missrosiewolf · 1 year ago
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One day I’ll write some Rog/Celebrimbor fics
One day….
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piratesmyass · 1 year ago
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Con O'Neill is so funny because one photo he'll look like the embodiedment of cishet god of testosterone and then next he looks like the majestic goddes of Pussy.
He slays both, I'm not saying either is wrong. Both are great. It's just funny. The dichotomy of Con
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7vyntheefaerie · 6 months ago
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Poetics of Black Becoming: A Manifesto/Syllabus by 7vyn
A Prelude:
i am 7vyn. that is a self-given name that i claim in exploration of my gender and its manifestation of xpression through the digital. 7vyn is dislocated and pixelated embodiedment. a dis-spirit(ed) alien(ated) straddling human and monstrous livlihood. as 7vyn and thru this account, i hope to host a pilot of a manifesto/syllabus that crafts a tangible imaginative world that centers decolonial praxis. i wanted to create a place where texts central to themes of interest for me could live together on the same throughline to think with, around, and beyond each other.
why syllabus?
this is a tradition that came long before my attempts at uniting the scholarly and the activist for more fluid models of knowledge production and sharing. some considerations that made the syllabus a useful tool for me include:
proclamation, this syllabus is not making an argument as much as it is just saying, uniting threads of information. this syllabus is not engaged in any larger debate as much as it is a declaration of a more considerate, passionate, just world and its maintainance and flourishing needs. this syllabus/manifesto is the bare bones of a lineage of thought greater than my own wing-span, so rather than declare and leave thought to the wind as many in the tradition of manifesto do, i insist on the collabortative intention and nature of this piece. as in, this syllabus can be added to. this syllabus will remain malleauble and engaged.
invitation to learning, this syllabus/manifesto is creating a sort of index library or guide map of thinking toward decolonization in a Black trans-cyber-anarchafeminist tradition. this manifesto is uninterested in interacting with and sharing knowledge in such a way designed to exlude nonmembers of academia. so, i use my institutional access to create knowledge beyond academic spaces, straddling the line between academia and activism and daring myself and other producers of knowledge and culture to be intentional about the the work we do to prioritize and care for our audiences of intention. because this is a collaborative work, i most aim for Black transfeminists with specific niches related to the digital and decolonization (broadly) or even beyond to progress and advance the thinking of this syllabus. i encourage all others to engage this manifesto/syllabus as a learning tool.
accessible. this manifesto does not privilege knowledge. by this i mean, i am not the owner of this knowledge, i am merely an assembler, a curator. i also reject bullshit academic vernacular because i believe that is a method of exclusion and i want everyone, even people this is not useful for to at least be able to meaningfully engage with the information offered. i elect to spark enthusiasm and curiousity, not headaches.
translatable. because i think of this manifesto/syllabus as a useful learning tool, i believe that it should also have a flexibility that supports it as a learning model. this means i currently understand the syllabus/manifesto as a zine, twine game, installation, digital exhibition, and on a decentralized platform. these are initiatives i hope to take up later in the life of the manifesto/syllabus, hopefully in direct collaboration with other scholars, organizations, activists, cultural & knowledge workers, etc.
this is a living document + post. i will return as needed to update information, offer specificity, add resources, activities, prompts, and more. this post will serve as the original and masterlist. below you can gain access to some preliminary writing on the sources I have decided to include, key concepts I am drawing from them, and why they are useful to my thinking (and potentially yours too!). as i may have stated earlier in this post, this is just the pilot of this project for me. so what you see as of now (5/17/2024) is just the bare bones of something i will be building outward as long as i need to.
Solidarity (tag: #solid, where strength lies)
Accomplices Not Allies by Indigenous Action
Insurrectionary Mutual Aid by Curious George Brigade
Power Makes Us Sick Issue #3
Resistance (tag: #push/pull)
My Gender is Marronage by Nsambu Za Suekama/Bl3ssing
Them Goon Rules by Marquis Bey
Rave:n by Kelela
Sabotage (tag: #set aflame)
Random Acts of Flyness by Terrence Nance
The Poetics of Difference by Mecca Jamilah Sullivan
Play With The Changes by Rochelle Jordan
thank you for reading! my placemaking & writing on process does not end here, so stay tuned!
with care,
7vyn
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checkoutmybookshelf · 10 months ago
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It's easy to fall into a habit of thinking of speaking and writing as automatic and abstract, so I want to just take a second to celebrate the utter embodiedness of words.
