#it's not a super great book

[the---hermit]

I am not saying here's a link to a free online version of the 1984 graphic novel but if it was there you should probably go read it.

[queerpiratebrainrot]

I wasn't prepared for the carnivore horse named Google Maps

[cheeriochat]

GUYS GUYS LOOK AT WHAT I SAW AT MY LOCAL DANGERFIELD

'ASTARION APPROVES' 😭😭😭

Omg I was so gonna buy the necklace but I thought to leave it on the mannequin for the next bg3 fan.

[deoidesign]

My comic is so pretty...

The hiatus is letting me take a little extra time on these episodes, and I'm definitely putting it to good use!!!

[aroaceleovaldez]

tbh my latest biggest theory for why HoO and onwards is such a dramatic drop in quality and consistency is just. Rick stopped making teaching guides.

Like, the Lightning Thief teacher's guide is SUPER in-depth with even stuff like sources about middle grade child psychology and exact specifications of where he's applying that, explaining what different character's goals/motivations are, their dynamics with each other and their environments, etc etc. Even specifying which specific myths certain plot elements are supposed to reference or be about.

That stuff just doesn't exist for later books. There's activity guides and smaller, significantly more simple teacher guides for later books but they don't go into anywhere NEAR the same level of depth. The TLT one is a full lesson plan that breaks down the book at every level and explains what's going on and more or less why Rick did that. The others are all basically just glossaries of terminology and some simple question guides.

And they didn't even use the TLT teacher's guide for the Disney+ show because they clearly aren't adhering to any of what's discussed in that breakdown of the book.

By creating a teaching guide alongside writing the actual book, that's forcing you to document what you're doing, why, your sources, and information about your characters and the story they're in. It's like an even more in-depth version of a series bible. But that's lacking for later books (and etc) and it shows because that level of thought and depth and attention just isn't there anymore.

[civetside]

Seeing the ask about the TV show, have you drawn the other duos from Gideon the Ninth in your cartoon style?

i have this! it was gonna be a lil shit post with a title like "GTN but instead of everybody dying they just have a beach party and go home" but i ended up not really liking it all that much and not finishing it, the only thing left is i like didn't color a few of the characters eyes

[discworldwitches]

from hildegard of bingen - the woman of her age by fiona maddocks

[anghraine]

Fun fact: Imrahil of Dol Amroth is only ever described in LOTR as Denethor and Faramir's "kinsman", with no distinction ever made between how he's related to Denethor vs to Faramir. It's only later, when Faramir briefly thinks of his long-dead mother, that she is called "Finduilas of Amroth" and we can deduce that the family connection was likely between Denethor's wife and Imrahil, making him an in-law of Denethor but blood relative of Faramir. We're still not told exactly how Imrahil and Finduilas were related, though.

I always had the impression of a certain degree of tension between Imrahil and Denethor, and also of Imrahil being particularly concerned for Faramir, but his exact relationships with them are quite vague in the narrative. A lot of the names, dates, and family connections among the members of the house of Dol Amroth that we now accept as a matter of course are mainly from a separate document published in Peoples of Middle-earth that explains the most probable origin story for the house of Dol Amroth and has an attached family tree. IIRC the entire existence of Faramir and Éowyn's son Elboron is based on his inclusion in the Dol Amroth family tree in POME and he's never referenced in LOTR (and possibly not in anything else, actually?).

Tolkien definitely did imagine Imrahil and Finduilas as siblings regardless (e.g. I think he mentions it when observing that Denethor's natural beardlessness as an Elrosian Dúnadan would be reinforced in Boromir and Faramir by their additional Elvish heritage through Imrahil's sister), but he didn't actually say it in LOTR.

I do think it's important, though, because it's with this later information that Imrahil taking charge of Faramir's fallen body is conclusively revealed to not be simply a prince rescuing a vague "kinsman" of political/military importance, but specifically a man carrying his dead sister's last surviving child from a battlefield.

(No wonder he and Éomer bonded so much, honestly!)

[nonstandardrepertoire]

it has come to the attention of the groupchat that i have neither read The Great Gatsby nor seen any film or stage adaptations of it, so here is my attempt to summarize what i think the plot is based solely on cultural osmosis:

in The 1920s™, some guy from the Midwest (maybe Kansas?) moves to New York City and falls homoerotically into the orbit of some nouveau riche heartthrob who lives out in the Hamptons. i think the Good Country Boy's name is Nick Caraway (like the seed), which would make it funny if he wound up in Rye, NY, but i get the vibe it's a resolutely unfunny novel, so this doesn't happen. the rich guy's name is probably Tom, and either his last name is Gatsby or there's some other character who's also rich who has that name. (George? George Gatsby? is that right?)

