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The circus bookclub - The Letter Killer Club, by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky
There are some authors I simply cannot get enough of, and Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky is one of them. In this first ever edition of this new bookclub, here in the circus, I'll share with you my most recent read of him! And what more fitting title than The Letter Killer Club to introduce the bookclub, right?
Hello there! I'm the circus resident poltergeist, Eliott, managing this blog until Lav comes back. Here in the circus bookclub I share with you my most recent reads/amazing books I wish everyone would pick up one day!
Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky is an Ukrainian author born in 1887 in Kyiv, who died in Moscow in 1950. He wrote his works in russian language, and was little published in his lifetime: most of his works were published posthumously.
The Letter Killer Club is a short novel (approx. 100-150pages according to the publisher/language of translation) written in 1926. Its story revolves around the life of a Club, the Letter Killer Club, run by 7 individuals. The story starts when they welcome an 8th member, a writer intrigued by the peculiar people seeing each other once a week, in a quiet room lit by the fireplace.
In the Letter Killer Club, the members think that writing their ideas on paper would denature them. In their philosophy, ideas stay pure when they only stay to this stage: ideas. Every week, the members of the club tell each other their book ideas, scenarios, without ever writting them on paper. Each week, one member speaks. This is how the seven chapters of this book are organized, by the story of one individual, followed or interrupted by the occasionnal remarks or conversations around it (reminding me of Marguerite de Navarre's Heptameron, if some of you are familiar with french late medieval literature here). In these stories, Krzhizhanovsky seems to always explore a philosophical thought, or ideas about literature and what it is to be a writer. This is, according to me, part of what makes this book so interesting to read.
These stories are strange, almost metaphysical at times, funny and tragic. I will not go in details about them so you can fully enjoy this book, should you decide to read it, but what striked me in The Letter Killer Club is how well balanced Krzhizhanovsky's writing was, between telling the stories and the characters of the Club themselves. With very few elements, Krzhizhanovsky succeeds in creating a particular atmosphere, one that engulfs you and makes you feel like you are seated there, amongst them, almost as a 9th member of this strange reunion.
Krzhizhanovsky is an incredible writer. These themes of the idea vs. writing it, putting it on paper, what it is to write, to have ideas, to be a writer, are extremely present in most of his works, but they seem to be particularly explored in this one. During his lifetime, while he wasn't much published, Krzhizhanovsky was very present in literary circles, and therefore certainly involved in many philosophical discussions of what it meant to be a writer at that time. This shows in his works, and he explores these questions in a very clever way.
Krzhizhanovsky's writing is demanding and his ideas need some thinking and time to be well reflected upon, but I believe his works are extremely interesting if you ever want to explore more of the literature of his time. Often using fantastic elements or situations to convey his ideas, his writing is a clever mix of fantastic, abstract, absurd and reflection on writing itself.
I hope this made you curious about this author's works! Krzhizhanovsky has written many short stories as well, and these are also great if you ever want to give a chance to reading his writing.
Sources : his wikipedia page for the bio / goodreads for the english edition of the letter killer club
#circusghost#putting up the chairs in the cathedral bringing books to the table#have you missed these bookclub sessions? i certainly did#not only is that insightful for me to write but it also makes sure i actually concentrate enough on what i read#when you read around a hundred books a year this helps a lot#the letter killer club is the 58th book i've read this year (i start my book year in july) so i still have a long way to go#i'm really happy i got to share Krzhizhanovsky's books with you today!#if you ever feel like it give him a shot#he is worth it#sigizmund krzhizhanovsky#the letter killer club#there is a lot to say about him but i always keep these bookclub sessions short so it's#1/ easier for me to write#2/ more accessible to anyone#thecircusbookclub#tagging this as the bookclub so it's easier to find if i ever make more#which i certainly will#look Lav it's happening i set my little circus bookclub on your blog#I loved the sound of Saint-Petersburg's bookclub as well but that was an era and we have to move on from it don't we#from Saint-Petersburg to the Circus#what a trip#I hope you liked this first session!!! let me know your impressions if you want to!
