#(or narrated autobiography?)

[imminent-danger-came]

Those fucking monkeys. Those god damn monkeys

[state-of-franklin]

All the people that think Oppenheimer is a propaganda movie actually make me laugh, because it is propaganda! Just not the nationalistic/patriotism kind.

It’s literally about a guy that lives to regret his most renowned invention, who wished more than anything it wouldn’t become a weapon, and when faced with his own guilt is told to suck it up and fake a smile.

This movie is trying to get the audience to understand the plight of the scientist that feels like he invented death. He was manipulated time after time by the US military and government, and truly was used for his genius more than he “used” anyone.

It is a 3 hour movie of pain, regret, and opposition between scientific progress and moral implications of doing so.

Don’t shit on a fucking movie because you read a tumblr post about it. Do your own fucking research and maybe go see the movie before you lay such harsh judgement on it.

[ancientrimer]

i can't believe this keeps happening to me. i figure out a theory i think i might want to apply in my thesis, go look at the text that has the theory, and find that that text already mentions jane eyre

[sea-buns]

Can't wait for Critical Role to release their next novel:

The Life & Times Of Chetney Pock O'Pea

[kits-ships]

i think if i gave alec an edible he would be completely comatose for the next four hours before proceeding to eat all of the frozen chips in the house and giving himself a stomachache

[rachel-sylvan-author]

"Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing" by Matthew Perry book recommendation by Rachel Sylvan

Rest in peace 😢

[transmascmikey]

I am physically wounded

[weasquerondanmiser]

Viviendo en cleta

En esta historia no hay magia o fantasía, aunque quizás sí, eso lo decides tú. De hecho, pudo pasarle a cualquiera, incluso a ti, pero le pasó a una persona común y corriente.

Y asumiendo el cliché "a veces la realidad, supera a la ficción". Me digno a continuar contarles que pasó.

-

Los humanos somos complejos y nuestra identidad está arraigada a los lugares y lo que vivimos. Las emociones suelen cambiar rápido, sólo necesitamos abrirnos un poco. 

Ado, es un rancagüino típico, como la mayoría de quienes habitan esta ciudad. Quizás es tu amigo, o tu hijo y aunque para él todo esto se siente inesperado la verdad, nunca pensó que iba a amar algo así, además de vivirlo con tanto miedo.

A pesar del dolor, no le parecía tan raro: siempre le enseñaron que amor y dolor son emociones hermanas. Libros, música y películas se lo mostraron desde chiquito: Es normal, tranquilo. - se repetía cuando el miedo le atacaba.

I

Aunque su vida está conectada a la cuenca del Cachapoal desde las raíces, jamás se sintió parte de esta. Sus ancestros más cercanos nacieron en Chacayes, Coya, Caletones y todos terminaron en la icónica Población Rancagua Norte, obra de la extinta empresa gringa: Braden Copper Company.

Cuando finalizó su vida escolar sólo quería huir de aquí. Al ir creciendo jamás logró sentirse satisfecho o a gusto.

- No tengo idea de lo que quiero hacer al terminar la media, pero quiero que sea lejos de aquí - Se repetía a sí mismo, una y otra vez, como un mantra.

El colegio no estuvo fácil para él, lo que aprendió no parecía suficiente para su futuro y la sociabilidad no aportó mucho más.

Era el freak de la clase, supuestamente. Jamás quiso zapatillas de fútbol, ni le gustó el reggueton, no compartía los intereses comunes y eso se lo hicieron saber mis pares, una y otra vez:

 - Eres raro, uuuy... como Zelda, niñita ¿Qué eres?. ¿Por qué vienes con maletín a clases? ¿eres empresario? ¿te crees mejor que nosotros? Y un montón de otros aspectos lo separaban de ellos.

Sus compañeras y amigas de siempre fueron el refugio que lo mantuvieron flotando y parecían ideales, pero el crecer cambia todo y la verdad, nadie puede saber lo que se venía.

II

Emo, internet, posters en la pieza, canciones tristes en inglés, poleras negras y bailes de K-pop le acompañaron a la ciudad de los grafitis, los cerros y ascensores.

