#theyre very touch and go and super subjective so im sorry if i didnt like a book you liked im sure its great still😞

[kazuoishiguro]

ok hi- the lgbt books i read in june! plus my ratings :-)

radio silence by alice oseman  (★★★★★)  ⟲

hani and ishu’s guide to fake dating by adiba jaigirdar (★★★★☆)

wayward son by rainbow rowell (★★☆☆☆)

the gentleman’s guide to vice and virtue by mackenzi lee  (★★★☆☆)

taproot by keezy young  (★★★★☆)

red white and royal blue by casey mcquiston (★★★★★)  ⟲

swimming in the dark by tomasz jedrowski  (★★★★★)

the magic fish by trung le nguyen  (★★★★★)

only mostly devastated by sophie gonzales (★★★★☆)

i was born for this by alice oseman  (★★★★☆)

carol by patricia highsmith (★★★★★)  ⟲

heartstopper series by alice oseman (★★★★★)  ⟲

perfect on paper by sophie gonzales (★★★★★)

spinning by tillie walden  (★★★☆☆)

peta lyre’s rating normal by anna whateley (★★★★☆)

less by andrew sean greer  (★★★☆☆)

[strawberryspeachy]

Also im sick of obnoxious japanese eaters

Things ive found out are myths here

1) everyones nice.

No. Everyone smiles hard to cover up whatever assholery theyre doing - if theyre supposed to be nice to you. Public people are the same as usual... except theres alot more shoving

2) everything about school

They don’t pay for school. Its free. Just like ours. Except private school. Just like ours

They are not MORE overworked in school nor do they study more. Their rules are much loser. And just like the states, teachers have no real authority- but unlike the states - the students do not fear repercussions. They can be touched though but thats more because japanese people think its fine to touch each other a lot - ya know. Just dont hug as an adult - but all other invading of some kind of private bubble is fine

3) SLURPING No thats not just a “it shows you love the food!” Bs. Just like the states, the people you hear disgustingly slurping just eat loud and are gross... imo... people here dont seem to think its gross but far more people eat like civilized humans and dont slurp everything from solids to actual liquids.

K like every time the past two days ive had to be near people slurping their fucking food and as a person who HATES hearing people eat... its why im bitching here. LETTUCE DOES NOT NEED SLURPED

4) just anything they call “culture” they used a pretty word to cover for “thats just the dumb thing we do here” its literally like if we said aggressively speed driving and cutting people off is new yorkers culture

Japan has a lot of history and traditions. But mostly they have a lot of bs that theyre just too stubborn to acknowledge and change so they lable it culture. Any changes they make are pretty much like when my great grandmother got a cell phone.

She only turned it on to charge it and make a phone call - leave a voicemail saying that she called - and then would turn it back off. It wasnt ever even on long enough for her to need to charge it.

But in her mind no one could complain that she didnt have one. And the only emergency in her mind was her needing to call you - not vice versa. She wouldnt use it for any other purpose and generally resented its existence. She hated watching anyone else use their cell phones to check the time or take pictures or play games or have lenthy conversations.

Yea. Thats basiclly japan with everything new. They have it. But they dont use it , and its possibilities scare them so the old ppl say its not allowed to be used unless the old people need to use it

Sorry man i hate everywhere i am. My aparment is next to a bar that looks permanently closed during the day. I had no clue it was there till after i moved in and the loud karaoke blared into my window every damn night

My train line is a nightmare and if you wanna see the worst japanese people can be. Ride the train during rush hours

My post office is far away and they refuse to ring my doorbell when i have a delivery and instead just leave slip - if you dont hike over in their made up time period they throw your stuff away

No one will actually help you with serious stuff. They just smile and say sorry and run away — customer service. Yea. Not customer service. They could just as easily be a manican with a smiley face - itd serve the same purpose.

Theres too much paperwork constantly all the time about everything

Nothing is online

Another thing that prompted me for this “this is japanese chocolate”

Cool. I got that its japanese. Im in japan. Everything people point out for me “its japanese____” fucking imagine if we felt the need to point out every damn item as “american” in the states. Why? What is the meaning of this?

