enough cesium chloride in the petri dish, if there are not enough needles or there is too little heat, the jellyfish will remain adult, alive. So you have to ensure there is enough stress, enough trauma." (chapter: Us Everlasting, How Far The Light Reaches, Sabrina Imbler, 2022)

Our methods of research almost always emphasize getting information as quickly as possible; explaining away our egregious violations of autonomy as necessary. Something about that has always felt really cruel to me and its part of the reason I pivoted from the specific career in biology I had wanted. I know it's "just a jellyfish" but it's also not? They are an important part of an ecosystem and landscape that we have chosen to define as a nuisance. Targets of aggression and anger in the wild fishermen often choose to destroy their bodies unknowingly creating hundreds if not thousands more. Our violent actions against them manifest worse conditions for ourselves and the ocean's ecosystem - it's a nauseating cycle.

I often end up thinking about jellyfish when I watch Star Trek: TNG. So many of the people flying through space "to explore strange new worlds" get so hung up on a being's experiences of consciousness if they don't explicitly mirror their own. I cannot get over everything that happens in Schism being such an interesting thought experiment on autonomy? Like the same episode where Data reads "Ode to Spot" and everyone sort of fails to recognize the beauty in his poetry, is also the episode where the crew is being kidnapped for experiments and reflecting on it, is also the same episode where Dr. Crusher (in a rare case!) doesn't do the extra tests right away and sends Riker home with hot milk before bed as a treatment, is also the episode where in the end Riker has resentment for being experimented on and the loss of a life... I just don't even know if they meant there to be this much thought about autonomy to be honest.

None of this is an in-universe criticism about the crew because I think having these kind of hiccups and topics in character development are interesting! I just think it's almost comical when the era a science-fiction show is written in rips through it's world building so hard it just sort of stares at you. Which is a great method of reflecting on our current times but it also a little funny in a show universe that claims to have moved past inequality when it's like, "ah yes but do you experience your emotions and consciousness like I, a human federation officer, no? then how do you know you even have them?!"

[jxe-jxer]

What are we missing from the big picture?

Looking back at my time using Pinterest to study literature, I can see that it has clear pros and cons that make it harder to fully understand some parts of the material. When you use Pinterest to interact with difficult texts like Blake's "The Little Vagabond," it does limit your ability to analyze them in some important ways.

What Doesn't the Tool Allow Me to See? One of the most important things that Pinterest hides is the depth of literary analysis. Literary works have a lot of subtleties, layers of meaning, and background information that pictures can't fully show. For example, finding a picture of Jesus kicking the traders out of the temple helped me understand Blake's criticism of organized religion better, but it didn't help me understand the historical or philosophical background of Blake's ideas. You can look at visual symbols and emotional connections on Pinterest, but it can't look at language, meter, historical context, or Blake's larger body of work as deeply as a literary analysis tool or academic resource could.

What are some of its flaws? The main problem with Pinterest is that it's a very visual tool that groups pictures and ideas together based on how they look together. This means that more important ideas, like Blake's use of comedy, tone, or rhetorical structure, can be overlooked in favor of what is interesting or makes you feel something right away. Pinterest also doesn't give you a way to comment on or study these pictures other than to save and arrange them. It doesn't allow for the critical thought that's needed to understand how deep Blake's work goes intellectually. Also, the tool depends on material that already exists—Pinterest only has the pictures that other users have uploaded. This means that there are gaps in the resources, especially for more specific or difficult topics like Blake's poetry.

Does it show a bias in the way it analyzes things? It's true that Pinterest leans toward emotional and visual analysis. The site puts a lot of weight on how things look and how they make people feel, which can change how I understand texts like "The Little Vagabond." For example, when I found pictures that went with the poem's criticism of religion, I was drawn to how strongly they made me feel. However, this response might get in the way of a more balanced or logical analysis. There is also a bias toward pictures and interpretations from today, which may take the user away from Blake's original 18th-century setting. Pinterest's focus on pictures makes it easier for people to make readings based on feelings and symbols rather than on textual details or historical analysis.

