#local book and reading shows !

[essektheylyss]

Okay, there has been a quote from a blog post going around about the increase of visual description and decline in interiority in novels and prose more widely, which I do agree with, and I think the advice in the full post beyond the link and quoted section are sound and currently relevant. As a prose writer who took a long detour into screenwriting and is a spatial thinker, I do find myself getting caught up in the idea of conveying what's happening on a screen and needing to return to the affordances of the medium, even several years on from writing scripts, and knowing that scripts themselves often have very scant description.

However, I think many of the comments that I've seen going around on that post overcorrect into an idea that any description in prose should be eliminated, especially as they seem to ignore how setting, and conveying a sense of place, plays a role genre to genre. Many novels do not need much description, if they are not looking to create an atmosphere grounded in place, but other stories, and certain genres in particular, rely upon the grounding involved in describing the setting. In Science Fiction and the Mass Cultural Genre System, John Rieder notes that in its full-fledged form, when it began to be used as its own genre, sci-fi leaned substantially upon an "[a]ttunement to such a distinctive handling of the setting" to impart the norms of the world and conceit that satisfied the higher level of audience buy-in that was necessary for the story to function. I would argue that something of this ilk has long been a hallmark of genres in the more speculative realm, fantasy of course being another major one, but also those grounded in reality but in some way distanced, like historical fiction. To point to a few generic hallmarks, Hugo might've been getting paid by the word, but many of the descriptions of Paris and its systems are to an extent important to achieve audience investment in the plight of the poor of the city, and Tolkien's establishment of the feel of Middle Earth is crucial to creating in the reader an echo of the love the members of the Fellowship feel for their homes that drives them on their journeys.

I do think authors should generally be more willing to explore character interiority and not simply write out a blow-by-blow recount of the action that might be taking place on screen, but given how prone writing circles are to taking writing advice as all or nothing, I think it would be a mistake to run with the idea that interiority is the only way a prose format should or can convey the information needed to tell a story, and I'd encourage writers not to apply it unthinkingly or unilaterally to their own work.

[jesncin]

In a recent post, you talk about how certain media will have QPOC characters that "feel white." Are you willing to explain more on how that happens? I'm a QPOC person that writes a decent amount of QPOC characters, and it's always interesting seeing other people's takes on how to handle that in stories.

Sure! Most of the time when I say a QPOC character "feels white" is that it lacks intersectionality. Intersectionality is about acknowledging how different marginalized identities manifest in a person, creating a unique experience. Most writers assume QPOC are just "white queer person with a palette change" instead of "we go through similar things but in an entirely different way".

A good example is Heartstopper (A show I like btw!! I can only speak for the tv show and season 1!). It's often incorrectly dismissed as fluff/escapism when it's actually a show that talks directly about marginalization (transphobia, homophobia, etc.) specific to Britain, and some really dark topics come up sometimes. But I was surprised at how little (if not at all?) racism was brought up as something QPOC struggle with. The plot with Tara (a Black girl) and Darcy (a white girl) coming out as a lesbian couple but Tara ended up struggling with the backlash was the perfect opportunity to talk about how she deals with compounded racism, sexism, and homophobia (perhaps even from her own community). But it wasn't brought up at all in that season. I'm sure this gets expanded on in future seasons but it did feel like a huge missed opportunity to me, especially since the show was so open to directly talking about queerphobia. It ends up looking selective about what issues the writer is comfortable talking about.

Intersectionality connects with everything, including joyful stories. A queer paradise to me is a world where we reclaim indigenous queer culture that was suppressed by colonialism, a place where we don't have to cut our cultural ties and end up embracing a westernized version of queer identity, where our language expands to include queer people, where we acknowledge that things like "body positivity" and disability acceptance are inherently linked with racial justice, where we can be whole. In these narratives with QPOC that "feel white", something is always lost. Whether that be culture, language, religion, anything. In She-Ra, the QPOC are just that. We get a dumpling once and a while as "representation" but that's it.

[barnabyboppins]

Hopefully lukewarm take (i haven’t checked)

I recently finished reading the Heroes Of Olympus series (having read pjo immediately prior) and I think it’s pretty shitty that the worth of all of our good guy characters are, to a notable degree, measured by their ability to find and engage in romantic relationships and are then greatly defined by those relationships. (Disclaimer; I don’t think I’m in a justified position to discuss lots of the racial criticisms for HoO but I do agree with a lot of em and that aspect does factor into this topic)

7+ important recurring characters is quite a lot of people to balance, even in a five book series and all of the non-pjo characters suffered immensely for it. But one character arc I anticipated over and over again that never ended up happening was any one character finding fulfillment from the non-romantic relationships around them by de-prioritizing the idea of a perfect someone in favour of accepting the support of their friends/comrades/campers/family/etc. (Second disclaimer: I don’t expect a novel saga from 2010 to have characters declaring their orientations (or lack thereof) aloud but the idea of a character learning to define themself by or through something outside of romance isn’t a new one)

I think Percy and Annabeth are very cute and work well as a couple (are they the only white couple?) and I don’t really see any chemistry between Piper and Jason (I feel like they’re on very different paths from each other and Piper stagnates greatly in favour of supporting jasons development) but I think literally every other Good Guy character had the potential to not need romance in their arcs. Frank could have been raised to praetor by consensus and recognized by his peers and grandma, actively validating his growth rather than him achieving great feats and no one noticing or really caring except for Hazel. Hazel could’ve been shown learning about the modern day with Frank and Nico during downtime and reconciling her identity and trauma with the diversity of today while discovering a new freedom in acceptance (from the Seven) of who she is from back then and who she may yet want to be (and also not dated a 16 y/o at 13).