They gave me a table to sit at at this school. A table. That they make lunch on and put all their supplies on. A dude just kicked my chair as he came over for some shit. Why am i sitting at a table? Very very few japanese people ive worked with dont make me feel like an adopted pet dog that theyre not sure if itll bite. Dog. Not new person. They literlly have the children fetch me...

And ive grown so so very tired of being asked questions with the intention of having me overhype japan while maintaining that im so stupid that i know absolutely nothing about the country

98% of japanese people assume that you think of japan like youve never even heard of their country before arriving and that you just arrived two days ago

Also. Maybe they think their test scores and clases are so much more difficult because they cant seem to fathom that most other countries schools function the same way as theirs

Yesterday a teacher said “ah theyre so overworked. They have alot to remember” i thought she was about to tell me how many units were on their exam or something... no “english, japanese, science, math, history, pe, food class, art! Too many things. Theyre very overworked”

..... are you for real? Im pretty sure every fucking school has those subjects if you switch out japanese for the countries native language.... this is NORMAL

Im sorry. I know the reason anyone talking to me like this might not like me. Cause im not gonna go WOWWW SUGEII?!?!? So much stuff!! Poor them!

No. Yeah? Thats school...

Look im not an asshole to my kids. If they can manage to tell me any information about their life in english or simple japanese i can translate - i act surprised/ or am if their english is super good.

But adults... no man. Learn some stuff about the outside world. Youre not specifical

Also dating boys here is just like back home except they wont block you and they respond less

Instead of getting “nice” “oh” “idk” and “maybe” as there fading messages - they just leave you on read. Or give you some random information that you didnt ask about that has no relevance to the ‘convo’

Also also. “Speak slow” they dont say this in a ‘my english is not good so speak slower’ way. They say this in a ‘i felt really good about my english until you spoke at a normal pace and my classes and ass-kissing white dudes have taught me that enlgish is spoken slow and percisely so if you dont speak with a japanese accent, your fast english is wrong’

Whatever but like... could you return the favor by speaking japanese slowly. Speak it the way you want me to speak english....

Telling them to speak slow results in something like

... nihon..de〜 nan mabdnshsnabsjsnjsbshssnbsjsbsjshsh ka?

Woah ok... something in Japan... couldnt catch the rest of that

Id be more understanding of this. Its hard to speak slow. Lets both acknowledge this and not - teachers compalining to principals and boys... (1) sending me a fucking video on how to speak my own damn language properly

Also. Do you know how upsetting it is to listen to a student say something perfectly but before i get to praise them - have the japanese teacher jump in and “correct” them...... no no dude please. I know youll have a fucking meltdown if i say no your ways wrong. But now this student is so confused desperately staring at me positive theyre correct and all ive come up with to do is smiling and nodding at them while repeating the way they said hoping the japanese teacher wont notice/get offended

Also togo food... if its not american fast food... generally you cant take it to go... its sad. I have no friends. I just wanna take this home to eat in front of my tv. This isnt serious. Its just a minior inconvenience

Also joking... my japanese isnt good enough to joke. And... idk how... cant explain. The other day a student asked whats my favorite food

And another went hamburger?!? Mcdonalds!!?

I wanted to comment.. but. At least elementary students understand sarcasm. Their teachers dont. And whether the middle schoolers understand and just dont care is up in the air.

Oh! And. I was right last week when i didnt trust my teachers saying that the obvious bullying was just a misunderstanding and the obvious targets fault. Another straight up teacher said some kids have left the school because of bullying and theyre really awful when left alone in the rooms... i told him thats why we cant go unsupervised in america. Japan says the students are just perfect upstanding citizens, so much more caring and mature than other students. Nope. Middle schoolers will be middle schoolers no matter what country.

[tumblunni]

How do I write an autistic villain without demonizing autism by accident? ;-;

I’m not really sure why you’re messaging this to me. I’m really sorry but I’m not an expert on like.. political stuff about autism stereotyping, just because I’m autistic. And it depends on which country you live in, I know that america has a far more visible sort of cultural presence for stereotypes, due to the whole Autism $peaks controversies. I dont live in america and I’m not super smart or anything, so yeah this is a disclaimer that this is just my opinion and you should probably research answers given by other people too. And maybe ask people about the specific circumstances of what you’re writing, like the context of the setting of the story and what the villain is like, etc. I’d be happy to chat to you about that if you need help! (but again, im no expert, lol)

ANYWAY!