If it doesn't mean to, does it have an ideology? Pinterest promotes an idea of personalization and emotional involvement without meaning to. People who use the platform are encouraged to choose material based on their own tastes, interests, and feelings. This can make literary analysis easier to understand and relate to, but it can also lead to subjective interpretations that miss or oversimplify the author's point. If you look at Blake, who often criticizes institutions like the Church, the platform's focus on human experience might make simple readings of his social and political criticisms stand out more than more complex ones. Also, because Pinterest is all about creativity and inspiration, it might automatically favor interpretations that are more positive or aesthetically pleasing rather than ones that deal with the darker, tougher parts of a book.

What tools do I need to get rid of or understand this bias? To balance out Pinterest's focus on pictures and feelings, I would need other tools that focus on text-based research. It would be more in-depth if people could access academic databases, read literary reviews, and learn about history. There are intellectual and historical gaps that a visual tool can't fill in. Tools like JSTOR or Google Scholar could help. To better understand the emotional and symbolic meanings, I think it would also help to use tools that help with close reading, such as digital annotation platforms (like Hypothesis) or literary guides that break down poetic devices, references, and thematic structure.

[daisychainsandbowties]

casper how do you write so fast, i take like 2 weeks to even get near 2000 words. teach me ur ways sire :(

oh i have a few pieces of advice but i’m not sure they’re very useful 🥺

1. i try to visualise a [container] of prose the same as i do a poem. mostly a poem is very easy to write but very hard to assemble.

once i have all the lego bricks there’s a nice instruction manual of emotion and syntax and structure in my brain and i just put it down. (sidenote i recently made The Ghost from star wars and the manual had a little lego Hera who walked along the bottom of the page and told you how far along you were 🥹 it was cute!)

for me it’s the same with prose. i know how to write most sentences on account of having written hundreds of thousands of prose sentences in my life (and having read millions of them). a sentence is a unit like a lego brick that exists already (mostly) so it isn’t hard to write one.

likewise a paragraph, once all the work behind the paragraph is done, takes maybe a minute to put down. i take long walks and do all my thinking about the structure of the narrative then. when i sit down to write i do it fast because the prose is, in essence, already there. i just have to find its shape, but that’s as easy as walking downstairs in the dark. i know the way and i know what step along the staircase the cat likes to sleep on.

2. i have a specific environment in which it is possible for me to write. dimly-lit room, noise-cancelling headphones, minecraft nostalgia playlist on youtube. i don’t know if this influences my speed, but it allows me to write for hours at a time uninterrupted, which i would imagine is half the battle.

3. with poetry i am a perfectionist. you must be. every sentence has to be like a gunshot. prose is different. i do not take it as seriously, for one thing (it is not my profession to write prose as it is with poetry), so i can write imperfect sentences and just let them be. i am aware that some of my prose is dense, meandering, and undisciplined, but i simply don’t care.

that too is important. you write to tell the story, not to be perfect. if you agonise too much over every sentence it takes forever to write. some will be ordinary and that’s good! most prose should be ordinary because that’s pleasant to read. i think there should be beauty but it’s pointless to try doing that all the time.

4. i notice when i teach that people complain they cannot get better at writing, but they never just write. low stakes, “no one will ever see this” writing. you will be faster and more fluid if you practice instead of always expecting your writing to be worth putting on Ao3. (or in my students’ case, showing to their professor)

5. make sure you think about writing a great deal more than you write. popular textposts make this out to be bad but it isn’t. how will you write when you have to invent everything in the moment?!?!

no, sit down with your words and your scenarios and your dialogue prepared. when you sit down it should be to write!! only!!, with an occasional pause to think through a sentence-level problem that cropped up. when i sit down with no clue about a scene i can’t write 1k in thirty minutes (which is my ordinary rate), but if i go for a walk or vividly hallucinate during a zoom meeting i can sit down and write that much with ease. i already know what’s going to happen and how everyone feels about it and the colours and the way i want to describe certain things. yes writing is a craft but only a small amount involves your hands. you are whittling the wood with your brain most of the time.