Speaking? Well then your lungs are working to ensure that you have enough air to power the musculature of the human speech apparatus, from the diaphragm, intercostal, and other breathing-related muscles to the vocal cords, the throat, the lips, tongue, teeth, and hard and soft palates. Your body intricately and intimately knows the feeling of air moving through it, the shapes of sounds that carry meaning, and can shape otherwise neutral sounds with tone, pitch, timbre, and sheer attitude to communicate meaning beyond just the sound.
ASL? Look at the beauty of the tendons, bones, muscles, and soft tissues of the hands, arms, and shoulders that allow you to form shapes that take on meaning. And then there are the nuances of space, body position, speed, and sharpness or softness.
Writing by hand? The fine and gross motor skills involved are just wondrous, and your body knows the shape of letters in ink, graphite, wax, and paint. The minute, constant microadjustments to ensure that your mind, body, and writing tool can work in the perfect synergy to get words on paper are practically magic, and they are as deeply embodied as speech and ASL.
Typing on a physical keyboard? Your fingers have to know patterns, must adjust to tiny variations in size, shape, and intensity to make the keys function. Each finger has to be able to manage by itself but also work with the others to get words into a computer.
Typing on a screen? We all have our preferences for that. Some of us do the single-figer peck, some wear out our thumbs...it depends on the size and shape of our hands, their strength, the presence or absence of pain. Even this most maligned way of getting words down in a form others can read is embodied and changes for every single person based on the body they are in.
So...speech, writing, and communicating is inherently some of the most embodied we are as humans, and I think that's kind of magical.
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finiffy · 1 year ago
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clef is rhe embodiedment of like a tiktok that makes you feel fear and also contemplate everything around you but when you accept it a natuee valley bar comes and riins everything and youre just contemplating again and you see like a cow and start sobbint because its fluffy anf then later eat a steak that comes from least normal famr possible fucks sake send ask
A...andrei what the hell are you talking about-
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meltorights · 10 months ago
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ive been trying to keep the request of palestinian christians to avoid unnecessary christmas festivities and celebrate the feast in solidarity with palestine. and the first reading for midnight mass really hit for me... this is a god who chooses the oppressed but rejects power and instead embraces childhood. the way isaiah moves from a vision of god's victory using images of god's victory to the vulnerable image of childbirth and the way his prophecy is reinterpreted in light of the eternal word taking on embodiedness, marginalization, and death speaks to where god is found, where he is listened to... but ultimately this is a god who chooses to suffer with us, but also wants the rod of the oppressor to be smashed. im not really going for anything here it's just comforting to feel, in spite of everything, that in doing my part to free palestine, i am on god's side.
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thevampirejules · 22 days ago
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Despite standard conceptions of place as stable, though, all places do, of course, change and transform over time. They are (re)shaped by the trajectories of occupants as well as visitors, tourists, and researchers that pass through them. That is what is unsettling, haunting even, about a house like Winchester’s: that the space defies a sense of completion, of representation, of stability, of finality and instead represents quite viscerally the notion of history unfolding, of enacted and repeated trajectories—of haunting. The very act of continual building has unsettled commentators from Winchester’s own time into the present, as the house bears the physical traces of its changes not as a bug but as a feature.
Even as commentators sought explanations for it in the supernatural, though, a writer in 1973 reminds us that it was always the house itself—“the very size and construction of a house with 160 rooms, chandeliers with 13 lights, ceilings with 13 panels, stairways leading to nowhere and wooden pillars installed upside down”—that was the most mysterious, and the prospect to “have the work continued” that proved most unsettling to many observers (Battin). It defied the expectation of spatiality as singular and stable.
But what has led to its dismissal by historical commentators is also what represents possibilities for recovery and reconsideration—not just of Winchester’s house, but of other women’s sites in turn. That is, because Winchester’s house—having been built and rebuilt, added to and repaired over several decades—insists on a sense of temporality and process, of “stories-so-far” in its very materiality, it provides a model for thinking about how women’s rhetorical agency is inflected by their relation to space—particularly domestic space (and embodiedness)—and how both can be oriented toward process, multiplicity, and transformation over time.
