thebellekeys

[thebellekeys]

Occitan Language

Tan m'abelís vòstra cortesa demanda, que ieu non-pòdi ni vòli m'amagar de vos.

– Dante Alighieri writing as Arnaut Daniel (1180–1200 AD) in Purgatorio

[thebellekeys]

you want me to play a sport? the very thing that got the yellowjackets cannibalized???

[thebellekeys]

the white trad wife girlies piss me off because they say things like "i really miss when women could be stay-at-home moms and get married and have babies and be fEmiNinE instead of having to go to college and work a job" like... you can still do that? you can literally still live your 1950s dream life? go find that man sis! but leave the rest of us the fuck out of it.

[thebellekeys]

Miss Linnet Caster?!?!?!

[thebellekeys]

Serbian Language

Ljudi preziru sve one koji ne uspiju, a mrze one koji se uspnu iznad njih; Navikni se na prezir ako želis mir, ili na mržnju ako pristaneš na borbu... People despise all those who fail, and hate those who rise above them; Get used to the feeling of contempt if you want peace, or that of hatred if you decide to fight...

– Meša Selimović (1910-1982)

[thebellekeys]

I want my future husband to be someone that's a true partner and companion, not a man with whom I have to live out a preconceived cultural expectation. I want him to be someone who I know will not make my future daughter feel lesser or limited because she is a girl, as that's certainly not the type of home I grew up in. I want my future husband to be someone with whom I share affection, not someone for whom I constantly self-sacrifice and repress myself. I want him to be someone who will not scoff when I say I'm a feminist and believe in women's autonomy. Inshallah, Allah SWT will have me remain alone until I can be with such a person He has chosen for me.

[thebellekeys]

Hi! Is "Stargazing is Necrophilia" the LA Gothic?

hello! no, KISS YOUR DEVILS IN LOS ANGELES is the LA gothic (august 2026) and STARGAZING IS NECROPHILIA is a literary romance like AWYITE (probably 2027 or later)

[thebellekeys]

[thebellekeys]

remember when dash drama looked like this

[thebellekeys]

last day of this unceasing madness

[thebellekeys]

Person who asked you what sociopolitical event radicalized you here! Thank you for your honest answer in your vlog. As a genz, I always find it interesting to hear the generational answers on questions like this... especially being born as a brown Muslim in October 2001, haha. Not haha. You know.

Side note: In 2020 I dropped out of law school to study foreign languages (for identical reasons to yours for dropping out of law, seeing as my perspective on the law and society became extremely, cough, Marxist in the middle of a pandemic that took away two years of my youth, haha). I think your own status as a law-drop out filters through your work somehow, I don't know, maybe it's in part why I connect with your writing so much.

Question: Would you ever write a "hard" dystopia? As in, you write about the future a lot in your works, but never full-on societal collapse. If you did write a dystopia (think Orwell, Atwood, Collins, Bazterrica, etc.) would might it look like? What aspect of our today might you exaggerate to build your future?

I regret to inform you (I just generally regret to be in this position because it's so on the nose) but I am currently writing a "hard" dystopia, as in a story set in the far future (100 years) that has been irreversibly altered by natural disasters, viral disease, and—most critically—technocracy. the initial idea came up ages ago, over a year maybe, when someone I was with accidentally said "the hunger games by susanna clarke" and I was like fuuuck what a good pitch, I'm gonna write that (meaning, hunger games in content, but tonally JONATHAN STRANGE & MR. NORRELL)

but, and I'm sure you saw this coming, I can't actually write like susanna clarke—I don't have that kind of patience—so instead it's become this series of interconnected novellas that's similar in structure to OUR SHARE OF NIGHT by mariana enriquez. and while there is a hunger games element, in typical olivie fashion, we enter the story from the misleadingly banal perspective of an archivist who can't log into his account (he also happens to be the only person in his family who is not a psychiatrist).

so basically it is the hunger games by susanna clarke as re-told to you by your friend olivie blake, aka nothing like either source material because I am too obsessed with the specific issue of unregulated tech and systems that prioritize profit over people. and the underlying concept of the book is essentially this:

NEWPHORIA: that you will accept untenable ethical conditions for the illusion of return—in most cases, progress that approximates but doesn’t achieve true innovation.

[thebellekeys]

i’m not part of the global 1% nor even upper middle class which means i’m likely going to live an adulthood where i’m overworked and frustrated half the time. so all i’m saying is that if i’m going to be overworked and frustrated, it might as well be for a salary, insurance, and financial autonomy.

[thebellekeys]

i love armand so much someone should throw a brick at him he's perfect i hope he explodes in a nuclear disaster :(

[thebellekeys]

did... did Orlok sail all the way through the Mediterranean, then the Atlantic, then the North Sea to dock at a port in Germany? why... why not take a carriage from Romania to Germany instead? like Thomas did to get there?

[thebellekeys]

olivia rodrigo and louis partridge are very much jordelia-coded

[thebellekeys]

count orlok's explicitly corpse-like appearance, friedrich copulating with anna's dead body in her tomb, the deadly rat plague being synonymous with orlok's unsated sexual desire for ellen, ellen dreaming of being the happiest she's ever been marrying death, that naked lady being there on a horse when they exhumed the corpse in romania, ellen and orlok dying in bed together with limbs intertwined...

it's not about vampires, it's about necrophilia.

[thebellekeys]

Bravo also to Robert Eggers for probably the least bad depiction of Transylvania in Western vampire cinematic history:

1. Having actual Romanian actors doing the dialogue in Romanian. You'd think this is a low bar to clear but nope.

2. High quality costume design that looks pretty accurate to 19th century Romanian and Roma peasantry, even down to specific braided hairstyles from the Transylvanian region.

3. Depiction of Roma people but refrains from having them as some typical Hollywood exoticizing role like a magical fortune teller etc. They're in like half a scene, just chilling and playing music in front of an inn.

4. Use of the word "strigoi" which are actual spirits in Romanian folklore, unlike the term "vampire" which didn't exist in Romania.

5. Sorry to the Nosferatu moustache haters, but a Romanian nobleman would have had that exact facial hair.

6. Depiction of religion (nuns, churches) that actually looks like Eastern Orthodoxy and not some vaguely spooky goth Christianity.