Adaptarse en Valparaíso fue en un principio difícil, estaba completamente solo, siempre fue mamón y la hipercrítica con la que había cargado durante su existencia, le hizo imposible brillar y ver su luz propia, pero con el tiempo todo fue cambiando.

Gran cantidad de estímulos, lograron que se sintiera lleno de colores, conocer nuevos pasatiempos y cultura, hicieron presentes diálogos interesantes, que con litros de vino, cerveza y buenos vínculos, pudo ser más piadoso conmigo y ganar la autoaceptación que necesitaba. Al fin entendió que no debía cambiar para agradar a otros.

Juro ante sus nuevos amigos y con todo su corazón: Rancagua, nunca voy a regresar a ti. Mi llama crece lejos de tus límites.

III

Salir de la burbuja universitaria hizo que lo entendiera todo. Necesitaba generar dinero para vivir, no quería seguir abusando de sus padres y la fantasía en la que flotaba, no duraría por siempre. Todo eso le hizo tomar la decisión, debía volver al valle, dejando el mar atrás y lo hizo entre lágrimas.

Regresar a Rancagua y recorrer Recreo en colectivo una y otra vez, le hizo sentir apagado. La aparente falta de panoramas, parecía no tener sentido.

Volvió a trabajar en el mall y si bien tuvo un buen equipo, no era lo que se esperaba al salir de la Universidad. Presiones sociales y familiares le generaban más inseguridad.

Nada es eterno, constantemente lo dicen, las ideas oscuras tampoco duran toda la vida.

Todo cambió cuando pudo resignificar su origen y volver a conocerle: Rancagua de sueños y pesadillas, siempre escuché que la gente lo cambia todo, eso creía; los amigos, el estallido social, el sentimiento de comunidad. Pero ¿sabes cuál fue la mutación más profunda? Lo que realmente cambió todo para mi, fue la bicicleta.

IV

bicicleta, según la rae:

 f. Vehículo de dos ruedas de igual tamaño cuyos pedales transmiten el movimiento a la rueda trasera por medio de dos piñones y una cadena.

La bici fue un tema, sus ansiedades maternas se hacían presentes al principio y era muy temeroso, heredando bicicletas que se quedaban en cuartos llenos de polvo,  pero con el pasar del tiempo fue confiando.

Las ciclovías que conectan Rancagua, Machalí y Graneros,  además de el hecho de que gran parte de la población joven se mueva en vehículos ecológico, le hizo sentir parte del paisaje urbano.

Conocer amigos, amores. Organizar paseos y actividades, recorrer las conurbaciones y cambiar de plazas, una y otra vez; como si no existieran espacios más cómodos: la de la O’Higgins, la de la Isabel Riquelme, la Tomy, la de Los Enamorados, la Teletubie, la Frontera, la De La Conce, la plaza Del Hoyo y el glorioso Parque Coke. Ni se imaginan, todas las historias que han pasado, no podrían creerlo.

Conversaciones que me hubiera gustado grabar, ideas nacieron y se planificaron en lugares que son de todos, obras de arte, tertulias poéticas y  mucho más.

La bicicleta siempre me hizo sentir protegido, me  salvó de mis propios pensamientos y al parecer mi cerebro tenía un piloto automático y sabía, sin importar circunstancias, como regresar a mi casa.

Porque sí, Rancagua en efecto ya era mi hogar, mi casa, a quien ya no quiero abandonar.

V

Como mencioné más arriba, ni la oscuridad ni la luz duran para siempre, la vida está llena de grises y aunque pude reconstruirte, la vida me quiso conectar con la realidad.

9 de noviembre 2020: mi primera bicicleta nueva, liviana como me gustaban a mi, pero con eso comenzaron los problemas.

Al parecer no soy bueno con la velocidad, a los dos días de conseguirla y tuve el primer accidente duro, pero eso no me puso límites y seguí cleteando sin importar mi sufrimiento físico.

7 de julio 2022: un perro en la calle (de mis peores miedos) me atacó y yo confíe en mi velocidad. Error. Si un perro te ataca, debes parar.

