#it’s a really good book I recommend it!

[hedgehog-moss]

Pls give recommendations for Odd books 🙏

Here we go, a list of literary oddity :) This post contains majestic spheres, alien taxonomies, cruel subway polytheism, a fourth-dimensional cat, disturbing earthworms, infinite space football, existential mussel terror, a Parisian absurdist time loop, and a picture of a telegraph-pole-man-cheetah. I'm not exactly recommending these books, in the sense that I won't take any complaints if you find them more odd than good, and some of them transcend the concepts of good and bad anyway.

• The Other City, Michal Ajvaz. It's all like this:

• Contes du demi-sommeil, Marcel Béalu ('Half-asleep tales') —is the book that prompted my post about stories that have no ambition or justification beyond being odd. I'm sad that it hasn't been translated :( One of the tales is about a strange opaline sphere that rolls on the road. It doesn't accelerate when the road becomes a steep slope but continues rolling majestically. At one point it floats away towards the sky. Someone wonders if it was the moon. Someone else says authoritatively "It was an angel's egg." Everyone is reassured by this explanation. The whole thing feels exactly like remembering a dream you had. There is also a man who reads too much and whose body atrophies so only his head is left and his wife puts it in an egg cup for better stability.

• Leonora Carrington— The Skeleton's Holiday, or maybe the Hearing Trumpet. I've read them so long ago but I think the latter is the one with the old ladies and nuns? There's also a guy who was murdered in his bath by a still-life painter because he said there was a carrot in one of his paintings, but it might not have been a carrot? It's hard to remember details from this book without feeling like I might be making them up. Bonus Leonora Carrington painting which kind of feels like a short story:

• The Codex Seraphinianus, of course. I wish there were more bizarre encyclopaedias out there.

Also I love this review:

• Sleep Has His House, Anna Kavan —I really liked the way this book used language; making life feel like a fever dream even more than in Samanta Schweblin's Fever Dream (which I really liked too.)

The eye is checking a record of silence, space; a nightmare, every horror of this world in its frigid and blank neutrality. The actual scope of its orbit depends on the individual concept of desolation, but approximate symbols are suggested in long roving perspectives of ocean, black swelled, in slow undulation, each whaleback swell plated in armour-hard brilliance with the moonlight clanking along it . . .

• The second half of Michael Ende's Neverending Story, where things get stranger! I remember the hand-shaped castle with eyes and the city of amnesiac former emperors and the miserable ugly worms who cry all the time out of shame then create beautiful architecture with their tears...

• The Gray House, Mariam Petrosyan. This is the one I had in mind when I talked about a 'museum of the strange, but one you wouldn't want to be trapped in after closing time'. Another book that made me feel uncomfortable in a similar (good) way was Edward Carey's Observatory Mansions, the protagonist of which is a man who curates an odd private museum and can't stand the sight of his own hands.

• Oh, speaking of uncomfortable, and hands—He Digs A Hole, by Danger Slater. To me this book was in the more-odd-than-good category but I liked its refusal to have a coherent philosophical meaning. It's about a man who can't sleep so he goes to his garden shed and saws off his hands and replaces them with gardening tools. Then he starts digging a hole. And then it gets weird. (Read at your own discretion if you have a worm phobia; there's some body horror featuring sexually aggressive earthworms. And then it gets disturbing.)

• 17776 — Someone sent me an ask a few years back to recommend this online multimedia narrative to me and I really enjoyed it! Here's the summary, borrowed from the wiki page: Set in the distant future in which all humans have become immortal and infertile, the series follows three sapient space probes that watch humanity play an evolved form of American football in which games can be played for millennia over distances of thousands of miles. The work explores themes of consciousness, hope, despair, and why humans play sports.

• Saint-Glinglin, Raymond Queneau —the author admitted that this book presents some "internal discontinuities." I didn't like it much but I respect the talent it takes to write a novel where everything feels like a random digression, including the key suspenseful scene that matters to the plot. The one digression I loved had to do with the way the narrator is existentially horrified by various sea creatures. It's like he dreads them so much he can't help but think about them when he should be telling a story.

The oyster... This gob of phlegm, this brutal way of refusing the outside world, this absolute isolation, and this disease: the pearl... If I conceptualise them even a little, my terror starts anew. The mussel is even more significant than the oyster and even more immediately admissible in the domain of terror. Let us indeed consider that this little sticky mass whose collective stupidity haunts our piers, consider that it is alive in the same way as a cow. Because there are no degrees in life. There is no more or less. The whole of life is present in every animal. To think that the mussel, that the mussel has, not a conscience, but a certain way of transcending itself: here I am once again plunged into abysses of anxiety and insecurity.

Near the beginning he philosophises about what would happen if a man and a lobster were the only two survivors of the apocalypse. The lobster would break the man's toe and the man would say, "We are the only beings that remain on this devastated Earth, lobster! The only living beings in the universe, struggling alone against the universal disaster, don't you want to be allies?" But the lobster would disdainfully walk away towards the ocean, and "the sight of the inflexible and imperturbable lobster pierces the sky of humanity with its unintelligible claws." (I can't overstate how little this has to do with the rest of the book.)

