yellowmusings

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Despite this being a fictive era/place, isn't it scarily wonderful (or just plain scary) how literature from generations past can still be highly relevant -and sadly applicable- to the world today?

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Careful, careful, careful! There's something subliminally powerful about kindness.

— Benjamin Alire Sáenz, from Aristotle And Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (via lunamonchtuna)

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“You know how every once in a while you do something and the little voice inside says ‘There. That’s it. That’s why you’re here’ … and you get a warm glow in your heart because you know it’s true? Do more of that.”

— Jacob Nordby

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Another ACOTAR rant

I love how people have just decided to hate characters for reasons that aren't even alluded to in the books in which they exist???

Rhys SA-ed Feyre! -> no he did not

Rhys tolerates Wing clipping -> literally outlawed it immediately after becoming HL

Feyre treats Nesta her sisters like shit -> literally prevented Nesta's depressive spiral from worsening and gave her sisters a roof over their heads and hunted for years as a child

Nesta doesn't give af about Feyre -> literally gave up her power to save her sister and her nephew

Cassian doesn't love Nesta -> "I have no regrets in my life but this. That we did not have time. That I did not have time with you Nesta. I will find you in the next world, in the next life. And we will have that time. I promise." 🥹🥹

Elain is weak and stupid and dumb -> literally killed the king of Hybern.

Tamlin is the best character in the series and Elain should be with him bc she likes flowers -> he is literally her sisters ABUSER ... (he did ask for forgiveness but still ... shipping her own sister with him? For what?round 2??)

Genuinely what books have these people been reading?? Like it's fine to have opinions on a book and like or dislike certain characters... but if you're going to argue tooth and nail with OTHERs about it and insist the next book is a continuation of some twisted version of the books you created in your head... idk what to say.

It genuinely bothers me how people cannot comprehend complex characters. If there's one thing I applaud SJM for, it's writing characters that feel human. They're complex enough that they want different things and those things change and they behave irrationally and make mistakes and sometimes they are rude and spiteful but it makes sense because that's what complex characters are.

But people are stuck in some Mary sue mentality where it's not enough for Feyre to have found peace finally with Rhys and her family - no she needs to make Nesta & Elain PAY for their sins 😱

It's not enough for Nesta to have gotten to a healthy point in her view of herself -> she has to burn the entire IC down and take over Prythian.

Like wtf?? Do yall not get the concept?? It's genuinely baffling to me.

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I’ve recently received some hate messages—completely misleading and unrelated to the reflections I share on my blog (which are anything but political; have you ever heard me talk about politics?). These messages made me think deeply about hatred, about how it has become a persistent part of our social fabric, and I came to the conclusion that it is a symptom of fragility.

The hatred that spreads today is not new, but it has taken on new forms: more viral, more visible, more legitimized. It is “liquid” hatred, to borrow Bauman’s term, because it no longer needs deep roots—it only needs a screen, hearsay, a spark. It is a phenomenon that spreads rapidly not because people are more evil today, but because the conditions for hating have become structurally more favorable. Donskis would say we live in an era of “moral amnesia,” where the capacity for empathy has been eroded by speed, distraction, and oversimplification. Hatred thrives where complexity is perceived as a threat rather than a richness.

In times of widespread anxiety, hatred becomes an emotional shortcut, a form of existential simplification. Its proliferation does not necessarily indicate an increase in cruelty, but rather a crisis in the psychological and cultural resilience of democratic societies. Zygmunt Bauman, in his analysis of “liquid modernity,” explained that in postmodern society, relationships become precarious, horizons uncertain, identities fluid. In such a scenario, hatred offers the illusion of sharp boundaries—between “us” and “them,” between right and wrong, pure and impure.

Leonidas Donskis, in his Power and Imagination, reminds us that hatred is not only a destructive force but also a pathological substitute for hope. When we are no longer able to imagine credible political alternatives or supportive communities, we retreat into defining the other as guilty. In this sense, hatred is the emotional revenge of helplessness.

Where does the fire start?