“Haunting Women’s Public Memort: Ethos, Space, and Gender in the Winchester Mystery House” by Amy J. Lueck
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enactivewebs · 2 years ago
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20/04/2023
Reflection on 2 months teaching online to ZYU in Shaoxing China, from my home office post-cyclone This course has felt simultaneously really short and really drawn out at the same time. Similar sensation to a COVID lockdown working from home, and getting into a very regimented and structured routine.The dynamic that has evolved and we have taken on as a lecturer, TA, and class is one of me being a floating head at the front of the classroom screens, mic off and answering questions and offering feedback on WeChat.  We don’t even really need the video on. I could just be a living chat bot to answer students’ questions and direct their thinking and project. This approach has been borne out of some necessity (their English levels, lack of ability to interact with them one on one properly and with dodgy sound quality) and also fatigue and energy maintenance. To offer feedback to 40 students every lesson in an online context would drain me completely. I feel like some of the students’ work has been amazing, but a lot is lacking in refinement and enthusiasm, which I take the blame for. If I had been on the ground or at least not working from home, my energy levels would have been significantly higher, and I would have been able to engage in non-verbal, embodied and more natural ways.I wonder if I had been on the ground, I could have energised the class more, communicating with my body language and presence in the room, as well as connected and co-evolved the briefs with te students more. I.e could they ‘proprioceive’ me and my body movements, instruction and enthusiasm, and lead to more interest and overall motivation? I feel like I’ve connected with some, but more in a textual and chat oriented way, which feels less natural and relational - more transactional.Also think this overall experience would have been a lot more fun. For both myself and the students and TA. There are some aspects I really think work about this set up, especially the fact they can translate my texts into chinese easily, but also is lacking some form of relationality or true connection. I have found it hard to get responses from the class to questions or even general comments, and it doesn’t even really feel like a real class I’m teaching, just random chats popping up asking for help. The lack of embodiedness and presence in the room with the students makes it all seem kind of unreal and virtual. Like I’m given a narrow virtual window to a Chinese classroom, but only allowed to peak through, I don’t feel like I’m ‘there’ mentally, culturally and obviously physically.
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superstitionrev · 2 years ago
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Jenny Wu’s having a solo exhibition at Morton Fine Art in Washington, D.C. featuring her sculptural paintings! Wu’s work combines latex paint and resin on wood panels to explore “tactility, in-betweenness, embodiedness, and construction,” an approach she has been refining for nearly a decade. To read more about it, check out our blog here:
https://superstitionreview.asu.edu
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As a therapist, an Autistic TM, and the trans child of a trans drag king, I spend a lot of time thinking about the concept of performativity, and frankly I think it gets a bad reputation despite its capacity as a subversive technique and tactic.
When we hear the word performativity, most of us think of the concept of being superficially engaged, of skin-deep participation, of wearing the aesthetic without being able to back it up by walking the walk. It has a quality of being inherently lesser and incomplete. "Performative allyship" is one of the more damning things one can be accused of in radical circles because it means you're all talk, no substance.
The thing is, performance has been such an integral part of so many subversive communities since their inception. Performance has been a crucial form of self-expression for those same communities for just as long. It has historically held layer upon layer of meaning, to the point that calling it superficial would be akin to calling yourself unobservant. At a certain point, using performance and performativity to define superficiality is deeply irresponsible and erasive of our own cultural contexts when the word superficial is *right there*.
Everything about me is performed. From my personality, to my social graces, to my gender presentation, to my political praxis, to my professional therapeutic presence, to my embodiedness, to my version of learned empathy, to my sexual practices and desires, to my morality. Without that performance, those things don't materially exist, and I intentionally and precisely craft each performance for very specific outcomes and effects. A good deal of that is probably the autism, but I have significant doubts that every single one of these elements of selfness are completely beyond the intentional creation of everyone, autistic or allistic.
Performance is intentional, chosen action. It is a meaningful act of self-creation. Any performance, embodied long enough, becomes selfhood. The belittlement of performativity, as far as I can tell, is a belittlement of one of the most transcendental and radical acts of self-narration, change-creation, and meaning-making we as human beings have access to.