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How the gentle wind,
Beckons through the trees,
As autumn colours fall.
#I’ve been trying to do some more full illustrations#working on colours and environments#which is awful and I hate it#but I feel like I’m at least progressing so yknow#a win is a win#PLUS! I’ve been meaning to draw these lil dudes for FOREVER#It’s certainly the weather for it#my art#over the garden wall#otgw#wirt#otgw wirt#otgw greg
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a show doesn't necessarily have to be ABOUT queerness to BE a queer show. it's a cultural dialect that cishets don't quite speak.
edit: i gotta clarify that the shows do indeed still have to have actual queer characters in them to count
#our flag means death#and yeah i'll say#the owl house#not just in the fact they are stuffed to the brim with queer characters#or their stories of self-transformation into who you truly are#or even that they're about outsiders finding community amongst each other#though those things certainly factor#it's that the queerness cannot be disentangled from the story without costing complexity#luz has to be neurodivergent and queer. if she wasn't the story would be about someone else#am i making sense? is this microphone on?#a couple others of note are#killing eve#renegade nell#and star trek#which cannot be made straight despite best efforts#conversely heartstopper and first kill are not queer. but that's another essay.
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Birds of a Feather previous / next
#my art#feralnette au#birds of a feather#long tags#sorry I went apeshit in the tags#LETS SAY IT ALL TOGETHER NOW#I - M - A - G - OOOOOOOOO#its fun drawing marinette's back to Alya and having her appear stout and unstoppable and totally logical#and then you see her face and she's like two seconds from completely snapping and is keeping it together by a thread#as a note just because mari feels very certainly abt smth doesnt mean she's right. feelings can be valid and also irrational#in the throes of grief she decided it was better to be alone than to lose someone again so she started pulling away#and lila made pulling away very very very easy to do#shes also vaguely aware she's being unfair in pinning this on alya which is why she started spinning the drain on cockmoth again#legitimately all the shit that's happened to her wouldn't have been so catastrophic if he was never in the picture and she knows it#but the bitterness of her bestie choosing a fantastic liar over her at the worst of times stiiiiiings#alya's personal timing was bad but lila really took advantage of the fact that marinette had been acting off and weird#she basically clocked marinette as being unstable from SOMETHING and made up a lie about her#knowing she wouldn't have the strength to defend herself#between her social life going tachy bc of lila and losing fu in a way that felt like personhood death marinette was really put on the spot#and alya doing her thing of busting in there and assuming her bias is correct was a terrible combo#essentially marinette is highly unstable and alya is just realizing that#busting in and giving her a lecture when she's slightly hysterical and definitely delirious from exhaustion is NOT the way#to show her she's self sabotaging#cuz thats just gonna make her double down on self sabotaging. bc marinette will not accept that she is also a CHIIIIILD
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This wine tastes like pigs blood!
[First] Prev <–-> Next
#poorly drawn mdzs#mdzs#lan wangji#jin zixun#wei wuxian#su she#(Su She needs to have his carrie moment before he can have his Carrie Moment.#Which means he needs to exist as a punching bag before he can hit 'em with the rebound).#My first draft of this comic had WWX slurping LWJ's wine per actual scene canon#As it really is a great scene of how WWX is willing to absorb the scandal and harm that befalls others.#It had a lot less to do with it being LWJ and more so that WWX just happens to be the kind of person who refuses to turn a blind eye.#It could have been any Lan who was being pressured (inappropriately) to drink (do not pressure anyone to drink irl PLEASE).#Because this is a romance plot it of course *is* LWJ. But don't forget that in this moment they aren't on great terms.#It's not a knight in shining armor moment - it's a 'you were being treated unjustly and I have the power to absolve you from that.'#And as we are very soon about to see - WWX certainly cannot turn away from those who need aid he can provide.#And like Jin Guangyao; that kindness is also his downfall.#By the way - that you all for the amazing community commentary on the last comic. I really loved reading everyone's thoughts!#Suyao shippers...I get it now. You had me at 'wen ning and WWX parallels'. I'll be back with a treat for you soon.#And yes 'everyone' does include the ironically named tumblr user jin zixun.#Who blocked me right before the character makes his pd-mdzs debut.#I hope you are well. You seem like you were having a real bad time yesterday.