Me rompí dos huesos de la mano y el perro me mordió la pierna.

Esta situación acabó con mi moral y además de la seguridad que la bici me hacía sentir.

Vl

Ya no hay paseos en bici, pero si mucha seguridad. Rancagua, te podría recorrer con los ojos cerrados aunque ya no me arriesgaría.

Sí existes, aunque intenten negar tu existencia, incluso siendo un meme y bailando el latino por toda la web.

Existes en quienes te vivimos, en las personas que llegaron desde la cordillera a habitarte, en las memorias de mi familia, en los personajes del centro, en esas ciclovias que cada día albergan a miles de ciclistas, en las conversaciones de amigos, en los espacios públicos bien ocupados, en la gente común y en mí.

Rancagua nace y muere en todas las ideas, en la vida cotidiana, en la experimentación y experiencia, en la cultura que nace desde la institución y la autogestión.

Ya soy parte de ti, con o sin bicicleta y aunque en este momento exacto soy un manojo de miedos e inseguridad, descubrí que hay magia en nosotros, en quienes ya no queremos huir y espero volver a sentir que nunca me va a pasar nada malo aquí.

-Error, otra vez - si bien cueste reconocerlo, debemos cuidarnos siempre: lo malo es parte de la realidad.

Y a pesar del miedo, el amor no se disipa.

[an-aura-about-you]

WWZ is one of my favorite movies, I absolutely loved the book, and the zombie genre as a whole with pandemic movies as a wider genre are my favorite types of movies. It's a very different viewing experience post-2020 though. Very different.

Yeah it's definitely been interesting and I like it so far, but oof, so real. Not even with that but the politics of that.

[zedxspacess]

Was listening to Jon Moxley's autobiography today and nearly ugly laughed in the middle of my dead quiet desk job when he started to do impressions of Eddie Kingston when recounting the botched exploding barbed wire deathmatch ending

[haggishlyhagging]

In 1847 the stereotypes for male and female writers were very rigid. Critics expected from a male writer strength, passion, and intellect, and from a woman writer they expected tact, refinement, and piety. They depended on these stereotypes so much, in fact, that they really didn't know how to proceed, what to say, or what to look for in a book if they were unsure of the author's sex.

So Jane Eyre created a tremendous sensation, and it was a problem for the Brontës. The name Currer Bell could be that of either a man or a woman and the narrator of Jane Eyre is Jane herself. The book is told as an autobiography. These things suggested that the author might have been a woman. On the other hand, the novel was considered to be excellent, strong, intelligent and, most of all, passionate. And therefore, the critics reasoned, it could not be written by a woman, and if it turned out that it was written by a woman, she had to be unnatural and perverted.

The reason for this is that the Victorians believed that decent women had no sexual feelings whatsoever—that they had sexual anesthesia. Therefore, when Jane says about Rochester that his touch "made her veins run fire, and her heart beat faster than she could count its throbs," the critics assumed this was a man writing about his sexual fantasies. If a woman was the author, then presumably she was writing from her own experience, and that was disgusting. In this case we can clearly see how women were not permitted the authority of their own experience if it happened to contradict the cultural stereotype.

But even more shocking than this to the Victorians was Jane's reply to Rochester, a very famous passage in the novel. He has told her he is going to marry another woman, an heiress, but that she can stay on as a servant. Jane answers him thus:

"I tell you I must go," I retorted, roused to something like passion. "Do you think I can stay to become nothing to you? Do you think I am an automaton, a machine without feeling and can bear to have my morsel of bread snatched from my lips and my drop of living water dashed from my cup? Do you think because I am poor, obscure, plain and little, I'm soulless and heartless? You think wrong. I have as much soul as you and full as much heart. And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should've made it as hard for you to leave me as it is now for me to leave you. I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionality, nor even of mortal flesh. It is my spirit that addresses your spirit, just as if both had passed through the grave and we stood at God's feet equal—as we are."