1. Existential Uncertainty We live in what Alain Ehrenberg called a “society of the fatigue of being oneself” (La fatigue d’être soi). People, forced to endlessly construct themselves, suffer under the weight of self-sufficiency as a mandate. In this context, psychological instability is no longer marginal—it’s structural. When the individual fails in the task of self-legitimation, frustration turns into aggression. The crisis of collective narratives—religious, political, ideological—leaves individuals naked before the chaos of the world, without tools to process fear except through anger. Byung-Chul Han, in his The Burnout Society, speaks of a transition from “virus” to “neuron”: we are no longer oppressed by authoritarian power but by an excess of positivity, performance, and self-assessment. Violence thus explodes not as transgression but as a side effect of individualized psychological pressure. Simply put: people live in a chronic state of insecurity—economic, social, identity-based—and when fear takes over, scapegoats are sought. The "other" becomes the target: the immigrant, the different, the poor, the feminist, the queer, the educated, the “weird.” Hatred becomes a way to simplify the world and feel on the right side.

2. Cognitive Infantilization Yascha Mounk, in his The People vs. Democracy, emphasizes how the simplification of public debate—driven by algorithms, sensationalist media, and digital tribalism—contributes to the erosion of democratic competence. It’s not just ignorance, but a structural redefinition of the culture of discourse, where complexity is considered elitist and doubt a betrayal.

As Umberto Galimberti observes, we live in a society that has replaced paideia (the formation of the soul) with training for competition. School, politics, and media tend to produce consumers and fans—not critical citizens. And without the ability to argue, only impulse remains.

There is a cultural regression facilitated by the media and political system. Public opinion is often fed on slogans, memes, disposable outrage. Depth is boring—and thus discarded. Idiocracy, as imagined by Mike Judge in his film, isn’t so far off: it is a dystopia founded on progressive critical disempowerment.

Idiocracy is not an extreme phenomenon but a pervasive process: it is the transformation of public discourse into an arena of moods.

3. Incentivized Polarization “Divide and conquer” today happens not only through political manipulation but also through algorithmic consensus-building. Social media platforms reward outrage—it is immediate, contagious, gratifying. Anger generates clicks, shares, visibility. A calm and reflective citizen is of no interest to platforms.

Byung-Chul Han puts it bluntly in In the Swarm:

“Digital culture does not foster a public space of reason, but a storm of emotions.”

In this storm, the powerful no longer need to censor. They simply keep everyone busy fighting each other. Debates around minority rights, for example, become weapons of mass distraction: important issues, of course, but instrumentalized to draw attention away from systemic ones—economic inequality, concentration of power, the climate crisis. Anger sells. A furious, but divided, people cannot organize. A society arguing over gender-neutral bathrooms or vegan meat won’t question wealth redistribution, manipulation of consent, or data abuse. As Han wrote, power today doesn’t repress—it seduces and distracts.

The exasperated and confused citizen becomes an involuntary soldier in superficial battles.

Have we become intolerant—or merely fragile? Intolerance and fragility go hand in hand. When fragility is not acknowledged, processed, or cared for, it becomes aggression. Umberto Galimberti, in The Unsettling Guest, teaches us that youth nihilism does not arise from a lack of values but from an excess of empty values—imposed without internalization.

We talk a lot today about inclusion but rarely practice radical listening to difference. The society of hyper-identities (ethnic, sexual, religious, political) has ended up erecting emotional and cultural barriers that are harder and harder to cross. Anyone who doesn’t fully conform to the code of their “group” gets expelled. Tolerance has become a posture, not a practice of doubt. We are not absolutely more intolerant. But we are less willing to tolerate what questions the ego. The performative individualist society—the one that tells you “you are special,” that you must always be right, that every critique is an attack—has eroded our ability to tolerate dissent. Dialogue gives way to confrontation because difference is no longer an opportunity, but a narcissistic threat.

And so, as Donskis observed, empathy has thinned out. It’s not gone—but it’s intermittent, selective, performative. No longer a human duty, but a hashtag.

Conclusion: What is to be done? Hatred cannot be fought with common-sense rhetoric, but with a care for the polis that begins by recognizing psychological suffering as a political fact.

Donskis left us with this warning:

“Kindness is the most subtle form of dissent in an inhuman age.”

We need a counter-pedagogy of empathy, complexity, and slowness. A rehabilitation of thought as a form of resistance. If we want to resist idiocracy and polarization, we must foster a culture of complexity—one that can recognize pain without simplifying it.