• Autumn in Beijing, Boris Vian —needless to say the story does not take place in autumn nor in Beijing.* To the extent that it can be said to be "about" something, it's about people trying to build a train station in a desert with tracks that lead nowhere. (I just went on goodreads to check the title, and it's actually called Autumn in Peking in English. I also discovered that it was featured in a list of Books I Regret Reading. I liked this book, but I understand.)

(* French writers love doing this—like when Alphonse Allais said about his 1893 book The Squadron's Umbrella "I chose this title because there aren't any umbrellas of any sort in this volume, and the important notion of the squadron, as a unit of the armed forces, is never brought up at all; in these conditions, hesitating would have been pure madness.")

• The Library at Mount Char, Scott Hawkins—I fear this one makes a little too much sense for this list, but you can't say it isn't weird; and I loved it and recommend it any chance I get.

• The Eleven Million Mile High Dancer, Carol Hill —this book was so wacky and made me laugh. I've not yet managed to successfully recommend it to someone; its brand of odd didn't resonate with the people I know who've read it but that's okay. You could say it's about a woman astronaut whose weird cat disappears into the fourth dimension (or the quantum realm?) and she goes to space to save him—but that makes the book sound more straightforward and less messy than it is. Her cat leaves her a note before he disappears:

• The Bald Soprano, Ionesco —fun fact, there's a tiny theatre in the Latin Quarter in Paris where this absurdist play has been staged every night for nearly 70 years, with the exact same set design and costumes and everything, like the actors are stuck in a time loop. They celebrated the 20,000th performance this year! There's an actress who has been playing her character for 40 years and said joining this theatre was like joining a religion. I've been going to see this play as a New Year tradition with my best friend since we were 14, so I love it madly, though I wouldn't say it's good, necessarily—the author said it was about "absolutely nothing, but a superior nothing."

• Statuary Gardens; or Les Mers perdues (apparently not translated) by Jacques Abeille. This man is obsessed with weird statues. Unfortunately I find his writing style rather dull—I feel like he takes strange ideas and makes them feel mundane in a bad way...! But his books still have a nice, quiet, oneiric atmosphere, and images that stayed with me, like a solitary gardener trying to grow stone statues in the depleted soil of a walled garden. Here are some illustrations from the second one:

I'll look into some of the books recommended on my previous post! (and I agree with the people who brought up Cortázar, Borges, and Junji Ito. <3) Some potentially-odd books I have on my to-read list: Clive Barker's Abarat, Goran Petrović's An Atlas Traced by the Sky, Salvador Plascencia's The People of Paper, Jean Ray's Malpertuis; Jan Weiss's The House of a Thousand Floors; Brice Tarvel's Pierre-Fendre.

[supercap2319]

A/N: This could be given as a sequel to my last Fiyero Tigelaar fic.

: readmore:

Y/N watched as Fiyero approached him, Galinda hot at his heels. The Winkie prince gave him an easy going smile. This adorable little bookworm would soon be his. Fiyero thought to himself. There wasn't a person alive who could resist him once he turned up the charm.

“Hello, there.” Fiyero wiggled his fingers as Y/N shut his book and laid it down, giving Fiyero an annoyed look. “Hello.” Y/N’s greeting was about as warm and welcoming as a winter frost. Fiyero didn't seem to mind or notice as he gave a small bow. “You're Y/N, correct?”

“Yes, that's correct.”

“Well, allow me to introduce myself. I am Fiyero Tigelaar of Winkie–”

“–I don't really give a damn who you are.” Y/N said.

The whole student body shared a collective gasp of shock. They had watched as Fiyero approached Y/N, only for the Upland boy to reject him. What was wrong with Y/N? Even Galinda was appalled by her brother's actions. “Y/N, how can you be so rude?” She admonished. “Fiyero is new here, and you're…you're…”

“You're a breath of fresh air.” Fiyero smiles.

“What?!” Everyone asked. Even Y/N was shocked by the Prince's unbothered attitude of how Y/N addressed him. Fiyero nods and smiles. “Yes, a breath of fresh air if you will. I've been to many schools to get swarmed by people who only say things that I wanna hear. It's refreshing to have someone have their own opinion for once. Tell me, Y/N. What are you doing out here?”

“Reading?” Y/N held up his book. “I trust you've seen one before. Or know how to read.”

Once again, Fiyero laughed as if Y/N’s snide comments didn't bother him in the slightest. Galinda gave an awkward chuckle as well. How could Fiyero be so nonchalant about being insulted? Especially his intelligence. “Well, I suppose I've never had a penchant for reading , but perhaps I haven't been introduced to the right book to captivate my attention.”

“Perhaps not.”

“Why don't you show me to your local library? I'm sure I could find something there with your help.” Fiyero smiles. His blue eyes were dancing with mischief and fun. Before Y/N could tell Fiyero to go jump off a cliff, Galinda stepped in. “Oh, we would be certainly delighted to show you around. Wouldn't we, Y/N?” Her smile was tight, and anything other than a ‘yes’ from Y/N would make Galinda upset.

