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I am aware, sure, I am aware. Catastrophically aware.

Sylvia Plath, from The Unabridged Journals Of Sylvia Plath (via violentwavesofemotion)

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You are not the same person you were six months ago. You are not the same person you were two weeks ago. You keep changing. You never stop changing.

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It was curious to think that the sky was the same for everybody. And the people under the sky were also very much the same—everywhere, all over the world, hundreds or thousands of millions of people just like this, people ignorant of one another’s existence, held apart by walls of hatred and lies, and yet almost exactly the same—people who had never learned to think but were storing up in their hearts and bellies and muscles the power that would one day overturn the world.

George Orwell, 1984 (via larmoyante)

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Anne Carson

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concept: me, making dinner. it’s 8pm but it’s still warm outside. the smell of herbs and grass and the magic of being with people i love makes me sleepy. someone calls me from inside.

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Ask yourself if you would do it if nobody would ever see it, if you would never be compensated for it, if nobody ever wanted it. If you come to a clear ‘yes’ in spite of it, then go ahead and don’t doubt it anymore.

Ernst Haas (via quotemadness)

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In an alternative universe, we are drinking whiskey, neat. You are the kindling that sets a fire in my throat. Your fingers are enough to conduct a spark and I do not need another metaphor for burning. In an alternative universe, nothing can kill us, not the swollen moon distended in the sky, the empty bottle of pills, your finger on my cheek. We aren’t constantly poised on the cusp of goodbye. I know you mean it when you say you will stay, the certainty of that word as sure as a stomach ache or love. In an alternative universe, you teach me love isn’t supposed to hurt (“it should feel like drifting downstream with the angels singing something holy and divine.”) I learn the meaning of the word crave. For the first time, someone’s fingerprints don’t cause any damage. In an alternative universe, I have forgiven you for what you did. In this universe, I still haven’t, and that’s probably a good thing.

jessica therese, “I do not need another metaphor for burning” (via contramonte)

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She said that I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and even more intelligent than college professors. She encouraged me to listen carefully to what country people called mother wit. That is those homely sayings was couched the collective wisdom of generations.

Maya Angelou “Sister Flowers” (via trapcard)

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Cold, I was, like snow, like ivory. I thought He will not touch me, but he did.

Carol Ann Duffy, excerpt of Pygmalion’s Bride (via starseas)

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10 Captivating Short Stories Everyone Should Read

1. The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell – The story of a big game hunter finding himself stranded on an island and becoming the hunted.

2. The Last Question by Isaac Asimov – A question is posed to a supercomputer that does not get answered until the end days of man.

3. The Last Answer by Isaac Asimov – A man passes away and has a conversation with the Voice in the afterlife.

4. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman – A collection of journal entries written by a woman whose physician husband has confined her to the upstairs bedroom of the house.

5. The Lottery by Shirley Jackson – The story of one small town’s ritual know only as “the lottery.”

6. Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway – A couple has a tension-filled conversation at a train station in Spain.

7. All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury – A group of schoolchildren live on Venus where the Sun is visible for only two hours every seven years.

8. Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut – It is the year 2081, and all Americans are equal in every possible way.

9. The Monkey by Stephen King – The story of a cymbal-banging monkey toy that controls the lives around it.

10. We Can Get Them For You Wholesale by Neil Gaiman – A man named Peter searches the phone book for an assassin to kill his unfaithful fiancée.

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She naturally loved solitary places, vast views, and to feel herself for ever and ever and ever alone.

Virginia Woolf, from Orlando (via watchoutforintellect)

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Based on the ALA’s Banned & Challenged Classics list, which can be found here: http://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/classics

1. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald 2. The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger 3. The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck 4. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee 5. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker 6. Ulysses, by James Joyce 7. Beloved, by Toni Morrison 8. The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding 9. 1984, by George Orwell 10. Lolita, by Vladmir Nabokov 11. Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck 12. Catch-22, by Joseph Heller 13. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley 14. Animal Farm, by George Orwell 15. The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway 16. As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner 17. A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway 18. Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston 19. Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison 20. Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison 21. Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell 22. Native Son, by Richard Wright 23. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey 24. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut 25. For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway 26. The Call of the Wild, by Jack London 27. Go Tell it on the Mountain, by James Baldwin 28. All the King’s Men, by Robert Penn Warren 29. The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien 30. The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair 31. Lady Chatterley’s Lover, by D.H. Lawrence 32. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess 33. The Awakening, by Kate Chopin 34. In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote 35. The Satanic Verses, by Salman Rushdie 36. Sophie’s Choice, by William Styron 37. Sons and Lovers, by D.H. Lawrence 38. Cat’s Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut 39. A Separate Peace, by John Knowles 40. Naked Lunch, by William S. Burroughs 41. Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh 42. Women in Love, by D.H. Lawrence

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If you are in the garden, I will dress myself in leaves. If you are in the sea I will slide into that smooth blue nest, I will talk fish, I will adore salt.

