#trashy insight for you

[theinternetisfulloftrash]

Happy Holidays, everyone! I'm sorry I've been MIA. I'm not dead. Love you guys and I see my inbox has been graced with some lovely asks that I hope to get to soon!

[alittlebitofloveliness]

Misogyny in the fandom: let's talk about it

Not gonna lie, the level of interalized or even just blatant misogyny in this fandom is really disheartening sometimes. There is already VERY few female characters in the book, even fewer with speaking roles, and yet I see all of them being hated on in some way. People hate on Cherry for standing up for herself when Dally was harrasing her, and for not seeing Johnny in the hospital, which bullshit to begin with but also, you can't tell me that if the roles were reversed and Cherry sat down behind Dallas and starting talking about how stupid and classless greaser boys are, and Dally threw a coke at her, that the fandom wouldn't love him all the more for it. People hold her to this impossible golden standard, expecting her to literally be perfect instead of a conflicted and grieving teenage girl, when they embrace the flaws and give a lot more grace to much more violent and 'bad' male characters. It's a very 'boys will be boys' and 'girls mature fatser so they should know better' double standard that I really can't stand. Marcia gets a level of the same treatment, with people occasionally calling her vapid or shallow when the book makes it clear she and Two-bit actually really hit it off, and the number she gave him being fake was only Two and Ponyboy's speculation. But I digress. Moving on.

Misogyny and classism intersect when it comes to the few female greaser characters we get a little insight on. So many people LOATHE both Sandy and Sylvia because they're cheaters, but honestly, how is cheating worse than stealing? (And don't pretend they steal because they need to survive Ponyboy makes a point of claiming Two-bit doesn't really need or want half the stuff he shoplifts) How is it worse than jumping little kids? How is it worse than sexually harassing girls? How is it worse than the plethora of immoral or illegal activities the greaser guys partake in? If we're being 100% honest, it isn't. "But-but Sandy cheated on Soda, who really loved her". Yeah, she did. That was shitty of her, I'm not defending that, but she was also a sixteen year old girl in a tough situation she was trying to navigate the best she could. She could have lied and told Soda it was his and trapped him in a marriage raising a kid he definitely couldn't afford if she wanted to- but she didn't. Hell, she told him the truth and he was still ready to do that and she wouldn't let him. I don't think those are the actions of a completely terrible person, I think they're the actions of a scared kid who did some shitty things, but is trying her best and trying to do better. At the VERY least they're the actions of a multifaceted character who deserves the same level of grace and insight afforded to the male characters. (If anyone wants to read more of my thoughts on Sandy and her narrative importance, I have a post here). There's also something to be said about the poor 'greasy' girls facing harsher vitriol than the soc girls, and while part of it is because of Ponyboy's biased narration, it's clear to see that readers very much took his views at face value. Soc girls are 'good girls' and have to be perfect to deserve credit from the fans, but greasy girls are 'trashy' so it's ok for them to be judged and shit on. Spoiler alert: it isn't.

Sylvia is similar to Sandy in that her cheating and 'loose' behaviour earn her a lot of hate, which again, I'm not defending her cheating, but we need to give her the same analysis and benefit of the doubt given to Dally. Dally is NOT a good person. Ponyboy says this and makes it clear plenty of times. He's a hurt character, so we can explien why he is the way he is, but he isn't a GOOD character. he values loyalty, so he never cheated on Sylvia, but it's clear based on how he treats Cherry and casual comments he makes that he doesn't really respect women. I can't imagine Sylvia's experience dating him was one where she felt very adored. Again, not an excuse for cheating, but I can understand WHY she'd try and take back power within a dynamic and a society where she never had any, and I don't want to vilify her for that. She's also a poor woman growing up in the sixties- the book makes it clear life is hard enough for poor guys griowing up at that time, but it was probably equally if not more hard for poor women. I think, like the gang, she does what she had to to survive. If you can understand why the gang does bad things, and still be humans who can be considered good, you can extend the same understanding to Sylvia (and Sandy.) I think people need to also keep in mind that everything we know ABOUT Sylvia (and the rest of the female characters) we know from Ponyboy, a fourteen year old boy who's narration is INCREDIBLY biased and who doesn't have the full details of any of the relationships in the gang. Ponyboy sees Sylvia and Sandy as these terrible, loose women who have hurt people he cares about, so a lot of the fandom does too, but it doesn't change the fact that by doing so you're accepting and embracing Ponyboy's internalized misogyny and making it your own.

Anyway, I don't think I'm articulating this as well as i want to, and i spoke a bit more about this in this reply to one of the posts on the confessions page, but yeah, I just wish people could accept that fact that if they bend over backward to find ways to defend or explain immoral actions from male characters, but refuse to even attempt to do the same for female characters, they've probably internalized a bit of misogyny they should maybe work on.

