#king umberto i

[nickysfacts]

Pizza, a meal fit for a queen!

🇮🇹🍕👑

[dreamconsumer]

King Umberto I of Italy in the regalia of the Order of the Garter. By Pedro Américo.

[roehenstart]

King Umberto I when Prince of Piedmont. By Paolo Bacchetti.

[danikatze]

[ID in alt text]

I picked Tary for my pfp on Beacon and I really felt like drawing him <3 I used the painting of King Umberto II of Italy (under the cut) as reference - wanted it to look like a stately kinda portrait!

[portrait of King Umberto II of Italy by Philip de László - ID in alt text]

[deadbutbetter]

Hi, i'm sorry this is so out of the blue but would you mind sharing sadomasochistic literature recs pls? I love your other rec lists<33

yo not out of the blue at all. i realise i post a lot of content related to sm.

for fiction: besides the obvious bataille, you should look into colette peignot's collected writings under the name laure.

for some rewritten material on her there's kathy acker's my mother demonology. but everything by kathy acker relates to the subject: blood and guts in highschool, empire of the senseless.

(sidenote from an interview w kris kraus on her biography: According to Eleanor Antin, Kathy worked at a massage parlor in Solana Beach for a while, and she did not give massages. [...] She was also, at the same time, tutoring Latin. / If she didn’t give massages, what did she do? / Well, hand jobs, probably.)

another classic but story of o written by pauline réage plus its beautiful illustrations by leonor fini. it's actually said her fantastical owl masks inspired the character of o + she was really close to andré pieyre de mandiargues, whose one story la marge was adapted by walerian borowczky in immoral tales. then there's sacher masoch's venus in furs. you've probably already heard of anais nin's delta of venus.

i specifically highly rec mary gaitskill. bad behaviour is a great short story collection - one of the stories specifically inspired the film secretary (2002). her essay, the trouble with following the rules, on rape culture and agency published in harper's bazaar (later repub in somebody with a little hammer) is one rare occurrence of nuance and grace accorded to women who've had sexual experiences that are difficult to categorise. it gives a rundown of the ways she personally relates to feminist scholars on the subject too.

there's problems by jade sharma. for a more modern story of the eye, try ryu murakami's ecstasy.

for non-fiction (disclaimer that i mostly haven't read these but they are on my list):

gilles deleuze, masochism: coldness and cruelty ; avgi saketopoulou, sexuality beyond consent ; virginie despentes, king kong theory

if you're similarly interested in boundary-pushing experiences, the limits of the body, attraction to the horrific (i getchu) this is moreso sociology, aesthetics, psychoanalysis focused:

elaine scarry, the body in pain ; anne dufourmantelle, in praise of risk ; sylvère lotringer, overexposed: perverting perversions ; umberto eco, on ugliness

other media: the podcast drunk church, the director catherine breillat.

hope this is of help & if you read anything tell me how it went. i'm always looking for more stuff on the subject too.

[familyabolisher]

uhm hi. idk if you got asked this but have you made like a best books of 2023 list? i’d love to read it. have a nice day!

i didn't but i can whip a quick list together for you now:

italo calvino, if on a winter's night a traveller

italo calvino, invisible cities

susanna clarke, jonathan strange and mr. norrell

dennis cooper, the sluts

umberto eco, the name of the rose

franco fortini, the dogs of the sinai

pedro lemebel, my tender matador

vladimir mayakovsky, volodya: selected works

sayaka murata, earthlings

orhan pamuk, my name is red

t.h. white, the once and future king

vincent woodard, the delectable negro: homoeroticism and human consumption within US slave culture

[aaronsrpgs]

"Ancient World Fantasy" Reading List

(A little context to start. If you just want book recs, scroll on down to the first image.)

As I’ve been getting into RuneQuest (Wikipedia link), one striking component of the culture and community surrounding the game is that they’re very into the lore of its fictional world, Glorantha. I’m saying this as a comparison to a game like D&D, where the game is spread across tons of settings with no real sense of obligation to keep things in line with earlier editions.

Glorantha’s canon and worldbuilding has been going on since it was published in 1978 without, as far as I can tell, any big reboots. Which means that, unlike D&D, where people are bringing in all kinds of influences and doing direct adaptions of Jane Austen books and whatever, the RuneQuest game remains pretty tightly tied to the original setting. (There have been some exceptions. But not many!)

