#Chilling and reading

[cursio-neptune]

does eclipse like Stephen King books?

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(If you're confused as to the context, hit previous.)

[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.)

[inkskinned]

this is just my opinion but i think any good media needs obsession behind it. it needs passion, the kind of passion that's no longer "gentle scented candle" and is now "oh shit the house caught on fire". it needs a creator that's biting the floorboards and gnawing the story off their skin. creators are supposed to be wild animals. they are supposed to want to tell a story with the ferocity of eating a good stone fruit while standing over the sink. the same protective, strange instinct as being 7 and making mud potions in pink teacups: you gotta get weird with it.

good media needs unhinged, googling-at-midnight kind of energy. it needs "what kind of seams are invented on this planet" energy and "im just gonna trust the audience to roll with me about this" energy. it needs one person (at least) screaming into the void with so much drive and energy that it forces the story to be real.

sometimes people are baffled when fanfic has some stunning jaw-dropping tattoo-it-on-you lines. and i'm like - well, i don't go here, but that makes sense to me. of fucking course people who have this amount of passion are going to create something good. they moved from a place of genuine love and enjoyment.

so yeah, duh! saturday cartoons have banger lines. random street art is sometimes the most precious heart-wrenching shit you've ever seen. someone singing on tiktok ends up creating your next favorite song. youtubers are giving us 5 hours of carefully researched content. all of this is the impossible equation to latestage capitalism. like, you can't force something to be good. AI cannot make it good. no amount of focus-group testing or market research. what makes a story worth listening to is that someone cares so much about telling it - through dance, art, music, whatever it takes - that they are just a little unhinged about it.

one time my friend told me he stayed up all night researching how many ways there are to peel an orange. he wrote me a poem that made me cry on public transportation. the love came through it like pith, you know? the words all came apart in my hands. it tasted like breakfast.

[cryptixotic]

𝙱𝚒𝚐 𝚛𝚎𝚜-𝚙𝚘𝚗𝚜𝚒-𝚋𝚒𝚕𝚒𝚝𝚢. 𝙱𝚞𝚝 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚔𝚗𝚘𝚠 𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚊𝚋𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝, 𝚑𝚞𝚑 ?

Once again, snippet from a bigger thing i'm working on - more to come :)

[liilipad]

The war in my mind

[ryllen]

" … ꈤꂦ꓄ꃅꀤꈤꁅ ꀤꌗ ꍟꈤꂦꀎꁅꃅ

ꀤ'ꂵ ꌗ꓄ꀤ꒒꒒ ꆰꀎꀤ꓄ꍟ ꃅꀎꈤꁅꋪꌩ ꓄ꋪꍟꌩꌗꍏꈤ .”

[ The Deepest Part of You ]

[allysketches]

organizing my art folder I found this one drawing sitting there for months bc I didn't like how it turned out and meant to come back to it later but never did lol

but on second thought I guess it looks fine so I might as well post it now 😅

also I've been pretty much MIA these past few months bc life (good and bad) and tbh it was nice, so I'll mostly stay that way, I think... pop back now and then, whenever I finish more drawings lol

[once-more-with-anxiety]

"read the books about stickball" they said. "it'll be fun" they said. everyone always fails to bring up the FUCKING YAKUZA

[chimerafeathers]

you know what i think Mirabelle deserves to get a little fucked up freaky in how she processes learning about Siffrin’s loops post-canon. for fun. as a treat

thinking about this line in particular and stretching out the implications like taffy

this is a more romanticized, cutesy facet of her interests but she’s still framing Siffrin’s situation through storytelling. so like. What If.

i mean. this woman loves horror and gore and monsters and horrible things happening to innocent people. IN FICTION. in fiction!!! obviously!!!! and it’s beyond terrible that something even remotely close to any of that happened to her real friend in real life!!

BUT.

maybe. maybe sometimes, if the conditions are right, she gets a little too wrapped up in her imagination about the bloody, awful poetry of it all. maybe Siffrin tells a joke that's a little too dark and gory for anyone else, borderline or full-on Concerning, but she latches onto it without thinking about the Implications and plays along with increasing gruesomeness because FINALLYYYYY someone will play with her in the Horror Space (like Isabeau does in the romance space!!) and then. OOPS. the implications!!!! and she has to recalibrate out of Fun With Fiction mode into Oh No, My Friend Underwent A Horrifying Ordeal mode.

but being able to joke about things, even the awful things, is...kind of comforting, to Siffrin. makes them feel less like they're being babied and pitied and more like what happened was something...normal, almost? something that doesn't have to feel like the end of the world all over again every time it's mentioned, at least. so he tries to reassure her, and Odile and Isabeau have to go “actually can you PLEASE not joke about dying horribly it’s freaking us out and also might not be the Best for you? mentally???”

maybe Mirabelle will get a little Too Into trying to weave meaning and symbolism into the scant details that Siffrin gradually reveals, like she’s trying to finish the orange poem all over again, or eagerly meddling with the romantic reunion of the two actual people in the House with undelivered bonding earrings, writing their story for them without their input.

it’s easier to justify the tragedy of it all when it has a purpose, isn’t it? finding the beauty in the darkness, the love powerful enough to end the world. romanticizing the horrors until her friend can talk about them without shutting down.

and she feels guilty about hearing something and immediately thinking “ohhhhhhh this is JUST like Blorbo From My Novels,” because she should treat Siffrin’s situation with the gravity and care he deserves!! they’re a real person, not a character who exists for entertainment, to represent the ~themes~ of some story.

but if she admits as much…maybe Siffrin is safe to admit that he had started seeing the rest of them as actors, endlessly reciting their lines. maybe that’s just how people process things sometimes, grasping for metaphors when unfiltered reality gets to be too much. maybe it’s okay to talk about that part of it all, too.

[evidenceof]

Grace Nixon's letter to Dick Winters, 9 Feb. 1995

Dear Dick, This little card says very little of my deepest appreciation, affection, and gratitude for all you have done for me—for your thoughtfulness to even write Miguel about his grandfather, his great grandfather, etc. touched me greatly. You are and always have been all these years such a true friend in all respects. I do not know anyone whom Lewis respected more than you, Dick Winters. [...]—and again, thank you, Dick Winters. Much love, Grace

Quotes taken from: Dick Winters letter to Deetta Almon (April 20, 1945) | Dick Winters' eulogy for Lewis Nixon, January 1995 | Grace Nixon's letter to Dick Winters (February 9, 1995)

[bu99erfly]

JOY ‧｡˚°.⋆ 240828

[gynnieee]

commission!! someone call chilling headquarters he is chilling literally ALL over the place

[werevcookie]

discovered a new type of red flag: people that want the adaptation to be identical to the source work. like, if it's an adaptation there's a reason. if you want the exact same things, go read the book.

[yippee-optimistically]

rarepair post ive been mentioning. surprise its PETALPRAWN 😟😟

these next 2 i am a little obsessed w i think theyre soooo funny

very last doodle is lowk inspired by this post ,, go follow bird theyre awesome

the petalprawn fandom is dying !!!! reblog to make it die faster !!!!!

[tomwambsgays]

don't worry. you did great. y̵̢̱͉̋ȯ̷͕̲̼̠͋̔̀u̸̼̮̺̲̾͗'̶̧̞̫̃̔̚l̸͉͙̖̙̆l̷̢̡̤̘̑́͠͠ ̵̡̗̲͌̎ğ̸̘̭͂͗e̴̒̾̇ͅt̷̞̺̼̩͐͘͘͝ ̸̮̥̺̻͆u̴͓̎̏̈s��̜̪̞̥̏ȩ̸̽d̵͖̃̕͘ ̵̢̬̩̇̀̈͛t̷̨̹̀ö̴̤̺́̑́́ ̶̬̦̀̒ì̸̗̤̩͆͜t̵̥̺̺̀̃