[askbensolo]

Hey dude, what's some tips you have for writing poetry?

Great question! Hmm...it’s hard for me to answer because it just kinda comes naturally to me.

I write my best stuff when I’m super in my feelings. I just feel things so hard and all these images come to mind and I do my best to put them in the words that would get someone else to feel what I’m feeling. Sometimes words and phrases are just right and they fit together perfectly like pieces in a puzzle. And sometimes they don’t so I fiddle around with them till they do.

I guess a tip I have is to not stress out about structure, like rhyming, stanzas, etc. Structured poetry is super cool, but if you’re too focused on fitting within a specific poetic scheme, you can lose spontaneity and natural flow. The most important thing is the feeling of the work, and everything else is icing on the cake.

Dang, this is making Poet Ben squirm. I’m tired of writing articles for work.

I’d love to see some of your stuff if you ever write anything, anon!

[6316454]

I write now because I feel I have been given no other choice. When I started writing as a small child it simply came out of me. I had no choice but to write. The endless possibilities I was capable of harnessing and combining were irresistible to me. I study the practice I had as a child like expressionists studied the art of all children. To discover something about the nature of the creative process.

Writing is to me now something I do in a perfunctory way. In academics I was given an assignment and I struggled the whole way through. Regardless of the perceived value of the outcome I struggled. This I believe is the result of having that childlike approach beaten out of me. This does not make me unique. I write this essay to express this fact about myself. It is not a unique circumstance and the road I am on is not a unique one. "Bigger idiots than I have accomplished it."

I have been told that art should have a point. You should seek to accomplish something with a piece or collection of works. This was a surprise to me, when I was at my most artistic and prolific. As a teenager I wrote reams of poetry, because I had no choice. There were things I could not tell a single soul, not even a journal. I wrote because I loved words. I loved learning new words, discovering new words excited me. I loved choosing words based on the feel and flavor and exoticism. Using as many strange and unusual words was reason enough to me to write a poem. One or two particularly expressive words could motivate me to write dozens of verses. As an adult I learned that this is called pretentious or inaccessible or overwrought or flowery. Not a good thing. I learned that a writer should consider their audience and what the piece communicates to them. At first I dually accepted this but attempted to seek a balance between my manic compulsion for verbosity and restraint for the sake of consumption. But "God didn't make you crazy for no reason!"

Eventually my artistic practice withered and died in the specifically controlled hothouse of the collegiate level art class. My desire to achieve and have my art recognized was stunted by inability to understand the principles being taught to me. I felt stupid for not having the foundation to keep up with the course material or understand the point of the exercises. I panicked under the immense pressure of producing master studies or a certain number of still life sketches in charcoal. Despite multiple efforts to reconnect with my artistic practice over my years, you cannot water a dried, yellowed husk of a begonia back to health. Regardless of how much you would like it to be true.

I am not an artist, I accepted. It was a bleak realization to have. For much of my life I eschewed traditional milestones or achievements in favor of art. Now as an adult I feel I have nothing to show for it. No marketable skills, no achievement in non artistic arenas. I'm not an academic, or a designer, or a singer or an actor or a writer or an artist. I turn in my resume to multiple places a day with the help of the internet. But it is difficult to market oneself when you feel there is nothing to market.

As I feel doors have been closed to me I have grown bitter. I have experienced loss and grief beyond my years. I do not want to recover. I do not want to "work harder." And yet I struggle to be "kinder" to myself. My self expression is almost completely dammed up. What would be the point in a poem? What would I want the reader to take away? Would my essay have a compelling structure, and appropriate narrative? What do you write about when you have spent over a decade stagnating in obscurity? What experience do you draw on?