But since I run games for people who have ADHD or aren’t interested in studying up, I’ve been looking at all kinds of inspiration to drop into the game. Here are 20 novels that are roughly “ancient world” or “Bronze Age” like RuneQuest and deal with people interacting with strange gods, tight communities, and a world without fast overland travel or transferal of information.

I’m presenting them alphabetically by author’s last name.

The Brazen Gambit, Cinnabar Shadows, The Rise and Fall of a Dragon King by Lynn Abbey

I'm sorry for starting this post off with licensed RPG novels, but these are good! And I don't mean "good for licensed RPG novels." I've read tons of them, and most are so bad! But these are actually fun. Good character development in a sword-and-sorcery world. It's also an ecological apocalypse world, with godlike beings oppressing common folks, leading to a lack of technological advancement and knowledge of the past.

The Long Ships by Frans G. Bentsson

Written in the 1940s as a series of novellas, these stories take you on a tour of the Viking-era world, from Europe to the Middle East and beyond. Like a bunch of books on this list, this places them post-Bronze Age, so they're not officially "ancient world." But it gives a big spread of cultures, from the more clan-based Vikings to the bustling metropolises of Turkey. And it doesn't place any of them on any kind of linear advancement scale or whatever other gross way people "rate" cultures.

Tales of Nevèrÿon and Neveryóna by Samuel R. Delany

The master of weird sci-fi and gay historical novels, Chip Delany also wrote a fantasy epic. And it rules! Set on pre-historical(ish) Earth, these books describe the stories that maybe inform the myths we tell today? Dragons and slave revolts! A sort of "What if Game of Thrones was good?" series. Lots of good stuff about how people learn and how understanding expands.

I'm not listing the third book only because it's also a historical look at New York during the AIDS epidemic. It's an amazing book! But it strays from the "ancient world" aesthetic.

Baudolino by Umberto Eco

Another novel expressly set after the Bronze Age (this one starts in the 12th century). BUT it's about Medieval people's interaction with the knowledge they inherited from the past, specifically the myth of Prester John and the works of Herodotus.

I think I keep putting books like this on the list because roleplaying in a fantastical ancient world is not too far off from how Medieval people might have worshipped and referenced works from ancient Rome and non-European places.

Black Leopard, Red Wolf and Moon Witch, Spider King by Marlon James

One of our best living writers! These are fantasy novels expressly set in a fantastical version of ancient/Medieval Africa. The books explore the same events from multiple points of view and are full of cool magic, awesome spirit combat, and a vast number of places and cultures that actively deconstructs most games's portrayal of fantasy Africa as a homogeneous place.

The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth

I think Kingsnorth has been outted as a sort of eco-fascist? I totally believe it, so feel free to skip this one. It's a historical novel set in England in 1066, as the Normans invade from France. It's written in a faux Middle English language and focuses on the lower classes and how they try to resist the invasion. A good reminder that "Medieval culture" (and especially the Renaissance as a time that "culture advanced") is often based on certain classes of society, such as rich people and/or men.

Iceland's Bell by Halldór Laxness

Speaking of how class intersects with technological advancement, this book is set in the 18th century, but it focuses on Iceland at a time when it was ruled by Denmark, and the lower classes there were under an enforced poverty. It's a book about how a rich Icelander was trying to recover the stories of his people in order to create a sense of national identity and resistance. But it's also a story about how a destitute man acts like a total weirdo when he's not allowed to fish in his own waters and is cut off from understanding his place in history.

The Raven Tower by Anne Leckie

A big part of RuneQuest is people interacting with and enacting their gods. That's what this book is about! And it's about the strange vertigo that comes to people when they try to interact with the impossible timelines that gods exist on. Very good stuff.

Night's Master and Death's Master by Tanith Lee

Ostensibly set on Earth back when it was flat and demons roamed the world, which is basically RuneQuest. Sort of like a series of hornier, gay bibles? With lots of gender fuckery, fun sex, and cool monsters.

Circe by Madeline Miller

The story of the witch from The Odyssey, told from her point of view. Beautiful prose, tragic and beautiful characters, and a great share of mythical strangeness. Perfect if you want to learn how to run NPCs that are adversaries without being shallowly evil.