And I imagine that the immediate response will be "but there are people who are only *pretending* to embody the spirit of the performance and that's who we're calling out when we call out performativity!"
To which I say: Let's say I believe you have a 100% success rate in identifying who's a true believer in the awkward midst of change-making and who's a wolf in sheep's clothing never intending to make good. Why does the performance, the tool of change making, the cultural heritage that serves us, have to become the origin point of confrontation? Why can't we do the work of trying to call people in without degrading the tools of disidentification and meaning-making? We do a disservice to everyone, including ourselves, when we suggest that intentional performance is somehow lesser than spontaneous action. It removes our own ability to conscientiously do the right thing while still learning what that specifically means in a given context, and as human beings there will always be something we are still learning about. It compels us to question our own authenticity and ability when imposter syndrome rears its head because imposter syndrome relies on the idea of intentional performance of role as distinct from innate knowledge of the same role. It contributes to sanism/ableism around low/no empathy comrades who intentionally choose to perform to high standards of morality and equitable praxis because somehow their choice to do so means less since they aren't also emotionally self-flagellating when they make a mis-step. It contributes to transphobia by forcing us to argue over whether or not gender is a performance and whether or not that means trans people's existence is valid when we could just accept that gender includes performativity for some, both cis and trans.
There are so many upsides to embracing notions of performance. I find myself wondering why doing so has remained so contentious up to this point. Especially when so much of the scholarship around marginality DOES embrace performativity. The contention seems to remain in the public sphere, and I'm curious where that comes from. Most importantly, I'm curious why anyone would want to cut themselves off from the primary form of self-creation. It feels very much like the sort of thing that got snuck in early on as a self-sabotaging element against the possibility of revolutionary meaning-making.
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missroserose · 3 years ago
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Fic Writer Question Meme!
Thanks for the tag, @venhedish—I love stuff like this! I'd apologize in advance for how long this is likely to be, but I suspect we share that tendency, haha.
How many works do you have on AO3?
20 total. I've been publishing there since late 2018, so about three years now. That sounds right for me—I'm way too perfectionist to ever be prolific.
What's your total AO3 word count?
125,744! Apparently it takes me three years to write a novel's worth of words I feel are worth publishing...which also sounds right.
How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?
Three, primarily: The Lost Boys, Stranger Things, and Supernatural. Mostly Stranger Things, since I was pretty enmeshed in the Harringrove community for about a year and a half, though these days I'm hanging out more with the SPN crowd. We'll see if that translates to more fics.
What are your top 5 fics by kudos?
1.) Sunflower (524) 2.) Quickly, look away (506) 3.) We'll Become Who We Meant To Be (383) 4.) Too Young To Fall In Love (333) 5.) When the Waters Start to Cross (283)
First, what's not surprising: all are Stranger Things/Harringrove works. I'm a little surprised to see that "Sunflower" had edged out "Quickly" as my most-kudosed story, for years it was the other way around—but maybe that's actually not that surprising—part of the reason I haven't been as active in the fandom is that I really love the darker and more complex renditions of Billy Hargrove's character (a la "Quickly") and since S3 aired it seems like the fashion has moved more towards more lighthearted fluff (a la "Sunflower"). Still, both are pretty undemanding smut, so it makes sense that they're on top; similarly, I'm not surprised to see "Too Young To Fall In Love" in the top five either.
I am a little surprised that "We'll Become Who We Meant To Be" is #3—it's honestly close to genfic, there's only the tiniest moment of hinted-at attraction in there. I'm not mad about it, I honestly feel like it's one of my better efforts; on the other hand, "Wake Me Up" was in a similar vein and it's close to the bottom. I guess there's just no telling what's going to catch on...in fairness, a 25K outsider POV novella is a much bigger ask than a 3K short story.
Honestly, I'm probably most surprised at "When the Waters Start to Cross" cracking the top five—it's a 52K+ WIP and a profoundly complex atmospheric existential horror/romance, which is, like, five strikes against it. I'm not mad about it, though—I love that fic, even if it is a huge time and energy suck, and it definitely contains some of my best writing.
Do you respond to comments, why or why not?
I do! Sometimes it takes me a while, but I genuinely appreciate people taking the time to leave feedback (even if it's just a string of emoji!). And every once in a while I'll get really thoughtful or incisive comments that spark whole conversations—that's one of the best reasons to write fic!