Tom (let's go with that for now) is married to or cheating on his wife with Daisy, who is generally an irresponsible drunk party girl type, but this could be because of Trauma. Tom has a new car, which is Very sexy, until Daisy runs over a baby with it and drives it into a pool. (i think it's her baby? but it could be someone else's)

anyway, Nick is at first very beguiled by these people and wants to be part of their set (and also to kiss Tom and/or George deeply and passionately with tongue), but then he is like "wait, you are all actually terrible people and there's so much alcoholism here i don't think this is actually how i want to live" and he has this realization under the eyes of an optometrist's sign which glimmers across the water (the Long Island Sound??? that seems too far for light the travel that clearly, but the other option is the?? Atlantic Ocean??? and that's Worse) with a green neon light that symbolizes G-d looking down on us impassively from a distance full of sorrow but not intervening

and because he's a Good Country Boy at heart, the novel ends with Nick going back to Kansas (Tennessee?) to escape the Rotten City and the last page closes with one of the all-time great adverb deployments as we're all borne back like boats, ceaselessly into the past

[lightleckrereins]

No one had netflix releases a good adaptation of a Latin American literature classic that was considered impossible to adapt to screen on the bingo card.

Even less after the netflix releases a decent but nothing more adaptation of another latam classic also considered impossible to adapt. And the HBO butchers a third one that should be easy to adapt and perfectly setup for a tv show incidents in the past few months.

[catocappuccino]

Me-made Snorkmaiden figure! Created with air-dry clay, acrylic paint, a lil bit of hot glue and lots and lots of love!

She even has her own collector's card! :3 (1/1 because she's one of a kind 💕)

[purpleshadow-star]

So I went to an early screening for the first two episodes of the Percy Jackson show yesterday (Saturday), and let me just say, it is 100% the adaptation we deserve. It was amazing. Once it ended, I wanted more.

The characterizations were amazing, any changes there were made sense and made the situation more realistic and added tension, the story was straight from the book, it was just amazing.

I went with my mom and she, who doesn't know the books, really enjoyed it. I asked her how she liked it (literary just the first two episodes) compared to Harry Potter (which i had her watch a few years back), and she said there was no contest. She likes the pjo show much more. She said it was engaging and even had her wanting the next episode once it was done.

Everyone needs to watch this show. It was amazing. It lives up to the hype. We need to make sure it gets greenlit for season 2.

[moonchild-in-blue]

So I just made the most half-assed, spur of the moment notebook, and I think it looks pretty cute 🥹

Process pics + lil video bellow 👇

Disclaimer: I've done much better binding before, this was a very last minute, let's just have fun, quick thing, so don't judge it too hard 🥺

So! I was sorting through some papers and such, and I found these loose signatures I had taken out of an old notebook and never did anything with. Figured I could turn them into a cute lil sketchbook!

I ended up using just the three bigger stacks (the smaller I'll do later), and some used watercolour paper to make the inner case a bit sturdier.

Took out the fraying old threads, bound the three signatures together, and then stitched the harder paper cover.

Then I used an old sketch painting (I have LOADS of discarded paintings just laying around), and glued it to the cover (with just good ol' glue stick).

The painting is just acrylic on sketch paper (thinner than watercolour), so the cover is quite floppy and has a nice plastic finish. The paint was layed quite thick in some areas and textured, which makes it super nice to touch.

Size is slightly smaller and thinner than a B6, but bigger than A6. Here's a comparison with my A5 journal:

Okay that's it! Bye! 💙

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

The River Has Roots

poetic fable-like novella, reimagining of the twa sisters

about two inseparable sisters who spend their days singing to the willow trees on the banks of a magical river that flows out of faerie

when one rejects a human suitor to instead be with her fey lover, he takes revenge, threatening to separate them forever

arc from netgalley, out march 4!

[gamer-comix]

my new favorite kind of amazon review is people who bought manga but don't know what manga is

[incesthemes]

this is fun!! thank you @saintmarywinchester for tagging me to show off 9 books i plan to read this year!!! 🥺🙏

i actually just finished my herman melville/nathaniel hawthorne rpf book last night (yes they DID kiss) so i can cross that one off the list 💗 some other ones are ummm

some of my Old Books which don't have very (or any) descriptive book covers to share, and therefore relegated to the honorable mentions section:

The Ghosts, and Other Lectures – Ingersoll (1878)

Memoria Tecnica; Or, a New Method of Artificial Memory – grey (1781)

and books i'm reading through substack newsletters this year:

moby dick – melville (won't be finished this year)

maurice – forster

les miserables – hugo

the divine comedy – dante (won't be finished this year)

don quixote – cervantes (not a substack specifically but a guided reading list all the same)

i'm being quite ambitious this year!!! and hoping that i can read even more than this tbh. i have no idea what to follow up the herman melville rpf novel with. that's a really strong start to the year i have to say 😵

ok i will tag @i-already-know-im-going-2-hell, @captainmicaptain, @hoshimagico, @zaegreus, @theastralbeast-cometh, @rottenarmour, @roaldamundsen, @venomousmaiden, and @wincestuously-charged 💖 i liked kostas's stipulation that fanfic counts so i'll apply that here too!