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I looooved the subtle but earth shattering moment of Belly realizing that she’s unintentionally been attributing some of her memories to Jeremiah, making her question herself and her perception of the boys for the first time in a long time.

I think it’s important, the story of Rosie the dog, because one of the things Belly loves so much about Jere is that he is sweet, vulnerable, open and lighthearted, and this memory/experience of him, including countless others from their time growing up together, is tied to that perception of his character, but this memory has been fabricated.

Finding out it was really Conrad shatters an idealized picture of Jeremiah’s character. All of these memories and moments leading to a comfort and sense of security knowing who he is without having to question it too deeply, because she was there, she remembers - suddenly that is all called into question. If those moments weren’t his, if she doesn’t remember him as he truly was, then the person she fell in love with is not entirely who she had built him up to be in her head. After this realization, there’s no doubt she’s now asking herself what other memories she may have wrongfully attributed to him.

Jere having to explain that it was actually Conrad who rescued Rosie was clearly upsetting to him, having to admit to her that she’s conflating him with her memories of Conrad. She was so certain that that boy who rescued a lost dog, let it sleep in his bed, cried when it was taken back home and then was teased for it was her kind, sweet, vulnerable Jeremiah, all the things she admires and loves about him based on the strong foundation of knowing him her whole life. But if those traits did not become attributed to him by his true action, and instead through misremembering, then have they ever been true in the deep and constant way Belly has always believed? Now she can’t be certain of that.

I love this, because Belly has always been an unreliable narrator, and now she’s realized it.

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Conrad or Jeremiah isn’t about a “who's better” choice, it’s about different stages of life.

when Belly was 16, she, like most of us at that age, went for the “shiny” things. she chose Jere because he gave her emotions, love, and openness. Conrad wasn’t emotionally available then, and the constant rollercoaster with him wasn’t what a 16-year-old wanted from a relationship.

but as we grow, we see that “easy” isn’t enough. Belly's not 16 anymore, and the fun option doesn’t work forever. she can’t truly rely on Jere. (those memes about “the summer I turned into a mother” say it all)

now, Conrad fits her life in a way he didn’t back then. he understands her, cares, loves and cherishes her. if she don't want a big wedding or to spend money on a chocolate mirror-glazed cake, he’d be by her side without hesitation. she can be herself with him. she can be open about what she wants (not that it's needed, Conrad reads her well enough) and doesn't have to dim herself to fit into someone else's needs (wedding and Paris). she's outgrown Jere at this point. because we're seeing the story through her eyes, it all comes down to what she needs.

at the end, Belly deserves freedom, not a lifetime of feeling trapped. (team Laurel!) like we all do actually

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No offense, but it makes me lose my mind how little comparison there is online between Daenerys and Aragorn cause it’s like extremely obvious that Daenerys is Aragorn and it feels like people just don’t see this simply because of the visual aspect. Like the Fall of Numenor and the Doom of Valyria. Them both being afraid they’ll be corrupted like their predecessors, Aragorn with Isildur and Daenerys with Aerys. The fact that George literally brings up Dany when discussing Aragorn. The entire concept of an exiled prince in hiding is Daenerys. George has said the subversion of this is that Daenerys is a girl and that he wanted to give the keys to fantasy that are normally given to men to a woman. The whole Aragorn tax policy and actual ruler ship is the plot of Dance for Dany😭

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THE SUMMER I TURNED PRETTY || 3.07 "Last Hurrah" The Glass Unicorn Story

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what? oh sweetheart no, you're not weirding me out at all. you're weirding me in. keep talking, freak

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tgis is so fucking funny to me. they accidentally Rock Lee'd a retired racehorse

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when will we have a character that lost his wife and became a better father bc that’s what his wife would’ve wanted?

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being anti ai is making me feel like in going insane. "you asked for thoughts about your characters backstory and i put it into chat gpt for ideas". studies have proven its making people dumber. "i asked ai to generate this meal plan". its causing water shortages where its data centers are built. "ill generate some pictures for the dnd campaign". its spreading misinformation. "meta, generate an image of this guy doing something stupid". its trained off stolen images, writing, video, audio. "i was talking with my snapchat ai-" theres no way to verify what its doing with the information it collects. "youtube is impletmenting ai based age verification". my work has an entire graphics media department and has still put ai generated motivational posters up everywhere. ai playlists. ai facial verification. google ai microsoft ai meta ai snapchat ai. everyone treats it as a novelty. every treats it as a mandatory part of life. am i the only one who sees it? am i paranoid? am i going insane? jesus fucking christ. if i have to hear one more "well at least-" "but it does-" "but you can-" im about to lose it. i shouldnt have to jump through hoops to avoid the evil machine. have you no principles? no goddamn spine? am i the weird one here?

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“They’re trying to convince people they can’t do the things they’ve been doing easily for years – to write emails, to write a presentation. Your daughter wants you to make up a bedtime story about puppies – to write that for you.” We will get to the point, she says with a grim laugh, “that you will essentially become just a skin bag of organs and bones, nothing else. You won’t know anything and you will be told repeatedly that you can’t do it, which is the opposite of what life has to offer. Capitulating all kinds of decisions like where to go on vacation, what to wear today, who to date, what to eat. People are already doing this. You won’t have to process grief, because you’ll have uploaded photos and voice messages from your mother who just died, and then she can talk to you via AI video call every day. One of the ways it’s going to destroy humans, long before there’s a nuclear disaster, is going to be the emotional hollowing-out of people.”

Justine Bateman on AI in this article from The Guardian

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— Mark Doty, "White Kimono" in Sweet Machine

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Introduction to The Iliad, Emily Wilson

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Dorianne Laux, from "After Twelve Days of Rain", What We Carry

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haiku #15, tathev simonyan

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Fanfiction writers be like:

"here's the immensely time consuming 100K word novel-length passion project I'm working on between my real life job and family! It eats up hundreds of hours of my one and only life, causes me emotional harm, and I gain basically nothing from it! Also I put it on the internet for free so anyone can read if they want. Hope you love it!" :)

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“whatever the fuck these two characters had going on” is a vastly underrated character dynamic

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delusion ? in my mind ??? likely place for it to be

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Okay, so listen, I do respect this sentiment

HOWEVER

I am kind of getting annoyed by all this focus on the men needing fixing and how hot it is that the men fixed themselves because Jane Austen wrote just as many women who need reformation as men. Pride & Prejudice is about 2 (two) people, a man and woman, who both need to change. Emma is the only one who needs to change in Emma, Mr. Knightley's arc is pretty much just about realizing he loves her anyway. Both Mary and Henry Crawford need to change in Mansfield Park (and they don't) and it's the male character, Edmund, who is saved from an imprudent "I can fix her" marriage, Fanny just says no. Marianne in Sense & Sensibility does need to grow up and Willoughby can't be fixed so she should choose the man who doesn't need fixing.

I realize on some level that the audience is mostly female but isn't it kind of toxic to imply that women don't need to grow and change and learn? Because I know I do. What happened to humility?