[utilitycaster]

This is going to sound particularly pretentious, but I've found you can tell when someone is genuinely a person with high standards and interesting insights, vs a poser trying to look intellectual:

Genuinely intellectual people tend to have specific likes and dislikes that are borne out over a variety of works, and also, they tend towards either a broad range of works of varying quality, or stick almost exclusively to the obscure and highbrow and pretentious. Either they exclusively attend the opera, or world music concerts, or art shows, and read classics and Booker prize shortlists and attend foreign film festivals; or, in addition to a mix of the above, they pepper in a judicious mix of middle and lowbrow works and do not apologize.

Posers often go for what I'd call "pop-prestige": Think Succession, or really much of HBO's offerings; think the more accessible fictional works by authors who have also written essay collections and have some cultural cache. But that on its own is fine. I do that; those shows and books are great. The issue is they also spend a lot of time bashing the low-brow while clinging to what is at best upper-middlebrow . This is where you get people who say "oh, I listen to everything but rap or country" or whose entire personality is hating on Taylor Swift while listening to a different mainstream pop star. This is where you get people who hate on romance novels but read fewer than ten books a year themselves, and won't touch anything that doesn't have a pre-existing fandom space for them to see and be seen. It's ultimately marked by insecurity - a paranoid and joyless "I can't outrun the bear but I can outrun the [pop music/sitcom/romance] fans" approach, in which they do, presumably, enjoy what they're doing, but they're terrified of their media consumption revealing that they're not "good enough."

Now I should be clear I am a fucking raccoon of a woman in terms of taste and frankly my happy place is in the pop-prestige realm and/or the most prestigious entries in mediums that are often seen as of inherent lesser value, like Actual Play and graphic novels and sf. I enjoy a prize-winning novel and a foreign film, but otherwise I don't really fit in either of these and I think many people are also in neither category. And that also sets off the Poser group, because the option and indeed the spectrum isn't just high/middle/low - it's "do you know what you like and are you secure in it," and someone who genuinely adores and is confident in the most common-denominator works around is happier than a Poser; and indeed, if they can argue for what they see in those works, "trashy" though they may be? Smarter as well.

[olderthannetfic]

How do I stop feeling out of place in fandom? My taste has become pickier. I can't get into something unless it feels resonant, grounded, and unique to me, but I'm also not a heavy litfic reader. I'm easily won over by tropes and aesthetics. I like opinionated narrators, but I hate feeling talked at by the author. I often feel like I'm missing out on more popular stuff that feels mundane to me, but not insightful enough to find some more 'high-brow' stuff exciting. I'm only really interested in characters and narrators if I want to dissect them. I feel pretentious and trashy at the same time.

I still fucking like SVSSS.

--

SVSSS is a hilarious sendup, but is it really that unique?

I would just try out episode or chapter 1 of like 50 different things that had AO3 activity in the last month. If you don't like most media you're encountering, you need to try way more of it.

What does it mean to be out of place anyway? Are you hoping to find a fandom with tons of longfic you can read? Are you hoping for friends who like the same media at the same time? If you just want something to read, I liked The Imperial Uncle.

[gorjee-art]

what I've learned about gentle nudges towards self-care is that...

You always have to trick yourself into doing it, and usually, it's done in the strangest ways.

You see, I've had a big problem with watching a lot of "trashy" drama-esque YouTube media, it always brought down my mood, it posed no real value other than background noise while I worked, and it always felt like a loss after I watched it. I wanted to watch better more insightful works I was just too lazy to go out and try to find out what I wanted to ACTUALLY watch.

how did I fix this you ask?

by putting more dolls on my desk, just having that "company" sitting there watching my screens it felt...wrong. Why do I want to show them podcasts filled with horrible people just constantly arguing each other? when I can instead relax them with a nice foraging video? Yeah...yeah! That'll put their nerves at ease...

[ak319]

RHRH anon again, you KNOW even though Molly probably defends Dutch from reader constantly that she's jealous as hell of all the attention and gifts reader gets from Arthur

Hey rhrh anon!!! (yknow what ur the ⚘️Rose anon bruh ,rhrh feels weird😭) I LOVED UR NOTES AND THEY R DEFFO A WHOLE JUNGLE OF IDEAS , (can't wait to write stuff inspired by them) and I would love if u send moree mauahauahah l always love the insights even if Arthur ones.

secondly yup. ur spot on. Molly is not jealous of the fact as yknow reader is assuming cuz of her "closeness" with Dutch but rather she's u can say taking out her frustration on her cuz she sees how Arthur cares for her and Dutch doesn't do anything close to that (except trashy poetry maybe) And when I am writing this I once again would like to clarify that she is my BAE and I'm not talking or hating on her character in game but rather her arc/role in my fic.