Ronia, the Robber's Daughter by Astrid Lindgren

Semi-Medieval again, but low class and vague enough that it could exist throughout ancient history. The daughter of a robber grows up in a tower full of robbers and generally has a wonderful time. Lots of weird monsters live in the woods, and there's a great starcrossed romance with someone from a rival robber gang. Perfect inspiration if you're running some cattle-raiding runs in RuneQuest; this is how to make robbers fun and sympathetic.

Read the book, watch the 1984 Swedish movie (which includes a great comedic scene of full-frontal dudity), and then watch the Studio Ghibli series.

A Stranger in Olondria and The Winged Histories by Sofia Samatar

Set in a world of pepper farmers and religious fanatics who worship a mysterious inscribed stone, these books do a great job of showing how people might interact with religion, rival cults, and mystery rites. It also portrays literacy and learning to read in places where it's gated behind social gatekeeping. And once again, the prose is beautiful.

The Palm-Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola

The first African novel published in English outside of Africa, The Palm-Wine Drinkard is a funny, hallucinogenic story about getting drunk, stumbling through weird landscapes, and encountering fantastical spirits and people.

Tutuola also wrote My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, the inspiration for the famous(?) David Byrne/Brian Eno album. I haven't read it yet, but I'm keeping an eye out!

The Green Pearl by Jack Vance

This is a sequel to Lyonesse, which I haven't read because I love staring in the middle of things. Set around a mythical British Isles when Atlantis was still above the sea and part of the group of islands. Some great wizard shit, warring clans, romance, and a wizard whose name is fucking Shimrod (in case you need more convincing).

Those are my 20 novel recommendations! I'm gonna come back to add some nonfiction, comics, and myth resources for running games in fantastical ancient worlds. You can read SpeedRune, my ancient fantasy game, here.

[floatingstirnerhead]

The thing about debating whether or not Kanye really means what he's saying or if he's having a mental breakdown is that the distinction isn't really that important. I'm being so serious when I tell you that Fascism is about self-destruction. Fascism is about rage at the world and yourself for not being strong, not being in charge, not being the big man, not being an Adonis ruler hustler boss king. It's about jealousy and impotence and projecting your desire to die out on to the world that isn't rewarding your ego.

None of their beliefs make sense or can withstand the slightest bit of investigation because it doesn't fucking matter. Look at someone like Alex Jones, that slow-motion divorce of a man. Everything he does is in this prolonged death spiral. Nothing he says make sense of holds up under scrutiny. He doesn't think his actions through and there's no clear pattern to what he actually wants. But he makes it work because it appeals to people who feel the same, who's only real motivation is to lash out at the world for not rewarding their king complex.

THIS IS NOT SUBSTANTIALLY DIFFERENT THAN WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A RICH MAN IS CHALLENGED, WHEN THE WORLD FINALLY TELLS HIM NO. Elon Musk is the same as Kanye is the same as Richard Spencer is the same as fucking Mussolini; they can't handle not being the king, they can't handle being challenged, they can't handle being contradicted. They want an impossible fantasy where they take and never give, where the whole world lines up to suck their cock clean. THIS IS THE ROOT OF OUR CLASS SYSTEM, THIS IS CAPITALISM COME HOME. It's not going to fucking end until property, state violence, and class end.

Fascism is when you're all cut up about not being a winner and decide to double down and punish the world for it. It's pathetic and nonsensical and halfway between a suicide and a cry for help. Except, when our society is based around rewarding this kind of puerile clinging to privilege, they get into the executive branch and decide that thousands of people have to die because of it! Because our nation states and corporations are not that far removed from this impulse!

What was that Umberto Eco quote again?

" By contrast, the Ur-Fascist hero craves heroic death, advertised as the best reward for a heroic life. The Ur-Fascist hero is impatient to die. In his impatience, he more frequently sends other people to death." -Umberto Eco, Ur-Fascism

[forthegothicheroine]

Do you have any thoughts about how to do fascism in Arthuriana? Like partially inspired by T.H. White I was thinking of writing Lucius as a sort of combination of a 30s Dictator and the crusading ideal that you get in Medieval literature, which of course looks quite repugnant by today's standards.

I've been turning this over in my head for a few days as it's a very interesting question! To start, let me talk about two versions that did it to different ends.

