#things i'm reading

[nkjemisin]

"All too often in the past, science fiction writers made things easy for themselves by portraying a white, middle-class, male-dominated universe, even attributing white, middle-class, male values to their 'alien' races. I'm not comfortable writing about such a universe, behaving as though it represented the one true way." -Octavia Butler

[heavensickness]

Penelope and Callisto's relationship drama is so fucking funny no matter how many times I reread the story. It literally goes like

Callisto: I WANT TO MARRY YOU

Penelope: I WANT TO BE LOVED

Callisto: LOVE DOESN'T EXIST, MY TRAUMATIC CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES MAKE ME BELIEVE SO

Penelope: THEN WHY DO YOU WANT TO MARRY ME ASSHOLE

Callisto: YOU ARE THE SMARTEST FUNNIEST LOVELIEST PERSON ALIVE AND I WANT TO SPEND THE REST OF MY LIFE WITH YOU???

Penelope: BUT YOU DON'T LOVE ME AND I LOVE YOU SO I WILL NEVER MARRY YOU

Callisto: GIRL FUCK YOU

Penelope: FUCK YOU TOO ASSHOLE

Callisto: WHATEVER. I WILL BE BACK NEXT WEEK TO BEG AGAIN

Penelope: I WILL LITERALLY BE DEAD BY NEXT WEEK BUT OK

[galactic-network]

"What can you give when there is no self, when you have no sensitivity, no warmth, nothing to contact others with?"

Anais Nin - A Woman Speaks

[jojotier]

What if I read Marcus Aurelius' Meditations and became the most insufferable motherfucker for a bit would you hate me

[beaft]

google help me

[mumblingsage]

I'm wondering if, as a society who cares about vulnerable people, we could stop saying "traumatize" when we truly mean "upset"?

I am sick of hearing sad books or movies "traumatize" their readers. I simply do not believe that happens. A traumatic experience might be adjacent to books (I have vivid memories of books I was reading around certain experiences and even how the contents of those books affected my processing of the experiences). But it's not caused by the book. And, y'know. The weather is Christofascist Censorship Attempts outside.

Meanwhile from the other side I continue to be surprised at just how badly people fail to understand trauma and traumatic experiences in general. Watering down the term isn't helping. Find other hyperbole to express that The Bridge to Terebithia gutted you, chewed on your heartstrings, and made you cry your first pair of contact lenses right out of your preteen eyes.

(ETA here although it's impossible to edit reblogs: over the months since this post really took off, there has been valuable discussion in the comments. I stand by the passion with which I wrote this post and with the general message, but not all the exact wording. I talk more about the way I'd re-write this post in a response here, replying to an addition that added a ton of useful context [other additions touched on similar themes, but that person had it all together in one reblog]. With that said, I am muting this post.)

[illusioncanthurtme--art]

Physically? I am sitting in my bedroom. Mentally? Spiritually? I AM DEAD ON THE FLOOR!!!!! THESE TWO HAVE KILLED ME!!!!

(Another drawing! This was originally attempt #1 at drawing stan, and then fiddleford just showed up. Kinda feels like them five minutes after the above acting like nothing happened though, so it works sdjkgkjfshj)

[aphel1on]

i have such a love for characters who descend into madness or villainy out of deep, deep empathy. characters who fundamentally cannot cope with the cruel realities they find themselves in and blow up about it in spectacular fashion. fallen angel type characters with tears of outrage in their eyes. characters who break before they bend, and break so badly they splatter blood all over their noble ideals. every variation on it gets me so good

[demaparbat-hp]

I mean—it's them, right?

[after-the-ellipsis]

"The boy was taken upstairs without warning, unprotesting as he had been through all the changes in his seventeen years, the shifts from cell to cell each time he outgrew the bolt on his ankle and the Doctor came to exchange it for a larger one, an operation performed with a tool the Hold people called the Mallet, which jarred the whole leg and sometimes made blood spray from the anklebone, and caused a sense of queasiness and superstitious awe in the boy, who would glimpse, for the instant during which the bolt and chain were removed, the shiny and alien-looking patch of underexposed skin on his leg which, according to the prophet, housed the seat of the soul."

