#a FERAL review

[principalinstigator]

sometimes I think I was a bit delulu for this ship then I remember this is literally how Supergirl and Lena Luthor met

[happypeachsludgeflower]

Gotta say, of all the protagonists in mxtx books, shen yuan is the most relatable. Why? I too would read an absolutely god awful trash terrible webnovel for the sole person of bitching about it.

[a-magical-evening]

BASEketball (1998) + Letterboxd reviews

Honorable mentions:

[masterpieceofunderstatement]

[doctor-wonder]

So I've been trying to read all the Brandon Sanderson Cosmere books (big ol' awesome connected universe) and while the official order is kinda up for debate I'm a good part of the way through. Hoping to be done around the same time I finish my work term at the end of August.

Notes so far are that I really liked Elantris, his first book (although not necessarily first in the Cosmere) and all the short stories in Arcanum Unbounded are really really really good too (for context I've already ready Mistborn Eras 1&2, as well as all available Stormlight books, so I am working backwards somewhat).

Mistborn: Secret History is my absolute favourite for massive spoiler reasons but Mistborn 3 and 7 are closely behind. This is much more of a general rambling than any kind of review because otherwise I'd be here all day, but I can't recommend any of his books highly enough!

Also shoutout to the oft-overlooked series The Reckoners, which has no relation to the Cosmere at all but is a series similar to The Boys (superheroes gone bad kinda thing) but with much less gore and a story that I find wayyyy more compelling. No hate to the Boys of course, just not my thing.

[rachel-sylvan-author]

"A Year Down Yonder" by Richard Peck

This and the one before it are hilarious! Highly recommend! The third book just had me sad, so I don't recommend the third. But this and the first one are fantastic! 😊

QOTD: Who is your favorite Gravity Falls character?✨ Answer: Grunkle Stan for me! 🤣

[uwmspeccoll]

It's Feral Friday!

If Special Collections were compared to a National Park- a thoughtfully curated, accessible experience of the wilderness of the natural world- where would its edges lie? What would be considered off the beaten path, how would its boundaries be defined, and in what ways would the landscape beyond those boundaries inspire our imagination and broaden our conceptions of the world and our communicative capacities?

That’s the realm of pluralistic inquiry explored by Feral Fridays, a new weekly post where we’ll feature items from our collection like zines, experimental book arts, independently produced poetry and other unruly materials that exist at the margins of publishing and literary traditions.

Let’s get Feral!   

--Ana, Special Collections Graduate Intern

Images:

That Way Issue 1, Spring 2021

That Way Issue 1, Spring 2021, pp. 23-24 (excerpt from interview w/Erma Fiend)

Thing Issue no. 3, Summer 1990

Re: Creation by Nikki Giovanni, Broadside Press, 1970

Aquarius Rising by Ben Fama, Ugly Duckling Presse, 2010

excerpt from Ugly Duckling Issue 6, October 2003

Lynch by Inch: an interview to Ali Khalid Abdullah 2003

Blue Horses for Navajo Women by Nia Francisco, Greenfield Review Press, 1988

Mildred Pierce Issue 3, April 2009

The Match! Number 97, Winter 2001-2002

[tsuchinokoroyale]

The reviews are in 🥩✨

[x-files-world]

I just finished season 1 and oh my god????? How are they going to continue after this. I am completely bamboozled I didn't expect them to kill Deep Throat and the way Mulder got beat up?? The way Scully was such a fucking badass and just walked into that facility to get the alien material I am in AWE of her.

This last episode got me absolutely shaken to my core and I really want everything to be okay again. Wow the ups and downs???

Absolutely loved this season though and the way the relationship between Scully and Mulder is building and how much they already care about each other??? Aaaa wow no words.

[asleepinawell]

pick the programming language of your choice (tell me which it is in the tags so I can judge you)!

[s-bean200]

Select Out of Context Quotes from the NQD Lore Doc of Madness to Tempt You

You should listen to NQD!! Not sure about starting? Here are just a few select quotes from my master lore doc of madness I made just to showcase just how maddening and wonderful this show is!! These are in no particular order and I've bleeped out some names to avoid spoilery bits lol. Please enjoy my madness! (P.S. if you'd like access to the doc, DM me!)

"is *REDACTED* do more lie???????????????????????"