This splendid assertion violated not only the standards of sexual submission, which were believed to be women's duty and their punishment for Eve's crime, but it also went against standards of class submission, and obviously against religion. And this sort of rebellion was not feminine at all.

The reviews of Jane Eyre in 1847 and 1848 show how confused the critics were. Some of them said Currer Bell was a man. Some of them, including Thackeray, said a woman. One man, an American critic named Edgar Percy Whipple, said the Bells were a team, that Currer Bell was a woman who did the dainty parts of the book and brother Acton the rough parts. All kinds of circumstantial evidence were adduced to solve this problem, such as the details of housekeeping. Harriet Martineau said the book had to be the work of a woman or an upholsterer. And Lady Eastlake, who was a reviewer for one of the most prestigious journals, said it couldn't be a woman because no woman would dress her heroines in such outlandish clothes.

Eventually Charlotte Brontë revealed her identity, and then these attacks which had been general became personal. People introduced her as the author of a naughty book; they gossiped that she was Thackeray's mistress. They speculated on the causes of what they called "her alien and sour perspective on women." She felt during her entire short life that she was judged always on the basis of what was becoming in femininity and not as an artist.

-Elaine Showalter, ‘Women Writers and the Female Experience’ in Radical Feminism, Koedt et al (eds.)

[makingqueerhistory]

Queer Books Challenged in Florida Schools and Libraries

There are some affiliate links below in case you want to support MQH.

Gender Queer: A Memoir, Maia Kobabe: Now, Gender Queer is here. Maia's intensely cathartic autobiography charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fanfiction, and facing the trauma and fundamental violation of pap smears.

The Color Purple, Alice Walker: Separated as girls, sisters Celie and Nettie sustain their loyalty to and hope in each other across time, distance and silence. Through a series of letters spanning nearly thirty years, first from Celie to God, then the sisters to each other despite the unknown, the novel draws readers into its rich and memorable portrayals of Celie, Nettie, Shug Avery and Sofia and their experience. The Color Purple broke the silence around domestic and sexual abuse, narrating the lives of women through their pain and struggle, companionship and growth, resilience and bravery.

Julián Is a Mermaid, Jessica Love: While riding the subway home from the pool with his abuela one day, Julián notices three women spectacularly dressed up. Their hair billows in brilliant hues, their dresses end in fishtails, and their joy fills the train car. When Julián gets home, daydreaming of the magic he's seen, all he can think about is dressing up just like the ladies in his own fabulous mermaid costume: a butter-yellow curtain for his tail, the fronds of a potted fern for his headdress. But what will Abuela think about the mess he makes -- and even more importantly, what will she think about how Julián sees himself? Mesmerizing and full of heart, Jessica Love's author-illustrator debut is a jubilant picture of self-love and a radiant celebration of individuality.

Drama: A Graphic Novel, Raina Telgemeier: Callie loves theater. And while she would totally try out for her middle school's production of Moon over Mississippi, she can't really sing. Instead she's the set designer for the drama department's stage crew, and this year she's determined to create a set worthy of Broadway on a middle-school budget. But how can she, when she doesn't know much about carpentry, ticket sales are down, and the crew members are having trouble working together? Not to mention the onstage AND offstage drama that occurs once the actors are chosen. And when two cute brothers enter the picture, things get even crazier!

Cemetery Boys, Aiden Thomas: Yadriel has summoned a ghost, and now he can't get rid of him. When his traditional Latinx family has problems accepting his true gender, Yadriel becomes determined to prove himself a real brujo. With the help of his cousin and best friend Maritza, he performs the ritual himself, and then sets out to find the ghost of his murdered cousin and set it free. However, the ghost he summons is actually Julian Diaz, the school's resident bad boy, and Julian is not about to go quietly into death. He's determined to find out what happened and tie off some loose ends before he leaves. Left with no choice, Yadriel agrees to help Julian, so that they can both get what they want. But the longer Yadriel spends with Julian, the less he wants to let him leave.