Thanks for dropping by love.

[alarrytale]

First of all: I’m not a Larrie, but I’m also not a hardcore anti. I do believe that something definitely happened between L and H back then. What I don’t understand, though, is how so many antis genuinely believe that this stunt is a real relationship?

The first pictures at that restaurant - Mr. Private himself, who always flies under the radar, is suddenly ‘randomly’ spotted on a date? Then during Coachella - wouldn’t you expect a newly in-love couple to actually want to spend time together? Then we get the pap pics from the same day. In front of his door in Malibu, even though the place was supposedly in a private street? Headlines called it a ‘goodbye kiss,’ but then, just a few days later, they’re seen grocery shopping together on Easter Sunday?

And why Costa Rica? It’s a small country. It’s easier to get spotted there. Why was there nothing the entire week — and suddenly, just before leaving (as Nicolas had posted), a flood of things shows up? I don’t know if you saw it, but that girl who claimed the interaction with the stunt was ‘so nice’ - she made her Twitter account just yesterday and is randomly replying to tweets about L and the stunt and their interactions. If they supposedly kissed in public so often, where’s even one picture of that?

The video of the so-called breakfast date was, in my opinion, filmed on May 11. The stunt is wearing a long-sleeved top even though it’s warm — and she looks like a mess. And we know how superficial that person is.

When she arrived in Costa Rica with L’s assistant, it was early in the day. That means the day was planned out, and they went there on purpose to be seen. Wouldn’t you think that if your ‘girlfriend’ flew all the way from the UK to Costa Rica, you’d let her rest for a bit? That she’d have time to relax? And even if she wasn’t tired, wouldn’t you want to spend real quality time together as a couple, especially after not seeing each other for two weeks?

But nope — L was out without her that evening. That’s the same night someone mentioned the interaction with him and the hermit crabs. So why wasn’t the stunt with him? Or better yet, why would L rather go to bars at night than be with the stunt? 😂

Then there’s that video where the stunt is supposedly hugging him from behind, but his ‘director’ (in reference to all those bio changes) is clearly looking like: ‘Yeah, the stunt is doing their job well.’

I don’t know how long this stunt will last, but honestly, I’m disappointed in L. Even if it were genuine, it would mean he’s throwing away everything he stands for. A woman who’s made racist comments, is pro-Brexit (and this from a partner who has supported small artists affected by Brexit), and who cheated on her previous partner? And let’s not forget, she got famous through a trashy reality TV show.

I love L, truly. But I can’t and don’t want to listen to his songs anymore, I skip him every time. I spent more than 30,000 minutes in just 6 months listening to and supporting him. I’m still here, and I hope he can get rid of the stunt soon, but I just can’t keep watching this forever. L has fought so hard to finally be seen…

And one more question: Do we believe that anonymous person who went to secondary school with the stunt? Because I really hope that person gives us more insight now - especially after the vacation rumors turned out to be true.

Hi, anon who's not a larrie but also not a hardcore anti! Lol.

I think beyond the reason i've already given, you'd have to ask an anti why they believe the relationship is real. It's very clearly not. I also don't understand why they want it to be real unless they too are racist conservatives who cheats on their bfs and can relate to her.

I don't think it's necessary to spend a lot of time and energy on disproving this relationship and make timelines etc. It was proven a fake relationship before they were even seen together. No new information or sightings of them will make it any more real.

I totally understand why you're so put off by him due to this, that you can’t listen to his songs anymore. I think you're not alone in feeling this an avoiding him as much as possible. This stunt is harming him; his fandom, his reputation and our respect for him. So it must serve a greater purpose, because i can't imagine they willingly picked her to stunt with. If they did the entire team should be fired on the spot.

About the anon. I'm very skeptical and i'm like 60/40 don't believe it. That's why i held off on posting it when i got it. For me it doesn’t matter, we know it's a contracted fake relationship. But if the anon wants to come back and give us more information (or a purpose or an end date) then i will welcome it.

[gaykarstaagforever]

St. Elmo's Fire (1985)

I've always heard nothing but bad things about this movie, how it is a self-indulgent soap opera about awful 1980s people who never pay for their gross behavior. Everyone says the only good thing about it is the John Parr theme song, which is barely in it. And that wasn't even written for it, it was a triumphant pop-rock anthem written to celebrate a kickass wheelchair athlete.

Which is painfully obvious. Then John Parr just worked the name of the movie into it and shrugged. And everyone loves it. But not the movie, which was financially successful because it had members of the smooth and sexy Brat Pack in it, but critics and studio heads hated it then, and many people hate it now.

I, on the other hand, genuinely really liked it.