My opinion on the subject is that having an autistic villain is perfectly fine, as long as you’re not villainizing autism. Like...* Don’t make the autism the reason theyre a villain.* Don’t make people scared of them because of the autism, rather than because they’re a villain.* Don’t treat their autistic traits as scary or inherantly villainous.* Don’t make anyone insult them for their autism and act like its justified because they’re evil.

And similarly its bad form to do any of that stuff in regard to any sort of minority really. An example that always bugged me is how Excellus from Fire Emblem Awakening is scary and evil because he’s a murderous monster, yet everyone in the game constantly insults him for the fact he acts ambiguously gay/transgender/effeminate. Like, there’s way too many jokes about people finding him ‘disgusting’ because of some random thing he can’t change, like a sexuality, race or mental illness which plenty of non-evil people have too! It also lessens his impact as a villain because the characters barely even address the actual villainous things he does, and he doesnt seem to have any motive at all. They just ride on the whole ‘the audience will find him gross’ thing as a crutch and forgot to bother writing a good villain.

Oh, and your concerns are indeed valid, yo! Sometimes it is important to think about the context you created a character in, even if you didnt intentionally create any negative messages within your writing.It’s just that the case where a character will be seen as villainizing [minority trait] for being a villain... that’s kind of only in a very specific circumstance? its just that this specific circumstance is very very common in mass media nowadays.It’s ‘The Smurfette Principle’.If you only have one character of a minority in your cast, its easy for an uninformed audience to pick up messages that you’re saying ALL members of that minority are the same as them.If you only have one autistic character and he’s the villain, then you might accidentally be villainizing him. In a world where autistic characters being villainized for their autism is already very common, people could just assume you made them autistic for the same reason all those other writers did- because they think it’s ‘scary’. It feeds the stereotype even if you didn’t conciously intend it that way.

So a very very easy way to fix this problem is just to add multiple characters of a minority into your story, filling various roles from villain to hero to helpful npc. or anything you can think of!

Another good quick fix is to have your villain be autistic, but portray their autistic traits as sympathetic/relateable/a humanizing aspect of them. Not just portraying it as something neutral that doesnt make them scary, but going out of your way to add some scenes showing how they’re just like anybody else. Or even making it one of their redeeming traits!It doesn’t have to outright be something like ‘yo being autistic makes me inherantly good and childlike’, which is a stereotype all to itself, lol. But you could show them experiencing predjudice from another character, in a way that makes the audience sympathise. Honestly having a character attack them for being autistic instead of being a villain would be a good way to do this, as long as that character is actually shown as being wrong for what they’re doing. Or simply showing the villain having common autistic traits, facing common problems, doing common everyday things... that can be enough to portray autism positively. Have them shown doing this stuff outside of the situation of them being villainous. It makes them feel more human and less of an abstract symbol of evil. And because these small glimpses of normality are lightening the mood, they become seen as a positive aspect!