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I fear that "fire bending didn't come easy to zuko" and "zuko isn't a prodigy" (both true) has somehow snowballed into "zuko is a bad or at best average fire bender".... which simply isn't true, especially by the end of book 3
#it certainly doesn't help that pretty much the only other fire bender that Zuko's consistently contrasted with#is his extremely talented once in a lifetime level of a prodigy sister#but guys he's still very powerful#and I will bravely propose that#after seeing the dragons#and Zuko is no longer relying on his anger and rage to fuel his firebending#its not a coincidence that the next two battles that he has with Azula either#end with a stalemate (both Zuko and Azula use the same move on the airship and notably she's blown back further from it than he is!)#and then him winning (she's lost her stability while he's finally found his)#(side side note: I'm of the camp that Azula targeting Katara in the Agni Kai made Zuko the automatic victor because an Agni Kai is#(should be?)#between only the two partaking in it and Zuko WAS straight up wiping the floor with her until that very moment where she targeted Katara#which you know great play on Azula part she knows how to manipulate her brother cause once she released she was losing the Agni kai#Azula simply made the choice to get the throne via the line of succession lol)#ah well#atla#zuko
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Been thinking about how Bill legitimately had a horrifying reason (the literal progressive disintegration of the nightmare realm that erases whatever it disintegrates from existence completely) to move himself and his crew into a new dimension. Like that's terrifying. And yet he never utilizes this to his favour. He could have been honest about this with Ford, and you KNOW as long as Bill didn't mention plans of overtaking the earth, Ford would've made the portal for him, both out of Ford's own interest and because Ford when faced with these big moral questions will pull through. But this is a card Bill NEVER plays because although he needs to leave the dimension, he cannot lose face. He can't put aside his pride and admit to the humility that he needs to flee from his dimension, that he's not actually all powerful. And so instead he pretends to be a muse and when Ford figures out something else is going on, instead of being open and humble and saying that his dimension is unravelling, Bill focuses on that he's going to over take earth, that he's actually been a monster all along, surprise Ford!
And part of it is definitely because Bill's built himself up on power and violence and to grovel and earnestly ask for help, to admit that he cannot stop the unraveling of his dimension completely invalidates that; showing vulnerability? Can't do that, even under the guise of lying to get his way. And part of it makes you wonder if it's also a form of self-sabotage, because underneath his deep denial Bill is guilty over what he occurred; he sees himself as a monster and so he'll be that monster, and having people recognize that feels good in the same way that pressing a bruise feels good. But it makes you wonder what would've happened if Bill even just was open about his dimension unravelling and had lied about overtaking the earth.
It's also interesting because although Bill has SOME charisma and can manipulate people decently well (as evidenced by his cult, and pandering to people's desires with Ford, Mabel and Blendin), he refuses to be vulnerable, refuses to not be true to his off-putting self, even when if he was just vulnerable of pretended to not be himself, to put aside the (false) pride he has in himself he would've gotten a portal by now. and part of me wonders if it's because it's this false pride that built on insecurity and denial on who he is he cannot drop that mask.
Further thoughts on this!