For all his many shortcomings, Joel Schumacher knew how to put a good movie together in 1985, and he did here. Technically speaking, it's fine. Artistically shot, well paced, the performances are all high-energy and affecting, and even the screenplay is solid, minus a few lazy strolls into trashy melodrama and plot contrivance. But the characters are well-constructed as unique individual people, the occasional jokes are funny, and everything for the most part feels real and earned and insightful.

So why do people hate it? The simple answer is the same one Joel Schumacher apparently got from reluctant studio heads: these people are fucking awful. They're stupid and selfish and cruel, and when that inevitably blows up in their faces, they pout and whine and throw temper tantrums and beg for money. They're well-off white kids from Washington DC who just graduated from Georgetown, and instead of taking advantage of that, most of them are drug-addled mopes for whom the entire world being open to them is STILL not enough.

And I agree with this character critique. These people suck. The whole movie is them ruining the lives of everyone around them with their bad behavior. I have known people like this, and I don't anymore, because they are frustrating and destructive and what they do puts an unfair burden on everyone else.

...But the movie knows this, and that is, in fact, sort of the whole point? Sure, they don't end up dead or in jail, so maybe they don't get the full brunt of what is coming to them. But they're also all 22 years old. Speaking now as a 42 yo man, people who are 22 are stupid baby-things who ruin everything they touch and will absolutely hate who they were in 10 years. That's called growing up, and the entire point of the movie is to show a small part of that process. They DO learn. They DO grow. Not a lot, but a little. And that's how it is, and was, if you were 22 in 1985.

I don't understand why anyone would hate this. You can hate them, if you want. They're detestable. But a lot of privileged people in their 20s are. And while that doesn't absolve them of their shitty behavior, it's kind of unreasonable to not expect this shit from these kinds of people. They are products of where they come from, and now as legal adults, they have to work through that themselves and come out the other side as better people. It's a gross, stupid, weird, terrible process, and the movie shows a glossy, sappy Hollywood version of that.

And it's not bad, for what it is. I don't know if I'd put it on a Top Movies list or even ever watch it again, but it does what it does well. I even kind of fell in love with these big dumb idiots by the end, because as they learn lessons, they become better people. Or at least, differently bad people. But they are still in the middle of that process. I'm not hostile to it or them, or the movie, about it. I don't know why anyone would be.

It IS a movie from 1985, so it has a lot of "movie from 1985" problems. Sexism, treating stalking as a cutesy sitcom plot with a resolution that rewards the stalker, some SA stuff played for laughs, not quite knowing what to do with the women characters that isn't them constantly talking about the male characters, some awkward stuff about one character maybe being gay that seems like it could get interesting, but then the movie remembers it's 1985 and reveals he is super-straight actually, whew! But, honestly, for this era, it is very mild in this regard. I kept expecting it to go dark and problematic and it mostly doesn't (aside from the goofball "I kind of like being stalked" nonsense). For a movie from 1985, it is very watchable and only mildly offensive to 2024 sensibilities. That alone is a rarity, and a big mark in its favor.

Plus it is fun as a fictionalized snapshot of what wealthy white young adults in Washington DC were up to in 1985. Lots of people in their early 20s smoking like chimneys and desperate to get married immediately to people they barely know. Kind of wild.

Also, while these people all have bachelor's degrees, the ease with which they lose and get new high-paying jobs, seemingly without their degrees even being taken into account, is a shocking vision from the past. Sure, some of this is just unrealistic Hollywood guff. But not all of it. They really would just hire you for the modern equivalent of $1500 a week back then, because you seemed cool and your friend called and said yeah, you totally are.

Computers were only starting to be a thing back then. No one could verify anything, no one kept records of anything, and every job a machine does now was something 4 people needed to do in 1985. What a time.

And these idiots STILL whine and moan and never appreciate it! While doing cheap and plentiful cocaine. Ah, the 80s!

...Also, Young Rob Lowe.

Jesus.

...Also, Jules's insane ugly pink neon gay-ass apartment. That I want to spend the rest of my life in.

I'm not just doing a slur. It being designed by her gay designer neighbor is plot-relevant a couple of times.

Also, this poster...

The bar they hang out at is called St. Elmo's Bar. The St. Elmo's Fire thing (the real phenomenon) is from one scene where a character uses it as a metaphor to make another character feel better about how screwed-up their lives are. Arguably he was inspired to do this because they go to that bar a lot, but the connection isn't firmer than that.

The bar is not called St. Elmo's Fire, is my point. So the heat this summer would be at St. Elmo's Bar, not St. Elmo's Fire. Which isn't a place.

This is a poster for the movie! Did they not watch it first? Yes it matters!

And here, finally, because I have to:

HA HA! I GOT YOU! THIS IS THE DAVID FOSTER LOVE THEME!

...Which is way more prominent in the movie, and is honestly way more its actual theme. You will note how it fits the movie tonally a lot better than that driving synth-rock song about a cool guy in a wheelchair.