Y/N sighed and stood up, trying to ignore the triumph smirk Fiyero was giving him at the moment. He began walking towards the Shiz building, not checking to see if Fiyero. “The library is this way, Prince Twinkie.” He continues towards the building as Galinda pulls a smirking Fiyero along. Oh, he was going to like this little bookworm.

They walked into the library, where Y/N spotted his dear friend, Elphaba, and waved as Galinda gave Fiyero a tour of someplace she's never even stepped into before. It was kind of hilarious to watch as Galinda addressed all around. “And this is the book place. There's a collection of rare books around here somewhere. And some medium rare as well.”

“He's looking for a book, sis. Not a steak.” Y/N said.

Fiyero chuckles. “Well, there's certainly many to choose from. What would you recommend, Y/N? A good adventure book? Perhaps something with a little bit of fun?”

“How about a book on the studies of why some people act brainless?” Y/N suggested.

“Tell me. What do you do for fun around here?” Fiyero ignored Y/N’s jab, and walked closer to the other male, smirking at him. Did this guy always have to smile at everything? “You ever been to the Ozdust Ballroom?”

“The Ozdust Ballroom? Are you insane?” Y/N asked.

Galinda gets in between them. “I mean, isn't that place somewhat illegal?” She looks around to make sure no one is listening before whispering. “And scandalocious?”

Fiyero nods. “Yeah, it is both of those things. Yeah. It's also not far from here, which is another plus.” Fiyero said as Boq, the Munchkin boy, trips and drops some of his books into the floor. Fiyero stifles a laugh as he looks down at him. “Whoa. You all right?”

Boq grunts as Y/N helps him up. “Yeah.”

“I'm Fiyero Tigelaar.” He looks at Y/N and winks. “Winkie Country.”

“Oh, Oz.” Y/N and Galinda both say for different reasons. Boq stood up. “Boq Woodsman.” He gets on a stack of books to be at the same height as Fiyero. “Of Munchkinland.” Galinda grabs Fiyero's arm and leads him away from Boq. Great. Excuse me. Good to know. Um, what were you saying again about the Ozdust and fun and you and me?”

“I was thinking of inviting you, and your brother to the Ozdust tonight.” Fiyero said.

“Unfortunately, it's against Shiz rules to go into town after dark. Sorry, Prince Twinkie.” Y/N said, but he didn't sound very sorry about it. Fiyero didn't seem to mind though. “I see that, once again, the responsibility to corrupt my fellow students…” He puts his arms around both Y/N and Galinda as she gasps. Y/N rolled his eyes. “...falls to me. Excuse me.” He grabs a book from a nearby girl, and he accidentally drops it to the floor. Y/N bends down to pick it up, but Fiyero puts a black riding boot on top of it. Y/N looks up as Fiyero shakes his head no.

“The trouble with schools is…” Fiyero began.

“Not a damn song.” Y/N whispered to himself. It seemed like everyone at this school could sing and dance like some sort of musical theater show you'd hear about in the Emerald city. Not in the Shiz library. “They always try to teach the wrong lesson.” Fiyero throws a book over his shoulders, and it lands with a thud. “Believe me, I've been kicked out of enough of them to know.”

Y/N believed that. Fiyero did seem like the type to cause so much mischief and chaos at the schools he previously attended, that they had no choice but to kick his ass out. “They want you to become less callow, less shallow. But I say, why invite stress in? Stop studying strife. And learn to live the unexamined life.” Fiyero easily charmed the librarian as he winked at Y/N, showing off. “Dancing through life. Skimming the surface Gliding where turf is smooth.” He gets on the table and in a very proactive pose starts to jumble around another student's head. Life's more painless for the brainless. Why think too hard, when it's so soothing? Dancing through life. No need to tough it. When you can slough it off as I do.”

The young Upland boy watched as Fiyero Tigelaar of Winkie country, start a whole musical number inside the library.

[official-wales]

hi! i am unfortunately an American (booooo) and am very interested in wales and welsh culture (autism sees welsh shit and says !!!!!!!!) is there any books or anything you recommend to learn abt wales?

is there anything i should be worried about doing thats bad? the last thing i wanna do is upset real people or like fetishize welsh culture and shit. i just wanna learn abt yall

( and also maybe live there one day because i am not staying in this hellhole)

also i saw Nye in theatres and it ruled it was so good

SHWMAE! YOU HAVE COME TO THE RIGHT PLACE :D

Honestly, the main things to remember if you're worried about offending people is 1) we're not England, and 2) we don't all watch Gavin and Stacey, please if another person asks me about Barry Island, I'm going to commit violence

I don't have any specific book recommendations, but I'd definitely recommend looking into the Welsh language if you haven't already. With any celtic language, it's important to respect it as a language in its own right, especially since they're quite different to what English-speakers 'expect' (i.e. different pronunciations, structure and spellings, almost as if it's not English!)