As you mentioned, in The Once and Future King, Mordred becomes a Hitler (or British fascist) analogue, and predicates his rise to power on persecuting Jews and Moors. I wasn't sure how I felt about this at first, but after thinking it over, I realized that World War II was the defining trauma of White's generation, and if he's going to write about a political faction destroying Britain and plunging it into apocalyptic war, how could they not be fascists? (Plus I got a fanfic out of it.)

On the other hand, in the 2004 King Arthur movie, which I actually overall enjoyed, they made Cerdic the Saxon their fascist villain. He orders all the Celtic women killed so that his men won't breed with them and produce more of their disgusting race...which, if you know anything about the Saxon invasion, is more or less the opposite of how it went. It's like a darker version of the 'tightlacing into dresses without waists' scene in Bridgerton- I'm not a stickler for historical accuracy, but I need it to at least make sense in the world that's being presented to me on screen.

So, what's the deal with fascism? I'll let Umberto Eco give the greater picture, but when I think of fascist villains, I think of three things- an "us" who is great, a "them" who are simultaneously weak and strong, and a mythic "good old days" that never really existed. Given that Arthuriana is a mishmash of time periods and ethnic groups as it is, you have a lot to choose from, both in terms of making it make sense in universe, and in terms of it feeling resonant to a 21st century reader.

If Lucius is your villain (a good choice, I think, he's not used as much as he could be) then you're positioning the "us" as either Rome or Italy. I say "either" because Malory et al had him as an anachronistic Roman emperor, but the Squires Tales series made the interesting choice of him being an Italian prince styling himself the modern Caesar. I'm not Italian, but I think this is something that politicians from Mussolini to Berlusconi have tried to position themselves as to some extent, so I think there's room to explore there.

If "us" is Rome, then "them" must be wherever they're trying to conquer. If you've ever played Fallout New Vegas, the Cosplay Roman Fascists there have "The West" as their enemy, with speeches about how they're doing a great job unifying all the disparate tribes but are hindered by the "degenerates" of the NCR and New Vegas. There are certainly tribes to go around in the British isles, any of which could be your "them" or your "future us, once then kneel." The good old days were the height of the Empire, of course, and depending on whether your Lucius is a Catholic or a Roman pagan, he can call upon a huge history of grandiose mythology to support himself.

If Mordred is your villain, then both his mythic past and his "us" could harken back to the glory days of King Uther, back when the Britons were strong against the Saxons and kings were revered for their might, not their codes of honor. The song Fie on Goodness in Camelot is dark comedy because nobody really talks like that about themselves- but they could voice the same sentiments in different language. "Them" could be Jews and Moors as in T. H. White, but you can pick any influence from the Picts to the Gauls as the simultaneously weak and strong enemy who turned Arthur into a man too soft to lead.

"Uther was a barbarian because he stole another man's wife," Mordred might say, "but Arthur claims to be civilized because he gives his away!"

And then there's that old medieval standbye- the crusades. Just what the hell time period Arthuriana takes place in changes with the writer, but having your villain either outright be a Crusader King or modeling him on one would give you a chilling model to work with. Slaughter and pillage all who get in your way, and you can justify it with ideology. Send every available one of your own men and boys to their deaths and you can do the same. And if the war never ends, so much the better, as your wartime powers never go away.

Thank you for this question, and I'll be very eager to see what you come up with!

[abr]