"*BLANK* and *BLANKS*'s relationship: ????????"

"how??????" followed soon by "why?????????"

"The order of events is unclear but it’s important whatever it is lol"

"What is????/"

"Could it still function??????"

"...but then what????"

"I have no clue lol"

"What exactly was he doing?"

"They met, they’ve fucked but like what else???????"

"his body is doing something????"

"...may have done sooooomething?"

"maybe it works a bit funky???????"

"This never gets mentioned again but I think.." followed by at least 100 words of raving and 5 different scientific articles linked

"How??"

[high-voltage-rat]

In This Time or Any: A Mechquest and Dragonfable hero-and-reset-inspired spotify playlist

Shoutout yet again to @cyraen-ae whose encouragement in the tags was the reason I went through with posting this! tracklist (with youtube links for non-spotify users) and quotes below the cut!

1. Empire Now - Hozier

After all, darlin' I wouldn't sell the world / The way that things are turnin' / If it falls, I would hold on for all its worth / Future's so bright it's burnin'

2. Hero - Mountains vs. Machines

When everybody runs you gotta stand tall / Hit after hit you can never fall / If the stars come crashing / You'll be the one to catch them / Don't let go / You could be a hero

3. Go Get Your Gun - The Dear Hunter

We haven't won, and if we win, and if the morning light sets in / We've cheated fate again / And to those who die, please try to understand / That for those who die, we try the best we can

4. Battle Cry - Imagine Dragons

Stars are only visible in darkness / Fear is ever-changing and evolving / And I, I feel poisoned inside / But I, I feel so alive

5. Heroes (Reimagined) - Zayde Wolf

It's feeling like the sun's hiding / But we're gonna keep moving, surviving / No we won't go quiet tonight

6. Trapdoor - Casey Lee Williams & Martin Gonzalez

The pain it keeps invading / It's showing all over my face / Though I try to keep the hope alive / After all the things I've said and done / I don't feel like the chosen one / How will they see me if I lose my faith?

7. Still Feel. - Half•Alive

When I'm furthest from myself (Far away) / Feeling closer to the stars (Outer space) / I've been invaded by the dark (Can't escape) / Trying to recognize myself when I feel I've been replaced

8. CASTLE OF GLASS - Linkin Park

Bring me home in a blinding dream / Through the secrets that I have seen / Wash the sorrow from off my skin / And show me how to be whole again

9. Black Sky - WAR*HALL

Well it's all done / The silence stuns / A black sky will whisper: / "Your time has come"

10. Chasing The Sun - Billy Talent

And all that I've lost, and all that I've won / Don't mean nothing more when you open your eyes and they're gone

11. This Beautiful Life - The Dear Hunter

So let us force a smile and pretend that we're alive / Oh, but somewhere, none of this happened / The bullets removed themselves; life is beautiful

12. The Lightning Strike (What If This Storm Ends?) - Snow Patrol

What if this storm ends? / And leaves us nothing / Except a memory / A distant echo

13. If I Lose Myself - OneRepublic

You can feel the light start to tremble / Washing what you know out to sea, yeah / You can see your life out of the window tonight

14. Babylon - Barns Courtney

What planet are you on? / What constellation? / You're floating like a ghost / Out into the unknown / To the gates of Battleon Babylon

15. Just Breathe - The Unlikely Candidates

I have no memories / Just feelings lingering / Like a dog that's been kicked / So many times that he's sick / Bound to bite a hand and not know why

16. Pompeii - Bastille

But if you close your eyes, does it almost feel like nothing changed at all? / And if you close your eyes, does it almost feel like you've been here before?

17. Breathing Underwater - Metric

Out of place, all the time / In a world that wasn't mine to take / I'll wait / Is this my life? / Am I breathing underwater?

18. New Machines - Vinyl Theatre

Flooded in the sky / These secrets left untold / Scholars, lost to time / Ideas, overthrown / Secrets left untold

19. Deadmen - Saint PHNX

I’m drowning out / And asking why / My life is on repeat / I’m dreaming aspirations / Got no reason for defeat

20. Francesca - Hozier

Now that it's done / There's not one thing that I would change / My life was a storm since I was born / How could I fear any hurricane? / If someone asked me at the end / I'd tell them, "Put me back in it" / I would do it again

21. Ghosts - BANNERS

It's said and done, hard to believe / It's not dead and gone / I want to believe / All is well that ends well / But I just can't convince myself

22. Waiting Still - The Family Crest

Still you've got this empty cage / Oh your heart, oh your heart / Is it beating once again? / And the dark, and the dark / Is it speaking to you, friend?