[metaphoricgibberish]

idk if you peaked any of the fandom drama from over this past weekend (NOT asking you to comment on it, i swear! love you my angel i would never lol) but shit is so bad around here lately and it truly bums me out. i'll echo what some other anons say but maybe i should just get a life and log off tumblr lmao but this has served as a huge outlet for me, i was just starting to want to write and dabble around with some ideas i have and i feel like it's all be gone to hell before i ever get a chance. it's weirdly making me so anxious too! i know you've been in fandoms before apart from this one and idk is this as bad as things have ever gotten in your experience?

i have absolutely no idea what drama is circulating and i intend to keep it that way if possible.

every fandom has drama and toxicity - i've seen it all - i've been the target of drama so many times that in this fandom, i do try to stay on the outskirts, writing and minding my business, interacting with the friends i've made and those who want to chat about my or their work. i still do think that's the best way to enjoy fandom in this day and age.

i understand being discouraged by drama and vitriol and hate, but my advice will always be to find your people within this place and build your own community. everyone gets caught up trying to digest every piece of information, every drama cycle, and that's when fandom becomes exhausting. if you enjoy writing - WRITE!! please do not let anything stop you from creating art - even if that means you only share it with a few people, if you only create it for yourself. as soon as we give in to the drama and let it push us out, that's when we lose what's great about these kinds of communities - creating and sharing art, building a community around shared interests that a lot of us cannot talk about with people in our real lives.

there are terrible people in every single fandom that has ever existed. no fandom is free from drama and hate - and if someone tries to tell you that's the case - that just means that they aren't in the trenches deep enough to see it.

i'll tell you a story that seems so stupid now, but when i was 15, it devastated me.

when i was in middle school i belonged to the david cook fandom (yes, the dude that won american idol - i will not be elaborating on how or why i ended up there, but just know i was going through it) we all congregated on this site called wordnerdhome (once again, i will not be elaborating). it was basically a forum, with different topics, updates, interviews - a good old fashioned fan website created and run by fans that unfortunately ceased to exist past the mid-2000's.

i was a prominent member of this fandom at 15 years old, despite the fact that the members were predominately middle-aged women.

one of the forums on the site was dedicated to david's tattoos - pictures of his tattoos, discussion about what they might symbolize, normal fangirl shit. at one point, this forum dissolved into chaos after david got a large tattoo on his forearm. the middle-aged women were furious, they said david was "ruining his beautiful skin", they said he was starting to look trashy, they begged him to stop by spamming his twitter and the forum i'm almost 100 percent certain he never visited.

this pissed me off, and so i took to the forum to let these women know (all old enough to be my mother btw) that david was a real life person who could do whatever he wanted with his body. (quite insightful for a 15-year-old, i must say).

the middle-aged women did not take that well.

they said horrible things about me. called me ugly and young and stupid. they blocked me from the fan site entirely, cut off my ability to interact with my only sense of community at the time. at his concerts, in person, they would scowl at me, whisper, they would push me away from the front of the stage after i had waited outside for hours to see my favorite musician. they treated me - a fucking child - like an outcast, like a thorn in their side, like something evil, simply because i stood up for the man we were all obsessed with.

this is a stupid example, but i just want to illustrate that some (not ALL, some vitriol and hate within fandoms is actually disgusting and horrible and truly hurtful) can seem so huge, so horrible in the moment, but after months or years, with clarity and space, it can seem as trite as fighting over a man's tattoos.

(also an addition because it's relevant) i met my first internet friend through david's fanbase, and through all that bullshit, we still remained friends, that was my bright spot within all that stupid drama. we don't talk much anymore (or really at all) but we still follow each other over 15 years later. she just published her first book last year and it makes me so happy to know i was one of the first people to ever read her writing back when we were 14 years old.

THAT is the kind of shit fandom is about.

don't lose sight of that.

[theinternetisfulloftrash]

Not my hubs diving under the sheets and between my legs tonight mimicking the fucking theme music from Jaws.

[dreaming-of-addie]

random drive-by from the riverdale tag but i love that you hate the hedwig ep so much bc they literally consulted with stephen trask on it. idk if that will make it better or worse for you (personally i love the episode absolutely and think it's a really insightful and egregiously trashy application of the themes of hedwig onto the riverdale universe...but i also think it's the hardest one to swallow and takes a lot of big swings that are not at all respectable lol. anyway cheers bye!)

the fact that Stephen Trask was okay with it makes me nauseous tbh

[wutheringmights]

hi! i’ve read in the dream house and speak bc of your reviews and Loved them. i find your analyses to be really insightful, i trust that when you recommend something theres Something of value i’ll get out of reading it. are there any books you’ve loved that you haven’t posted abt here yet? and how do you find new books to read? thanks for being so thoughtful abt your own writing and the books you read that it inspires me to study and improve my own work 🫡💞

Aw thank you! I always feel like I am yelling into the void whenever I make posts about the things I'm reading, so I'm glad you enjoy reading my thoughts <3

For books I haven't posted about yet... I just finished Juniper & Thorn by Ava Reid (and will make a post about it soon). It's not a perfect read, but if you like horror and fairytale tropes, you'll get something about this.