As it's almost Christmas, you could have a look into Mari Lwyd as well - a Welsh Victorian wassailing tradition where a horse skull on a stick demands entry into your home to drink your alcohol (not a mythical cryptid, sorry). Very fun.

Two films which are really good and focus on Welsh life are Twin Town and Pride. Twin Town's set in Swansea (South Wales) about two brothers who terrorise the city. The only reason I mention it is because my old science teacher played any extra in one of the scenes. Pride is based on a true story about the lesbian and gay supporters of the Welsh miners' strike in 1984. Very emotional.

If anyone could comment below with book or documentary recommendations, that would be great!

And, because I'm Stereotypical Wales Incarnate, here's some YouTube videos! As a treat.

[transtrashpanda]

I really hate how much this fandom ignores Peter as being part of the group because he betrayed the Potters (and when they do include him he's treated like shit), so here are my favorite Peter hcs cause he's one of my fav characters and doesn't get enough attention!!

he's amazing at herbology and loves plants + him tutoring the others in it because he and James are the only ones who give a damn about it (James' mum adores gardening and he helped her a lot growing up)

he is a fiend for green clothes and wears green (sage greens particularly) c o n s t a n t l y

he had braces starting the summer after third and ending in early to mid fifth (he was lucky enough to not need headgear though)

James and Sirius affectionately called him "brace-face" and "tin-grin" during that time

he, James, and Marlene all grew up together and Euphemia's love for gardening got him started with his love of plants (he always takes time to talk to her about his new plants when they all go to the Potter's for the hols and she thinks it's just the sweetest)

probably smoked weed

ok he definitely smoked week

aroace but doesn't have the labels to properly describe it cause it's the 70s

doesn't quite understand gay people (or romance in general but he gets that slightly more) but if it makes his mates happy then it's cool by him!

he and James are the sole reasons Remus and Sirius regularly consume meals

has major anxiety but also a fuck it we ball mentality (one of my favs! it's so fun to play with how they mix for him!! highly recommend)

really fucking funny but doesn't talk much so no one outside of his friends know about his absolute wicked sense of humor

he either remembers every word of a conversation you had with six years ago or doesn't remember even talking to you two days ago. there is no in between and there is no way of telling which you'll get

he probably had a lazy, orange cat who ONLY liked him and Sirius

yum bagels

struggles with words but will randomly say the most eloquent, wise old man esque shit ever and then goes back to stuttering

reads books with Remus and Lily!!

wore green to a quiddich match against slytherin once and James and Sirius stole everything off his bed and hid it from him for a week (he just cuddled with Remus every night)

loves baking and cooking but is pants at it (he's getting better though!!)

can convincingly bark like a dog???

probably cried to Lily a couple times because 'why are his friends so fucking oblivious??'

makes fun of his friends unprovoked, constantly

literal god at chess (only time he loses is when he pretends to while teaching underclassmen)

insanely good at photography!!

asfhgfsfdaaa

I love him sm and have so many more so if you're interested don't be afraid to send an ask :)

[velvetvexations]

Okinawa: The History of an Island People is a really good book and I heavily recommend it, but it's study of the war in general, especially it's final days, was way too brief.

Perhaps it would have been very politically inconvenient since people at the time it was written weren't yet even sure if Okinawa was going to go back to Japanese control or not, but for a book that did a pretty good job not hiding how Japan had spent the last three hundred years fucking over the Ryukyus, and does not shy away from how disgustingly careless the Japanese government was in protecting the citizens even as Okinawa became the biggest battleground in the Pacific, I was hoping to read some about how the military convinced Okinawan civilians to kill themselves en masse with the lie that the Americans were coming to do worse to them. Instead, all the civilian casualties get put down to Japan's carelessness leaving the Okinawans unprepared for being caught in the middle.

The really sad thing is reading all that and walking away knowing that Okinawans were by far the least harmed by Japan's colonialism.

[tealeavesandtrash]

🎄 Sweet Dreams of Holly and Ribbon: Part 9 - 4 Days Until Christmas 🎄

Read in full || Part 1 || Part 8 || Part 10

“How much food do you have for Christmas?” Sirius asks over breakfast. 

“Too much,” Lily says. “Enough to feed the street.”

“Okay but how much is too much?” 

“No such thing as too much!” James chimes in and Lily rolls her eyes. 

“The turkey is recommended twelve servings and we have more food than what will fit on the table.”

Sirius ponders a moment. “Okay, so hypothetically, if there were two last-minute guests, we would have enough? If one is Harry-size so that’s only half a portion.”

“Are you talking about Remus?” James asks. 

“I did not say that.”

James grins. “You are though, aren’t you? You want to spend Christmas with him!”

“I especially did not say that .”

“I thought they were spending Christmas with his parents?” Lily asks. 

“I mean, they were, but his mum’s come down with something so they can’t.”

Lily hums, “I mean I don’t see why not. We’ve got enough space for them.”

“Really?” Sirius asks, pointedly ignoring the way James is snickering at him because this doesn’t mean anything.

“Yeah, you’d like to see Teddy on Christmas wouldn't you Harry?” Lily says, turning to Harry at the last part. Harry, too engaged in playing with his cereal to be paying attention, simply nods eagerly when he notices his mum has asked him a question. 

Since Lily isn’t at work at the moment, Harry doesn’t need to go to nursery which means no chance to catch Remus at drop off which means Sirius is sent into town to ask him about Christmas. 

“Why can’t you just message him?” Sirius whines as James practically kicks him out the front door. 

“Because this was your idea and that’s less romantic.”

“There’s nothing romantic about this situation! I am inviting him and his child round to his child’s best friend’s parent’s house because his holiday plans fell through!”

“Yeah but you want it to be romantic, don’t you.”

“I never said that .”

“You didn’t have to say it.”

Sirius just shoots him a glare and James’ grin softens. “It’s no bad thing if you do, Pads. He’s a decent bloke and you obviously care about him at least a little.”

“Well, even if I did it doesn’t matter, he doesn’t.”

“I think he does,” James says, suddenly very earnest. “I saw the way you two together at the fete, I’m not blind.”

Sirius lets James’ words play over in his mind as he makes his way to meet Remus. Because Sirius isn’t blind, he knows Remus is attractive - the way his lip quirks up and eyes sparkle when he laughs; or the way his brows furrow in concentration when he’s thinking or listening to Teddy explain something; or how the highlights in his messy curls catch in the light and he runs his hand through his hair. 

And okay, so maybe he does have a bit of a crush on Remus, but it’s nothing more than that. 

Remus looks up when Sirius enters the shop. He’s leaning on the counter, head resting on one hand and leaning over an open book. 

“Did you forget another present?” he asks, smirking as he raises his eyebrow. 

“Ha ha,” Sirius mutters as he sidles up to the counter. “Ye of little faith, Lupin.”

“Well, what can I help you with?”

“Maybe I just wanted to hang out with you,” Sirius counters. 

Remus holds his gaze, matching his smirk and waiting patiently for Sirius to speak. 

He swallows. “Whatcha reading?” He asks after the silence has stretched out. 

Remus flicks the book over the show the cover - a scenic painting of a forest waterfall against the backdrop of mountains, with the ‘Fellowship of the Ring’ printed boldly across the top.

“Teddy's bedtime story is currently The Hobbit,” Remus explains.

“Kid’s got good taste.”

“I mean, he only picked it because our copy at home has a dragon on the cover.”

Sirius shrugs. “Valid reason, dragons are cool.”

Remus hums in agreement. He dogears the page and closes the book to give Sirius his full attention. “So,” he says 

“So,” Sirius repeats,  “Christmas.”

“Christmas?”

“Well, since you're not seeing your parents, you could spend it with us, if you wanted.”

Remus blinks at him, “I wouldn’t want to impose or anything.”

“You wouldn’t be imposing. There’s more than enough space and food for both of you.”

Remus still looks a little hesitant, “I mean, if you want me there.”

“I want you there,” Sirius insists. “And so does James and Lily.”

A shy smile slowly breaks onto Remus’ face, one Sirius can’t help but mirror.

Read in full || Part 1 || Part 8 || Part 10

@annaliza999 @marigold-hills @veganbutterchicken (If you do/dont want to be tagged in the next parts lmk <3)

[mordredpendragon]

Cain! Hope I'm not too late for the Arthuriana Ask Game BUT: 📜 📖 🖼️ 😇 😈 Okay, bye!!!!!!

never too late! thank u for the ask!!!

📜- What was your favorite Medieval story you read this year?

PERLESVAUS HANDS DOWN. EVERYONE PLEASEEEE READ PERLESVAUS ITS SO GOOD. it's something i've been eyeing for ages now but i was finally able to read it thanks to nigel bryant's translation! (the one i vastly prefer imo + his translations are just great in general)

admittedly, it's a bit of a hefty read because it's loaded and filled to the brim with religious undertones and references (similar to vulgate except i think vulgate is easier to parse if you don't have a catholic background considering anonymous monk pretty much explains what so-and-so means to you lol) but it's so worth it. percival is the titular knight in this yes and it follows events that take place after he failed the grail question, so the land is in havoc and basically fucked thanks to his mistakes. there's actually 4 main POV's in it. other than percival, it follows arthur (who goes on his own series of quests) gawain, and then lancelot. i'm in awe of perlesvaus just of the amount of sheer depth and characterization they have for these 4 characters. plus it's got a lot of badass crazy moments. pretty much everything percival does is worthy enough of its own post

like percival fighting the dragon knight, dindrane getting kidnapped and percival literally venturing off to find her captive, beheading him, then PRESENTING it to her.

lancelot going through the beheading game (tbh everything he does in this drives me insane. its also just my favorite lancelot in general imo like more than vulgate lancelot) + gawain finding the sword that beheaded john the baptist. it's also got some crazy horror fuel that i would love to make art of one day just because of how much i want to see it visualized, like lancelot finding that one house full of corpses and the pit. i mean THE PIT.