#hugin rambles#hugin rambles gf#uhhhh yeah anyways Bills a delightfully complex character#and I think thats why also Bill fell hard for Ford is because Ford was vulnerable with Bill and actually CARED for Bill and got to peer#into the vulnerable bits of Bill and cared for him#but yeah fascinating. rotating him in my head whooo#bill cipher#billford#the book of bill#TBOB#gravity falls#but seriously the idea of Bill becoming honest with Ford instead of being like HAHA I TRICKED YOU bounces around the ol noodle with vigor#like dude thats a HUGELY typical self sabotage thing. like why YES im what people think i am.#hes interesting because hes good at manipulation. but also at the same time bad at it because he refuses to not be himself.#which... yanno i can respect. truth to being yourself even if thats offputting and annoying. but certainly makes it more difficult#re: manipulation. and then there was ford who was just. really into Bill in entirety#congrats! you guys match each others freak and toxic neediness to the t#gravity falls meta
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anyone else have multiple traumatic memories associated specifically with holidays/family vacations? because that is a topic I never see discussed in all the So You Had A Shitty Childhood, Now What? self-help books i've been reading. but for me, it was a significant thing. and the more i think about it the more it seems like this would be an (unfortunately) common experience. would be grateful to hear if this matches other peoples' experiences...
#not a shitpost#serious post#ask to tag#tw trauma#cptsd#c-ptsd#and if so we should TALK about it#because it means there are a whole group of survivors out there whose mental health regularly worsens during holidays#like i know i am most certainly not the only person who feels an undefined Dread hanging over christmas/my birthday/july 4 etc#bc too many shitty things happened during those times and now my brain is hypervigilant bc traditionally these are the Danger Times#and this seems like it would be particularly common for survivors of abusive/dysfunctional households (aka most people with c-ptsd)#because holidays/vacations typically mean 1) the whole family is together/being forced to interact#2) and undergoing external stressors e.g. travel/relatives aka 'outsiders' visiting/routines & coping mechanisms being interrupted etc#3) there is social pressure for this to be a Fun Family Bonding Experience which only highlights the cracks in the foundation#and exposes the common Everything Is Fine/We Are A Happy Family lie#4) the cognitive dissonance of feeling tired/anxious/stressed/afraid during a time when you are 'supposed' to be Making Good Memories#and then everyone is angry/tired/anxious/triggered and things boil over and something or someone goes Very Wrong#weird that i'm posting this in october when halloween is...sort of the ONLY holiday i have only good and happy feelings towards#i got lucky there#also i have positive feelings towards Labor Day but that's for socialist reasons
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semi-formal intro to my(?) new au: the Reinhold Mystery Journey AU!!
based directly from @dearesthershel's (not so glowing) video essay on LMJ, i wanted to really take the idea and try and run with it!! details under cut~
RMJ officially takes place 16 years after the events of Unwound/Lost Future, Flora Layton Reinhold is a relatively well-known detective making rounds as following in her guardian's footsteps as a brilliant mystery solver. A now 32 year old Flora (formally known as Detective Layton by her peers, Flory by her 14 year-old sister Katrielle), having opened her office a year after UF/LF, is being given her assignments by the Chief Constable and soon-to-be Commissioner of the Yard, Barton.
Joining her is her assistant and now world-renowned journalist, Emmy Altava! Now 43, she's mellowed out quite a bit since the Azran Legacy (though she still hits and hits HARD). Summoned to Flora's side by an unknown individual, she vows to help the good detective however she can, either intellectually... or percussively.
Together, they're thrown into a myriad of cases dredging up places and faces both old and new, as each mystery resolved leads them ever closer to the cold case of the mysterious disappearances of the Professor and his blue-clad assistant years ago...