Leo, Reyna and Nico were the main ones I was thinking would forgo the need for a partner at least as a necessity for their growth/healing as all three have severe familial trauma, are distanced from other demigods socially somehow, and all were explicitly ousted from conventional romance in-writing.

Initially with Leo I had hoped he would confront his struggle being the “seventh wheel” by expressing how he was feeling overlooked as a friend (and as the ONLY shipwright) in favour of everyone’s romantic interests, which would lead into further emotional vulnerability in the party but, that never happened save for a few stoically non-communicative gestures of support to Frank and otherwise weird hang-ups on Hazel before he fucked off to Calypso, letting his friends think him dead for weeks. Leo lacked connection and felt inferior and less important than the rest of the Seven and the narrative validated that by only fulfilling him through an a Rapunzel-like hot babe trapped on an island who is physically dependent on his emotional dependence on her. That’s not a recipe for healthy relationship! I related to Leo initially as an aromantic person with 9 siblings, half of whom are already coupled so it was very disappointing when I realized by the third book that RR just didn’t take what was to me the most obvious arc for a character who is vitally important to a team but least noticed. Also the Hazel-Frank-Leo pseudo-love shape didn’t need to happen, at least in the way it did, and I think the Leo-Hazel-Sammy weird love thing was stupid.

I think Nico and Will are a very cute couple and I’m looking forward to reading their book when I come around to it but I felt unsatisfied that the thing that got Nico to stay at camp after 5 books was a guy who had little significant presence until the last book and not like, any of the other deeply important connections he made during his journeys? Nico’s been talking about never returning to either camp for a while and none of the Seven or Reyna (I think) thought to check in with him? I get that Will is supposed to be like the first person to insistently want Nico around but if Will really is the first then that’s kinda fucked up given the whole like, eight books worth of people he’s met. It’s a bit fucked up that after years of Nico’s presence, seemingly the first connection to anchor him down is an unspoken suggestion of a romance

Reyna’s character journey confuses me because I don’t if I missed or forgot it but I don’t remember her having a conclusion to her internal struggles. Aphrodite telling her she’s doomed to singledom gets brought up again and again and it’s mostly just to make you feel bad for her. She doesn’t tell anyone else. She doesn’t seek fulfillment in the platonic or familial connections she has. They visit her house, trauma dump about her abuse AND fakeout her sisters + the hunters + the amazons deaths just to have Reyna be even more hurt. Reyna and Nico come to understand each other while they’re travelling but by the conclusion of the series she’s just gone back to her isolating and stressful role as the praetor, but now with more work to do! Aphrodite’s words are never explained and their veracity is never tested and all it serves is to give Reyna more misery porn.

I guess what I’m saying is I think the story would have been better if The Seven & Co had a little more connection with each other and not just with their respective partners and if we could have seen some internal growth come from that.

[gideonthefirst]

2025 GET WORSE

[myriad--starlings]

dunmeshi has every kind of guy in it somehow. every kind of girl too. every kind of. every. all of them.

[sanjiafterhours]

i was like no more one piece tonight i gotta lock in with my hobbies, and then opened my vintage japanese cookbook to find one of sanji's favourite dishes pop up 😭

[junebugtwin]

Drawing concept art for various strange and wonderful lands with my sister @bird--egg, this one is called 'The BigCity City'. Extremely fun!

[iys-cloud]

no better time to be a minor who has never gotten the chance to read the pjo series, and experience both the books AND the series for the first time

[jtownraindancer]

History has shown that it is not whether a disaster will strike a town, but when. If it is not a mine fire, it is living in the shadow of Three Mile Island. Or in a community with a tainted water supply. Or the ghastly horror of Bhopal.

Slow Burn: A Photodocument of Centralia, Pennsylvania by Renée Jacobs, 1986.

[wannaliveattheholidayinn]

i Need to write pipravi fanfic but i am so conflicted about how to go about it

[visionkept]

Just did the not so new event and leaving aside the fact that I love my girls . . . the musketeers plot got A LOT IN COMMON with my Tomo's lore to the point that I felt robbed; 1. The illegitimate child of a powerful and wealthy figure and his once "favorite" maid 2. The children having to hide from the public and being raised in the underground / street. 3. Their mother having a certain affinity and connection with flowers. 4. The mother being suspiciously murdered by the other "parent". Hoyo used my planned Tomo lore for this event. I'm gonna call this a coincidence, one that might make Tomo come across the novel ( they truly are a fan of literature in any form ), read it after hearing about Ayaka's upcoming acting role, and end up having to stop midway thanks to the many similarities to their background, making them sick to their stomach - affecting them both physically and mentally with how close it hits to their PAST.

[beastwars-transformers]

Reading how beast wars was so radically changed in its Japanese dub is giving me a literature crisis

[thestarstho]

You know how some ppl have an internal monologue and some don't? And some people can visualize things in their head if it's described to them and others can't? And some people have both the monologue and the visualization thingy? Who in the Bob's Burgers universe do you think has them? And who doesn't?

[anotherpapercut]

coworker asked me a few weeks ago about what theme he should do for the book group he was starting and I was stoked bc he has great taste and was going to do it at a time I could actually go and he ended up choosing popular booktok books as his theme 😒

[supercantaloupe]

finished my reread of project hail mary! wanted to finish it before i got on my train but that didn't happen, so now i have a near 500 page book in my house and nowhere to put it lol. just as good as i remembered it being, whatever it is that andy weir does with his writing absolutely clicks for me because i tore through that thing in about a day's time (a little more than, and slightly slower than i read it the first time lol, but i had things to do when i got back to town today!). it feels so great to read a book again that's so good i can absolutely eat through it

[gible-love-nibles-archive]

Had a Joker moment today