LIKE ITS MY FAVORITE EVER. i could go on forever but fr just read it its so good. like not just if you love percival, but also if you love gawain arthur and lancelot they're amaaazing in this

📖 - What was your favorite Modern retelling you read this year? (Single book)

technically it's henry newbolt's mordred, a tragedy but it's a play and i already plan to make a post on it. (which was also my contribution to L's long af retellings list so if you like it you're welcome i was the one who showed it to her lmao)

so i'm going to say john steinbeck's acts of king arthur. ITS SO GOOD. can everyone pleae read steinbeck. peak lancelot peak morgan peak yvain.

this is one of the arthurian books that genuinely made me cry i fr felt like a husk at the ending. steinbeck's favorite character is lancelot and it really shows bc of the amount of depth and complexity he writes in his character, and it's got some of my favorite quotes of all time

SERIOUSLY its the best i love it so much. i've been recommending it to everyone ever since

🖼️ What was your favorite Arthurian art piece made by someone else this year? (Any medium)

all of @tboymordred's mordred art sorry i'm gay

especially this one

😇 Who is a character you discovered this year? (Positive, blorbo)

agravaine. i mean i always knew he existed obviously except i found newfound love for him this year. doubtly @queer-ragnelle's influence lol

also he's sick as FUCK in vulgate i think everyone should read agravaine vs druas the cruel genuinely one of my favorite story arcs in vulgate ever

😈 Who is a character you discovered this year? (Negative, beloathed)

geraint idk fuck that guy

aside from him there really isn't a lot of characters i hate. it depends on the depiction and portrayal really. you could make me like someone as heinous as uther if you cook hard enough lol

[shadowjinx2906]

If you’re okay with canon events compliant, you might like @iwriteasfotini’s series. I’m not sure what the Jegulus dynamic or of what Regulus’s character will look like but so far James is maybe not quite what you’re looking for but they’re doing the canon bullying of snape (and possibly others? Bc of the snakes and lions rivalry?) and then the thing with Lily.

I don’t want to say too much and spoil it.

The first book is The Heir and The Spare and they’re going to start publishing book two soon. Haven’t finished THATS yet but it’s really good! <3

Before I mislead you though, each book is a different pov. The second one (I think? Might be wrong about which one I’m tired lol) is actually in Severus’s pov (personally this is one of the reasons I like it but I can see others might be put off by this). So there’s a whole lot of plot and ships and yeah.

Also, I think the Jegulus part comes into play around book 3 or 4? So maybe not if you’re looking for something quicker (although the books aren’t super long and the pacing is good—Tumblr is starting to wear me out with how many times I’ve talked about chapter/fic length on here 😅) more Jegulus focused, and also not canon events compliant. It is really good though, 💯 recommend!

(For some reason it won’t let me put the link but it’s in their pinned post if you’re interested)

i love sunshine james and i love soft reggie i really do

but PLEASE someone give me fic recs for arrogant egotistical asshole james becoming obsessed with rude spiteful regulus IM BEGGING

[ladylikelamb]

I started reading his biography by Jon Lee Anderson. it’s made me mildly fixated oh him and communism💀

[ale-arro]

been going a little bit insane about this sentence from Ace by Angela Chen for the past week

[theseventhveil1945]

THE LADY CHABLIS starring as Herself in MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL (1997) Dir. Clint Eastwood

[tiredqueermushroom]

Thanks for the tag <3!

Tagged by: @annemarieyeretzian

Last song: I want you back by Infinity Song a black indie band, yall should give them a listen!

Favourite colour: Purple any and all shades and sage green because I'm a basic queer.

Last book: Currently reading Song of Achilles, only 10 chapters in and loving it so far (and no, it hasn't been months since I last picked it back up. Why's you ask?/j)

Last movie: Monkey Man starring and directed by Dev Patel! Great revenge movie that has the mc fighting alongside sword wielding trans women to fight religious corruption. And I Saw the TV Glow, yes I watched these back to back. I was having a day. Amazing trans movie that left me starring at my screen in silence for 10 minutes after 10/10 would recommend.

Last TV: 911 on abc! And before you ask, yes, the character that has religious trauma is stuck deep in the closet, and fundamental believes he is undeserving of joy aka Eddie Diaz is my favourite <3

Sweet/spicy/savoury: Spicy all the way, baby! My mum says my love of spice came from her eating a ton of spicy foods while she was pregnant with me. How true that is idk but I sure do believe it. Then I would have to have sweet and savoury joint second place. They compliment each other so well I couldn't possibly separate them.

Relationship status: Single and not ready to mingle! My irl friends forefill me in ways a romantic partner couldn't.

Last thing I googled: Infinity Nikki Guides. Definitely play Infinity nikki if gachas, open-world/ platformers are your thing. Very girly, cutesy, cosy game.

Current obsession: Ball jointed dolls (BJDs)! I recently just ordered an imomodoll, I have no idea how to style my boy, but I'm glad I have him and I'm really excited to explore the bjd community further!