In a world that screams, thinking is already an act of peace.

Or at least, this is the conclusion I’ve come to. So, to those who are behind these messages that don't give me a chance to reply ( accuse me and then block me from talking? mature), I don't hate you, I feel sorry for you and for how you are instruments in the hands of political hatred. For anyone interested, I can share PDFs of the essays I’ve referenced, for educational purposes — not to harm bookstores or anything like that, but to expand minds, spark curiosity, and spread knowledge even to those who can't afford to buy books to save money, especially to those who can't afford them. I believe, now more than ever, that we need it.

Don’t be haters—be human. (Also, hate gives you wrinkles. Do you want wrinkles before their time and waste your retinol creams?)

[yellowmusings]

Our words ought to build and strengthen, our actions backing up these words. Be the love you want to see in the world.

Practice silence when all you feel threatens to hurt another person. Practice compassion.

It's not easy but remember to be kind to yourself just as much.

You're not grown until you know how to communicate, apologize, be truthful and accept accountability without blaming someone else.

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🩷 Love is kind and patient, and does not hold grudges. Love is compassion , love is kindness.

As you're loving others, remember to love yourself just as much, just as earnestly.

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Critical thinking is an act of care.

Acknowledging that “critical thinking” means “thinking about things in a thorough way from different perspectives” and not “finding every flaw in a thing and fixating on it until all the joy is gone” is so liberating.

It’s supposed to be about intellectual curiosity, not about finding ways to devalue things that aren’t perfect or that we personally dislike.

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your only job on this earth is to be so intrinsically yourself that the right people gravitate toward you and the wrong people move out of your way

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Her soul belongs to words and books. Every time she reads, she is home.

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Your poetry has literally changed my life no joke! Just wanted to share, thanks for the inspo <3 @two-bees-poetry

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“The prettier the garden, the dirtier the hands of the gardener.”

— B. E. Barnes, Put in work.

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I love the Archeron sisters so much. They are each complex and layered characters, with flaws and imperfections that make them feel real. They have all been affected by their own traumas, dealt with it and healed from it in their own ways. They each represent a different facet of womanhood. They show us the different kinds of strengths that women find in themselves to overcome any trials and tribulations. They show us all the different ways that women are capable of fighting, loving, healing and growing.

It breaks my heart to see some of the fandom pit them against each other when time and time again, throughout the books, the sisters have always chosen each other, protected each other, forgiven each other, defended each other and loved each other when it really comes down to it. Sisterhood is different for everyone, and sometimes it’s not meant to be easy or perfect. Sisterhood is seeing each other’s worst selves, then apologising and forgiving and healing from it.

This series, at it’s very core, is about the Archeron sisters, their journeys and their connections. I cannot wait to see them continue to heal and grow together. Imagine what a force the three of them will become, Prythian have changed because of them and will continue to be changed because of them. That’s how powerful they are. The destiny they are tied to.

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Explication eluded somewhere?

I recently read this post about Nesta (this!! I could cry!!! Laid it out perfectly and precisely) and well it was night, so why not share too🙃.

I too never got why some people completely missed Nesta admitting that she was suffering; babe was drowning, she was in pain and lashing out because of it - she was aware of her actions and choices, aware of their adverse effects, how they were affecting all who love her; hurting in layers - she literally admits to all this at some point in her book, yet some readers still want to completely victimize her and vilify the IC. Ironically, doing that, you invalidate her, condense her, you rob her of her healing (an essential part of her growth); you're putting her in a box and telling her to stay the same.

Nesta is a person who values her power, her control_ so yes, she can be furious at the IC, they can be right about the action they took concerning her, both can co-exist, both can be true. You listen to all sides of the narrative otherwise you don't do it ,nor yourself, any true justice picking what to hear.

They tried the easy approach: she avoided El, she pricked at Feyre, she pushed Cas, she sabotaged her relationship with Amren, she bristled at Mor, she antagonized Rhys (and vice versa ( it tickles me that Az was just observing all this)) she found a way to push and shove, to be alone because she felt she deserved the blame, punishing herself // she always had agency ( they gave her space, they gave her time) but she was hurting herself, nothing she did brought her peace or joy.