What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?
Hmm...to be honest, nothing immediately comes to mind; I love angst but tend to want it to serve a purpose, i.e. it gets a character closer to who they want to be. So most of my endings are at least hopeful. *checks list* It looks like probably my angstiest ending is also my first fic posted, "Blue Masquerade". Poor Michael.
Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you've written?
I don't currently write crossovers; I wouldn't rule it out, but frankly I haven't come across an idea that appeals to me. Waaaaaay back in the mists of time I had a Daria/Harry Potter crossover that I was actually pretty proud of, but I got about as far as getting them to Hogwarts and then kinda ran out of ideas, so I never posted it.
Have you ever received hate on a fic?
Not that I can think of? I'm not big-time enough to get hate, haha. Worst I ever got was some rando asking for top or bottom tags, which I just ignored, and one person on "We'll Become" who was like "I don't like this pairing but you did a good job", which kinda had me like ??? thanks, I guess? I did get one comment on "Quickly, look away" from someone who felt like it was in a different headspace from the fic I wrote it as a sequel to, but that didn't strike me as hate, it's a perfectly fair observation.
Do you write smut? If so what kind?
So first off, yes, and second...I recently came across this great Garth Greenwell quote that really gets at what I'm trying to do when I write smut:
In America in 2019 we are inundated with images of bodies to an absolutely unprecedented degree—images of eroticized bodies, images of sexual bodies; the Internet makes all our fantasies visible, and it trains us in new fantasies. And yet it also seems to me that our culture suffers from a dearth of representations of embodiedness, by which I mean of bodies imbued with consciousness. I’m not at all antiporn, but sometimes pornography (maybe especially Internet pornography, with its arms race of extremity) seems to want to evacuate bodies of personhood, to present them as objects. I think literature is the best technology we have for representing consciousness, and so I think there’s a kind of intervention that literature can perform in representing sex explicitly: it can reclaim the sexual body as a site of consciousness.
"Embodied porn" is probably the best description I can come up with—I love writing sex precisely because it's such a charged form of communication (Greenwell's words again), because there are things a character can do and say in that context that they never would normally. Like, sex acts are great and all, but what really does it for me is what's going on in their head, what's the history that brought the character to this point, how're they handling the inherent vulnerability and intimacy of this incredibly risky but potentially rewarding moment. Kink (whether through roleplaying, props, costumes, or whatever) is really just another way of adding to that personal meaning, since without the characters' reactions any trappings are meaningless.
Have you ever had a fic stolen?
Not that I know of!
Have you ever had a fic translated?
No, although I'd love to work with a translator someday (whether with fic or another context)—I'm fascinated by the inherent puzzles in translating between languages, especially with informal speech and its many idioms and cultural references.
Have you ever co-written a fic before?
Not yet! I'd be open to the idea, but it definitely has to be with the right person...
What's your all time favorite ship?
Isn't that basically like asking a mom to choose her favorite kid? Seriously, I like different things about all of them...which one's getting the most attention depends entirely on mood and headspace and other effectively random variables.
What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?
I don't have any I've given up on entirely, yet. Even Waters, as beastly complicated as it is, I've been ruminating on and adding to and arranging in my head lately...
What are your writing strengths?
Atmosphere, character, dialogue. I've said it before, I'm a capital-R Romantic at heart: I love writing settings that reflect and reinforce a character's headspace—while also implying what said character might be missing in their viewpoint.
Something I've noticed—my husband worked for years as a penetration tester, which meant he would regularly have to talk his way past people on a moment's notice. So, unsurprisingly, we both notice people, but he tends to observe their presentation (clothing, accessories, especially ones that're markers of social class and group belonging that allow him to tailor his approach), whereas I notice what they say and how they say it—and, often, what they don't say.
What are your writing weaknesses?
I suddenly feel like I'm in a job interview, haha. Perfectionism is a big one—I have a tendency to feel hopeless and quit if something's taking too long, rather than persisting until I get it sorted, even though some of my best work is stuff where I persisted. Also, I'm big on emotional intensity—which isn't a bad thing, necessarily, but I sometimes read back over my stuff and I'm like "geez, Ambrosia, ease up a bit"...I could definitely use some comic relief in my writing sometimes, but I think I'm often too insecure to try it.