Looking forward to: Clique, I know, but Christmas! There's gonna be good food, good music, and even better, the new Wallace and Gromit movie drops as well as The Ithica Saga!

ten fifteen people I’d like to know better!

tagged by: @septembermonologues 🖤

last song: GONE by NF and julia michaels (which like,,, fucking ow?)

favorite color: aquamarine bc I’m a self-centered march aries bitch look ok it used to be yellow but then we were all asked to wear yellow to my mentor’s/father figure’s funeral and I’ve mostly hated it since,

last book: currently reading who cooked the last supper? which I have complex feelings about (it was first published 25ish years ago and is too often white feminist) but I am overall mostly learning things I think

last movie: white christmas (my college roommate katie and I watch movies together every monday and this month is, obviously, our christmas movies month) which incidentally is one of my favorite movies christmas or not

last tv show: the 10th kingdom AND LIKE. LOOK. my aunt and uncle let me stay up too late and watch this when I was way too young and I have been searching for the miniseries ever since. I was finally able to identify it earlier this month and immediately watched it twice. it’s the worst thing I’ve ever seen. I love it. I wish there were two hundred episodes.

sweet/spicy/savory: is this like a I have to pick one of the three, or one for each, or. u know what because of the ocd™ I’ll put them in my preferred order. sweet > savory > spicy easy.

relationship status: hey remember the ‘it’s complicated’ option on facebook

last thing I googled: the black heart emoji so I could copy and paste it for my baby sib up there

current obsession: is it cheating to say art history??? kinda always my current obsession. if I have to pick something I’m not constantly preoccupied by then thistle & spire lingerie currently has me in a chokehold and it’s Not good for my bank account (but it’s great for my self-esteem so who’s the real loser here) (it’s still me)

looking forward to: gonna get burgers and fries and then go to christmas in the park and then head to a cute bar for holiday drinks with my bff on friday!!! (babes the drink I want comes in a plastic dinosaur. ‘TIS THE SEASON)

no pressure tagging: @alliekitaguchi @beauregardlionett @daelenn @endofthelinecaptain @fairymonk @fjorests-of-wildemount @genderless-ghost @gobliiine @ittybittyremy @littlebosslady7 @quipxotic @revvethasmythh @simonthesneasnake @tiredqueermushroom @twinklestarss

this was/is def supposed to be tag ten people but! my blog my rules and I’m nosy as shit I love getting to know people so

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

you are so whimsical i qant to check out this mdzs (..??) because of your whimsical nature thank you sorry im very high and your art moved me emotionally

This is simultaneously the sweetest and funniest thing someone has sent me, thank you.

[butchhamlet]

"But there is something particular about Cleopatra and the imaginative escape she offers for white performers. She presents a fantasy of a stately queen with an erotic power that white actresses can inhabit and take pleasure in without facing any of the difficulties faced by Black women. Like white European colonial settlers, they occupy her character though only briefly. And this is nothing new. In the seventeenth century, one aristocratic woman had her portrait painted as Cleopatra—a performative act in which it was possible to pretend to be the kind of woman she could never actually be within the chaste and virtuous bounds of Renaissance white womanhood. The sitter is identified as Lady Anne Clifford. A Jacobean lady in Egyptian regalia, according to seventeenth-century orientalist notion of national costume, holds an asp above her breast, iconically invoking Cleopatra. For a long time, it seems, white women have stepped into the fantasy of the dark queen. It seems odd that Antony and Cleopatra was not always viewed as one of Shakespeare's race plays. That is changing, finally. If theatre directors continue to centralise whiteness in their readings of the play, however, it in many ways replicates Caesar's triumph over Egypt. We relive Cleopatra's defeat every time we watch a white woman play her—due respect to Dames Judi Dench, Helen Mirren, Harriet Walter, and Eve Best. But we begin to see more clearly the Egyptian Queen's own prophetic vision as she chose to end her life on her own terms. She imagined herself being performed for years to come by actors who do not resemble her in any way—and that is, for the most part, what has happened."

—Dr. Farah Karim-Cooper, The Great White Bard: How to Love Shakespeare While Talking About Race (emphasis mine)

[gingermintpepper]

hi, i haven't read the iliad and the odyssey but want to - do u have a specific translation you recommend? the emily wilson one has been going around bc, y'know, first female translator of the iliad and odyssey into english, but i was wondering on if you had Thoughts

Hi anon! Sorry for the somewhat late response and I'm glad you trust me with recommendations! Full, disclosure, I am somewhat of a traditionalist when it comes to translations of the source text of the Iliad + Odyssey combo wombo, which means I tend to prefer closeness in literal verbiage over interpretation of the poetic form of these epics - for that reason, my personal preferred versions of the Odyssey and Iliad both are Robert Fitzgerald's. Because both of these translations (and his Aeneid!) were done some 50+ years ago (63 for his original Odyssey tl, 50 flat for his Iliad and 40 for his Aeneid) the English itself can be a bit difficult to read and the syntax can get confusing in a lot of places, so despite my personal preferences, I wouldn't recommend it for someone who is looking to experience the Iliad + Odyssey for the very first time.