Besides that, I recommend The Bell Jar by Slyvia Plath, and the works of Robert Cormier (I Am the Cheese and The Chocolate Wars are two of my favorites). If you like war stories, All Quiet On the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque is required reading.

I really enjoy the works of Octavia Butler. Kindred is my absolute favorite, but Parable of the Sower is very relevant to the current political moment. Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich also scarred the fuck out of me, but is a great work on reproductive rights.

I did an entire seminar on Virginia Woolf. Besides Mrs. Dalloway, I think Into the Lighthouse and Orlando are very good.

For the classics, I love Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. One of the first classics I ever fell in love with was Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, though Great Expectations is also exceptional.

One of my favorite books of all time that I never discuss with anyone anywhere is Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, for obvious reasons. Read this book for two reasons. One, it will fuck you up. Nabokov's work with perspective and unreliable narrators is fucking insane. Second, Nabokov does something with the English language that I have never seen before and will probably never see again. If anyone has a command of the English language, it's him.

How do I find books to read? Some of the books I read before they are recommended to me by friends or by someone online. As long as you avoid romance/romantasy, BookTok/BookTube/Bookblr is a great place to get recs. I watch a lot of CariCanRead on Youtube because she reads a massive amount of books I have never heard of and is generally really honest about what books she liked/hated and why. I also windowshop at bookstores and libraries and just check out what is available on the shelves.

Honestly, the best advice I can give you is to let go of the idea of every book being impeccable art. You do not have to always be reading the Great American Novel. You can read books that are silly and outright trash. Once you shed the idea that books are some higher form of art, you remember that they are made to be entertainment. Like movies, there are going to be days where you want to watch post-modern French films or Oscar-winning movies about the turn of the century. There are also going to be days where you want to watch a silly comedy, or a trashy reality TV show, or you just go to the movies for something to do.

It's healthier for you if not every book is life changing. I have read some really bad books (some on purpose), and I have read some books that were just aggressively mediocre. Even if they didn't transform me into a better writer/reader/person, they were still worth reading. And when you give yourself permission to read books you might not necessarily like, it gets easier to try new genres and take risks on unfamiliar works. That's where you get new experiences. That's where a book sneaks up on you and smacks you on the back of the head with something that will absolutely make you change the way you see the world.

If anything, just try reading things you normally wouldn't read, be it sci-fi, memoir, historical epic, classic romance, etc.

[melancholy-of-nadia]

La La Lost You (m) (teaser) | cyj

title: La La Lost You (m) << one-shot prequel to love u lately >> pairing: choi yeonjun x f. reader feat. bits of yoongi x f. reader, namjoon x f. reader, jimin x f. reader rating/genre: m (18+) ; angst , fluff, smut ; fake dating au; post-high school au, lowkey tatbilb au summary: choi yeonjun was simply just your academic rival, competing for honors at graduation during your senior year. however, when one of your (distant) friends' brothers is getting married, your 3 guy best friends all have dates to the event except you. in order not to feel like a loser, you decide to call up the only other tolerable male you know: Yeonjun, to be your fake date. what will happen when a childish fake date scheme actually ends up turning into your first real relationship lasting an entire summer. it may ultimately.. not end well note: i KNOW i have yet to finish Love U Lately, but i wanted to present this prequel idea to you guys!! i know many of y'all may not be a txt moa, but this one shot will definitely add a lot more insight on previous events and character insight to other bts characters in LUL that don't get much of a spotlight note 2: you do not have to read LUL to understand this fic. honestly might be better if you haven't read it! it will heavily focused on the mentioned previous relationship reader had with yeonjun before starting college and well as the perspectives of yoonminjoon and their attitudes towards it as they were still struggling with their romantic feelings for reader warnings: language, sexual innuendo mentions, maybe some smut, underage drinking, yeonjun has a band, soobin appearance, jungkook has a small crush on reader, halsey shows up!, yoonminjoon being jealous and overprotective, typical things that happen in a summer romance, bonfire party, eventual breakup smut warnings: tba drop date: spring 2024 word count: 15k (projected)

"Look, Choi, I need you to-"

"Need me? Sounds kinda erotic." The taller boy chuckles, and your face scowls, turning a heavy shade of red.

