#honestly a fantastic book

[runesinthenight]

For everyone who is enjoying the Goncharov(1973) discourse on this hellsite, might I recommend a book.

Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves.

It has a very similar vibe to a lot of these posts. And it's very enjoyable. It's about a guy names Johnny putting together a book which was written by a guy named Zampanò which is a commentary on a documentary called The Navidson Record. The documentary is about the house Navidson and his family moved into which starts to break the laws of space and physics, resulting in a seemingly endless hallway off of their living room.

The Navidson Record does not exist.

There are a bunch of references in the book, about half of which don't exist.

Shit gets weird fast. It's a wild ride but a fun read. It is about 700 pages long but some of those pages have literally 1 word on them as the actual text gets funky starting somewhere around the second third of the book. I've never read another book quite like this one.

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. If you're enjoying the unreality of Martin Scorsese's 1973 film Goncharov, give it a read.

[xobloodletter]

الشبح

[incandescent-creativity]

Over 51,000 words in 18 days… that’s a new personal record!

[improbable-implosions]

A little mend here that I was pleasantly surprised worked, I fixed the fraying bits on my book-shaped wallet! Figured that red thread works quite well with the themes of War of the Worlds.

First up, we've got some simple stitches perpendicular to the edge of the wallet, think a blanket stitch but the thread doesn't run through the loop created. Honestly, there are probably more complex ways I could have stitched that vinyl "leather" back onto the fabric and cardboard of the book structure, but I figured these simple stitches would be faster, and work just fine.

Second, on a slightly larger tear on the "spine" corner, I did some randa stitching! This actually draws from a style of embroidery I'm almost completely unfamiliar with, most popular in Brazil, so I may be labeling it wrong. If you know better, let me know! It's a sort of baseball-stitching like process, I was roughly following this video as a tutorial: https://vm.vxtiktok.com/t/ZT8TNMKw9/

and also this one to understand how to get started: https://vm.vxtiktok.com/t/ZT8TNrMML/ (Excuse the tiktok links, but I am not immune to the allure of short video on occasion! I even have posts of my own, every now and again)

I actually need to do similar rim-lining on the other three corners, as the adhesive is starting to come off, and that'll hold it still enough to solve the problem.

Also, some miscellaneous adventures in hemming patches properly! A process that proved MUCH simpler once I found my rolled hem foot. These two patches came out quite good, actually! straight stitching, for the most part, and relatively even folds.

It was much simpler to get the hems just so on a larger patch like this one, thankfully! I'm actually really pleased with the way this one in particular came out, and hopefully, I can make something pretty with it on the thigh of the jeans it goes with. (yes, that's why the patches are numbered, so I can keep track of where they go in the stack!)

Even despite how well things went overall with the patches, I still fumbled, got a bit hasty in trying to get the corner of one of the later patches through the machine. Said haste had me trying to shove shove, cram cram the fabric through the foot to get it hemmed, turns out, don't do that! Results in bending the needle on my machine! Oof!

Luckily, the machine came with some spare needles, so it only slowed me down a little bit!

[f4llingsidways]

Thank you @arythusa !!!!

[heir-of-the-chair]

Lowkey hyperfixating now and I’ve come to the devastating conclusion that Jacob the main character of Water For Elephants… doesn’t really have a character arc

[problemswithbooks]

BNHA 423

So, I can't say I feel much of anything reading this weeks leaks.

I'm not shocked that Shigaraki died, nor would I be surprised if his death is taken back next chapter and he gets brought back to life in some way.

The thing is despite people saying Shigaraki dying messes with the themes of the story the themes have always been more then a little shaky. IDK if it's just a difference in culture, but Hori has a way of setting something up as being a big deal/theme and then doing something that completely contradicts it.

It's really no surprise he might have killed off most of the villains including Shigaraki despite setting the story up in a way where saving villains seemed to be a theme. He did the same thing with self-sacrifice being portrayed as bad, but later showing it as good.

I will say I don't necessarily agree with how some people are framing Shigaraki's death as throwing abuse victims under the bus. I do get the frustration because Hori did focus a lot of how Shigaraki was used by AfO and in a lot of stories that would be used to absolve him of guilt for all the destruction he caused. But Hori never had Shigaraki change his mind. His last words are him continuing to wish he could have destroyed more and wanting Izuku to relay to Spinner he never stopped fighting for destruction.

I think if this had been a more thought out and focused story you really could make it a great tragedy. It feels unfair that he couldn't be saved, that despite Izuku's effort, at the end of the day Shigaraki wasn't able to break away from the destruction he was manipulated and groomed into believing.

In that way I can understand the anger of some fans, because the story is essentially a tragedy framed as a simply triumphant narrative. It always felt like it wanted to have some deep meaning, and always seemed on the verge of it, but never stuck the landing. The one thing I've always been left wondering is: what is Hori trying to say with this story?, and IDK if the ending, given what's on the page right now will really give me an answer.

If anything I think perhaps Hori was trying to say to much at once. I'm sure a lot of it gets lost in translation and cultural differences, still part of me thinks he bit off more then he could reasonably flesh out. Thinking back many writing choices feel like he had an idea or passing thought and added it because it was cool or thought he'd have time to do more with it latter but due to shitty writing conditions couldn't implement properly.

[paranorahjones]

very close to finishing The Whispering Skull in my current Lockwood & Co. reread and i cannot believe i'm about to voluntarily put myself through The Hollow Boy again.

