#literature week

[szif]

WARPLANE

We were so far at night, I was laughing in my rage, as a swarm of bees buzzed the hunters above me, the defense was strong, how they fired, friend, until in the end our new hive appeared on the horizon it was just by a thread, and they pick me off and down there sweep me up, but I came back you see! and tomorrow again fears and hides in basements from me the cowardly Europe! oh, leave it, enough! did you write since yesterday?

POET

I wrote, what could I do? the poet writes, the cat meows and the hound howls and the little fish lays eggs boldly. I'll write everything, even to you, so even above you'll know that I live, when between the exploding and collapsing houserows blood-veined moon's light wanders and rises up all, in fear all the places, and the breath stops, even the sky's staggering and the machine's just keep on coming, disappear, and much like a gurgling madness strike down all once again! I write, what could I do? and a poem's so dangerous, if you knew, one line's so fastidious and capricious, because this, also, is bravery, see, the poet writes, the cat meows and the hound howls and the little fish - Et cetera… and what can you do? nothing! You just listen to the machine, and your ear's buzzing, how you cannot hear it now, Do not deny your friend! and it grew together with you. what do you think about, while you fly above our heads?

WARPLANE

Laugh at me. I am scared up there. And I ache for my love, and closing both my eyes, laying down on a bed or just hum about it, gritting between teeth, quietly, in the canteen-deep beast and steamy chaos. If I'm up, I'd rather come down! and down flying again's my desire, there's no place for me left in this kneaded world, and the machine too, I know well, love too much, it's true, but we both hurt to one beat up there… but you do know! and you write it! and it won't be a secret anymore, I also lived as a human, who now just destroys, between sky and land, without a home, but oh, who understands.. Will you write about me?

POET

If I live. And if there's anyone left to.

(from Radnóti Miklós, [Last Name, First Name] titled "Second Eclogue", second part of his planned-to-be ten part poem series (which became 7, secretly 8 parts in the end), published in 1941)

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing References: Character Development

50 Questions ⚜ Backstory ⚜ Character-driven Story

Basics: How to Write a Character ⚜ A Story-Worthy Hero

Basics: Character-Building ⚜ Character Creation

Types of Characters: Key Characters ⚜ Literary Characters ⚜ Flat & Round Characters ⚜ Morally Grey ⚜ Narrators ⚜ Allegorical Characters ⚜ Archetypes ⚜ Stereotypical Characters

Worksheets: Backstory ⚜ Character ⚜ Kill your Characters ⚜ Antagonist; Villain; Fighting ⚜ Change; Adding Action; Conflict ⚜ Character Sketch & Bible ⚜ Protagonist & Antagonist ⚜ Name; Quirks; Flaws; Motivation ⚜ "Interviewing" your Characters ⚜ "Well-Rounded" Character

Personality Traits

5 Personality Traits (OCEAN) ⚜ 16 Personality Traits (16PF)

600+ Personality Traits ⚜ 170 Quirks

East vs. West Personalities ⚜ Trait Theories

Tips/Editing

Character Issues ⚜ Character Tropes for Inspiration

"Strong" Characters ⚜ Unlikable to Likable

Tips from Rick Riordan

Writing Notes

Binge ED ⚜ Hate ⚜ Love ⚜ Identifying Character Descriptions

Childhood Bilingualism ⚜ Children's Dialogue ⚜ On Children

Culture ⚜ Culture: Two Views ⚜ Culture Shock

Dangerousness ⚜ Flaws ⚜ Fantasy Creatures

Emotional Intelligence ⚜ Genius (Giftedness)

Emotions (1) (2) ⚜ Anger ⚜ Fear ⚜ Happiness ⚜ Sadness

Emotional Universals ⚜ External & Internal Journey

Goals & Motivations ⚜ Grammar Development ⚜ Habits

Facial Expressions ⚜ Jargon ⚜ Swearing & Taboo Expressions

Happy/Excited Body Language ⚜ Laughter & Humor

Health ⚜ Frameworks of Health ⚜ Memory

Mutism ⚜ Shyness ⚜ Parenting Styles ⚜ Generations

Psychological Reactions to Unfair Behavior

Rhetoric ⚜ The Rhetorical Triangle ⚜ Logical Fallacies

Thinking ⚜ Thinking Styles ⚜ Thought Distortions

Uncommon Words: Body ⚜ Emotions

Villains ⚜ Voice & Accent

Writing References: Plot ⚜ World-building

[thetransfemininereview]

Thinking about how badly I need more aroace rep in trans fiction right now 😓 I would love to read a book about a bunch of trans women who do cool shit and have complex emotions that aren’t about dating or sex. That’d be neat #aceweek