I am writing this essay to make no point. I am writing the words which occur to me. I am imparting no wisdom. I am telling, arguably, a fragment of a narrative. But when you have no skills, any output is progress. Nonlinear progress can still be important. In a way I am my own audience. Maybe my thesis is an apology. For abandoning my artistic practice. For neglecting my best and most reliable audience: a little girl who loved the thesaurus and Edgar Allen Poe.

[quortknee]

I am curious to know, what do you like the most of the WH40k universe and what do you like the least?

(note: i got too excited and rambled on for a while, sorry about the really long answer lol)

HI ANON, I’ve just recently gotten into warhammer proper— the black library more specifically. I’ve only read eisenhorn (excluding magos because I wanted to read ravenor beforehand), and the first three horus heresy books so far. I know about some other key story beats just because I am online™ and I cannot avoid the older, more well-known lore. I have never played the tabletop game nor any of the video games (yet). SO it’s a bit challenging to answer this properly.

that said,

off the bat if i could answer this OUT of universe, my favourite thing would be Dan Abnett just as a writer because that guy rules. my least favourite would be how games workshop is seemingly allergic to good business decisions regarding the reprinting of their older books and that they have done nothing to stop scalpers going hog wild lol. ALSO how mcneill writes women and "exposition" (aka tell and re-tell the reader important info so they KNOW it is important rather than treating the reader as a thinking being who can understand subtext and remember the most basic of things from previous chapters/povs/books)

jokes aside, here’s some answers to your question from my current perspective (this is so hard so im gonna share a couple rather than just one each, as i couldn’t pick. most of my gripes with 40k are out of universe minus one woman thing which ill mention below):

I very much enjoy the structure of the inquisition and how many moving parts and types of people an inquisitor employs while on the job. creates a really compelling and vibrant group dynamic within a noir-ish subgenre (i guess? i couldnt figure out how exactly to word that). although i am incredibly biased as the eisenhorn series has coloured my view on the inquisition quite ardently on its own so who knows!!

speaking of Eisenhorn and his crew; glossia is a really cool secret code concept and i personally love it, but that could also just be the romantic in me enjoying the beautiful idea of using personal relationships and poetry off hand with no written cipher to encode your speech

I love how chaos and faith are written as Things; how all of humanity is a hair’s width away from being corrupted, as it is simply the human condition to surrender to faith and “our” base values when threatened or otherwise. It’s really beautiful and tragic

speaking of tragedy; the creation and existence of each of the primarchs and their legions of astartes is just absolutely brilliant. The Emperor creating astartes after the thunder warriors (i think?) to give his soldiers more humanity overall and THAT being the thing that is his downfall (or ascension depending on how you look at it ig) is so beautifully tragic.

Fav characters so far have been literally every main/supporting character in Eisenhorn as well as Loken and Tarvitz from HH. I also think Magnus is really interesting as a primarch so far. Poor guy though lol. I am aware of his uh... big oopsie

Hereticus is still my favourite book I’ve read so far within the black library. (SPOILER: Fischig staying true to himself and his faith and doing all he can to save his friend but not knowing he just contributed to the very thing he hates most (chaos) through Osma, resulting in Medea having to kill him after hailing him to their location to give him a chance to apologize and rejoin the band (against Eisenhorn’s will). And THEN as a last stand while Aemos dies, he and Eisenhorn work together to turn Fischig’s freshly murdered corpse into a perfect daemonhost to imprison Cherubael as a weapon/tool for Eisenhorn to use in the coming battle… END SPOILER) I am still not over it and I don’t think I ever will be. That book is fucking nuts. Abnett did not have to go that hard but I am grateful for it regardless

i hate the remembrancer Petronella Vivar with a burning passion, she is the worst written character in the series period (so far?)

characters I would beat over the head with a steel pipe: Osma, Heldane, Erebus, Eidolon, Lucius, and Petronella. The other characters in this list I can still appreciate as villains. Petronella though... I could probably list some others too but those are the ones who came to mind right away

Other than Petronella idk what I would say regarding what I like the least as of now. I love the other remembrancers (minus the way Karsky was written in false gods, but again this is a McNeill issue), so its literally just her I can't stand. I blame McNeill for this though, with his glaring inability to write a compelling woman whatsoever

also orks are silly i like them

i hope this is satisfactory to you, anon!! please excuse any errors, i answered this first thing in the morning and got way too excited about it lmao. ty for the ask : D

[cssnder]

7 and 22 for the writing ask.