[trillgutterbug]

being back on my hbo war bullshit rn (jk im never not on my hbo war bullshit) seems like a good time to mention the very cool jacob vouza, a native of guadalcanal. from 1916 onwards he was part of the island's constable force, aka the system of policemen and law enforcers run by the colonial government, which was a scattering of primarily british and australian military and bureaucratic personnel, such as coastwatcher martin clemens (who wrote a great book about his experiences spying on the japanese).

the pacific (the hbo show, i mean) has a good number of narrative faults, but one of its most egregious content faults imo is its complete lack of acknowledgement of the native solomon islanders who were not just instrumental to the american victory, but utterly indispensible. without their knowledge of the terrain, their protection, guidance, and supplying of the coastwatchers who provided pivotal intel on japanese troop/air/naval movement ("forty bombers heading yours"), and their constant rescuing of stranded american troops (particularly air and navy men, including 26yo jfk) and white civilians, it is genuinely questionable how much longer or worse the war might have ended up being.

jacob vouza (whom martin clemens described as incredibly loyal, cheerful, brave, a fierce individualist, and tremendously skilled in bushcraft) had retired from the constabulary pre-war, but rejoined a year later when the japanese landed on guadalcanal. he helped clemens escape into the jungle, then eventually helped him reach the american lines safely. afterwards, he oversaw a network of native scouts and participated in regular spying missions, gathering information on japanese troop movements. on one of these missions, he was apprehended by the japanese, who found a tiny american flag in his possession. they tied him up and interrogated him. he refused to give them any information on the americans, despite being tortured for hours with beatings, stabbings, hanging, and being forced to lie on a red ant hill with open wounds. eventually, having bayoneted him in the limbs, face, throat, and stomach, the japanese left him for dead. he chewed through his bindings and escaped into the jungle, where he made his way for three miles through an active battlefield to the american lines. upon reaching the marines, he refused medical treatment until he could personally deliver a message to clemens and the commander of the 2nd battalion 1st marines. despite being unable to stand and barely able to speak through the wound in his throat, he informed them that the japanese were massing for a huge, imminent assault on the critical american-held henderson airfield. he described the japanese numbers, positions, and weaponry. he also dictated a final message to his wife and children, which clemens wrote down with one hand, while holding vouza's hand with the other. his warning came only about ten minutes ahead of the japanese attack, but that was just enough time for the marines to assemble a successful defense in the correct place.

vouza was quickly rushed to field surgery and received a massive transfusion (tangentially, this was in the time of a segregated american military, in which it was illegal for black and white soldiers to provide one another blood transfusions; although vouza was not considered black per se by the american military, it's nonetheless a notable element of the cultural landscape at the time), which saved his life. later, he was awarded a number of medals from both the american and british governments, including the silver star. in 1979, clemens successfully campaigned to have him knighted. following vouza's death in 1984, clemens also organised the installation of a commemorative memorial in his hometown.

it's remarkable (derogatory) to me that the pacific (the show), despite its amazing dedication in general to accuracy and exhaustive detail, didn't say a peep about jacob vouza (or any native person whatsoever), despite spending most of episode 2 re-enacting this specific battle. his actions weren't just a footnote, but genuinely the crux of the american victory. he was a very incredible person, one of the many examples of contributions native solomon islanders made to the war effort, and we should remember him accordingly!

[akiraofthefour]

I've read this novel three times. The story has, of course, remained the same since 1959, but the persons with my name who read it in 1968 and 1998, at eighteen and forty-eight, are not the same as the one who came to the novel most recently at the age of fifty-five. All three of us have been altered by it, according to our gifts at the time.

Mary Doria Russell, introduction to the 2006 edition of A Canticle For Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr.

[htylmg]

oh tsats the book you could have been………

[ave-atque-vale-herondale]

hey guys. regularly scheduled thought drop

I truly adore Kit Herondale and I would do anything for him

[acourtofquestions]

Chapter 55 of Tower of Dawn😭

[rocketonthemoon]

19, 46, 48 please! :D

Who's your favorite author: So I don't normally do repeat questions BUT I do want to say that William Goldman, while I haven't read almost any other of his work and I haven't actually SEEN Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, truly did inspire me to start actually writing as a kid. I'd always kinda dabbled in creating stories but Princess Bride was so new and fresh that it made me want to try something like his style. His use of voice and humor specifically was so unique to anything I'd ever read at that point and I just loved it. Plus all the asides? The whole "author's notes" that add to the story?? just brilliant. I was genuinely sad when he died and his influence on my creative life cannot be overstated so I felt it prudent to mention.

What line has stuck with you for years: Again, easiest way to get me to forget everything I've ever read that moved me!!!

But at risk of being repetitive it's a line again from Princess Bride. Like there are so many that have stuck with me for various being the quippy book that it is, but probably one of my favorites is this:

One, I love repetition. And the use of Buttercup reiterating "I" is so good. And TWO the visual effect of 'the' being in the middle, queen being center offset and then all caps and then drawn out like that, is so striking it's stuck in my head forever.

[fallowhearth]

Both of them hated the other's ideas, and gleefully expressed that hatred with unchecked vitriol. In retrospect, they might have started sleeping together solely out of conversational exhaustion.

Robert Jackson Bennett, City of Stairs, 2014

[professor-cold-ramen]

Fantastic Four (1961) #11, Lee/Kirby