Dieci anni di monarchia assoluta. (...) Poi a gennaio 2015, King George aveva lasciato il trono perché proprio non ce la faceva più. (...) Altrimenti, potete starne certi, sarebbe rimasto ancora là (...) a comandare le operazioni, a fare e disfare governi, a organizzare ribaltoni (...). E anche dopo, fuori dalla reggia (...) per un bel po' si è fatto sentire: (a)ltro che pensionato. (...) quella di Giorgio Napolitano non è stata una presidenza leggera, neutra, notarile, ma sempre al limite e talvolta debordante. Come banale non è stata la sua intera vita pubblica. (...) Giorgio Napolitano era nato a Napoli (...). Figlio di un avvocato (...), studi classici, (...). Elegante, sobrio, parlava un inglese perfetto: nel Pci per le sue posizioni lo chiamavano l'amerikano. Oppure re Umberto (...). (A)ll'università si era iscritto al Gruppo Universitari Fascisti (...), nel 194(5) entrò nel Pci. Deputato dal 1953, (...), diventò presto uno degli esponenti di maggior peso dell'ala riformista, i cosiddetti miglioristi (...). (A)lla morte di Enrico Berlinguer (...) gli fu preferito (come segretario del Partito) il più (...) ortodosso Alessandro Natta. (...) Nel 1992 venne eletto presidente della Camera. (...) Nel 1996 Romano Prodi lo scelse come ministro degli Interni (...). Dopo la caduta del governo del Professore, (...) Ciampi lo nominò senatore a vita. Il dieci maggio 2006, (...) superando Massimo D'Alema, venne eletto undicesimo presidente della Repubblica italiana. (...) Due anni dopo Silvio Berlusconi rivinse le elezioni e per Napolitano si aprì un difficile periodo di coabitazione. Seguendo le orme di Ciampi, re Giorgio cercava di limitare il Cav con la moral suasion e successi alterni. (...) (Ne)l 2011 Berlusconi, indebolito da alcune defenzioni nella maggioranza, malvisto da Francia e Germania e (messo) sotto pressione con lo spread (...), fu fortemente convinto a passare la mano a Mario Monti, che nel frattempo King George aveva prontamente nominato senatore a vita. Regista dell'operazione, voluta da Bruxelles (Parigi e Berlino) e ritenuta un golpe (...), Napolitano. Monti e i suoi tecnici governarono un annetto (...). Nel 2013 nuove elezioni con la vittoria dimezzata del Pd (e il trionfo del m5s) (...). Il sistema si bloccò. (...) Senza governo, senza un accordo, senza un nome per la presidenza: (l')ingorgo istituzionale (...). Il 20 aprile 2013 nacque il Giorgio II. Tre giorni più tardi, dopo un discorso di fuoco di Napolitano alle Camere, Enrico Letta si insediò a Palazzo Chigi a capo di un esecutivo di unità nazionale (...). Letta tirò avanti per un po', finché il Quirinale non lo sostituì con l'astro nascente Matteo Renzi. Per Napolitano un paio d'anni (di benevolo controllo remoto), fino alle dimissioni nel 2015. Una lunga monarchia condizionata dalla crisi economica e dal vuoto di potere della politica che il Re della Repubblica ha riempito, segnata pure da ruvidi scontri tra Colle e magistratura, fatta di tanti rimproveri ai giudici «protagonisti», culminata con l'intercettazione «casuale» di un colloquio tra il presidente e Nicola Mancino e il conflitto di attribuzione con la procura di Palermo.(...)

Ritratto accurato di un AVVERSARIO ben più lucido e pericoloso di tutto il resto della masnada idealista autoinculante, cui rivolgere RIP e onesto omaggio - ha combattuto efficacemente; di M.Scafi su https://www.ilgiornale.it/news/politica/record-e-giravolte-politico-che-ha-segnato-nostra-repubblica-2214770.html

L'iscritto al Guf che diventa comunista, da Kruschev all'Amerika dei Dems., l'Internazionalista che diventa Gauleiter di Franza e Cermania, la difesa del proletariato che si fa golpe di Palazzo : medieval machiavellico (è un complimento), ma quale vita ricca di contraddizioni, fu sempre perfettamente lucido e fedele alla linea nella sua vita.

[radicalgraff]

Stencil in Palermo of Gaetano Bresci, an Italian American anarchist who killed King Umberto I of Italy in Monza on July 29, 1900.

Gaetano carried out the attack in revenge for the massacre of 90 civilians who were protesting a rise in bread prices at the Kings palace in 1898.

[enlitment]

Books tag game time! Thanks @marcusagrippa for the tag ✨

Last book I read: Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Confessions

Confessions... not going to go into it in this post. It's a wild ride for sure. But if you're interested in mental health (issues) in the 1700s, it's a fairly interesting source material.

Book I recommend:

I've recently finished Carlo Ginzuburg's Cheese and Worms. It's an absolute classic! It's also a fairly quick read. I'd recommend it to anyone who's curious to see how modern historical research doesn't have to just be about famous kings or medieval battles (or if you want to read about an unhinged oddly progressive 16th century Italian miller. Menocchio is the best and I adore him!)