I Am Billie Jean King, Brad Meltzer: This friendly, fun biography series focuses on the traits that made our heroes great--the traits that kids can aspire to in order to live heroically themselves. Each book tells the story of one of America's icons in a lively, conversational way that works well for the youngest nonfiction readers and that always includes the hero's childhood influences. At the back are an excellent timeline and photos. This volume features Billie Jean King, the world champion tennis player who fought successfully for women's rights. From a young age, Billie Jean King loved sports--especially tennis! But as she got older, she realized that plenty of people, even respected male athletes, didn't take women athletes seriously. She set to prove them wrong and show girls everywhere that sports are for everyone, regardless of gender.

This One Summer, Mariko Tamaki: Every summer, Rose goes with her mom and dad to a lake house in Awago Beach. It's their getaway, their refuge. Rosie's friend Windy is always there, too, like the little sister she never had. But this summer is different. Rose's mom and dad won't stop fighting, and when Rose and Windy seek a distraction from the drama, they find themselves with a whole new set of problems. One of the local teens - just a couple of years older than Rose and Windy - is caught up in something bad... Something life threatening. It's a summer of secrets, and sorrow, and growing up, and it's a good thing Rose and Windy have each other.

Marriage of a Thousand Lies, Sj Sindu: Lucky and her husband, Krishna, are gay. They present an illusion of marital bliss to their conservative Sri Lankan-American families, while each dates on the side. It's not ideal, but for Lucky, it seems to be working. She goes out dancing, she drinks a bit, she makes ends meet by doing digital art on commission. But when Lucky's grandmother has a nasty fall, Lucky returns to her childhood home and unexpectedly reconnects with her former best friend and first lover, Nisha, who is preparing for her own arranged wedding with a man she's never met.

And Tango Makes Three, Peter Parnell: At the penguin house at the Central Park Zoo, two penguins named Roy and Silo were a little bit different from the others. But their desire for a family was the same. And with the help of a kindly zookeeper, Roy and Silo got the chance to welcome a baby penguin of their very own.

More Happy Than Not, Adam Silvera: In the months following his father's suicide, sixteen-year-old Aaron Soto can't seem to find happiness again, despite the support of his girlfriend, Genevieve, and his overworked mom. Grief and the smile-shaped scar on his wrist won't let him forget the pain. But when Aaron meets Thomas, a new kid in the neighborhood, something starts to shift inside him. Aaron can't deny his unexpected feelings for Thomas despite the tensions their friendship has created with Genevieve and his tight-knit crew. Since Aaron can't stay away from Thomas or turn off his newfound happiness, he considers taking drastic actions. The Leteo Institute's revolutionary memory-altering procedure will straighten him out, even if it means forgetting who he truly is.

Melissa, Alex Gino: When people look at Melissa, they think they see a boy named George. But she knows she's not a boy. She knows she's a girl.

Melissa thinks she'll have to keep this a secret forever. Then her teacher announces that their class play is going to be Charlotte's Web. Melissa really, really, REALLY wants to play Charlotte. But the teacher says she can't even try out for the part... because she's a boy.

With the help of her best friend, Kelly, Melissa comes up with a plan. Not just so she can be Charlotte -- but so everyone can know who she is, once and for all.

A Quick & Easy Guide to Queer & Trans Identities, Mady G, Jules Zuckerberg: In this quick and easy guide to queer and trans identities, cartoonists Mady G and Jules Zuckerberg guide you through the basics of the LGBT+ world! Covering essential topics like sexuality, gender identity, coming out, and navigating relationships, this guide explains the spectrum of human experience through informative comics, interviews, worksheets, and imaginative examples. A great starting point for anyone curious about queer and trans life, and helpful for those already on their own journeys!

This Book Is Gay, Juno Dawson: This candid, funny, and uncensored exploration of sexuality and what it's like to grow up LGBTQ also includes real stories from people across the gender and sexual spectrums, not to mention hilarious illustrations.

Little & Lion, Brandy Colbert: When Suzette comes home to Los Angeles from her boarding school in New England, she's isn't sure if she'll ever want to go back. L.A. is where her friends and family are (as well as her crush, Emil). And her stepbrother, Lionel, who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, needs her emotional support. But as she settles into her old life, Suzette finds herself falling for someone new...the same girl her brother is in love with. When Lionel's disorder spirals out of control, Suzette is forced to confront her past mistakes and find a way to help her brother before he hurts himself--or worse.