--from @wintherlywords

What books have shaped the way you think about writing the most? Why?

Donna Tartt, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Emily Brontë. Donna for her masterful use of the language, the realism of her dialogues, and the intricacies of her novels; Fyodor for his philosophical themes and his accurate understanding of the human condition; and Emily for her intensity and fearlessness to write about evil and the taboo in such a sensitive manner. Their work, their words, — I think about constantly. It is always in my mind, and if I'm being completely honest, I think they are the trio that influenced me most because they gave me an understanding of what I want my writing to be like and what I want my work to reflect. Their work resonates with me in a way nothing else ever has. This is no small thing. And when I write, it is undeniable that their influence can be found in my own words.

But while these are my most notable influences, it would be a lie to say that no other writer had an impact on me. I believe that every book I've ever read impacted me on some level, some in subtle ways and others in a more significant, essential manner. When I was 10, — after my first attempt at writing a fantasy book I found I wasn't too passionate about, — I discovered Stephen King's work. The supernatural and the horror had, by then, become my bailiwick, and very quickly I found myself diving into his work. When I was eleven, my grandma offered me Carrie and Cujo for my birthday. Carrie has been a notable influence ever since. The theme of fanaticism and religion, the imagery, the structure of the novel with its press articles in between the actual narration — all of this has been incredibly meaningful to me back then, not only creatively speaking but also personally; for just like Carrie, I too was bullied during the majority of my school years. For a very long time, Carrie has been my favourite book, and it still holds a special place in my heart, at least because of the role it played during my childhood.

Poetry plays an important role as well in the way I think about writing. Especially when it comes to rhythm. I don't know if I've ever mentioned it here but everything I write, I say aloud. I “speak-write”, one could say. I pay close attention to the rhythm of each sentence, each paragraph, making sure it all flows well. If I don't like a sentence, I re-work it, repeat it in different ways, change it until I come up with something that satisfies me. I'm constantly reading and re-reading aloud what I wrote. Some would say it is a form of perfectionism, and perhaps it is, but I believe it is simply my way of working. Oh, surely it is nothing new. Plenty of writers have been doing it I suppose and among them — that, I learnt only recently — my beloved Dostoevsky. William Mills Todd wrote in his introduction of The Idiot (the Penguin Classics edition):

“Dostoevsky would work late into the might over his notebooks, jotting down ideas. Then he would dictate passages to [Snitkina], and she would transcribe them and promptly return them neatly copied for editing.”

The man would dictate while pacing around the room like a maniac. Todd also quotes Jacques Catteau from his 1989 study Dostoevsky and the Process of Literary Creation:

“From this time on, the rhythm of the Dostoevskian sentence may be defined as a walking movement, where the breath of the spoken word is marked in the written style.”

Besides Dostoevsky, Donna Tartt herself talks about writers reading their own work as well, although not specifically during the writing process:

“I remember the first time I ever heard a recording of TS Eliot reading The Waste Land, which was a poem I knew very well. I was so enchanted by the stresses that he put on different lines and he made you see the poem in a completely different way. Much more in his way. I think it's wonderful to hear a writer read their own work. I love to read my work.”

I'm only using my biggest influences as examples here — but anyway, I'm digressing.