What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?
I don't have any in particular—I rarely do it myself, because I don't trust myself to do it properly. (Perfectionism again!)
What was the first fandom you wrote for?
Daria, way back in the day. My work is still up on FF.net...sometimes I wonder if anyone's ever going to dig it up and confront me with it, haha. (I doubt anyone will ever care that much...I guess I'm more just curious if my style from twenty years ago is recognizably me.)
What's your favorite fic you've written?
If we're talking about finished fics, probably either "Wake Me Up" or "Young At Heart"—they're both pretty oddball, but both required a fuckton of work and both came out pretty close to what I wanted. But "Waters" is my biggest baby...maybe I'll open up Act III to work on today...
Thanks again for the tag, Ven! I'm going to tag @ihni, @redmyeyes, @twobrokenwyngs, @skybound2, @sambrosia, @shewritesdirty, @introvertia, @coffeeandchemicals, and @anarchist-billy—if you're up for some rumination, I'd love to hear your thoughts on your writing!
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honeypeachiepie · 4 years ago
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"Capricious Lady"
She smelled of peonies
The sun in her eyes
An embodiedment of Spring
Dutp ID: Peachigo (884237973)
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kimheecheon · 3 years ago
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tagged by @miyeoncey thanks love ♡ wow i really forget every media ive ever consumed when im asked about it lmao
MUSIC
fave genre: kpop, edm, folktronica. i ilke songs that are upbeat and bassy and kinda tacky and in a language i don't speak
fave artists: i can go on for days but my current faves are loona, a.c.e, dreamcatcher, orβit, ateez, pinkfantasy. for non-kpop daoko, karma fields, zhu, san holo, mahmood
fave song: kyungri - blue moon. unmatched legend. also red velvet - peekaboo, every topp dogg song
Most listened song recently: its a dating sim song lmao
fun fact this was released 8 days ago and it's already my 11th most listened to song in the past 4 years :) yes i obsessively monitor my spotify stats
song currently stuck in your head: e'last - swear
fave lyrics atm: hey. i don't pay attention to lyrics, like i specifically listen to foreign songs so i don't have to hear the lyrics
radio or your own playlist I solo artists or bands I pop or indie I loud or silent volume I slow or fast songs I music video or lyrics video I speakers or headset I riding a bus in silence or while listening to music I driving in silence or with radio on
BOOKS
fave book genre: low fantasy, historical fantasy, romance
fave writer: ??
fave book: ??
fave book series: the ONLY book series i've finished in my entire life is ilana tan's seasons serises and i barely remember it. i was in grade school
Comfort book: aristotle & dante, good omens (young me wild for crushing on the embodiedment of pollution)
Perfect book to read to a rainy day: ?? ok so perhaps i can't read. it makes sense i play dating sims because i don't have the time for actual books lmao. society if i actually read books *insert that pic*
hardcover or paperback I buy or rent (pirate too lmao) I standalone novels or book series I ebook or physical copy I reading at night or during the day I reading at home or in nature (hello from tropical country) I listening to music while reading or reading in silence I reading in order or reading the ending first I reliable or unreliable narrator I realism or fantasy I one or multiple POVS I judging by the covers or by the summary I rereading or reading just once
TV AND MOVIES
fave tv/movie genre: comedy, fantasy, mystery
Fave movie: lego batman movie. i stand by this choice
Comfort movie: lego batman movie, jennifer's body, the proposal, this indonesian horror movie pengabdi setan/satan's slave (THE school recess/sleepover movie. really not as scary as the reviews make it to be)
Movie you watch every year: nightmare before christmas, coraline
Fave tv show: hannibal, ahs coven
Comfort tv show: any game shows & reality competitions (nailed it, drag race, bake off, taskmaster, etc). hgtv fixer upper shows. also indian & turkish soaps and shitty tv soaps (check out this episode titled, verbatim, corpse of a cruel foreman died buried in cement casting anD STRUCK BY METEOR sdfgjgjk i can't make this up)
Most rewatched tv show: hana kimi, yamato nadeshiko
5 fave characters: all three totally spies, wen ning from mdzs (but not for the normal reasons ppl like a character. i would explain but the margins are too small), yuuko from xxxholic (defined my childhood)
tv shows or movie I short seasons (8-13 episodes) or full seasons (22 episodes or more) I one episode a week or binging I one season or multiple seasons I one part or saga I half hour or one hour long episodes I subtitles on or off I rewatching or watching just once I downloads or watches online
tagging @santir0sales ♡
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emilyvberry · 3 years ago
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In a searching, wide-ranging and often very funny exchange, Selima Hill talks to Review editor Emily Berry about being both a prolific writer and a private person, about secrecy and rebellion, embodiedness and encodedness. Her writing process is, she says, less about cutting (“which sounds so violent”) and rather like “lifting your hair – loosen, loosen, then tighten, tighten, tighten – spread it as far as you can, then tighten”. They discuss relationships with family, men, audiences, Eastern European literature and animals, including Hill’s pet giant land snail. She also describes how her diagnosis of Asperger’s Syndrome, her experiences in psychiatric hospital, and periods of muteness have affected her writing. Hill gives vivid readings of all of her poems published in the winter 2020 issue of The Poetry Review, including ‘Standing on his doorstep’, ‘Jelly’ and ‘Berries’, which will appear in Men Who Feed Pigeons, published by Bloodaxe this September.