So of course tough love was the only option left. She didn't like it, but it was what she needed {but please, don't get me wrong, you're allowed to feel what you're feeling, feelings are valid, only remember also to look at what's underlying them. It's easy to get defensive when we're hurting and can't ask for help, or bear anyone helping us } You don't watch someone you care for battered, run themselves ragged as they bleed shouting at you that they're fine, and go "oh well, she says she's fine, and she's still running, so I guess she's not in pain"-- No! You help them help themselves, even if they wrestle you for making them rest, for letting them know that they can rest.

You can't have read that book then come out saying it was about the IC money/selfishness or them intentionally isolating Nes or the drinking or the IC being unbothered by Nesta's anger if you did, kindly, start afresh open minded.

***Feyre, who toiled for ages, never complaining (then off with Tamlin, in exchange she bargained comfort and security for her family), she loves her sisters unconditionally, even thinking she would relish her sister suffering is preposterous please reread the book, slowly this time. ***Elain, who kept reaching out her hand, speaking only good of her sister_ now just because she's bashful when it comes to sexual matters doesn't make her a prude, doesn't equate to slut shaming again, reread; comprehension when reading, context matters. ***And Rhys, genuinely asking, are we reading the same book? How can they hate on this silly serious lover, this feminist? You don't like him, okay, but hating? He and Nes are so alike, they throw jabs but they respect each other, care for each other: besides, Rhys can't say a bad word about Nesta barely think it lest he offend his wife < Feyre will set him straight- husband, mate, whatever, that's her sister...she actually did, she snapped at him "my sister is not wild" or something along those lines> . Subsequently ***Cas wouldn't abide by anyone slighting Nes, that's his queen - they defend her, always, as well as give her room to speak up for herself and/or defend herself without making her feel she has no say, no power. Truly, are we reading the same book?!!

Emerie and Gwyn meet the Nesta who is aware that she has to change, know the Nes that's trying to be a kinder person to herself, know the Nes who's afraid she's alienated her sisters, the Nes becoming, they know the Nesta who is still severe but not callous, the Nesta who is willing to accept love, to claim it even, unafraid to speak of her past, hope for a better future, the Nesta who cares overtly. And we couldn't be happier for her.

Nevertheless, this doesn't mean her sisters & IC are trolls, biased, irrelevant to her growth, or even uncaring of her_ She's on the healing path and damn it, she's allowed to heal. They all are, we all are, allowed to heal, to rethink prior variables, revise our absolutes, to change our views/ thoughts/ feelings/ ways/ approaches.

These characters are allowed to heal.

Let Feyre be happy, she need not stay a victim for you to champion her, let Nesta heal, she need not stay antagonistic for you to champion her, let Elain be kind/soft, she need not be a battlefield-fighter for you to champion her (l cannot fathom how anyone could turn her kindness into an evil-foreshadowing, with no prompting from the writing).

It's the Archeron sisters against the world, the bat boys/ IC are utterly fortunate to love them and be loved by them.

I can't bear the slander of these characters (especially the women) I won't (they do some terrible things, say some awful things, react in unexpected ways, they make mistakes, they hurt each other, they apologize, they frustrate us, we disagree with their methods, we dislike some of what they do, dislike them, like them, love them; this is proper presentation of people): they're flawed and beautiful and prickly and wonderful. And now I feel obnoxious for stating my opinion.

You're entitled to your opinion, of course, nevertheless so long as we're discussing books, don't erase the canon material to appease your preference, don't assume these characters, don't disregard what they say/ feel/think, what they experience, what they reveal, how they evolve might as well pen a new tale then .

These are complex characters, nuanced _ at the very least, allow them that. You can dislike without abusing. You can acknowledge without accepting, without erasing, just acknowledge.

//PS People are allowed to change. True, it doesn't erase their past, but the past is not something to hold against another when they're genuinely trying to grow better, when they've shown they're learning, owning up and improving.

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Elain and Azriel- the dynamic to change it all

They're two consenting adults - not cheating on anyone - who are lusting after each other and very obviously care deeply love for each other, And external circumstances are forcing them apart, within they're fighting themselves not to melt at the other person's touch. This is the Stuff of Forbidden romance.