[twistedlybroken]

[uwmspeccoll]

Cannupa Hanska Luger, New Myth, Future Technologies, 2021

Dana Claxton, Headdress-Jeneen, 2018

Teresa Baker, Hidatsa Red, 2022

Raven Chacon, For Zitkala Sa Series, 2019

Caroline Monnet, Echoes from a near future, 2022

Marie Watt, Skywalker/Skyscraper (Calling Sky World), 2021

Anna Tsouhlarakis, The Native Guide Project, 2019

Meryl McMaster, Harbourage for a Song, 2019

Marie Watt, Companion Species (Calling Back, Calling Forward), 2021

Staff Pick of the Week

An Indigenous Present proposes that a book can be a space for community engagement through the transcultural gathering of more than sixty contemporary Indigenous and Native artists. Published by BIG NDN Press and Delmonico Books in 2023, An Indigenous Present was conceived of and edited by Mississippi Choctaw and Cherokee artist Jeffrey Gibson (b. 1972) over the course of nearly two decades. 

In Gibson’s own words, “An Indigenous Present celebrates the work of visual artists, musicians, poets, choreographers, designers, filmmakers, performance artists, architects, collectives, and writers whose work offers fresh starting lines for Native and Indigenous art. But the book does not attempt comprehensiveness. Rather, those included here are makers I admire, have collaborated with or been inspired by, and who’ve challenged my thinking. . . . These artists and what they make will guide us to Indigenous futurities authored by us in unabashedly Indigenous ways.”  

An Indigenous Present features over 400 pages of color photographs, poetry, essays, and interviews resulting in a stunning visual experience for readers and a shift towards more inclusive art systems. The front cover art shown here is by Canadian artist Caroline Monnet entitled Indigenous Represent. 

View other posts from our Native American Literature Collection.

View more posts featuring Decorative Plates.

View other Staff Picks.

– Jenna, Special Collections Graduate Intern 

[garden-ofjoy]

I WANT TO READ ALL THE BOOKS, STUDY ALL THE LANGUAGES, ADMIRE ALL THE ART... BUT I AM JUST SO TIRED!!!

[crimsonclad]

I keep seeing Takes about how recent media like Glass Onion and The Menu aren’t taking “eat the rich” seriously enough to launch real change or revolution and like?? yeah??? popular crowd-pleasing entertainment where horrible rich people Suffer A Comeuppance for the pleasure of an audience is one of the oldest tropes in all of human history???? It is a crowd pleaser! It is the bread (ha) and butter of the Western canon! It is in Chaucer it is in Dante it is in Shakespeare it is the stuff of Dickens and 95% of Agatha Christie and almost every teen movie ever made??????? “look at these horrible rich idiots and hypocrites…and now enjoy their DESTRUCTION” transcends time and space and historical moments! It is so strange to be surprised that Hollywood returns to this well without any intention of seeking anything more transgressive than an audience having a hearty chuckle lmao

[academic-vampire]

𝖂𝖊𝖊𝖐𝖘 14-15 𝖔𝖋 𝖚𝖓𝖎 𝖎𝖘 𝖒𝖞 𝖍𝖊𝖑𝖑

[jstor]

As we observe Banned Books Week, we are reminded that literature has always been more than just words on a page—it’s a battleground for ideas, identity, and the stories we tell about who we are. In 1974, Kanawha County, West Virginia, became the stage for one of the most violent textbook protests in American history. What began as a debate over school curriculum turned into a larger conflict over whose voices should be heard and whose stories should be silenced.

The power of the humanities lies in their ability to expose us to a multitude of perspectives, to challenge us, and to broaden our understanding of the human experience. But that power is also why literature and education have often become sites of controversy. The humanities ask us to grapple with life as it is—not life as we wish it to be. In the face of efforts to ban books or limit access to certain narratives, it’s essential to remember that the stories we read, discuss, and even disagree with are the foundation of critical thought.

JSTOR Daily explores the 1974 textbook battle, highlighting how this clash over curriculum foreshadowed many of the cultural debates we continue to face today. The article underscores the enduring importance of intellectual freedom and the need to safeguard the humanities against efforts to restrict access to diverse voices.

Read the full story on JSTOR Daily.

Image: Women from Boston and Charleston, West Virginia, holding signs, demonstrating against textbooks, Washington, D.C., 1975, via LOC.

[bookaddict24-7]

"I read and read and read with an intensity I’d never really known before. I mean, I’d always considered myself to be a person who liked books. But there is a difference between liking books and needing them. I needed books."

―Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig

[fairydrowning]

"Stop cringing – at your future, at your failure, at yourself in the mirror – and stand up and look directly at who you are. Not who you should've been, but who you are now. Let that person in. Let her be as mediocre and wrong and shameful and sad and miserable and brilliant and hilarious as she wants to be, because she knows exactly what you need to feel good. She has plans for you. She wants to show you what comes next. She wants to take you into the future you're dreading and say, "See? You never would've imagined this."

– Heather Havrilesky

[szif]

/ In the memory of Bálint György / FRAGMENT

Dear friend, how I shivered from this poem's coldness, how I dreaded the word, today I once again escaped from it I wrote half-lines. About something else, else I tried to write about, but no avail! This night, terrible, cloaked night, commanded me: Talk about him. And I get alarmed, but the voice has gone quiet, like the dead on Ukraine's fields outside. You've gone missing. And this autumn hasn't brought news about you either. On the forest again flies the wild winter's prophecy, pull the heavy clouds, and filled with snow once again stop on the sky. Who knows if you're alive? Today not even I know, I'm also not raging, when they swat their hands and painfully covers their faces. and don't know anything. But do you live? are you only injured? You walk in the leaf pile between the forest mud's thick scent or are you scent yourself too? Snow's already flying on the fields. Missing, - knocks the news. And drums, freezes the heart inside. Between my two ribs already tensing bad pain awakens shivers at times like these, and in my memories live so vividly your long-said words and I feel your bodily being like the dead's - I can't write about you today either!

(from Radnóti Miklós, [Last Name, First Name] titled "Fifth Eclogue", fifth part of his planned-to-be ten part poem series (which became 7, secretly 8 parts in the end), published in 1944. Bálint György [Last Name, First Name] is a friend of his who went missing after being enlisted into forced manual labour.)

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing References: World-Building

20 Questions ⚜ 100 Words for World-building

Basics: World-building ⚜ Places ⚜ Imagery ⚜ Setting

Exploring your Setting ⚜ Habitats ⚜ Kinds of Fantasy Worlds

Fantasy World-building ⚜ World-building Vocabulary

Worksheets: Magic & Rituals ⚜ Geography; World History; City; Fictional Plant ⚜ A General Template

Editing

Setting & Pacing Issues ⚜ Editing Your Own Novel

Writing Notes

Animal Culture ⚜ Autopsy ⚜ Alchemy ⚜ Ancient Wonders

Art: Elements ⚜ Principles ⚜ Photographs ⚜ Watercolour

Creating: Fictional Items ⚜ Fictional Poisons ⚜ Magic Systems

Cruise Ships ⚜ Dystopian World ⚜ Parts of a Castle

Culture ⚜ Culture Shock ⚜ Ethnocentrism & Cultural Relativism

Food: How to Describe ⚜ Lists ⚜ Cooking Basics ⚜ Herbs & Spices ⚜ Sauces ⚜ Wine-tasting ⚜ Aphrodisiacs ⚜ List of Aphrodisiacs ⚜ Food History ⚜ Cocktails ⚜ Literary Cocktails ⚜ Liqueurs ⚜ Uncommon Fruits & Vegetables

Greek Vases ⚜ Sapphire ⚜ Relics ⚜ Types of Castles

Hate ⚜ Love ⚜ Kinds of Love ⚜ The Physiology of Love

Mystical Objects ⚜ Talisman ⚜ Uncommon Magic Systems

Moon: Part 1 2 ⚜ Seasons: Autumn ⚜ Spring ⚜ Summer

Shapes of Symbols ⚜ Symbolism ⚜ Slang: 1930s

Symbolism: Of Colors Part 1 2 ⚜ Of Food ⚜ Of Storms

Topics List ⚜ Write Room Syndrome

Vocabulary

Agrostology ⚜ Allergy ⚜ Architecture ⚜ Baking ⚜ Biochemistry

Ecology ⚜ Esoteric ⚜ Gemology ⚜ Geology ⚜ Weather ⚜ Art

Editorial ⚜ Fashion ⚜ Latin Forensic ⚜ Law ⚜ Medieval

Psychology ⚜ Phylogenetics ⚜ Science ⚜ Zoology

Writing References: Plot ⚜ Character Development

[funeral]

Vítězslav Nezval, Valerie and her Week of Wonders

[twistedlybroken]

[frenchiepal]

- 📸 snapshots from the last few weeks

my motivation fluctuates a lot but lately my daily mantra of "i can do it i can do it i can do it" kinda helped tbh