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mediaevalmusereads · 4 years ago
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The Devourers. By Indra Das. New York: Del Rey, 2015.
Rating: 4.5/5 stars
Genre: dark fantasy
Part of a Series? No
Summary: On a cool evening in Kolkata, India, beneath a full moon, as the whirling rhythms of traveling musicians fill the night, college professor Alok encounters a mysterious stranger with a bizarre confession and an extraordinary story. Tantalized by the man’s unfinished tale, Alok will do anything to hear its completion. So Alok agrees, at the stranger’s behest, to transcribe a collection of battered notebooks, weathered parchments, and once-living skins. From these documents spills the chronicle of a race of people at once more than human yet kin to beasts, ruled by instincts and desires blood-deep and ages-old. The tale features a rough wanderer in seventeenth-century Mughal India who finds himself irrevocably drawn to a defiant woman—and destined to be torn asunder by two clashing worlds. With every passing chapter of beauty and brutality, Alok’s interest in the stranger grows and evolves into something darker and more urgent.
***Full review under the cut.***
Content Warnings: rape, gore, violence, sexual content, scatalogical imagery
Overview: I was honestly surprised by how much I loved this book. I went into it expecting a dark fantasy or horror tale, but what I got instead was a visceral, sensual, lyrical meditation on gender, love, humanity, and embodiedness that absolutely refused to let me go once I turned the last page. Some readers, admittedly, may struggle with this - not only is rape an integral part of the plot, but there is a lot of gore and scatalogical imagery that may be off-putting. However, I think these things added to the theme of embodiness, so while some images aren’t pleasant, I think, literarily, they are important. I can’t remember the last time I felt so utterly consumed by a story, and for this reason, I’m giving The Devourers 4.5-5 stars.
Writing: Das’s prose is very descriptive, but I think the author walks the line between being dense and being poetic. I never got the sense that the pace was weighed down by descriptions, and everything was straight-forward enough where I wouldn’t call the prose purple.
I also think Das is a master at using language to evoke strong emotions, whether that be anger, longing, or disgust. Multiple times throughout the novel, I would read a description of dirt or bodily fluids, juxtaposed with an image of ecstasy or loneliness or something else that seemed to contradict the revulsion I felt, and I think such contradictions enhanced the strangeness of the shape-shifter world. To put it more succinctly, this book is gross and primal, but through the gross imagery, it arrives at something more interesting, rather than being gross for shock value.
Plot: This book tells a couple of different stories using Alok’s transcription process and relationship with the stranger as a frame. Thus, there are three fairly distinct threads: Alok’s tale, Fenrir’s tale, and Cyrah’s tale.
Alok’s tale is primarily about alleviating loneliness by finding companionship and learning about the supernatural world. I’ve put it rather bluntly, but it’s more sensual than that. There’s not much that actually happens aside from a series of encounters between Alok and the stranger, but I think these interactions tell the reader a lot about making connections across time and across cultures.