23. A New Mission - Josh Whitehouse (no YT available)

The slightest realignments and my legs will fall beneath me / I've not even come to clock it and I'm facedown in my feelings / Thinking, "Where on earth am I? Where did my companions leave me?"

24. No Goodbyes (Friends Forever) - Fitz and the Tantrums

There's no goodbyes, just hope to see you soon / Will you recognize me? Will I recognize you? / Go through the things you gotta do / There's no goodbyes

25. You're Somebody Else - Flora Cash

Well, you look like yourself / But you're somebody else / Only it ain't on the surface / Well, you talk like yourself / No, I hear someone else though

26. Sons and Daughters - The Decemberists

Take up your arms / Sons and daughters / We will arise from the bunkers / By land, by sea, by dirigible / We'll leave our tracks untraceable now

27. May I Come Home From My War - Kelly Jones

Spending lost days, all the time I never get back / Trying to solve the ways of my mind and my make up

Note: a number of these songs are seemingly written with romantic love in mind, but I primarily chose ones where that love can still be interpreted as platonic and familial. I feel that the glue that binds the MQ/DF story together is the love and community that the Hero is a part of, so it was an inextricable part of my song choices.

[tuverras]

film of the century (straight-to-streaming rom-com about the fsotus and prince of wales)

[solerwoler]

I just watched Prey again, I love this movie so fricken much, but it definitely has some problems I wish I can just ignore. Again no hate just stating some plot holes.

Each character that ate the orange totsiyaa were so cold they can barely move. Although both were in horrible condition, you would think Naru would at least show some symptoms after eating the flower.

This literally made me angry because you’d think feral pred would know how his own equipment worked. He literally died by his own hand, but why did he fire if he knew that shooting the gun will only hit wherever the helmet was aiming? Or did he not know because he tried to shoot at Sarii three times? I also find it stupid that this gun is unable to shoot manually. It must have been a prototype and they changed it up after this.

Look Arnold took an entire afternoon to set up all the traps, Naru was seen sharpening sticks for one of her traps literally right after she shot the pred in the head. This may be nit picky but it was very convenient that Naru knew the exact path that the pred would take or that he would use the trees. Either way it would be nice if it was implied that she sharpened sticks before.

Everyone who has fought a predator barely came out alive, Naru did leave injured, but she literally took a bear trap to the shin. Bear traps can break bones, but Naru takes it like a champ, not even limping.

Anyways that’s all I had to say about the movie. Overall I love this movie so much it’s so good, I just wanted to list these problems.

If you actually read all this thank you for coming to my Ted talk :>

[thecourtfinchster]

rating and reviewing a selection of live action Cinderella films: part 1

1st place is Ever After (1998) with Drew Barrymore

ok so this movie is 10/10 across all categories.

not only does it have some of The Best historical costumes I've seen in a film, but all the characters are wonderfully developed.

the staff aren't totally dismissed, and they love Danielle. also key supporting characters and without them Danielle would not have gotten to know the prince.

Henry the prince himself is kind of a dickhead, but hey at least he's got a personality! and he Does get better eventually. Henry actually has a very nice arc and gets humbled multiple times. Danielle inspires him to open a university. He also has solid dynamics with each of his parents, the king and queen, which aids the believability of the story as a whole. like the royal family actually have substance to them.

and i like how there's no love at first sight!! of course, Danielle and Henry do fall in love over a short period of time, but it's earned.

also the Utopia quotes when Danielle is saving Maurice!!!!!!! yeah girl give us socialism!!! i love how ready she was to address classicism. like she was Not expecting to see the prince let alone lecture him on social systems and his own arrogance.