.......at least that's the idea i have in mind anyway. i'm not the most skilled writer lmao
#mak art#mak draws pl#professor layton#rmj au#flora reinhold#emmy altava#professor layton au#I JUST MISS THEM. I JUST MISS TH#LVL5 GIVE ME WHAT I WANT ALREADY#anyways i hope people like this au!!! i certainly do#it's not my original idea which is why i wrote 'my(?) au'#but i hope it works nonetheless :)#we don't talk abt how long that sword drawing pose took me.#laytons mystery journey#lmj
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can't believe garak went from 'hope you have fun following my little breadcrumb trail of maybe-truths doctor it builds character ;)' at the beginning of the show to '*sigh* fuck it here's the whole loaf. the entire fucked up bakery of my soul. if you somehow still wanna have sex with me after this you know where I am, yours in infinite longing etc.' in a stitch in time. has anyone ever been so pathetically horrifically enduringly down bad as garak is for julian (laudatory)
#that's some real lodestar simp stuff you've got going on garak and I'm so happy for you/sorry . I guess that's the thing about love#garashir#elim garak#star trek#star trek ds9#ds9#I take the same approach to 'a stitch in time' that I do to deacon's final story in fallout 4 -- I'm agnostic on if ALL details are true#but overall it's certainly *emotionally* truer than even the truth could be sort of situation. genuinely emotionally intimate finally.#which I think is the more important part#and part of that is being weapons grade longing material fjdskjafsa. off the pining scale.
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fishes for the homos i mean homies
[ID: nine fish with collaged scales of different colored and patterned paper, each with glittery fins.]
#collage#only like 4.5 people have confirmed that they got these but its been like 2 weeks since i mailed them#so id certainly Hope im not spoiling anything by this point#i gotta keep lists whenever i mail stuff bc i got 9 people i mail#so i gotta keep lists of who said 'oh i got a thing' so i know when theyre all at their destination#course some people dont say anything#which is fine#they dont know i have a list#once its been a while i just assume & hope everything made it where its supposed to be
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mmm throwaway conversation between Dan and Danny that popped into my head that I had to write out:
"You spent ten years being a one-man mass extinction event, then went back in time and fought me, and lost." Danny snarls, arms crossed and throat tight. His mouth pulls back to bare dagger-sharp teeth, and his eyes burn with the familiar thrum of ectoplasm heating up behind his eyes. "If I didn't believe you were half of Vlad before, I do now."
His other self -- and really, can he even call him that? He's half of Vlad too. Two halves severed from each other and welded together to make a new whole, -- snaps his head over to him. Wild-eyed and furious, he looks unlike the man Danny fought before, the one unruffled and untouched, unbothered by the world around him. It's familiar, but not like the way a reflection is.
"What's that supposed to mean." The Other hisses, matching Danny's scowl one-for-one with fangs much bigger and sharper than his.
But there's a reason lions fear hyenas. Danny matches the rumble in The Other's chest with one of his own, and shoves his face close to his. "I don't lose."
#danny fenton#danny phantom#dp prompt#danny phantom prompt#dan phantom#dark danny#not meant for any particular au i just had the idea of danny going 'wow you can tell you're half of vlad' to dan and when questioned abt it#he says; 'if you were REALLY only me you wouldn't have lost' which is fucking BASED as hell. and also technically true#thought process for danny here was 'hates dan's fucking GUTS bc he tried to kill his family and friends without remorse and would actively#rip out his throat without a moment's notice.' some fr 'im going to beat you to death with my bare hands!' vibes rn.#not totally in character for danny but also i was thinking that it got to this point bc dan was goading danny about 'being his future self'#when that's not technically true. he's half of vlad too he just has danny's face and powers. and he pissed off danny enough that he#retaliated. just not in the way dan expected. dan was expecting a physical attack not a verbal one.#danny called him a loser in more ways than one.#also the reason danny never calls him 'dan' in this is because i was thinking that danny doesn't actually *have* a name to call him. bc he'#certainly not danny. but he's not vlad either. he's someone else entirely. so 'The Other' it is.#danny fenton is not the ghost king#<- down here because while its still MY DP post its not DPXDC so it doesnt need to be front and center for people to see it.
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Saving the Spare
I was reading a couple time travel batfam fics and had this cool idea. Hope ya’ll enjoy!
————————————————————
Thrown back in time before Damian joined the Wayne’s, he tried to make the most of it. Now Damian’s backstory was incredibly messed up, but this…
“Talia’s started cloning Damian already?!?!?”