When Rhys said those words to Az, ordered him to stay away, I thought "thank you, for raising the stakes"... because of course he loves his brother, he will do anything for Az _ when he stops and sees that damn, he loves her, utterly, completely, reverently.

Give me the clandestine, the barely concealed evidence of their loving, the brush of fingers, the whispered touches/words, the longing looks, the pretending before their family, the silence louder and more meaningful than anything they could say, the "hold tight and don't make a sound" (I'm ravenous for that, call back please).

And this is not even highlighting their subtle personalities, sweet and somber. They're literally so quiet about their pain, and I wanna see them unleashed, unhinged, unbound, yet somehow I know they'll stay kind and soft, and you know what, I miss that, soft protagonists.

I want their connection to haunt them in the most wicked and ecstatic of ways, and I want Lucien and El to mutually agree to break the bond, and I want Az to be there, because he's the only one who will be able to ease even a smidge of that ache. I want to see them choose each other, again and again and again, because I know Az needs to be chosen (by anyone other than his brothers) and Elain, gosh, this brave woman, will shake us and unmake us, her voice matters, her choice matters.

And FYI anyone who hates Elain, making her feel less of a person, woman, friend, sister, lover, warrior, comparing her to Gwyn ( they're both remarkable, and frankly we should be past bashing one woman to elevate the other) should know that Nesta, Elain's No. 1 protector, would detest you and call you out for disparaging her sister, be for real. Nes is first in line (she's that sibling who reserves the right to taunt her sister, but if you do it, you have to deal with her wrath). And you know what Nes loves, Cas loves, plus Az is already fighting Nes to keep that position, more so it's a foregone conclusion Rhys is Elain's best brother-in-law (he already acknowledges and appreciates her quiet disposition), Feyre (my ever-loving queen) is the flag-bearer of this ship, Mor adores her, as does Amren who respects her too_ get with the program: this is an Elain loving house, don't delude yourself otherwise. Dislike her if you wish, but don't insult her. (I love the Archeron sisters, I want to see more of them bonding).

In this house we see the person, not just their flaws, we don't villanize our differences, we don't turn our noses up or pretend we're better than anyone, we acknowledge, we accept people as they are, we put aside our biases, we make room for them, we look, we see, we choose to be kind, like Elain, we choose to stay kind like Az. We choose to keep loving like Feyre. Hate is too hard, too heavy to lug around. Take a walk, say hi to nature.

Pardon my rumblings, I just love Elriel, will defend them; friends transversing boundaries, it's a beautiful thing to witness, and be a part of. Anyway, be kind, to yourself, and others.

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I can't get letty's chapter out of my head. I can't forget all her struggles as a girl and woman in a misogynistic society. How she is discriminated against in a way that robin and ramy would never understand. Because despite coming from races white people find inferior, at the end of the day, they are still men, and are therefore afforded the level of respect and recognition they would never be willing to give letty. And I understand and empathize and resonate with all of these.

But my first thought after reading letty's chapter is she did not mention victoire, not even once. After everything she learned, after everything victoire told her, she still failed to realize that everything she experienced, victoire also did—even worse. Victoire, the friend that she spent the most time with, was not only discriminated against because she's a woman, she was also discriminated against because she's not white. After everything, letty only sees the advantages robin and ramy had for being men, refusing to see all the ways society was shunning victoire. this isn't the oppression olympics ofc, but how can she not see victoire's pain? how can she only see robin's and ramy's privelege. how can she fail to acknowledge victoire's struggles and pain until the very end. how can letty, despite being victoire's friend, refuse to see her pain just because she refuses to acknowledge her own privelege.

she is so convinced that her struggles are unique that she can't wrap her head around the fact other people, people she considered friends, have suffered as much, or even more. she can't see that her struggles were caused by a system that is so interwoven with the systems hermes were fighting against that they might as well be the same thing—because frankly, they are. she only sees her own pain and how she's come so far to overcome everything. she thinks she's alone in her battle that she just can't see how so many others have been fighting similar battles against the same opponents. she can't see how hermes is not sabotaging her fight for freedom and respect, but are fighting the enemy letty does not even realize she also has to fight to truly and meaningfully gain the respect and freedom she wants.