-Sofia Samatar, "The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain," 2024

[lazylittledragon]

made a sticker for anyone to slap onto their work if they need to

[nkjemisin]

"I've agreed to do an anthology with another writer. It's supposed to be an anthology about and by Black people. He sent me six stories... but... they were not stories about Black people. Except for one, they were all stories about racism. I wrote back to him... racism is only one facet or aspect of the Black experience. A lot of white writers (and some Black writers) see it as the totality of Black existence. What I want to do is to pull in some good Black writers who will write about Black people and not just how terrible it is to be hated."

[heavensickness]

Underrated moments from Death is the Only Ending for the Villainess that hit me hard

Penelope wanting to do nothing with Yvonne and just wanting to escape but still warning the Duke against Yvonne's true self because he is the only father figure she ever had and she couldn't bear to see him turn on her

Reynold following Penelope at gatherings like a puppy because she asked him not to leave her during a banquet and he feels guilty for leaving her

Also Reynold remembering that Penelope wants a bunny so he looks after baby bunnies for her. He even wants to breed a rabbit with fur the same colour as Penelope's eyes

Vinter being so in love with Penelope that he still prepares the poison she asked for even if she was going to use it to kill someone, and he was ready to cover up her crime

Eckles being an illegitimate child but still being so cherished by his father and siblings that when Delman was invaded they removed his name from the royal heritage so that Eckles would not be captured and killed as a member of the royal family

Callisto hating to hear women cry because it reminds him of the times when his mother, who lost the Emperor's favour, would hug him and weep when he was a child

[galactic-network]

"I'm putting back into the self responsibility for the collective life. If each of one of us took very seriously the fact that every little act, every little word we utter, every injury we do to another human being is really what is projected into larger issues..."

Anais Nin - A woman speaks: Refusal to despair

[jojotier]

there's something utterly fascinating in watching white cismen try to explain the "new phenomenon" of groups other than themselves being into things. and by fascinating I mean frustrating like hell

like the intro to "The Writing Dead: Talking Terror With TV's Top Horror Writers" has on page 2 the following quote about horror media:

"In a genre that has traditionally appealed to young men between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five, what has finally convinced so many others- particularly women and older audiences- to watch? To see horror as something more than blood and guts?"

and you know right out the gate that this guy is out of touch as a motherfucker, because like. even if you take into account the fact that this book appeared in 2015 and likely had been written in the previous years, if you're not white and cismale, you'll know that there's been plenty of horror that's appealed to a bunch of people since forever!

the twilight zone's still resonating with people! supernatural (derogatory) might not be completely horror per se, but just look at the fanbase there! even outside the realm of tv, horror podcasts were being revolutionized literally by queer people! and that's not even getting into the indie horror game scene!

but to this guy, the uptick in more diverse viewership of horror tv is an anomaly meant to be explained vaguely by the 'intimacy of television' or streaming services or 'fandoms, maybe?' and like sure, maybe these are right in their ways, but it's still just one part of the deal. and the thing that really gets me is that the acknowledgement of horror viewership being noticeably more diverse is kinda glossed over in favor of how the magic touch is in the nature of television itself or the Talent of those writing horror shows.

and like to be very fair. I just read the intro. in the actual interviews, the folks interviewed could defs bring attention to the fact that horror is compelling to groups who aren't that very narrow demographic of young white man not just bc we like being scared, but because horror is meant to reflect the fears of our times and, therefore, with more diverse representation people are able to see their Own Fears reflected

But of 13 interviewees, only 2 are men of color and 3 are white women. the remaining 8 are white men. so I'm not exactly holding my breath here

[impishtubist]

I've never been explicit about this because I'm a Fandom Old, and back in the day it was simply understood that anything on the Internet was fair game to do with what you wish, but: if you see a story of mine out there and you like it, download it. Fuck if I care. Keep it for yourself, distribute it to friends, print copies for yourself and your friends, mail it to people, I don't give a shit. As long as you're not exchanging money, I couldn't care less. And tbh you should be doing this with all fanfics you love - print them, save them, put them on a flash drive or a hard drive or share them with friends, whatever. Fanfic authors these days are really fucking precious about their fics, but honestly we're probably going to start seeing queer art being disappeared (especially in the US under the next president) so do whatever you can to archive the things you love to read. Even if that means just printing them out and sticking them in a binder for yourself to read as a bedtime story.