King and the Dragonflies, Kacen Callender: Twelve-year-old Kingston James is sure his brother Khalid has turned into a dragonfly. When Khalid unexpectedly passed away, he shed what was his first skin for another to live down by the bayou in their small Louisiana town. Khalid still visits in dreams, and King must keep these secrets to himself as he watches grief transform his family.

It would be easier if King could talk with his best friend, Sandy Sanders. But just days before he died, Khalid told King to end their friendship, after overhearing a secret about Sandy-that he thinks he might be gay. "You don't want anyone to think you're gay too, do you?"

Sorted: Growing Up, Coming Out, and Finding My Place: A Transgender Memoir, Jackson Bird: An unflinching and endearing memoir from LGBTQ+ advocate Jackson Bird about how he finally sorted things out and came out as a transgender man.When Jackson Bird was twenty-five, he came out as transgender to his friends, family, and anyone in the world with an internet connection. Assigned female at birth and raised as a girl, he often wondered if he should have been born a boy. Jackson didn't share this thought with anyone because he didn't think he could share it with anyone.

The Black Flamingo, Dean Atta: Michael is a mixed-race gay teen growing up in London. All his life, he's navigated what it means to be Greek-Cypriot and Jamaican--but never quite feeling Greek or Black enough.

As he gets older, Michael's coming out is only the start of learning who he is and where he fits in. When he discovers the Drag Society, he finally finds where he belongs--and the Black Flamingo is born

Explore the full list here.

[fairuzfan]

I've been listening a lot to Avi Shlaim the past few days and I really recommend these two interviews to learn about the.... homogenization (? for lack of a better word) of Jewish history with European Jewish history and Iraqi/Middle Eastern Jewish history.

He mentions at the 35 minute marker of this video (click) of how there is a narration of Jewish history as persecution culminating in the Holocaust, which he says, yes, that's true about Jewish history in Europe but it isn't necessarily true about Middle Eastern Jewish history throughout centuries and it would be inaccurate to say otherwise.

Here's another Avi Shlaim video that I learned a lot from (click), how the Israeli government played a part in the 50's in sowing seeds of discord among SWANA countries to try and get the governments to expel Jewish people, which unfortunately, was largely successful.

I'm sharing not to try and discount Jewish suffering regarding SWANA Jews, I think we should talk about it, but to pretend like antisemitism is uniformly manifested around the world denies that SWANA countries and regions.... had their own cultures and identities separate from European cultures and that's all erased in favor of portraying one singular narrative of Jewish peoples regardless of their interactions and contributions to their local communities.

Anyways, I haven't read Avi Shlaim's autobiography yet but he also talks about his experience growing up in Israel, his parent's expulsion from Iraq, and how Israel fundamentally played a part in this.

[frankensteinmutual]

Sorry to bother you, but dude. You're so fucking cool. Would you consider sharing your top three favorite books (and why, if you feel like it)? Your aesthetic and taste in media is so fucking *it*

Thank you :)

you're not bothering me at all! in fact you just made me smile like an idiot, so thank you 🫀

I think picking a top three is almost impossible for me, but I can do a top 5:

1. we have always lived in the castle by shirley jackson

this is my favourite book of all time. nothing else has ever made me feel like reading this book did. the prose is so beautiful in its raw simplicity, a childish fantasy stated so matter-of-factly you have no choice but to let go of any sense of reason that might prevent you form feeling the words as having sprung from your own mind the instant you are reading them, and the narrator's intimate inner monologue draws you in so magnetically into her enchantingly morbid world of twisted logic and sympathetic magic – it's the sweetest nightmare you never want to wake up from.

2. house of leaves by mark z. danielewski

what is there still to say about house of leaves? it's as good as everyone says it is. I fought for my relationship with this book – we did not get along at all for quite a while – and it was worth it. I think it might have actually made it even better in the end. i feel like this book knows me somehow, like we have a reciprocal relationship with each other in which we are both active parties. I don't think any other work of art has ever given me that. it's the proverbial abyss staring back into you, luring you into its depths and never letting you go again.