One of the manuscripts that Alok is asked to translate is the brief account of Fenrir’s attraction to Cyrah. Fenrir is the name given to a centuries-old male shapeshifter who has an inexplicable desire to be more human and create life (something that is forbidden among their kind). He finds himself drawn to a human woman named Cyrah, who he rapes and impregnates. What I appreciated about this story was the lack of sympathy it gets from all characters (Alok, Cyrah, Gevaudan, the stranger), so I felt like it was included less as a way to excuse rape and more of a way to understand Fenrir’s motivations. While some may argue we don’t need to understand, I think it ultimately has literary value.
The other manuscript is Cyrah’s account, which made me less angry at the inclusion of Fenrir’s. Cyrah describes her anger at being raped and resolves to confront Fenrir, hoping to make him get rid of the child inside her. To find him, she seeks the help of Gevaudan, Fenrir’s onetime companion. I really loved the story of their journey together and the relationship they formed, which was less romantic and more of a deep, emotional bond that transcended divisions such as predator/prey, shapeshifter/human, and old/young. I also really loved Cyrah’s speeches about how men use women and how Fenrir’s desire to be human is rooted in the basest of human behavior (one might argue it’s even animal behavior). For me, Cyrah’s was the most engaging story of the three, and the most emotionally heart-wrenching, but I could be biased.
Characters: Alok, our primary protagonist (if one could call him that) is a queer man who harbors a deep loneliness following a broken engagement and the lack of family acceptance due to his attraction to men. I really loved Alok’s interest in the stranger and his desire to be close to someone who offered him solace through stories. His longing for more information about the supernatural world mirrored my own interest as a reader, and I think Das did a good job of making Alok relatable enough to serve as the frame but unique enough to not feel like a blank avatar. I also liked how his (their?) exploration with gender at the end mirrored the changing bodies of the shapeshifters.
The stranger, who is mostly nameless, also got more interesting the more I read. At first, he just kind of showed up and spoke in vague puzzles, but the more his story unfolded, the more understandable his mysteriousness became. I liked that Das eventually explained his reasons for choosing Alok and why he withholds information, such as his name; I’m not a huge fan of random mysterious figures, so I appreciated the fact that this character was more than that.
Cyrah is perhaps the most interesting character in that she too provides a frame for the reader. As a human woman, she is also a stranger to the world of the shapeshifters, but she also provides the sole female perspective in the novel. I really liked that she was brave and insistent, not letting men scare her into silence, and I loved the points she made about humanity and gender throughout the book. She also is honest about her feelings about motherhood, which I appreciated, and I think she brings to light several class issues that showcase why it’s not reasonable to expect her to just move on with her life.
My favorite part of this book was Cyrah’s relationship with Gevaudan. Gevaudan is a shapeshifter who considers humans to be solely prey until he gets to know Cyrah (and even then, Cyrah is special - his attitudes as a whole don’t change, but it was interesting to see his relationship with Cyrah evolve). He initially agrees to help her find Fenrir because he wants to reunite with his companion, and he thinks if he is with Cyrah, Fenrir will be less likely to harm him (for reasons explained in the novel). Gevaudan’s emotional relationship with Fenrir is incredibly complicated and queer, and I liked that there was so much tension between the three characters in terms of who had relationships with who. I loved that Gevaudan’s feelings for Cyrah are never portrayed as romantic, but something deeper than friendship that challenges a lot of the beliefs he has about whether or not his kind can feel love.
Fenrir, despite being a rapist, is also interesting for his flawed idea of what humanity means. Although I hated that he raped Cyrah, I appreciated the role he had in the novel and the way he brought out Cyrah’s indignation. I also liked the relationship he had with Gevaudan and the contrast he provided, which prompted questions about the nature of monstrosity.
TL;DR: Told through multiple perspectives using evocative (and often revolting) imagery, The Devourers is a stunning debut of a novel that interrogates the nature of monstrosity and identity, using shapeshifters to challenge (hetero?) normative states of embodiedness, sexuality, and gender.
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baixueagain · 5 years ago
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I hate that my body needs me to like...eat every day? like I really gotta spend time outta each day 1) deciding what to eat, 2) making it, and 3) eating it
and will it ever be satisfied? no. in a few hours I’ll just be hungry again
embodiedness is a fucking scam
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