"Huh? You're gross! As if I would EVER do anything trashy with you!" You cross your arms, feeling impatient. Jimin should be here any minute from his last class across campus so you can both go home together. This isn't gonna work, and you don't have any more time for this. "You know what, never mind. I don't even know why I bothered to think of asking you. I should've asked Mark instead." You turn around, deciding to walk away from the situation. You'll take the L! You'll go to Seokjin's dumb brother's wedding by yourself like the loser you are while everyone else has dates.

"Hey, wait!" Yeonjun pulls your arm toward him, making you turn back around. "Alright. Fine, princess, I'm listening. What is it?" He looks at you, finally with sincerity in his eyes.

God, I guess if he actually wants to listen, then you'll say it. What could go wrong?

You tiptoe and lean in close to his ear, catching Yeonjun slightly off guard. "Okay. I need you to be my fake date to my friend's brother's wedding."

Yeonjun blinks repeated, processing the request. After realizing he was frozen, he immediately goes back to his usual expression and smirks. "Well, well, well. Looks like someone couldn't resist the charm of Choi Yeonjun after all."

You roll your eyes, "Hell no. Please, I'd rather dance with a cactus."

He raises an eyebrow, "You sure about that? Cacti can be quite prickly, you know."

You huff, "Just shut up and play along. I need you to act like a decent human being for one evening. You owe me anyways., remember?"

Yeonjun smirks again, his eyes sparkling with mischief. "Decent human being? That's a stretch," he grins, clearly enjoying this. "But sure, why not? It's not every day someone gets to be in the presence of greatness."

You scoff, shaking your head, "Greatness? Please. Just don't embarrass me, okay?"

Yeonjun's grin widens, "No promises, sweetheart. But I'll do my best. After all, I owe you."

"Yeah, yeah. Just be ready to suffer through a night of pretending to like me," you retort with a wry smile.

"Oh, the sacrifices I make for you," he replies, sarcasm dripping from every word.

As you walk away, hoping to meet jimin halfway (where the hell is he?) you can't help but mutter under your breath, "This is gonna be a disaster."

Yeonjun's laughter follows you from a very short distance, "Oh, sweetheart, you have no idea."

➸ let me know what you think OR join the taglist! ➸ love u lately series masterlist

[saintmeghanmarkle]

Qualification to my South Africa post by u/Equivalent-Date-4796

Qualification to my South Africa post I'm sorry, I don't mean to belabor this point, but I found out only last week that the trashy pictures I saw of Meghan at the US Open were actually taken when Archie was an infant. This whole time I thought it was when she first started dating Harry...she attended Wimbledon 2016/2017. These were taken just ONE WEEK before the South Africa tour! She looks so trashy, she's a new mom, she left Archie in another country, and I'm sorry she's acting like a commoner when she's a member of the BRF. Look at her looking at the camera while hugging Serena's husband. I can't even believe the Queen still sent to them to SA...there is no way she would have thought the trip would work out after these photos. Omg. I saw a lot of people posting that SA wouldn't have been the reason, but the final straw, after Fiji and Australia went poorly. Thank you for your insight and I have changed my opinion...I agree. I now think SA was the end of a long road of messes. https://ift.tt/j7LqEGY didn't caption this! Just reposting:https://ift.tt/Cb0FRid sits like this?! Forget being a member of the BRF, and almost 40, and a new mom, and sitting in front of cameras and your friend's husband and at the US Open! Who is like this anywhere in public? Why is she smiling? I just can't. post link: https://ift.tt/eZLHbtr author: Equivalent-Date-4796 submitted: July 02, 2024 at 07:34AM via SaintMeghanMarkle on Reddit disclaimer: all views + opinions expressed by the author of this post, as well as any comments and reblogs, are solely the author's own; they do not necessarily reflect the views of the administrator of this Tumblr blog. For entertainment only.

[variousqueerthings]

8 11 32 PLEASE!

HELLOOOOO AND THANK YOUUUUUU! also I remembered how much I overthink when looking at these whoops

8. Describe your gender without using any words traditionally related to gender: You know the opening to the Mr Bean series? Mr Bean gets beamed down onto earth and then it's implied that everyone Mr Bean does after that is literally because of being an alien, but it's never actually confirmed in the text? that but like. with a much more extensive wardrobe

11. Favorite (or just one you love) piece of LGBT media?: WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO ME???? I'm gonna give u three out of Many that are perfect. and I'm going to connect them to a Theme (I'VE CONNECTED THE DOTS). the thing is that these movies are movies that have at some point held me gently and guided me into a greater understanding of the queer community and history generally, as well as my own feeling of place within this community

My Beautiful Laundrette: This is one of my personal seminal queer movies, I watched it as a young'un/baby queer and it's just. Oh. such softness amidst the violence of the times, and the thing is that the softness is something that saves the main characters from the violence, both as potential perpetrators and victims (and how those can be blurred concepts to begin with). the core of it is two men who come back together amidst the height of neo-nazi anti-immigration 80s England, one of whom is Pakistani British and the other a white skinhead. And they open a laundrette together. This movie is sweet, I promise! it also features one of the subtly hottest moments to me in film history, in which one of them licks the others' neck in public while being watched on one side by Pakistani family members and on the other by white racists but it's angled so none of them see it!