For an absolute beginner, someone who has tried to read one or both of these epics but couldn't get into it or someone who has a lot of difficulty with concentrating on poetry or long, winding bits of prose, I fully and wholeheartedly recommend Wilson's translation! See, the genius of Emily Wilson's Iliad + Odyssey isn't that she's a woman who's translated these classics, it's that she's a poet who's adapted the greek traditional poetic form of dactylic hexameter into the english traditional poetic form of iambic pentameter. That alone goes a very very long way to making these poems feel more digestible and approachable - iambic pentameter is simply extremely comfortable and natural for native english speakers' brains and the general briskness of her verbiage helps a lot in getting through a lot of the problem books that people usually drop the Iliad or Odyssey in like Book 2 of the Iliad or Book 4 of the Odyssey. I think it's a wonderful starting point that allows people to familiarise themselves with the source text before deciding if they want to dig deeper - personally, researching Wilson's translation choices alone is a massive rabbit hole that is worth getting into LOL.

The happy medium between Fitzgerald's somewhat archaic but precise syntax and Wilson's comfortable meter but occasionally less detailled account is Robert Fagles' Iliad + Odyssey. Now, full disclosure, I detest how Fagles handles epithets in both of his versions, I think they're far too subtle which is something he himself has talked at length about in his translation notes, but for everything else - I'd consider his translations the most well rounded of english adaptations of this text in recent memory. They're accurate but written in plain English, they're descriptive and detailled without sacrificing a comfortable meter and, perhaps most importantly, they're very accessible for native english speaking audiences to approach and interact with. I've annotated my Fagles' volumes of these books to heaven and back because I'm deeply interested in a lot of the translation decisions made, but I also have to specifically compliment his ability to capture nuance in the characters' of these poems in a way I don't often see. He managed to adapt the ambivalence of ancient greek morality in a way I scarcely see and that probably has a hand in why I keep coming back to his translations.

Now, I know this wasn't much of a direct recommendation but as I do not know you personally, dear anon, I can't much make a direct recommendation to a version that would best appeal to your style of reading. Ideally, I'd recommend that you read and enjoy all three! But, presuming that you are a normal person, I suggest picking which one is most applicable for you. I hope this helps! 🥰

[freaky-flawless]

Alright I finished it... just overall not great. I don't really feel like I gained anything from reading it. And there are a good few things that are genuinely problematic.

As for the story itself...it could have been interesting but the writing was so bland. There's a scene at the end that should have been pretty intense where the Ghoulfriends confront the big bad and save the whole school but the writing is so straightforward and bland that it was so unsatisfying. And the solution was so weird and specific.

I know we kinda joke about how useless Bloodgood is, but she was something else in this one. She didn't even get brainwashed like everyone else, from the start she was super ooc and forgetful because she got struck by lightning lol. Lowkey, she shoulda got fired.

I will say Rochelle did grow on me a bit. She definitely had the main character role and did show some character growth. And I did like how the author was mindful of the fact that she's made entirely of stone, and the trials that come with being that heavy. But her constant quoting of the "Gargoyle Code of Ethics" and her constantly correcting people grew old quick.

Other than that the only saving grace of this book is the illustrations. Ugh, they are so good, and I hadn't seen a lot of them before. Darko Dark did a great job, and I love his design for Sylphia (the "villain") he even made the trolls look cute despite the authors less than kind descriptions of them.

Do I recommend anyone read this? No, not really. Unlike the Lisi Harrison books, it didn't give a fresh perspective on the series, it's kinda just a worse version of the actual canon. And on top of that the writing itself is super lackluster, the Monster High Diaries books are way better written despite being half the length.

That being said, wish me luck with the next one. It appears Toralei might feature heavily in it, despite not being mentioned a single time in the first one.

I'm like halfway through the first Ghoulfriends book and main three are so annoying. I'm hoping it's like a character flaw thing, where they'll recognize it and get better over the course of the series, but oof. Gitty did these ghouls so wrong.

They're beefing with Cleo for no reason...Venus flipped out on her out of nowhere (in the middle of class, unprovoked!!) for using paper bags and then sprayed her with hypno pollen, meanwhile Rochelle, who is in her own relationship, is hardcore flirting with her man!!! I wish the author had been more original when it came to giving them a "frenemy" there are so many options aside from Cleo! (Honestly Operetta would have been an interesting choice, but whatever)

Robecca's characterization is the most tolerable, but she's incredibly rambly, and the author decided to give her a bad sense of time for...reasons. And despite being British, she uses oddly Southern phrases while talking...its super strange. With Venus and Rochelle, I can see where her mind went with writing their characters, but Robecca honestly seems so opposite to her canon personality.

And her backstory was kinda mangled too. It's acknowledged that she was disassembled, and recently reassembled, and even that she previously lived with Mrs. Kindergrubber, but she's treated like a brand new student. No acknowledgement that it was Ghoulia who put her back together!

I understand giving the characters a fresh take, but it would have been pretty simple to integrate the actual canon. Robecca and Rochelle were introduced in the same movie, they were new to Monster High, just not new to all of the characters.