Mary Oliver, from section 7 of “Rhapsody,” in The Leaf and The Cloud: A Poem (Da Capo Press, 2000)

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I don’t love her any more, either. I don’t know. I do and I don’t. It varies. It fluctuates.

J.D. Salinger, “Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes” (via wordsnquotes)

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ADHARCÁILÍ (“ay-er-KOH-li”) The Irish verb adharcáil means “to gore”, the derivative adharcáilí is used to refer to an animal in heat—or, figuratively, to a lustful young man.

ADUANTAS (“ah-dWON-tes”) The feeling of unease or anxiety caused by being somewhere new, or by being surrounded by people you don’t know.

AIMLIÚ (“AM-lyu”) Aimliú is the spoiling or ruining of something by exposure to bad weather.

AIRNEÁNACH (“ARR-nen-ech”) An airneánach is someone who takes part in just such an evening, but the word can also be used more loosely to refer to someone who likes working or staying up late into the night.

AITEALL (“AT-ell”) The perfect word for the spring—an aiteall is a fine spell of weather between two showers of rain.

AMAINIRIS (“ARM-an-erish”) The second day after tomorrow.

ASCLÁN (“ash-KLAWN”) As well as being the Irish word for the gusset of a pair of trousers, an asclán is the amount of something that can be carried under one arm.

BACHRAM (“BOCH-rum”) Bachram is boisterous, rambunctious behaviour, but it can also be used figuratively for a sudden or violent downpour of rain.

BACACH (“BAH-cakh”) Means “lame” or “limping” — but it can also be used as a noun to describe a misery or beggarly person, or, idiomatically, someone who outstays their welcome or who drags their heels.

BÉALÁISTE (“bay-al-ASH-tuh”) A drink or toast used to seal a deal.

BEOCHAOINEADH (“bay-oh-keen-yu”) An “elegy for the living”—in other words, a sad lament for someone who has gone away, but who has not died.

BOGÁN (“BOH-gawn”) A bogán is an egg without a shell, by extension, a spineless person.

BREACAIMSIR (“BRAH-cam-SHUR”) Describes the weather when it is neither particularly good nor particularly bad.

BUNBHRÍSTE (“bunya-VREESH-ta”) Those jeans you’ve got that are nearly worn through but are still wearable? They’re a bunbhríste—namely, a pair of worn but still usable trousers.

CLAGARNACH (“CLOY-ger-nach”) Literally meaning “clattering”, clagarnach is the sound of heavy rain on a rooftop.

CODRAISC (“COD-reeshk”) As well as referring to a riff-raff or rabble of people, a codraisc is a random collection of worthless or useless objects.

DÉLÁMHACH (“TEE-lay-wah”) Délámhach or dólámhach literally means “two-handed” in Irish, but it can be used idiomatically to mean “working all-out,” or “giving your best.”

DROCHDHEOIR (“DROCK-ywee”) Literally a “bad drop”—is a negative or unflattering character trait that a child inherits from his or her parents.

FOISEACH (“FAR-sha”) Grass that can’t easily be reached to be cut, so is often used of the longer grass around the edge of a field or lawn, or to the overgrown grass on a hillside or verge.

IOMBHÁ (“OM-wah”) Either a sinking boat half submerged in the water, or any place where there is a danger of drowning.

LADHAR (“LAY-yer”) The gap between your fingers or your toes is your ladhar. A ladhar bóthair is a fork in the road.

MAOLÓG (“MAY-loag”) When you fill something up to the brim but then keep on adding more, the same word is also used for someone who sticks out from a crowd, or for a small knoll or hill in an otherwise flat expanse of land.

PLOBAIREACHT (“PLOH-ber-acht”) When you’re crying and trying to speak at the same time but can’t make yourself clear, that’s plobaireacht.

POCLÉIMNIGH (“POH-claim-nee”) “Frolicking” or “gambolling.” It literally means “buck-jumping,” and is a one-word name for an energetic, excitable leap into the air, or a jump for joy.

RAGAIRE (“RA-gerra”) Ragaireacht means late-night wandering, or for sitting up talking long into the early hours. And a ragaire is someone who enjoys precisely that.

SABHSAÍ (“SAWH-see”) Someone who works outside no matter how bad the weather.

STRÍOCÁLAÍ (“SHTREE-care-LEE”) Literally means “scratcher” or “scraper” in Irish, but can be used figuratively to describe someone who works hard but is not particularly well-skilled.

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Girls are sometimes celebrated for their sexual exploits and for projecting sexual availability, but they are also isolated, tormented, and stigmatized for perceived promiscuity. There is also the very real danger of sexual violence and abuse that perpetrators may justify because of a victim's projection of sexual availability. Walking the line between acceptable hotness and unacceptable sluttiness is the almost impossible challenge presented to today's girls. Understanding female desire and empowerment as part of that picture is even more troublesome, particularly when girls think they are expected to desire—or pretend to desire, or be proud of having engaged in—sex, often unreciprocated or unfulfilling sex.

M. Gigi Durham, Ph.D, The Lolita Effect