#make a book ‘good’ or ‘bad’

[txttletale]

[pouring myself a drink from a fancy pitcher] so like it’s simplifying to the point of uselessness to say ‘reading comprehension’ is why people say shit like ‘lolita is problematic!’ because clearly the salient points to consider what aren’t they comprehending and why? and i think it probably lies in an unwillingness to approach critically the cultural understanding of ‘the child predator’ as someone that exists wholly outside society, someone who is an obviously deviant Other that enters from the fringes in order to commit terrible crimes--and so when nabokov puts those crimes into the person of a well-spoken, well-read, ‘respectable’ family man, they respond by saying ’well, this must be a favorable portrayal of child abuse, putting its justifications in the mouth of someone so authoritative and respectable is obviously apologetics’--because they’re unable or unwilling to critically confront the actual idea presented here, that ‘the child predator’ exists within society and is in fact often enabled and abetted by society.

humbert anchoring his attraction to children in the mythology and literature of the Western Canon says, ‘this is embedded in our culture, these are not the acts of an Otherized interloper’--but if you cannot put yourself at a critical distance and dispel the myth of that interloper of course you will read that and say ‘well since all these things are self-evidently good and cannot be the sites of violence, tying humbert to them is nabokov inviting this deviant external evil into the fold of what’s good and accepted’. when of course the call has been coming from inside the house! the entire time!

[i take a sip of my drink--fruity, airy, with hints of earth] so yeah ig to talk seriously about the dynamics of abuse we need to divorce ourselves entirely from the discursive fiction of the ‘child abuser’ as a marginal figure so that we can honestly assess how abuse can be reproduced in the key pillars of our culture and society. but that’s hard so let’s all keep arguing about a vague notion of ‘reading comprehension’ until the earth explodes amen brother [i pour you a drikn from my pitcher and it’s just room temperature coca cola]

[millionsofbooks]

life is about accepting that while i may want to be quincey “hot smooth cowboy” morris i am in fact, to the ver y depths of my soul, jack “sat on his hat and brought his emotional support scalpel to a proposal” seward

[bitchthefuck1]

The argument that "well of course they had to include all those important crow moments even if they don't make sense, they need to drum up excitement for season 3!!!" is genuinely so funny to me. Like, 'they had to make the story bad so they could make more of it!' you're so close bestie

[raspberryzingaaa]

Listen I love "I am no man" as much as the next lady who was once a barefoot girl who ran around with a sword. But it irks me Every Time that she sneaks off to battle because Theoden and Eomer a) genuinely want to keep her from experiencing this Horror and b) maam you are third in line to the throne imagine if all three of you died. Do you have no love of country and land???

[ultrakeencollectionbreadfan]

Why aren't these guys on TV?

[last-flight-of-fancy]

“Kingdom Hearts being an epic slow burn gay romance would be incredibly impactful to people both personally and as a landmark in queer representation by extremely popular and established characters. It has decades of legitimate buildup and has the potential to be both incredibly validating to queer fans everywhere and even possibly sway the minds of those who love the characters but may not have much contact or knowledge of queerness.”

and

“The Kingdom Hearts series is honestly kind of unique in its unabashed emotional sincerity. How it treats friendships and non-romantic bonds as being both extremely important and powerful, never giving the impression that friendship is lesser to romance, is depressingly still somewhat of a rarity in media. This is very important and validating to many, particularly aromantics but also most everyone who is just Tired of how friendships and romance are often presented in tiers of importance.”

are concepts that can and should co-exist.

[fluentisonus]

obviously I Do wish I could have every ancient text safe, complete, & in its original form however. there's also another eviler part of me that loves textual issues and scribal errors and Fucked Up Manuscripts and the idea that the actual text itself is still half-living and can continue to grow and eventually outstrip its long dead creator in ways that change its meaning forever. like YES the text is unrecognizable in parts YES it's it's been revived and pieced together and stitched up a thousand times over YES it's a strange sort of undead thing that's a little Wrong to look at. frankenstein has nothing on manuscript transmission when it comes to making monsters

[princessponies]

Lol Matilda cause book-worm, smart, and powerful

Writing these two is the most difficult for me because it requires I Actually Know References To Things.

[thewindsofwolves]

Jon Snow & Sansa Stark Book Parallels & Mentions 36/∞ : They seem to appear as the protagonists of prophecies warning queens of their upcoming fall

The voices were growing louder, she realized, and it seemed her heart was slowing, and even her breath. . . . three treasons will you know . . . once for blood and once for gold and once for love . . . [...] Her silver was trotting through the grass, to a darkling stream beneath a sea of stars. A corpse stood at the prow of a ship, eyes bright in his dead face, grey lips smiling sadly. A blue flower grew from a chink in a wall of ice, and filled the air with sweetness. . . . mother of dragons, bride of fire . . .  A Clash Of Kings, Deneris IV

Beneath her golden curls, the girl's face wrinkled up in puzzlement. For years after, she took those words to mean that she would not marry Rhaegar until after his father Aerys had died. "I will be queen, though?" asked the younger her. "Aye." Malice gleamed in Maggy's yellow eyes. "Queen you shall be . . . until there comes another, younger and more beautiful, to cast you down and take all that you hold dear." A Feast For Crows, Cersei VIII

[alittlelessalone]

I really like fanfic where Shang Qinghua and Mobei-Jun end up in more of mentor/uncle type roles to Shen Yuan and Lou Binghe. They’ve been around and together for a while now, have already been fighting the plot even before Shen Yuan showed up, and have already managed to get their shit together by the time our main couple is even starting to catch feelings.