Of course, many different pieces of literature have impacted me throughout the years and it would be unfair not to mention them, considering that they are still a part of me even to this day: The Picture of Dorian Gray, Edgar A. Poe's work, Frankenstein, The Strange Case of the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Iliad & The Odyssey — the last, were very important to me when I was 14! —, Macbeth... Quite frankly, I have read so many different books and so many of them I cherish! It is regrettable that can't possibly name them all. Even if I could, it would take far too much time and I'm afraid this reply is already very long anyway. I will end it here, I suppose.

How much of your own self/experiences do you believe pours into your projects? If this differs per project, which projects have the most and least of you?

I believe it is pretty much impossible for an author to create any sort of work without pouring at least a little bit of themselves in it.

Thus Saith The Lord is the work I poured the most of myself in so far, but that's probably because it is my main project. From Wilhelm's refusal to believe in morality to Oliver's gastritis passing by the existential ponderings in the novel, these are inspired by my own thoughts — generally found in my diary entries —, experiences or beliefs. And when it isn't inspired by me, it is inspired by people I know or used to know in the past. I think that, by the time my novels will be brought to completion, all of them shall end up with pretty much the same amount of myself in them. It'll just differ in the execution, in what ways I chose to pour my soul. That's what will make the difference.

[clementinatehasperdido]

My 2023 in books. Part IV

October

Big Swiss - Jen Beagin ⭐⭐⭐ 3/5

It is a witty, funny, very clever novel. It gives us the troop of messed-up female protagonists and I think it is very important to be able to empathize and love this type of protagonists. It is a book that you have to pick up and read at specific moments in life.

 “It takes an enormous amount of energy—and courage—to free yourself, to follow the path of transformation without abandoning yourself, without fleeing from your pain and all the loss you’ve experienced.” 

A visit from the goon squad- Jennifer Egan  ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4/5   

I liked. It has a strange structure. It's not exactly a novel, it's several stories intertwined with each other. You live, you get old and you die. It breaks your heart a little but at the same time it's beautiful. If you like music you will also enjoy it.

“There's a fine line between thinking about somebody and thinking about not thinking about somebody, but I have the patience and the self-control to walk that line for hours - days, if I have to.”

The Candy House - Jennifer Egan ⭐⭐⭐⭐4/5

It's a difficult book to describe, it's good. They are intertwined stories. It's about technology, very black mirror. It serves as a sequel to “A visit from the goon squad” but can be read on its own. What I like about Egan is that she takes the time to give each of his characters independence. This book shows that as humans we have the need to connect with each other and I think that is beautiful.

“Who could resist the chance to revisit our memories, the majority of which we’d forgotten so completely that they seemed to belong to someone else?”

Bakkhai - Translation Anne Carson - Euripides - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐  5/5    

I'm going to say it again... Anne Carson was born to translate Euripides. I read in a review “Anne Carson and Euripides where born for eachother” I love it. The Bacchae is a beautiful tragedy, even subversive I would say.

“Beginnings are special because most of them are fake”

The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories -Howard Phillips Lovecraft ⭐⭐⭐  3/5 

It's a reread, spooky october. Love it. I don't have much to say about it, I read it little by little before going to sleep every day to get in the mood. I would like to say that it was more transcendental for my life.

Orpheus & Eurydice: A Lyric Sequence - Gregory Orr ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐  5/5 

A beautiful collection of poems. It destroyed my soul. It is the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. I know the story by heart, even so every word hurt me. I loved it. I don't really read poetry, but this was a nice surprise.

“To guide someone through the halls of hell is not the same as love”

Electra- Other Version Translation by Anne Carson -  Sophocles  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐  5/5 

Lines above I already declared my love for Anne Carson. I will declare my love for Electra by Sophocles. It is a wonderful tragedy. It shows that when injustice persists, when the laws do not work, there, within one, the most human thing that exists is born: resentment.

“As for me- what harm can do it do to die in words?”

“I live in a place of tears”

November

We Paint - Chloe Ashby ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4/5   

So sad. Written in a very beautiful way, another book about grief. But this time it is the grief of having lost a best friend. Somehow it brought back memories of the past. Heartbreaking.

“Better to be strangers for life, she must have thought, than to pick each other apart, one long, slow day at a time.” 

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous- Ocean Vuong ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐  5/5 

Another of my favorite books I read this year. Damn Vuong writes with immeasurable talent. Gentle but strong. At times raw but at others soft. With such detail that each word is well calculated. I shed tears all the time. It is a perfect book.

“Sometimes being offered tenderness feels like the very proof that you've been ruined.” 

“When does a war end? When can I say your name and have it mean only your name and not what you left behind?”

“I'm sorry I keep saying How are you? when I really mean Are you happy?”

Lanny - Max Porter ⭐⭐⭐⭐  4/5 

A fucking weird story. But I liked it. Max Porter has that power to leave me surprised every time. It was a quick read, I enjoyed it. It's like a fable. It reminded me of Latin American magical realism.

“False things, endings. Sustenance for fools and never what they claim to be.”

All the light we cannot see - Anthony Doerr ⭐⭐⭐  3/5

When I read it I gave it 4 stars, in retrospect I give it 3. I did enjoy it a lot. I think it does a lot, it says a lot and it's a nice story, very sad tho. But I was left with a strange feeling, as if a piece was missing. It has very descriptive and beautiful prose. 

“You know the greatest lesson of history? It’s that history is whatever the victors say it is. That’s the lesson. Whoever wins, that’s who decides the history. We act in our own self-interest. Of course we do. Name me a person or a nation who does not. The trick is figuring out where your interests are.” 

When all is said - Anne Griffin⭐⭐⭐⭐  4/5 

Another sad but intricate book. Precious. It is narrated by a dying man who decides to talk to five important people in his life. Full of regrets and reproaches, the book presents a nostalgic story. I cried. I felt it very close to my heart.

“I’m here to remember – all that I have been and all that I will never be again.”

A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes - Suzanne Collins ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐  5/5  

Is it really any surprise that this book gets a 5/5? It's Suzanne Collins, it's THG. I think Collins knows how to write about his characters very well and knows how to write what is precise. That's why there are 4 books and no more. This book is exactly what it should be, the villain origin story.

“You’ve no right to starve people, to punish them for no reason. No right to take away their life and freedom. Those are things everyone is born with, and they’re not yours for the taking. Winning a war doesn’t give you that right. Having more weapons doesn’t give you that right. Being from the Capitol doesn’t give you that right. Nothing does.” 

White nights- Fyodor Dostoevsky⭐⭐⭐⭐  4/5 

Did i had to do this to myself? No. But I did it. Depressant. It's so…heavy. White Nights is a short story, quick to read but damn it leaves you paralyzed.

“I don’t know how to be silent when my heart is speaking.” 

December

A Pale View Of The Hills - Kazuo Ishiguro ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐  5/5

Beautiful story by Ishiguro. Again, Ishiguro knows how to write stories that break your heart. It is the story of a mother and her youngest daughter who talk about the suicide of their eldest daughter. A beautiful text. Worthy of shedding tears.  

“As with a wound on one's own body, it is possible to develop an intimacy with the most disturbing of things”

What We Talk About When We Talk About Love- Raymond Carver  

Raymond Carver, terrible human being. There is no review about it for that reason. But good stories.

Cathedral-Raymond Carver  

Raymond Carver, terrible human being. There is no review about it for that reason. But good stories.

The Burning God- R.F. Kuang ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐  5/5 

The end. It destroyed me, there are no words. I closed the year with this book. It's a strange mix of relief and sadness. It is the devastation left by the acts of war but also the self-realization of what one has done. How are actions justified? It was a great closure to the saga.

“Take what you want. I’ll hate you for it. But I’ll love you forever. I can’t help but love you.” 

“It doesn’t go away. It never will. But when it hurts, lean into it. It’s so much harder to stay alive. That doesn’t mean you don’t deserve to live. It means you’re brave.”