The clone with blue eyes looked back in confusion, shock, and anger,
“I am not Damian’s clone, I am the other half of the Demon Twins, you— you— fruitcake!”
Oh.
Oh.
#dp x dc#dpxdc#dc x dp#dcxdp#dp x dc crossover#dp x dc prompt#damian and danny are twins#dc x dp crossover#dc x dp prompt#danny and damian are twins#I left which bat time-traveled/dimension traveled vague#My personal favorites are Tim or Dick tho#The batfamily figuring out how traumatized Damian is#Danny’s reaction when finding out he’s “dead” in the future is just#“ Oh that makes sense I am the spare”#And goes along with the time/dimension traveling bat with ease#Convincing Damian to go along as well#Although certainly with less ease
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when your cute robot assistant enjoys pets a little too much :3c
#listen. i am not immune to cute robots#and neither is kel bc im projecting hardcore#anyway if you pet kerfur fast enough and for long enough their voice gets higher and higher pitched until they explode#which is certainly supposed to be a funny haha joke thing but friends. consider#votv#kerfur#dr kel votv#voices of the void#suggestive#mostly for the implication#kel/kerfur#is that a tag? it is now ig ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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kagome chan... you are everything to me
(((op has not finished watching inuyasha so no spoilers thanks! :)))
#bluebelledmoon's art#this took so long#uhhh happy late birthday pug thanks for getting me into this iam stuck like quicksand#i tried writing her name in japanese okay. dont come after me i did my best#this helped me learn sooo much about color weeee#LOOK I USEE HALFTONES CAN YOU SEE CAN YOU SEE#its so hard to draw kagome iwth her hair and face just because of the inuyasha artstyle. which is certainly why all of these have different#art styles for her face. dont question me#this is definitely in my top five anime ever. i am so hooked pug how dare you#kagome higurashi#kagome#inuyasha#inuyasha fanart#inuyasha fandom#inuyasha anime#inuyasha art#artists on tumblr#illustration
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do you actually dislike the bird abode or just the creature designs? not saying the name directly so your ass doesn't get blasted by the tag
I like a lot of the creatures in it; the showrunner is a really fantastic horror artist and it really comes through in the aesthetics of the show. I especially like this hand dragon, though there's a lot of other great designs:
As for the show on the whole, it's not bad but not really for me? Early on it really feels like it's schtick will be that it's a subversion of harry potter-esque stories, where the protagonist wants to go on an adventure similar to her favorite fantasy book but instead ends up hanging out with the "villain" (who's actually just othered)/the magic school turns out to be secretly oppressive/the world is kind of gross and spooky instead of clean and approachable... but as it goes along I think it ends up being a pretty by the books YA fantasy thing played mostly straight, and it isn't super interesting or funny or scary or anything besides that. Which admittedly was probably to its benefit, I think a lot of its popularity comes from it being this very tropeish and not-uncomfortable magic school/found family story that's actually queer, like I genuinely think this is hugely appealing to the average cartoon fan on twitter, but I'm just not personally into it in comparison to a lot of it's contemporaries
#ok very slight tangent#this is such a weird nothing complaint but you know i really don't like that line of critique you see a lot amongst animation fans#where they praise a show for Sticking It To Steven Universe by killing off a villain#and the owl house's climax feels almost like it plays into that intentionally with the little star boy who thinks he can hug the villain#which in the moment was kind of souring for me even if that wasn't the intention (though certainly twitter thought it was)#because I find steven universe was so comparatively subversive and bespoke to itself and complete in its metaphors#that it felt nearly eye rolling#because it was like it was sort of priding itself on being normal and tropey in contrast to this more unique and confronting show#(this isn't why I'm a bit lukewarm on the show. I just think it's a lukewarm show & I again don't mean that in a damning way)#(but everytime the owl house comes up I can't help but think of it)
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