KIND OF AN OFFTOPIC TANGEANT SORRYJust my personal experience as an autistic kid experiencing this story... I personally headcanoned Cyrus from pokemon as autistic. Not because he’s ‘scary and emotionless’, but because his backstory was relateable to me as an autistic person. It’s said that his parents were emotionally abusive, and that he had nobody to turn to because everyone thought he was ‘a creepy kid’. And he was able to find solace by obsessing over repairing machines in his bedroom, and apparantly has trouble understanding people because they can’t be fixed as easily. Stuff like maths and science are kind of a stereotypical Special Interest for autistic children to be given in fiction, I guess because it makes you seem more intelligent when you obsess about that instead of video games, norse mythology, or collecting tiny novelty spoons from around the world XD (Yeah i was a weird kid.)So yeah sorry I went a little offtopic there, but the point is that it might have been by accident instead of intention but that villain has a lot of traits that read as autistic. And when i first played Diamond and Pearl I actually disliked him a lot because of that, I felt like they were villainizing someone who seemed relateable and potentially redeemable. I mean, he seemed pretty depressed too! Give that man some therapy! But when I played Platinum and got to learn his backstory I started to feel like the writers actually did want us to feel sympathetic to him, because of how all those ‘scary’ traits were presented so sympathetically. Like.. the backstory isn’t that he became evil because he was an autistic kid who did creepy things like obsess about machinery and suck at social contact. No, he became a villain because he was abused by his parents, him being ‘weird’ is just intended to make it clear here that he didnt deserve it. It makes him pitiable, it makes him relateable, it makes you feel so much more frustrated that nobody listened to him and saved him from that hell, and nobody even seems to remember him fondly, just because he was ‘weird’. And hell, even his ‘emotion is evil’ philosophy seems very relateable to me as an autistic child. It seems like he learned to seclude himself to avoid angering his parents. That’s the impression I got from his final scene in Platinum, where he finally acts angry at you for beating him, then gets angry at himself for expressing emotion and forces himself to go back to how he usually talks. I get a bit pissed off whenever I see fans of the series claim he actually IS emotionless, lol! This scene made it clear to me that this is just a guy who WISHES he was emotionless, somehow seeing it as the only way to be free of pain. Someone who struggles to deal with his own emotions, or feels like he’s disgusting when he expresses them. And this is VERY relateable specifically to an autistic kid who suffered from an abusive parent! “Quiet Hands” is a kind of common concept that autistic kids might experience, that’s the name for a popular ‘parenting technique’ that really fucks people up. Focusing on making your kid never ‘act autistic’, rather than actually helping them understand things. ‘Quiet Hands’ is specifically about slapping or smacking your kid whenever they show stimming behaviour. (Hand flapping being a common way this symptom can manifest.) We’re taught never to be too loud, and to always always have to restrain ourselves to avoid embarassing our parents. We have to try and learn how to act like ‘normal people’ and become scared of harmless parts of our own brain just because theyre ‘embarassing’, leading to even worse emotional problems as an adult. i mean seriously how is it logical to tell a kid who has troubles with social interaction that they shouldnt even practise it?? Plus its a huge mess to teach these kids to do way more emotional labour than neurotypical kids are expected to do, and then treat them like they’re below average intelligence for not being able to do twice as much as everyone else...

ANYWAY! That’s a thinG! Sorry I went rambling off there about how a particular fictional character touched my heart, lol!I just kinda wish he could be canonically autistic, or if I had similar canonically autistic characters to relate to, instead. So i think having more autistic villains can’t be bad, we’re so badly in need of more autistic characters in general! And villains have a unique perspective of being able to hit our emotions the hardest. I think its easier to cry over someone who has a sad backstory of how they became evil, compared to anything else!So yeah what I was trying to say before I went offtopic is that if the backstory is ‘became evil because autism’, then people will complain. But if the backstory is ‘became evil because someone mistreated them because autism’ then that’s a good way to make people sympathise with autism. Aaaaand I’m bad at explaining this, because autism XD Well, i mean, my personal symptoms and lack of diagnosis til I was an adult means that I’m still working on learning how to communicate correctly, I don’t mean every autistic person writes terrible tl;dr advice posts that degrade into pokemon XDOh man i feel embarassed now, you asked me such a polite question and I didnt know how to answer it very well...I just hope maybe I inspired you to go out and do more research, rather than putting you off with my nonsense!

[spicydadshowdown]

@katieshirogane so here are some ideas for my dumb V-O-L-T-R-O-N AU ive been spit-balling for awhile, in no particular order (these are all subject to change/refinement... also i got a real nasty headache today so this is going to be pretty scatterbrained , sorry!)

So basically this is like…. an magic/modern AU lol…so…. here’s just a few things, more will be added on a later date.

Shiro runs a business that’s like … a rescue, rehabilitation, and relocation center for magic beings; both sentient and non-sentient (they only have room to take in small to medium sized monsters though). They primarily specialize in helping sentient beings who’ve lost their homes do to urbanization/ floods/ whatever and try to help them find new homes. Also on top of sheltering magical beings they also fight some nasty monsters. (Shiro specializes in exorcism, also he has space distortion powers.) 

Shiro’s shelter is like, this small little hole in the wall that used to be a flowershop. Shiro bought it and renovated it. im debating whether or not i should make it into a flower shop or like…. a candy store?? or somethin’….maybe a bakery actually... cuz u know they gotta make money somehow lol. (All the profit they make goes into keeping the shelter up and running. Also i think im gonna role with bakery tbh)

Lance and Hunk made Shiro cute little business cards for both the sanctuary/shelter and the bakery. i havent decided on the designs for them yet… lol… but if u scratch the logo on the cards (the ones for his sanctuary/shelter) a ‘video’ will play of Hunk and Lance being goofs while trying to advertise Shiro’s business…. its a mess.