(the aforementioned king and queen. they're fun <3)

the stepmother is so wonderfully cruel! Angelica Houston plays Rodmilla so coldly, with conniving schemes and haughty style. she's still horribly abusive and manipulative and definitely deserved the ending she got, but i do love how she is portrayed in this film. there's one scene of vulnerability where Danielle asks if she ever loved her father, and Rodmilla replies that she barely knew him. Danielle's father, Gustave, was the second husband that Rodmilla had to marry to survive. Although she is the villain, at the core of her character is her dedication to the security of her daughters and herself. In Ever After, the stepmother is given a complexity that so many other retellings lack. It makes for a more compelling character for the audience to be invested in.

Marguerite and Jacqueline are, in my opinion, the most dynamic stepsisters in any Cinderella retelling. Marguerite is just as corrupt as her mother is, but with less control over her temper, but she's also just as cunning. She's quite intelligent, albeit spoiled to the core. Jacqueline is seen as the lesser of the two by Rodmilla, which is why she becomes so sympathetic for Danielle and how she's treated. i love how her character gets to learn what is important to her. she does get a man, only after she's established her own standing, and they are quite happy together.

a super cool costuming detail is the difference in sleeves between Danielle's mother's dresses and the ones that the step sisters wear. tighter fitting sleeves vs the big and poofy tell how much time has passed between trends, which i think is a nice touch. also the movie is supposed to be set in the earlyish 16th century. they do a really good job of keeping it accurate, although there is some 15th century inspiration sprinkled in.

i LOVE how Leonardo da Vinci acts as the fairy godmother. he's just this eccentric old man that goes around imparting knowledge and fiddling with inventions. and he's just as much a mentor for Henry as he is a godmother to Danielle. he helps Henry see past his stupid arrogance and teaches him the beauty of love and life. and yes, he Does get Danielle to the ball, and convinces her to tell Henry the truth of her identity.

one of my favorite quotes is when Danielle says, "a bird may love a fish, signore. but where will they live?" and Leonardo replies: "then i shall have to make you wings"

AND MAKE HER WINGS, HE FUCKING DOES

they're STUNNING and i LOVE THIS DRESS SO MUCH. this is at the masque ball. she has glitter on her face but no mask, because she's there to reveal the truth. i do not Care if the glitter might be historically inaccurate because it's Gorgeous and i will Not be accepting complaints. also I'm pretty sure the wings are made of a type of organza? i found an article a while ago that talked about it but it has since been lost :(

plot wise, everything goes to shit at the masque. and then Danielle gets sold to this creep who was in one (1) earlier scene, but she rescues herself as soon as the prince gets there. Henry proposes, Rodmilla and Marguerite get shipped to the americas, and Leonardo gives Danielle a portrait of herself as a wedding present.

honorable mention to the jester that appears in two scenes who is unnamed and never speaks. i love you random jester <3

[uwmspeccoll]

It’s Feral Friday! 

This week we’re highlighting Petroglyphs, a chapbook of poems by Shawnee/Cayuga poet and indigenous activist Barney Bush (1944–2021). This 96-page edition was published in Greenfield Center, New York by Greenfield Review Press in 1982 and features drawings by Meenjit Tatsii (b. 1954). 

Greenfield Review Press was founded in 1970 by Abenaki writer (and current poet laureate of Saratoga Springs, NY) Joseph Bruchac (b. 1942) and his wife Carol Bruchac (1942-2011). While the Greenfield Review, a cross-cultural magazine featuring poetry and storytelling, ended its run in 1987, the press grew into a non-profit multicultural publisher with the mission of “giving voice to marginalized peoples by amplifying their wisdom, stories, and experiences”. Since its inception, the press has released over 150 books and anthologies of contemporary poetry and fiction (25 of which are in our collection).  

In addition to his work as a writer, Barney Bush was a musician and spoken word performer. He was also an educator who was instrumental in the establishment of the Institute of the Southern Plains (a Cheyenne Indian school located in Oklahoma) as well as the development of numerous university-level Native American studies programs. 

Meenjit Tatsii (also known as Christy Vezolles) is an artist, writer, educator, art appraiser & collector, and a member of the Shawnee Nation United Remnant Band. She began her professional work as the illustrator and traditional crafts columnist for her tribal newspaper (TOSAN) in 1976. Her work (which includes drawing, printmaking, beadwork, leatherwork, and pottery) has been exhibited nationally.   

--Ana, Special Collections Graduate Intern 

View more Feral Friday posts.

View more Native American literature posts.

View more Greenfield Review Press posts.

View more Joseph Bruchac posts.