#literature rambles

[milk-crafting]

Lolita is a really great horror novel, on the same level of visceral disgust and terror as American Psycho, but when I say that I get told that I'm wrong. I'm choosing to believe that I'm in fact correct and everyone who doubts me is wrong.

[freshjjindahouse]

just finished the Time Traveler's Wife and WOW did I not like it!!! 550 pages only for me to slam it down and say "boy I'm glad that's over!"

The story could've been interesting but the pseudo-pdfilia/grooming, casual infidelity, and outdated racial stereotypes really made it hard for me to get invested in any of the novel's deeper commentary. If anyone reads this... I really don't recommend this book. If you want a time travel romance go watch About Time. I've never actually seen the movie but I'm willing to bet it's better than whatever I just read.

[insomniaticvoids]

There's a thing with straight people and their reactions to a queer person bringing up media and mentioning that it has major gay undertones and getting upset at them.

And it's really stupid. As someone who mind you I usually don't try to analyze text my first read through but can pick up subtext easily if intrested. Looked at the orginal text of the Stange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and went damn this has some major gay undertones I can write a bloody thesis on it. You cannot tell me no no sir you cannot that's an assumption you can't call everything gay.

(There is actually a good amount of people who have written and published thesis on the thematics of being gay in this story)

Like it's irksome! Yes things are different compared to then but it doesn't take being alive then to understand when someone is gay when your gay (I also have a hyperfixation on the Era in question so the language clicks easily for me to read and interpret)

Like seriously let people who recognize gayness in media say it without a "actually this can't be gay or have queer undertones because there no blatant gay kissing or confession"

Like people's reading comprehension is piss poor thanks American education system but damn

[star-struck09]

Do you think of me as often as I think of you?

[erraticreflections]

[shisasan]

There’s nothing like books waiting to ruin you completely, stories that tear you apart only to leave you more whole than before.

[flowersforfrancis]

I dread the end of winter.

[afantasyoffiction]

sorry guys nerd time!!!

honeys’s lovely tags asked who rosaline is and BOY do i have feelings abt this lol

rosaline is the primary reason a large body of shakespeare fans/readers/experts perceive the play at large as satirical, rather than genuine. there’s lots of reasons for this interpretation - the age of both romeo and juliet, the speed with which they get engaged, typical ideas which shakespeare has been known to play on….but rosaline is the most important one

when we first meet romeo, his character is introduced as a hopeless, love sick man who is genuinely so caught up in his unrequited feelings his parents are worried for his health. benvolio and mercutio make fun of him, and convince him to come to a party with them (the very capulet ball where he meets juliet for the first time…) . and who is romeo so obsessed with at this point?

not juliet. they’ve never even met by this point. rather, a woman called rosaline who has sworn herself to chastity as a nun. this is all we know about her - as romeo and most of the audience forgets about her entirely the moment juliet enters

that’s right. romeo genuinely said ‘forswear it sight, for i ne’er saw beauty til this night’ literally ABT AN HOUR after he said Rosaline was the most beautiful woman in the world and he’d never love again….

are we seeing the problem? this ties in with the common theme of young love being blind, but personally i’ve always found the play to be pushing into satire because romeo is just tooooooooo insane abt two girls within a short space of time

anyways there’s some rlly cool adaptations out there abt rosaline but i’ve always wanted to create one one day that centred around both girls. i AM aware they’re cousins in the original so i would just….change that

i also wanted it to be canon compliant. which means juliet has to die (mostly so i can kill romeo lol). how do i then give the lesbians a happy ending? VAMPIRES

anyways this is a very long post for an abandoned wip but…if u got this far, let me know which shakespeare retelling you would like to read or write one day :))))))

Let’s do “bee”

Seems accurate to my branding

thanks for the ask! this one took me a while to find. its from a (mostly abandoned lol) wip about Romeo and Juliet, or rather, Juliet and Rosaline. the concept: sapphic romance plus vampires equals the solution to shakespeare's most famous tragedy...