City of Lost Souls: Listen, Rosa Von Praunheim's documentation of trans people (and generally queer people) is so so important for our community and you should check him out, but this film in particular is such a wild fucking ride that is hard to explain. a bunch of queer artists in 80s Berlin (and this movie was made in the 80s so you get some real footage of that great big wall) just like... fuck around? share intense elder wisdom? connect? sing! (oh yeah, it's kind of a musical, a trashy punky musical). This is some of the real deep magic of queer connection. there's an iconic moment in this film (there are several) in which a trans woman picks up a one-night stand and explains to him that she's trans and he's like. "eh no idea what all of that means, but you're saying you're a woman right? great!" and it's just Fine

Desire Lines: listen this movie... I'm almost hesitant to recommend it, because I feel so personally affected by it and it's a one-of-a-kind (so far) insight into transmasculine gay culture that is just. deeply precious and not understood by a lot of even the wider queer community. myself and every transmasc person I know who's seen it have felt somewhat transcendent about it, the way you do the first time you see yourself as (positively) visible in this way, it's almost too much. it's a documentary at heart, but quite experimental in elements of its structure, with parts of it being a fictional telling of a middle-aged iranian trans man who works in an archive and is told of the history of trans men's inclusion in gay bathhouses, lou sullivan, and personal testimonies from gay transmasc people. sometimes you don't notice how deprived you've been until something gives you real oxygen

Hon. mentions: Joyland, Great Freedom, Die Beautiful my personal favourite queer films of 2023, still have me by the throat!!!

32. Do you do arts and crafts? Post a pic of a project you've done: okay I will share a picture of something, but I need to go take a picture when I have a sec. It's not complete, but I've started a little zine that's just a big collection of euphemisms and ways of talking about queerness and it's such a fascinating, fun project that's made me think more expansively about how queerness gets talked about, whether it's in the past or present (or potential futures), within and without the community, as modern, or bigoted, or outdated, or fun, or out-of-the-box, or specific, etc. -- it's very far from done, but I can give a sense of just how many words/phrases/concepts I've picked up + imagery I want to include + the construction of the zine itself, which has a few little secrets to it

[jellogram]

On the concept of "elevated horror"...

The whole concept of "elevated horror" as a recent trend is not only flatly incorrect, but also insulting to everyone involved. First of all, people have been making arthouse, non-stereotypical, and/or high quality horror since pretty much the dawn of film, but you rarely see those films mentioned as "elevated horror." Like... Silence of the Lambs? The Exorcist? Rosemary's Baby? The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari? Vampyr? All really well-made and groundbreaking horror films that had something new to say. The idea of making high quality horror with actual themes was not invented by A24.

Second of all, I don't like how this term differentiates films based on quality. No other genre is so disrespected that people feel a need to separate out the best made films into a subgenre. Do you hear people say "This is historical fiction, but it's good historical fiction!" or "This sci fi film elevates itself above regular science fiction!" No. Because people don't automatically assume those genres are trash.There's no subgenre of "good horror" as opposed to "regular horror." There's good and bad horror movies just like in any other genre.

Lastly, I think you do a disservice to trashy movies by assuming they have no skill or themes or messaging involved. One of the first films people throw under the bus is Friday the 13th, but that was a successful franchise for a reason — the first movie is undeniably pretty good, subverts audience expectations, and also provides insight into cultural attitudes of the era. And because it's a long-running series, you can watch those cultural attitudes evolve over time just by watching Friday the 13th sequels. There's a lot of value to that.

There's a lot of value to "trash cinema" in general. A movie that doesn't have quality standards is a movie that isn't bowing to societal norms or acceptance. Those $10 budget, horrid SFX, cringe-acted horror films exist in a forbidden space where critical reviews and mainstream audience approval aren't there to censor them. That is incredibly cool. Every stupid little terrible horror movie we have that survived decades and got digitized is a gift to the culture. We deserve to know what film enthusiasts were doing when they weren't the kind of people who could get massive studio budgets. Notably, you also see a lot more queer people, women, and POC in those spaces too. Horror makes space for the people who have been spat out by the mainstream.

And that's kind of the root of horror films, I think. They dig up the forbidden and put it on screen. So if you think the only horror films with any value are the ones that mainstream critics approve of, that aren't doing anything to upset the status quo, then you're missing the entire point.