Book I couldn't put down:

That usually happens with murder mysteries, since I want to keep reading until I find out what happened. One of them is Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose (also a classic, and definitely an interesting spin on the genre),

the other is Stuart Turton's The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. Nothing to do with history but it's so unique and so good! The best way I can describe it is that reading it feels like playing a video game, in the best way possible. It also opens up some interesting philosophical questions at the end. I've been (unsuccessfully) trying to convince my friends to read it for a year now 🙃

Book I've read twice:

I've read a lot of books multiple times for my final high school exams, but the two I know I've read twice for reasons unrelated are Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange (I rant about it any time I get a book ask, so I'll refrain from it here) and George Orwell's 1984 (I was obsessed with it in my early teens for some reason).

There are a lot of books I loved in my teens that I would be curious to read once again, to see if my perception has changed. It did happen for 1984 and Hamlet, so it would be interesting to see if it's the same case for other works as well!

A book on my TBR:

Gosh, so many. But one is Plutarch's Parallel Lives! I'm so curious about it but still haven't gotten around to actually reading it. I've only read short passages so far and I want to fix that! (Though good news is my grandparents actually have a copy in their library so I'll just snatch... um, borrow it at some point)

A book I've put down:

It used to happen quite a lot, but ever since I've started basing my reading on Tumblr... no okay, in all honesty, I've put down C. S. Forester's Hornblower and didn't get back to it for years. Although I love the tv series, I just couldn't get into the book. But I still kind of want to give it a go at some point in the future.

A book on my wishlist:

I've been obsessed with the Introducing Graphic Guides recently and I just want to collect them like Pokemon cards!!

They are very digestible and so, so good! I read one on Rousseau and Machiavelli, I bought one on the Enlightenment which I'm saving as a treat, but I need Žižek as well... and Foucault... and Romanticism...

A favourite book from childhood:

I know there recently was a movie that was... not good, but I loved Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines. It was this sort of steampunk-esque fantasy book which had a really interesting female protagonist. I mean I'm only just now realising how subversive it was that the main heroine was fairly unlikeable and very flawed but still someone you were meant to ultimately root for?

There was also a parallel about social darwinism – the world of the book had cities flying in the skies that were devouring smaller cities, robbing them blind and enslaving their populations. The governments had a flimsy quasi-philosophical justification for all this, but the heroes of the books were fighting against the status quo. Looking back, I still think the series was pretty cool!

A book you would give to a friend:

Recently borrowed Émilie du Châtelet's Discourse on Happiness to my friend after she went through a break-up. I'm hoping É's words of wisdom might help her!

A book of poetry/lyrics you own:

Catullus (a Czech and an English translation) of course!

I've also recently bought Ovid's Letters of Heroines in a second-hand bookshop and I'm looking forward to getting into it.

A non-fiction book you own:

A fair amount of biographies of old white dudes, to the surprise of noone...

but to give a little more interesting answer, I do own all the books by Jon Ronson. He's a British journalist writing about current issues and I find him to be both really funny and really insightful!

His books about the psychiatric industry (The Psychopath Test) and modern-day ostracism (So You've Been Publically Shamed) are especially good and I'd recommend them to everyone!

Currently reading:

Voltaire's biography - Roger Pearon's Voltaire Almighty. It may not be a prefect academic source, but his writing style is great and I'm really enjoying it so far!

I'm also on-and-off with Hilary Mantel's A Place of Greater Safety. I think I'll save it for once I start uni again.

Planning on reading next:

Denis Diderot's The Nun! I'm super curious because it sounds like a really interesting book for understanding sexuality and gender in the enlightenment era.

tagging @chaotic-history @my-deer-friend @theghostofbean and @iron--and--blood ! No pressure of course ✨

[nateconnolly]

As a direct result of large language models, over the next decade we'll see more "literary" thrillers and detective novels in American publishing solely because those genres emphasize twists, foreshadowing, and extremely specific character motivations--the tropes that AI storytelling (currently) struggles with the most. They also require internal consistency, something AI can't pull off in longer stories.

There have been some prestige thriller/mysteries (No Country for Old Men, The Goldfinch, The Yiddish Policeman's Union) but they're rare, and even those examples tend to get a lot of flak. Every single review I've ever read of Yiddish Policeman's Union points out how bizarre it is for someone with an MFA to write *clutches pearls* A Detective Story???

Many, many writers have had successful careers in these genres within this century (Sue Grafton, Stephen King), but they aren't regarded as "serious" by the American "literary" community. Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, and Umberto Eco tend to be regarded as "serious," but they also tend to be regarded as "dead."

