#great books to read

[blueboyluca]

“When I first heard it, from a dog trainer who knew her behavioral science, it was a stunning moment. I remember where I was standing, what block of Brooklyn’s streets. It was like holding a piece of polished obsidian in the hand, feeling its weight and irreducibility. And its fathomless blackness. Punishment is reinforcing to the punisher. Of course. It fit the science, and it also fit the hidden memories stored in a deeply buried, rusty lockbox inside me. The people who walked down the street arbitrarily compressing their dogs’ tracheas, to which the poor beasts could only submit in uncomprehending misery; the parents who slapped their crying toddlers for the crime of being tired or hungry: These were not aberrantly malevolent villains. They were not doing what they did because they thought it was right, or even because it worked very well. They were simply caught in the same feedback loop in which all behavior is made. Their spasms of delivering small torments relieved their frustration and gave the impression of momentum toward a solution. Most potently, it immediately stopped the behavior. No matter that the effect probably won’t last: the reinforcer—the silence or the cessation of the annoyance—was exquisitely timed. Now. Boy does that feel good.”

— Melissa Holbrook Pierson, The Secret History of Kindness (2015)

[outer-stars]

something something green light Gatsby parallels

was majorly inspired by this passage in the Great Gatsby (can't believe the Book of Bill has me revisiting this book for the first time since 2014), so this was the result.

The parallels between Gatsby and his 'green light' and early Ford & Bill's dynamic where Ford's also reaching for something unattainable ('forbidden' knowledge) and ends up hurting himself and others in the process...my muse. (At least in this universe Ford lives; bro made it out better than Gatsby)

[martyfive]

winner winner chicken dinner

[greatstrangerdinosaur]

They're cute

[dandelionfool]

Nimona!

[totally-not-a-changeling]

This is the vibe of what people are doing while they wait for Soos to finish his work:

[messiahzzz]

it’s been almost a year now… is the bg3 fandom finally ready to talk about how gale’s “hubris” is the sole product of actively feeding his insecurities further and straight up denying him help & guidance when he was at his lowest and needed it most. it’s not one of his core traits and never was. he isn’t some closeted power hungry monster that is just waiting to be enabled. what he wants is admiration, recognition and acceptance. which is also what he sought from mystra before the orb disaster happened. he had no desire whatsoever to become a god himself or challenge her rule, he simply wanted to be seen as sufficient in her eyes (“to serve her better”). to be as equal as he could possibly be in a relationship with a literal deity. he has a deep passion for magic and knowledge that affects almost all areas of his life and enjoys the display thereof. he wants to be the smartest person in the room and enjoys when his work is recognized. he may be perceived as arrogant when it comes to his skill, but he IS NOT hubristic. it truly takes so little for him to be wholly content.

[paperbackparadise]

[lizzardson]

one of the things that feels so clear on rereads but so many people miss the first time they read the way of kings is shallans PTSD. I think part of it is the way it gets overshadowed by the constant unending tragedy of kaladin's story, its easy to slot shallan in as the young naive rich girl and not look much deeper. Part of it also is the way shallan drastically understates her own trauma. she says that she's timid, she doesn't like confrontation, she talks about her father's temper, but she was the lucky one because it was never directed at her. There are so many things in her first few chapters alone that are textbook PTSD, the way she freezes and shuts down any thought process that gets too close to her father's death, the flashback when jasnah gets angry at her, how she dissociates when she draws. It's so obvious if you know what you're looking for, but just subtle enough, especially when it's compared to kaladin's trauma, that a lot of people miss it at first. anyway I would defend shallan davar with my life.

[tothestarsinvelaris]

Cardan trying desperately to get salt into Jude when Valerian is shoving the faerie fruit into her mouth is just such a good scene.

like, yes, he takes the vial of salt from her -- but he throws it in the air to sprinkle it all over. I feel like he was almost hoping and praying some would land on her or the fruit or the damn dirt and save her.

and then he takes off his shoe and tells her to kiss his toes. like, he's trying to act like he's degrading her along with everyone else, but he also knows that his sweat has salt in it.

and when that doesn't work and Locke is about to walk her home, Cardan gets desperate enough to do something fairly obvious, risking that his friends and everyone else will see that he's helping her but not being willing to let her go alone with Locke while she's so intoxicated. So he pricks her finger and pokes it into her mouth so she gets the salt from her blood.

I feel like he does this partially because of his growing feelings for her, but also because at this point he has already decided he really doesn't like how humans are treated, has seen the way they look when they're ensorcelled and has already helped some of them escape faerie.

he's just so great okay?!

[heartorbit]

heartbeat

[my-darling-boy]

One of my favourite WWI anecdotes was one British soldier recalling the start of the war when the first trenches had only just been dug—back when barbed wire wasn’t laid and steel helmets hadn’t even been issued yet—and said he and his comrades watched the Royal Engineers pull up unannounced with a reel of barbed wire and proceed to lay what looked to be a “clothesline” in front of the trench so tall a “giraffe could walk under it” and I could not stop laughing imagining the RE just standing back after proudly laying their Single Line of barbed wire to defend against the Entire German army like

[9ndreus]

Do you think Aziraphale is the literal origin of the damsel in distress trope or did he get the idea from reading books

[not-with-you-but-of-you]

Milo Ventimiglia as Jess Mariano in Gilmore Girls | 4.20 "Luke Can See Her Face" (14/?)

[mayasynth]

My beautiful unhinged daughter, Mary Elizabeth Frankenstein <3 I know this was not at all how the scene actually went, but humour me

(Pssssst everyone please read Our Hideous Progeny, pleaseee 🙏)

[runawaymarbles]

Modern fandom brain this, modern fandom brain that. My grandfather's first and middle name were the first and last name of the love interest from his mother's favorite romance novel. And she died before my dad was born, so her favorite book is the only thing I know about her. People have always been like this about stories they love. So like, get on my great grandma's level or sit down