They have a alien at the sanctuary, it kinda looks like a frog and shes really chubby and feathery and makes the grossest snorting sounds and drools alot, and Lance and Hunk love her alot... even if shes the size of a great dane and crushes them whenever she tries sitting on them. Her favorite person is Lance. She hangs out in the store (shes got a collar that makes her look like a giant mastiff so the costumers dont get spooked)

In the magical business you dont give out your full name to just anyone - giving out your name to certain magical creatures will give them power over you and its easier for them to curse you and well… make your life miserable in general. Especially if you’re human, so whenever someone asks for his name he gives him his nickname: Shiro....obviously,,, (The rest of the gang also follows this rule.)

Keith lives at the shop, he rents out the spare room in the basement Shiro always tells him he doesn’t need to pay him but Keith kind of shoves the money in his face because goddamn Takashi you are way too nice i’m not gonna freeload on you so just take my money.

Hunk works in the back making the pastries (everyone takes turns making the pastries but Hunk does it the most bc he likes doin it ), he tries his best to not get involved with any of Shiros magical guests. He doesnt want anything to with that nonsense bc magical beings are assholes and theyre super dangerous and he just wants to live a relatively normal life thank you very much. He’s also in college, working on getting his bachelors degree in Aerospace engineering - specifically astronautical engineering.

That being said whenever there are children at the shelter Hunk just... HAS to make them smile and tell them everything will be okay, even if they are magical beings and make him a bit nervous.

Hunk and Lance are great with kids, so whenever there’s a family at the shelter and the kids are feeling real down Hunk and Lance always brighten up their days. They teach them how to knit and stuff and play games with them, Hunk teaches them the wonders of science, ect. 

When Lance isnt at the shop/at school he spends his time in the ocean, perusing water dragon caves, talking to fish (mostly sharks), surfing, sometimes goes to underwater parties and hits on merpeople. He can take the form of a tiger shark and a tiger shark merman. (One time after drinking a lil too much he let it slip that he was human and was almost alive eaten by the party-goers.) Lance is in college... though im still not sure what hes studying...

Also one time Keith made a bet with Lance that if he was able to steal some treasure from a water dragons lair - not only would he give Lance one of his cool magical weapons he’d also (metaphorically) kiss his ass for an entire month. So, not only did Lance bring home some Sweet Dragon Gold and gems he also brought home a fucking dragons’ tooth (that he punched out of the dragons mouth. Like, the thing was HUGE - it was half the size of Lance.) Keith....didnt actually think hed do it.... it was a joke....it was a joke.... now Lance will never let him live it down, his life will no longer know peace. 

Keith has a moderate sized collection of magical weapons - most of which he’s won at this underground arena Pidge and him go to once a week (its a secret, not even Shiro knows). Also his specialty is pyromancy... of course....

Pidge specializes in curses (mostly with removing them, but she can make some nasty ones too) and magic involving plants. Also, if u need someone to get u through a tough magical barrier Pidge is ur girl. She’s also in college studying nanotechnology (specifically its application to spacecraft) (and/or robotics..... maybe.... nanorobotics....hmmm)

She’s always putting hexes on Keith and playing mean pranks on him like:

making a entire forest grow in his room, bonus swarm of locusts hidden underneath his blanket and inside his pillow.

making everything in his entire room rubbery and doughy, like your walking on goddamn playdough and everything he touches? Playdough.

Hiding giant basketball sized spiders in his closet, double bonus: have the spiders come out of the walls in fucking droves.

Bewitching him with an incorrigible appetite for peanut butter and peanut butter cookies... u name it

He does get back at Pidge though, ruthlessly. They actually have prank wars all the time. 

Im still trying to work out the relationship dynamics with the characters... all i know is that Pidge and Keith have.... uh, ,,,, a very physical relationship.......like, they’re not dating or anything, they just hook up ...alot.... MY AU MY RULES.

sooooo thats all i got for now bc im running out of steam fast...so ye... (Oh and also The Holts will be present in this au...still gotta work it out lol)