3. autobiography of red by anne carson

autobiography of red is a verse novel, so you could think of it as one big poem, and it's beautifully written. the blurring and blending of myth and reality and continuous shifting of fiction and recollection, impression and perception sweeps you up into a tale both ancient and timeless, tragic and hopeful, about a boy who is a monster, or maybe a giant, with three bodies or maybe six hands, a shepherd or a dragon, a son with a red red heart. also, it's gay.

4. piranesi by susanna clarke

piranesi is a bit as if the house from house of leaves cared for you and was also built by plato. it kind of sneaks up on you gently, dangerously but never with malicious intent. it wants to lead you to a place inside yourself that you've never been to or maybe have just forgotten, and uncover what lies in wait there. most of it is love.

5. frankenstein by mary shelley

and for the last one, a classic. I kind of put off reading this for a long time, because I wanted to like it so badly and was very scared I wouldn't, or at least not to a degree that would satisfy, as is unfortunately often the case for me with these kinds of "important" things. but I was so pleasantly surprised. it wasn't hard to get into or inaccessible at all, it didn't bore or alienate me, on the contrary. it touched me so deeply and unexpectedly I didn't stop thinking about it for quite a while. it truly deserves its status in my eyes.

also because I couldn't resist, a visual representation of nine of my favourite books:

I hope you will find something worth your while in at least one of them!

[keepthemacramesecret]

thinking abt the degrees of abstraction from the truth in autobiography/memoir fiction with unreliable narrators...

u know??

[redconsumerism]

TO CONSUME IS (not) TO LOVE

cannibalism in romance novels

Cannibalism is like a parallax. For once it exists as a ‘philia’, characterized by the desire of eating another. And we find that it exists in the opposite spectrum, in the form of a ‘phobia’, which speaks of the fear of being eaten or partaking unknowingly or forcefully in the act of eating another. To vore is adjacent to love in most cases, both feared and desired. Because to love someone is (apparently) to want to consume them. 

Though cannibalism might seem like a barbaric and horrific concept, it is said to be one of the most intense demostrations of love that exist in both classic and contemporary literature. The gruesome gesture reminds the lecturer of the intensity of love and its lunacy. As Mercedes Abad stated in spanish newsletter ‘el tiempo’ on May 21st, 1995 ‘There is no doubt that love and sex are feasts where, to a greater or lesser extent, we all become anthropophagi who would surely find it quite difficult to answer the question of whether there is greater pleasure in phagocytosing the other or in being phagocytosed.’ Because Cannibalism as a metaphor for love in romance novels, as it is in our day to day, is more about the blind consumerism of it rather than the pureness of it. One example of blind consumerism of love would be in Salvador Dali's Autobiography, where it is mentioned how Gala cooked their pet rabbit because of how much they loved it, in front of the woman’s refusal to the idea of leaving the rabbit with the maids.

To love is to consume, but to consume is to devour and transform in reusable energy. Like a vampire would when consuming someone’s blood, so they can continue living at the other’s cause. You live off the love you take, but if you devour that love, the other cannot live. The truth is cannibalism has a double connotation, and consuming the other’s otherness is three dimensional. Which means it isn’t always about love, or the lack thereof, but more so about the act of possessing. Cannibalism isn’t only one of the greatest manifestations of tenderness (for many), but also the irrevocably selfishness of an individual blinded by desire - in front of the morbid contemplation of the lover giving themselves so the other can survive -. The amorous-sexual instincts that resurface from a deep sense of infatuation together with those of hunger - a basic instinct - that create an irrational longing, unite in cannibalism as an analogy for that which we wish to become one with. It leaves you to question if the love narrated is but an act of survival for starved people.

‘Love is only a prologue to two cannibals struggling to take a bite of each other.’ - La Oscuridad, Ignacio Ferrando Perez (2014.) Cannibalism is, then, the imposture of love, and the obscure craving of something bigger than yourself without any understanding of it.