If my tone hasn't already made it clear, I'm not invested in the pyramid of aesthetic values that puts "genre" on the bottom, "prestige genre" in the middle, and "literary" on the top. I don't even regard it as a series of legitimate distinctions.

But I do think it's worth paying attention to this model because it directly influences journals, small presses, MFA programs, and big publishers. The "literary" community has a stranglehold on our world of small independent publishing for short stories/essays, and it's Very difficult to attract a large publisher with a wide distribution network without a few publications in small journals. I'm not saying you can't attain popularity or financial success without kowtowing to these institutions, but it's certainly harder to make a living without their support (not that it's easy to make a living as a writer WITH their support, but that's a different post).

And I really do think their aesthetic values will rapidly shift to prioritize things that AI can't do well. Especially among the types that want to be seen as prestigious. I'm not saying that today's hard genre writers are less financially or emotionally affected by AI competition, but by and large they seem less... insecure. And I think the "literary" community will deal with that insecurity by flaunting skills that AI doesn't have.

Now, obviously, there's a huge difference between a book that's just generated by AI vs. a book that AI generates but which a human then edits. I do think an AI could conceivably provide a sound basis for a detective story that a human might then shape into something with hard-hitting twists. But I'm also not sure anti-AI reactionaries will agree with me on that. The prevailing sentiment seems to be that anything AI breathes on is both permanently and obviously tainted. Reminds me a lot of people who think it's 100% of the time easy to detect "fanfiction with the serial numbers scraped off".

(Please note I have never once said in this post AI is cool, good, or ethical. If you want those opinions come back with a warrant.)

Anyways, if you're an indie author, small press, or journal that publishes "genre" (prestige or otherwise), please feel free to hijack this post for self-promotion. There's a 99% chance I'll reblog.

[the---hermit]

24 books in 2024

New year new attempt at this challenge I have never managed to finish. I am a mood reader so planning my reading ahead is always a failure. But I want to use this yearly tradition as a way to motivate myself with my goal of conquering my physcial tbr. So I will only include books I already own and that I want to finally read. Some I chose because they are quite new, some because they have been on my tbr for ages, and with some I just randomly picked while looking at my shelves.

Bi by Julia Shaw

Walden by Henry David Thoreau

Good Night Stories For Rebel Girls 2 by Francesca Cavallo and Elena Favilli

Dubliners by James Joyce

Different Seasons by Stephen King

Sandman Overture by Neil Gaiman

Iliad by Homer

A Day Of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon

Resurgir curated by Lorenzo Incarbone

Selve Oscure curated by La Bottega Dei Traduttori

The Ballad of Reading Gaol by Oscar Wilde

Babel by R.F. Kuang

L'Etranger by Albert Camus

La Strega E Il Capitano by Leonardo Sciascia

Dreamcatcher by Stephen King

Il Libro Della Mitologia

I Pirati by Peter Lehr

The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen

The King In Yellow by Robert William Chambers

Mindhunter by John Douglas

Il manuale Dell'inquisitore

Migrazione E Intolleranze by Umberto Eco

The Name Of The Rose by Umberto Eco

Nel Buio Della Casa by Fiore Manni and Michele Monteleone

Edit: I just realized that this year marks 10 years from when I first read the lord of the rings. Ever since then I wanted to reread it, attepted that even, but never really reread it cover to cover. So I decided that during the year I am giving myself the option of wither finishing this list or to skip 3 books of this list to instead reread my beloved lotr.

[royal-confessions]

“I wonder what type of queen would archduchess mathilda of austria could have been if she didn't burn herself to death by a cigarette. Would she have been a popular queen like like margherita or unpopular perhaps, they would of had a tall king because king umberto didn't marry his cousin, I think about this often.” - Submitted by Anonymous

[thyeternalhunger]

Some character concepts I draw for my fic The Mysterious Flame of King Firan [中文/ENG] based on King of the Dead.

The fic is inspired by Planescape: Torment and The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco. I'm a huge fan of both, especially PST (you can check out my ao3 profile), and I loved the depiction of incarnations, amnesia, and paganism in those. I always wanted to write something after I finished reading KOTD and LOTN because Firan and Darcalus reminded me a bit of TNO and TTO. I created a language based on real life linguistic theories and Darkon lore, with its very own evolution, although I haven't translated that interesting part into English yet.