One gentle morning, they’d lain in a heap on the forest floor, grass in their hair and leaves on their clothes and eyes wide as they watched bees float lazily overhead. The scent of summer was humid, like a physical presence in the air, a blanket holding them down. In the heat, Rosaline hadn’t wanted to move. She didn’t want to roll over to meet Juliet’s eyes, or get up to return to town. Instead, her hand reached out of its own accord, tangling in Juliet’s own.

[ramblingmindofrayyan]

Sometimes it’s really lonely being me.

[cursed-dagger]

we have but one life.

why would you read "classical literature" and "philosophy" and "actual books published by world renowned authors" when you can read dramione smut written by a redbull fuelled college student at 3 in the morning

[sunnythanalan]

One of the best

I have been thinking about Erenville a lot and how the narrative allows us to really get to know him through the quiet moments. Through action rather than spoken words.

His mother calls him a fussy little bunbun, which is funny to begin with as we know him so far to be a taciturn and practical man. But while we travel with him we discover that he has suffered abandonment all throughout his life; first by his mother leaving him in care of others as she traveled herself, then by sending him away on his own travels, then further upon his return when there is a literal screen between them. The symbolism here is unmistakable. 

Then, as we progress, it becomes quite clear that Erenville suspects that there’s something wrong with his mother. Instantly he’s on the defensive, citing that her whimsy and overwhelming personality always overshadow his own wishes, and that he struggles to understand her, also to trust her. His quiet stoicism isn’t that funny anymore. 

In an ironic twist we discover that she has left him one last time, to the land of Living Memory. Even if it was never her intention to leave him in such a way, it must be hard to overcome that sense of continuous abandonment - and this time he has to say goodbye forever. That he draws away from everyone else to grieve and come to terms with this in solitude speaks volumes. It really indicates that he dealt with difficult emotions alone a lot while growing up, and in such a way he never learned how to rely on others. In the end, when finally pressed to the breaking point, Erenville lashes out in anger as the tools he made for himself fails him in processing all of his grief and fear alone. He has to find the courage to trust his mother with his emotions and that just as she's leaving him one last time.

Wuk Lamat is always right there in your face going through her emotions and leaning upon others for support, on the other side is Erenville, who draws back with his pain. We learn to know him just as deeply as Wuk Lamat, but through everything that isn’t said, rather than what is said. In fear of sounding effusive, even their appearance symbolises this: they're golden dawn and darkening dusk. Two sides of the same coin.

Honestly, personally to me, Erenville is one of the best written characters in this story so far. I love him deeply. I cried so hard for him.

PS. His love for his mother becomes so clear in the love he pours into the fauna that she mentored him in. While working as a gleaner, he's probably as close to her as he can be when she's physically not there. In the moments we see him care for animals his entire countenance changes, he becomes soft and caring, even exuberant and joyful.

[tarufai]

[freshjjindahouse]

I read two short stories last night: "The Lottery" and "The Bet"

The Lottery definitely didn't have as much shock value as I imagine it would have had back in 1948 simply because I grew up being incessantly harassed with The Hunger Games but I will say that the twist at the end of the story with the rocks was SO good. Like, at first you just think the kids were just playing around until it's revealed that they were actually collecting ammunition. A really effective story choice on the author's behalf and probably what I'll most remember about it.

As for The Bet- I thought it was interesting, albeit I may have to ruminate on it longer to really understand its message (my immediate thoughts lean towards anti-materialism but I think there's other stuff going on there that I haven't figured out yet). But, in the meantime, I will say that what I thought was most interesting about it was the different ways in which the captive passed his time in isolation. In general, I find isolation and it's effects on the human mind to be a fascinating topic, and I love stories that explore it in any capacity (recs please if anyone has any). Might reread this story at some point and even check out the twilight zone episode that adapted it.

[mifink]

henry jekyll 🤝 victor frankenstein

fucking around and finding out

[star-struck09]

I wish I could tell you half the things I think about.

[welcometogrouchland]

I understand that literature nerd Jason Todd is kind of overblown in fanon compared to it's actual presence in canon (a few issues during his pre (and post?)crisis Robin tenure that highlight it) BUT consider that I think it's hilarious if the unhinged gun toting criminal has strong opinions on poetry