It leads to some really hopeful and happy fics and it feels super good. But this post isn’t about that. This is about the horrible (wonderful) thought I just had about any fic where this is the case.

(NSFW from here on out.)



Okay. So we all know that demons’ dicks are unnaturally big due to Airplane’s hornyness and desire to get readers. And we know that quite frankly, they’re too big and can cause pain.

So in a world where Shang Qinghua and Mobei-Jun are acting as mentors, things would probably be better and Shen Yuan and Lou Binghe would likely have a healthier relationship, so I picture them actually being able to communicate and express their desires.

Unfortunately as two awkward virgins in a world without much sex ed, I don’t picture their first attempts at sex to be much better than in the books (from a technique standpoint. The circumstances would be much better).

Okay, so with that context in mind, the two of them are left with a dilemma. How do they have actually pleasant sex that doesn’t hurt Shen Yuan? And unfortunately, there’s only one set of people they can think to ask about it (assuming Tianlang-Jun isn’t counted because there’s no way he’s a better option).

So that leaves a very awkward Binghe approaching Mobei-Jun and being like “how do you not accidentally badly hurt Uncle Shang when you, you know…” and now Mobei-Jun has to have the talk with the ruler of the demon realm.

And Shen Yuan has to approach Shang Qinghua and be like “this is all your fault you shitty hack author. You’ve clearly figured out how to have sex. You own me tips on how to do it.”

And Shang Qinghua has to use all of his restraint to give him an actual answer and not start suggesting some of the absurd kinks you know he’s written about in PIDW.

But in the end, the pair reunites equally embarrassed, but with a bit more knowledge of what they're doing and a ton of appreciation for the other for being willing to learn for their sake.

And I absolutely think that they get better at it. They love each other very much and are trying super hard. With the guidance they're now getting, I'm certain they'll be okay.

[mummer]

like guys did you know that the point of a huge amount of media is not to comfort you and make you feel the precise emotions you deem Good and Right it’s trying to introduce you to new mindsets and attitudes and philosophical/thematic ideas and some of those ideas will make you feel absolutely miserable and that isnt a bad evil thing, and you dont have to like stories that challenge you ideologically or make you uncomfortable but that doesnt make them bad stories that arent worth telling, or stories that should be criticized/discouraged on the face of not being cathartic enough or whatever. omg it’s all too much

[sampigehoovu]

Aditha Karikalan was set up to fall right from the beginning wasn’t he? Vandiyadevan doesn’t think much about the prince, apart from a few stray thoughts about succession and rightful heir, etc. When he meets Sundara Chola and gives him the olai, mentioning the golden palace built in Kanchi, Sundara is disappointed in his son. For building a palace, and not a temple. The crown prince’s flaws are so subtly written into the text. Somehow, leading up to justifying both his death and the conspiracy. 

[milkweedman]

😳

was looking at craigslist looms (never a good idea) and found a harrisville designs 36″ 4 harness floor loom for. $250. which is about 1/10th of the price of a new one

its only a 3 hour drive away.....

[thatscarletflycatcher]

I'm trying to articulate a thought: while a moral reading of a text is necessary and I'd say unavoidable, a judgement of a text cannot begin and end in its value as a didactic piece for teaching morality to the reader (or reinforcing their sense of moral selves).

This doesn't mean people should read books that make apology of things the person finds morally or psychologically repulsive, just because there's some artistic value in them anyways.

But I have seen people for whom reading (and engaging with media in general) becomes a moral race in which their enjoyment of literature must be thoroughly justified by the -often only superficially ascertained- moral value of the themes and lessons of the text, and for whom the things they read are a letter of presentation of the moral principles they spouse.

In other words, instead of the moral principles of the person delineating the framework through which they approach the text, it is a checklist of things the text must explicitly contain in order to be seen as having any worth at all.

Which is a rather sad and superficial way to engage with things.

[whatohitsonfirewelp]

Daily reminder that Severus Snape isn’t a good person and Molly Weasley isn’t a good parent

[compacflt]

Sorry for the ridiculous ask (really it's unforgivable), but:

Iceman went to NYC to see A Chorus Line in '87.

2. Confirmed watched Sound of Music with Carole for her birthday.

Am I connecting any dots here and did Ice have to go to Hamilton as a publicity stunt in the last year of the Obama presidency?

oh no anon im being very intentional with my ice-musical-theatre links. its easy lazy writing shorthand for him being gay lol. even if he isn’t actively seeing shows he does put the tonys on in the background every year just bc he likes the color and dancing

he’s not a fan of rap and he doesn’t like how Hamilton bastardized american history for its own political aims thereby convincing multiple generations of laymen of factoids that simply aren’t true (Hamilton was strictly speaking not an immigrant & could only extremely loosely be called an abolitionist of any stripe) but he’s also a milquetoast liberal so he says he likes it for clout but he’s also a military flag officer so no one is really expecting him to go see Hamilton for publicity purposes so idk

the pentagon circa 2016: