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pridepages · 8 months

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Give and Take: A Power Unbound

I finished A Power Unbound by Freya Marske. I have thoughts...

Here there be spoilers

What do we know about love?

No, seriously, I'm asking. The more stories I hear--both real and fictional--the less sure I am that we have any idea what it is we're talking about.

Because love may be patient and kind...

But it also might be dirty degrading sex and someone to argue you into submission.

Meet Jack Alston and Alan Ross: the last couple in the found family of disaster gays trying to save the magical world in Freya Marske's The Last Binding trilogy. The third volume, A Power Unbound, centers the love story of Jack and Alan amidst the final confrontation that will decide the fate of the magical world.

(I actually find the magic and politics the least interesting thing about these books, so let's stick to kinky sex and power dynamics.)

At a surface level reading, Jack and Alan are an opposites-attract trope. Jack was born to power and privilege in every sense, titled and magical, while Alan scrambles to survive in a world where he literally repels power (both figurative and literal). Rather than fall into the temptation of a beauty-and-the-beast narrative or a cinderella story, Marske has the two of them lean into their inequality.

They get off on power struggle.

These two have the kinkiest role-play I've seen in traditional publishing. Full credit to Marske for writing a romance that says: "You can have all the deviant sex you want between safe, sane, consenting adults." (A radical notion when we're reluctant to increase the perception of gay sex as 'deviant,' but seriously, fuck respectability politics!)

But the mastery of character development here is how the push-pull of their chemistry translates outside of the bedroom.

When we first meet Jack Alston in book one, he's cast in a more villainous light. He's nasty and hurtful to his ex, Edwin Courcey. It would be easy to write Jack off as simply cruel, but from his perspective, the whole dynamic translates differently.

Jack is a "mean friend." His love language is to tease, to bait, to skirmish. He grew up jabbing his way through life, all knees and elbows. But every time he tried to draw Edwin out...he only ended up pushing him away.

It couldn't be more different with fiesty Alan. "They fit in ways they shouldn’t ever have fit. Even when they fought, they fit–there was no mockery falling on soft, malleable ground…Only the knowledge that any volley would be met and thrown back, brighter and better."

Jack and Edwin were fundamentally wrong for each other, their chemistry toxic. By contrast, Alan understands the love language of insults and banter. He's strong enough to take it.

But strength and weakness are their own sort of power, and both Jack and Alan are keenly aware of it. During one of their intimate scenes, Jack cuts the moment short because he realizes they are not in a moment of mutual pleasure. "When I fuck, it's because it's what I want. Not because I'm punishing someone, or too angry to be safe." Nor will he let Alan turn their intimacy into self-harm, refusing to be "used...as a rod to make stripes on your own back."

It's a critical piece of self-awareness. Jack knows he has a responsibility to use his power with the utmost control to create mutual pleasure and do no harm.

If Jack's journey is one of learning how to share power, then Alan's arc is about learning how to accept it. "Size and strength, station and wealth. All the advantages possible," Alan marvels as he looks at Jack. "Do you know how hard it is to believe someone won’t use it against you? To put your heart into someone’s hands knowing that?"

Alan may like to play at being overpowered, but that play is a consensual illusion: he knows that at any time he can voice the safeword and end the game. When it comes to sex, he can maintain control. But you can't safeword out of falling in love with someone. "Alan had never needed to lean on anyone. It was intolerable that he now kept turning out the pockets of his soul and finding caught in their seams the desire to let someone take his weight. The desire to be held, even kissed."

It's safer to lock yourself up: to stay in control by keeping the rest of the world out. But you can't have love without putting your innermost self on the line, making yourself as vulnerable as possible.

To take of someone else, you have to give everything of yourself.

I don't think it's a binary switch. The ways and means of how we create a give-and-take change depending on the people involved. Some people need soft and gentle love. Some need bright and sunny love. And some people need to be "kissed like an argument. Alan slid his hand to the nape of Jack’s neck and argued fiercely back."

All of them are good. Because all of them have the power to give and take what we need...and what we want.

Jack can be "masterful in the bedroom" and "take your heart between my ribs and guard it like my own." Alan can be a fighter and submissive, can hold his own and still want Jack to "kiss me until you know me, and unmake me, and love me anyway."

I don't know anything about love. But I think these guys just might.

When it comes to love, you'd better give as good as you get.

#a power unbound #the last binding #freya marske #mlm #gay #lgbt reads #queer lit

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gale-gentlepenguin · 2 years

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Do you have more ideas for your Alya and Lila arrival swap au?

(Yes I do)

(What if Lila and Alya swapped arrival times) Part 2

(Previous here)

-So what people would not realize is how much support Marinette needed at the early days. And when Lila is replacing Alya. Drama is sure to ensue.

-Stormy weather happens but with some changes.

-Lila is still good at lying to kids, so convincing Manon to go to the park was easy.

-The difference is that it’s Lila pushing to be in the photo shoot. Marinette hasn’t told Lila of her crush on Adrien, since Lila is pursuing him.

-Lila being more forward talking to Adrien. Adrien is polite but tells Lila he can’t just have anyone join the photo shoot.

-Marinette distracts herself by hanging with Manon.

-Of course Lila gets an idea to use Manon as a means in and offers to take Manon on the merry go round

-Stormy weather strikes and freezes then in.

-Ladybug and chat noir spring into action and Stormy weather is beaten like in canon.

-Afterward Lila’s plan works… sort of. Manon ended up being liked by the photographer and she ended up modeling with Adrien.

-Adrien asked Marinette if she would want to be in the photos, but this shyer Marinette declined.

-Adrien asks then how about a photo with a friend. Which lets Marinette get a picture with Adrien on her phone.

-Bubbler happens, But Tikki takes the roll of motivator. Lila is doing her own thing for a gift for Adrien.

-Lila and Chloe end up arguing over Adrien at the party. Causing Bubbler to get annoyed and bubble them both. Adrien realizes this is not a good thing and go help

-The scarf plot happens pretty much the same

-Lady Wifi doesn’t happen in this season since no Alya.

-Copycat doesn’t happen because no Alya to encourage Marinette to call Adrien. And ladybug is there to give Theo the autograph and keep Chat noir from being jelly.

-Mr.Pigeon does happen. Lila finding out Marinette is a designer and offers to help. Adrien’s encouragement convinced her to do it. Lila notes that Marinette might have a crush on Adrien. But holds back mentioning it.

- Pharaoh does happen but without the plotline with the history book doesn’t happen. Lila gets kidnapped then ditched. Ladybug saved her. So Lila gets done gloating in about meeting ladybug

-pixalator is the same except Lila is much more pissed since Chloe made her jobs the worst.

-Evillustrator happens, Lila of course pretends to be sympathetic to Marinette. Aside from that she also tries to pair up Marinette and Nathanael since she figured out he had a crush on her. Though this doesn’t work. The marichat is the same.

-Rogercop is virtually the same, but Lila is the one blamed.

-Timebreaker is the same, Puppeteer is basically the same, but no lady wifi. It was bubbler instead.

-Reflekta is the same but Lila tried taking more credit for the photo idea. But everyone knew it was Marinette.

-Kungfood happens, but Lila does use this as a chance to invite Adrien. They both go Lila saying that two translators will be better than one. Adrien being the actual translator helps more. Lila and Chloe butt heads allowing for Marinette to get closer to adrien

- The mine, Guitar villain and Antibug are basically the same. Same with Lady fragrance (except Lila also tries to be buddy buddy with the prince)

-Animan happens but not exactly. So Adrien does try to set up Nino and Marinette. Lila overhears about the idea and decides to help set this up too. This ends up failing as similar to canon, Nino ends up saying he had a crush on her friend. Which Lila doesn’t even accept. So it’s a harsh no. Lila even spills that Marinette has a crush on Adrien and she was hoping that she would use Nino to move on. And Nino sees Lila’s more callous side, knowing the girl is into Adrien decides that his bro deserves better girls. And also Nino does come to appreciate how actually kind Marinette is. Adrien offers to help after but Nino declines, saying that yes he thinks Marinette is a sweet girl but is more Adrien’s type. Which Adrien was a bit surprised by.

-Darkblade happens, but with Lila saying she will run instead of Marinette. Lila having Marinette be her assistant. With Lila being the competition, Sabrina went to investigate Lila. Interestingly enough it was Marinette’s leadership that swayed the votes and Marinette ended up elected. Lila was fuming, but hid it, saying she will help her out.

-Horrificator, Lila was the actress in the film instead of Mylene. Mylene still ended up scared of the mask and ruined a shot. Thus having her run off. And things go on relatively fine until the supposed kiss scene. Chloe gets into a big arguement over it with Lila, in which the Class got annoyed with both of them and told them to discuss it outside. Nino suggested Marinette takeover the roll as Lila and Chloe will be arguing all day. The class agrees.

-The kiss does happen by the way, chloe and Lila are the victims of Horrificator.

-The rest of the episode happens, with Lila losing her voice so Mylene takes over the role now brave.

-and that takes us all the way to Volpina. Which I think deserves it’s own part

#miraculous ladybug #ml #ml what if #Alya Lila arrival swap #arrival swap au #ml au

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witchcraftingboop · 1 year

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Hi! May I ask which are some good super starter or basic grimoires? I tried Agrippa and just...it didn't go in...i have the Picatrix but I honestly think I'll just get the same result, it's way above my head. Is there anything simple i might "get" or should I honestly just accept it's not for me and move on? Thank you!

Hey, so I have this post right here that goes over why no grimoire that's worth learning from with the intent to practice it through is going to be classified as beginner/starter/etc. So I'm not going to rehash that part.

As for "getting" Agrippa, I think it's important to remember that it's an encyclopedia. As such, when you're beginning to explore grimoires, it's best to use it as a reference book. Can you use Agrippa as the foundation of your own practice? Yes, but unless you're already familiar with occult concepts and topics, it might require far more than one or two surface readings to fully digest what it's talking about.

So since it sounds like you're newer to grimtrad circles, I have a few books that I think might help build that foundation without all the dense walls of text and jargon to read through (though please bear in mind that I struggle to remember what is/not common knowledge even in mundane matters, so if some of these are a bit trickier to navigate, feel free to blame it on my incompetence):

A Deed Without A Name by Lee Morgan (staple)

Conjuring Spirits by Miller (Miller's work is v good)

The Black Arts by Richard Cavendish (read critically, don't accept everything blindly)

The Hermetic & Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus - Waite & Paracelsus (denser)

Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in Greek and Roman Worlds

Elucidation of Necromancy

Celestial Intelligences by Kaminsky (denser)

Wortkunning

Some books that I worked with or through that seem easy enough to bring to real life application, with the right dedication and mindset:

The 6th & 7th Books of Moses

The Sworn Book of Honorius

The Book of Oberon

Seven Spheres & Gateways: Through Stone and Circle (1 book) & Through Light and Shadow (different book) - best combo, anyone can practice these really

Keys of Solomon & Grimorium Verum & Secrets of Solomon - solid combo

The Goetia of Dr. Rudd (a particular fave)

The Complete Mystical Records of Dr. John Dee (learn a bit of Latin first or have a solid translator on deck)

Greek Magical Papyri (PGM) & Greek and Egyptian Magical Formularies & Techniques of Greco-Egyptian Magic - best combo, imo

Orphic Hymns Grimoire & The Hekatæon & Tartaros - another good combo

The 32 Keys

Azoëtia & The Black Dragon series

Book of St. Cyprian

I think it's worth mentioning that reading more is a great way to broaden your awareness of occult concepts and topics. If you look at how things are considered across different dedicated areas of study, then you're more likely to understand the foundations of said thing. One perspective is very limiting. It's better to seek out multiple. By reading from the first list, which should give a pretty solid introductory to broad concepts, and then sifting through the grimoires mentioned, you should be able - through applying yourself properly to the task - gain an understanding of how these things may function/interact in a living tradition, and then through applying them yourself gain the practical knowledge of how they actually are.

And as a closing note: I would personally recommend leaving behind the idea that you're supposed to "get" occult books. You study from them, you learn what you can from them, and through implementing what they speak of and experimenting with what interests you, you acquire that knowledge plus your own discovered knowledge and heightened awareness. In this way, you'll come to realize why I refer to my engagement with the occult as a study and practice.

Of course, if none of this was helpful, you can feel free to disregard my input here as the ramblings of a twenty-something nobody. Have a good one!

#boop's asks #grimtrad #occult study #magic theory

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nutzgunray-lvt · 1 year

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An Attempt To Fly Under The Radar - Chapter 2

Chapter 2 is here! Struggled a bit with writers block, but I found that I really love writing from All Might's POV. I also couldn't help but throw a Psych reference in there, as well as a small nod to All Might's canonical 5/5 intelligence rating. Let my man be smart!

Izuku loved his lunches with All Might.

It wasn't just because of the fact that the Symbol of Peace spent one day a week sharing a homemade bento box with him (him! He made Izuku homemade lunches!). In general, it was just nice to spend some time with him outside of training. Sometimes, they talked about One For All, but other times, they talked about anything and everything - from the book series 'Internity' that he'd gotten the older man into, to how his classes were going.

"Present Mic was telling me about how well you did on your last English exam!" The older man said as he held his cup of tea. "You didn't hear this from me, but you were among the only two of your classmates to get both of his extra credit questions right! Great job, Young Midoriya!"

The praise felt nice (it always would, especially from All Might), and he felt his cheeks redden as he shrugged and took a sip of his own tea. "I've been reading some really interesting books, and one of them actually had the second bonus question in it!"

"It better not have been 'Internity'," All Might teased, grinning at his protégé. "You know I'm one book behind, and if I find out that you went back on our agreement and read ahead -"

"No, not at all!" the teen frantically promised, waving his hands in front of him, unaware that he was reacting precisely how his mentor had wanted him to. "I've been reading other books, I swear! I've been reading the third volume of a comic book series called 'Captain Hero' and another book called 'A Treatise of Human Nature'! The second bonus question was from page forty three of 'A Treatise of Human Nature,' and the quote we had to pick the correct translation from was: 'Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them.' If you really think about it, that can be applied to the fundamentals of heroics, because a hero shouldn't only save people because that's what they're factually obligated to do, but rather because it's the right thing to do. It falls in line the four virtues as well, as justice is the main virtue a hero should have -"

"Man, no one is better at spouting word vomit than you, kid!" All Might cut in with a laugh. "You sure One For All didn't enhance your speaking ability along with your strength?"

Friendly ribbing aside, as Izuku sheepishly stopped his ramblings and looked up at his mentor, he noticed an unreadable expression on his face. It was the same one he had after he rescued both him and Bakugou from the Sludge Villain last April, and the same one as when he offered to train Izuku to receive One For All that same day.

It said that he saw something in him, something no one else had bothered to see up until now. Something he wanted to help nurture and develop.

"Sorry. I didn't notice I was mumbling again," he mumbled, staring at his lap. "Everyone's gotten onto me about it -"

All Might shook his head and waved him off. "Don't apologize, my prince of nonsense!" He still had that look on his face, and Izuku wasn't sure how he felt about it. "It sounds like it was a really interesting read for you, and it's great to see you so passionate about your studies! Why don't you let me borrow it sometime, and we can bounce some ideas off of each other?"

Izuku immediately nodded, an excited smile growing on his face as the bell rang, making it falter just a little. Realization that he'd have to get back to class and assume his mission of staying under the radar hit him hard, and he slowly set his tea cup on the table and got up, brushing off his pants. Was he stalling? Yes. Would it make him late? Probably. Did he care at the moment? No. He loved these moments with his mentor, and it was up to him to make sure to never take them for granted.

"Sure! It's in my backpack, so I'll lend it to you after training today."

All Might beamed at him, shooting him a thumbs up as he also stood and led them both to the door.

"Sounds like a plan, my boy!"

One Day Later

Toshinori was stupefied as he sat in the teacher's office and flipped through the book Young Midoriya had lent him. 'A Treatise of Human Nature' was an absolute behemoth to read through - 480 pages, with Present Mic's bonus question being on page forty three as stated - and it was littered with post-it notes containing annotations and fleeting thoughts digesting the text, annotations and fleeting thoughts that were surprisingly right on the nose.

This was easily a university level piece of literature, and his fifteen year old protégé had broken down the text to something he could understand and applied his own opinions to it, opinions that could easily be tied back to the original work. Clearly, the work had hit home for him… but this was a university level piece of literature. The green haired boy was a first year high schooler who wouldn't even be taking Philosophy until university if he chose to attend.

Clearly, Young Midoriya was smart.

After getting to know him and even after just meeting him, Toshinori figured out his intelligence pretty quickly; his analysis notebooks were proof enough. His point had only been reinforced by his grades once the school year started - fourth out of twenty in a curriculum as advanced as UA's Hero course was nothing to sneeze at. But yesterday during lunch, as he listened to Young Midoriya dissecting this book like he had read through it a million times (he hadn't - the spine wasn't worn down enough for that), he got an inkling that maybe his boy was even smarter than he initially believed.

But how -

"What do you got there, All Might?"

The Symbol of Peace jumped as he turned around to scowl at the sudden intrusion into his personal space. The source - Present Mic - cheekily grinned at him as he sat at his desk across from him, Aizawa following behind. Nearby, he could hear Midnight and Cementoss's voices approaching as well.

Well, the alone time was fun while it lasted.

"Dammit, Mic," Toshinori muttered, closing the book. "Do you really have to scare me like that?"

"It keeps you on your toes!" the younger man said with a shrug. "And besides, it's not my fault you make it extremely easy and fun for me to want to keep doing it!"

Trying to fight the fond smile growing on his face, he passed the book over to his colleague. Present Mic could certainly be a lot to handle at times, but Toshinori really liked him both as a colleague and a friend. The man just radiated good vibes and positivity, making it near impossible to stay annoyed at him for too long.

"To answer your question, I borrowed this book from Young Midoriya," he explained. "We were talking about his latest English exam, and he had some pretty interesting insights about that second bonus question you gave. It came from this book."

The younger blonde made grabby hands towards it, eagerly flipping through it when he got his hands on it. He had told the older man that he'd seen the inspiration for his bonus question in the paper, and he hadn't really expected anyone to get it right. He had been pleasantly surprised to see both Young Yaoyorozu and Young Midoriya get it correct and plainly said as much while they graded papers together. But as his eyes darted across the annotations written down, his usual easy-going grin slowly morphed into an expression of awe. He let out a low whistle as he closed the book and handed it back to him.

"Well then…" he said, clearly at a loss for words as Toshinori set the book to the side. "Wow… I mean… I had my suspicions about the little listener, but -"

"Wait, 'suspicions'?" The older man asked, maybe a tad too overprotective as he narrowed his eyes ever so slightly. "What are you talking about?"

"Haven't you noticed, All Might?" Present Mic incredulously responded. "Midoriya's smart, like really smart."

Toshinori nodded slowly, not really sure of where the Voice Hero was going with this. "Yes, I have noticed Young Midoriya's intelligence -"

"No, I mean he's really really smart," Present Mic insisted, looking a little impatient that he was being so slow on the uptake. "He's like a little curly haired sponge when it comes to English grammar structure, and you should listen to the way he compares and contrasts it with Japanese grammar structure! Honestly, some of the insights he's told me about are things I saw when studying for the Praxis test!"

"Yeah, the kid's good at English. What's the big deal? Are you just happy to have a student who's actually interested in your class for once?" Aizawa asked, looking and sounding thoroughly unimpressed as he kept his eyes on his computer screen.

Ouch. That stung, and that comment wasn't even directed towards Toshinori.

He saw the split-second hurt flash across Present Mic's face before he immediately masked it and continued on.

Hmm, interesting.

"The big deal is that if he's this smart, why are his grades where they're at right now?"

At both men's confused glances, Present Mic clarified, "I'm not saying that being ranked fourth is bad or anything - it's great! But don't you think he could easily be ranked higher up if it weren't for his grades?"

The black haired man shrugged.

"Then he should study more," he bluntly said. "If he's as smart as you guys say he is, then his grades should reflect that. His Quirk control should reflect that. His decision making skills should reflect that."

The two blondes exchanged dark looks with one another, both silently deciding to ignore the third man from here on out. Their job was made easier by Midnight and Cementoss entering the room, taking their seats at their respective desks after greeting their scruffy colleague.

"Are you saying that Young Midoriya may be deliberately not performing to his full potential?" Toshinori asked, choosing to rephrase what he just heard in a much friendlier way.

Present Mic shrugged.

"Yeah, I mean what else could it be?" he bluntly asked. "I've heard him tutoring his other classmates in things that he'll get wrong on assignments - and it's not like he's telling them the wrong thing or anything. He's teaching them the right things, meaning he knows what he's talking about, but he doesn't apply that to his own schoolwork. If he did, his grades would be way higher, and it's not just me either! Did you hear about what happened yesterday in first period Math?"

The older man frowned and shook his head.

"Ectoplasm had them doing some Trigonometry, and he accidentally made a typo in the equation that he had them solve. He didn't notice it until he was already done writing it out, but he wanted to see if anyone caught it. It looked like Midoriya did, but the kid looked like he was being put in front of a firing squad. Like, he was terrified of pointing out the typo. What's even weirder is that when Ectoplasm checked up on him, he saw that he had the correct equation written down."

Toshinori frowned deeper.

"I'll admit that's strange, but you know how shy Young Midoriya is," Toshinori countered. "I'm not disagreeing with you on what you've seen and heard, but you know that boy avoids the spotlight like his life depends on it."

"Not when doing heroics," Present Mic countered back, leaning forward in his seat. "Not when placed in a life/death situation. You put him in a practical exercise, and his potential is just bursting out into the open. His deductive reasoning, leadership skills, and strategization is in a class of his own. In the classroom, however, he retreats into his shell. It's almost like he doesn't want anyone finding out about his academic potential."

The more he listened to his younger colleague, the more the older man couldn't avoid the realization that he was right. He'd always known that Young Midoriya was shy, but looking back, he saw that something wasn't quite right in regards to his protégé's intelligence versus his academic performance. Last year, Young Midoriya's grades had been pretty bad, putting him twenty seventh out of the thirty students in his class. Seeing both his schoolwork and his natural intelligence and drive, it made something in Toshinori not sit right, but with his boy being hesitant to elaborate on the matter, he let it go. He didn't want to push him into telling him anything he wasn't ready to divulge.

"Look, you knew him before UA, right?" Present Mic asked, not a hint of judgment in his voice. "Why don't you try asking him about it? He likes you, he'll listen to you."

"What about afterward?"

"We talk to the rest of his teachers, and depending on what we see and hear, we get that kiddo an IQ test."

#mha fix it fics #izuku deserves better

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acmoorereadsandwrites · 2 years

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Some things that have helped me (so far) on my journey to writing a novel

Caveat that I am not agented and am still writing. I'm just sharing what is helping me in case it might help someone else.

Writing a query after 10k. Nothing sucks more than getting 40k in and realizing that you don't actually have stakes. Or character motivations. Or a throughline. Or worse, all three are missing. If you are a pantster/gardener like me, it really pays to write until you've had a bit of time to get to know the world, plot, and characters and figure out what they are and what they are doing and then write a query. If you struggle to write it, you might need to pivot, especially if you realize all you have is events and characters passively doing things.

Be willing to let projects marinate. I'm not gonna talk about how many WIPs I have because that's a really embarrassing number. The amount of ideas marinating in the back of my head is even longer. When a project is just not working and you cannot force it, set it aside and give it more time. Come back to it when you're ready to tackle it; maybe you'll have new ideas and better ways to handle the subject matter or characters.

Writing short stories can be a great way to try things out. Want to improve your descriptions or combat scenes? Or maybe you really just want to get a better grasp on word choice and sentence variety. Maybe that idea can be developed further or maybe it's only meant to be a short story. Either way, the idea has been exorcised and you have a new project to develop your editing skills on on top of having worked on your other skills.

Do a reverse outline as you go. If you are not a plotter/architect, the idea of the outline can either be really scary or it can be counterproductive. If I write an outline before the work, I feel as if I've written it. The journey matters more to me than the destination and I lose all motivation if I have a finished, developed outline. Instead, I write a chapter and then jot down what the audience learns, what the characters learn/are revealed to have known, and the contents of the chapter. I also keep notes in a spreadsheet on characters, motifs, potential changes, themes, and worldbuilding details.

This is to my fellow pantsters: do not let yourself become too inspired by your New Favorite Thing when it comes to the WIP. Do not do it. Do not let the themes of infertility in the Witcher invade your retelliing of Snow White if you never had plans for it to be there without seriously thinking it over. Make a note, let it sit, and decide later when you are no longer as inspired. Sometimes it really can work and is the right choice. Other times...no. Mermaids do not belong in every project no matter much you love The Little Mermaid. Save yourself the grief of taking hard pivots you have to undo at a later date.

Not keeping everything in my head and writing it down. Things still in your brain are beautiful and perfect and are still so very malleable. You cannot possibly keep track of every aspect of your WIPs if it's only in your head and, worse yet, if you're anything like me, you cannot edit what you cannot physical see on the page. When it's on the page, then you can do the real work of figuring out if it actually works.

Regularly consume media from a variety of cultures, genres, and voices. Netflix has an incredible catalogue of works ranging from a Nigerian legal drama to a South African conspiracy teen drama to an Irish comedy about the Troubles and life under normalized violence to a South Korean historical zombie horror series. For books, there is a growing wealth of translated works from many different cultures and a sharp rise in diverse authors. Australia has it's own literary movements as does Japan and Brazil. There are more and more books by and for Queer and neurodivergent people. Even listening to music can help. It's important to see what groups outside of your own are doing in media and art, how they represent themselves and their identity/culture/history, and the kinds of stories they want to see and make. It might inspire you, but it's also a great chance to learn and help uplift other voices.

Reading. This is tied to number 7, but reading really cannot be understated. Read the age category and genre you want to write in. Read short stories professionally published online. If you do better with audiobooks, listen to audiobooks. Thankfully, more and more authors seem to be getting them.

Resources:

#writing #writing resource #writing improvement #writing life #writblr #writers of tumblr #amwriting #my posts

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pantoneyoongi · 2 years

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neon signs | we are not cut out for this

title ; we are not cut out for this pairing ; campus crush!yoongi x campus crush!you

notes ;

this is part of the neon signs drabble series, where drabbles are released in random order (but listed chronologically in the masterlist!)

series description ;

namjoon doesn’t think it can get any clearer outside of yoongi building a giant neon sign saying i have the absolute biggest crush on you but apparently, book smarts don’t exactly translate when it comes to you and your massive crush on min yoongi.

(alternatively: namjoon and hoseok try for three years straight to get you and yoongi together.)

word count ; 2.7k

tags ; halloweekend, drinking, is it clear yet that i’ve never been to a single frat party, pls go to masterlist for more / general tags

in case anybody asks, namjoon is always right. he was right when he told you not to eat the questionable fish sticks, he was right when he said you were never even once going to use the (super cute!) planner you bought for college, and he’s right about the fact that not a single one of you should’ve gone to this party.

first of all, it’s a halloween party. the first night of halloweekend, where hoseok said we have to go, it’s a part of the college experience, so you all managed to scrounge together a costume because it is really hard to say no to hoseok when he’s particularly insistent on something.

yoongi put what is probably the literal least amount of effort any human being could possibly put into a costume. he doesn’t even look altogether that different; he just looks like himself, but instead of regular blue jeans he’s in black jeans.

“what… exactly are you supposed to be?” you ask, scanning his all-black ensemble. he blinks back at you. his eyes shift a little.

“a stagehand,” he responds plainly.

your brows lift. “oh,” you reply lightly. (a future you who knows yoongi better and can read his tells a little more will realize yoongi was absolutely talking out of his ass. he straight up did not dress up, at all. but current you decides not to question it.)

the party doesn’t start off particularly poorly. you think you might be a little overdressed for it (what? it’s cold outside and you’ve never been to one of these before) but nonetheless you meet a couple already-tipsy people and make a few new friends who you’re sure will have no idea who you are by the morning.

it’s not until halfway past midnight that things start to go a little…

south.

you’ve lost sight of namjoon. yoongi’s lost sight of hoseok. but you still have sight of yoongi, and with a hesitant hand, you reach out to try and grab hold of the corner of his shirt (you’d yell instead, but you can’t hear shit over the sound of the booming bass. you were just gonna settle for miming, honestly), but then you see it.

or rather, them.

even with the music as loud as it is, you think you can hear yoongi’s groan, the way his hand comes up to massage the headache that, if he didn’t have one before, he definitely has one now. your jaw is on the ground and you kind of want to bury your face into yoongi’s back just to hide your own secondhand embarrassment.

namjoon has never been drunk before. he’s had sips of alcohol at family functions, but you’re fairly certain he has never downed drinks the way one does at a frat party. “i don’t feel anything,” namjoon had said after his first shot, which then led to a series of shots and the worst thing you’ve ever witnessed.

you’re not really sure how the shoddy table is holding him up. you’re actually a little concerned that he’ll either break the table or fall, neither of which you’re equipped to help with because namjoon is twice the size of you. “oh no,” you whimper to no one in particular. “oh, no.”

you want to scrub your eyes with bleach. you’re sure namjoon would too, if the usually composed man saw what he was doing right now, the obscenity of your best friend doing what can only be described as ‘shaking ass’ on top of a table, surrounded by a crowd of equally wasted people who are clearly enjoying the view. hoseok was standing on the table with him, but he disappears out of sight for you again when he sits down on the edge of the table, energy suddenly extinguished.

yoongi can still see him, though, since he’s taller than you. “oh god,” yoongi mutters. hoseok looks like he’s entering a third plane of existence, eyes wide and jaw slightly ajar.

it gets worse. namjoon’s voice booms through the crowd and you wonder if it’s too late to revoke your best friend card. “uh,” yoongi coughs, leaning down to reach you. “is he - is he doing what i think he’s doing?”

your hand wraps around yoongi’s bicep lightly as you tip-toe to talk back into his ear. “if reciting various philosophy theories while trying to throw his back out is what you think he’s doing, then yes.”

yoongi turns to face you. you stare back at him. he opens his mouth, then shuts it. then opens it again. then shuts it. with a sigh of someone who is left with no other choice, he grabs you by the wrist and tugs you through the crowd, releasing you only when you reach the table, both your heads tilted back to stare up at namjoon.

yoongi glances at you. he points to hoseok, then himself, then you, to namjoon. you grimace. you wish you could leave namjoon with yoongi, but unfortunately, the best friend title belongs to you. you nod.

yoongi melts into the crowd, headed towards hoseok. you watch your drunk-off-his-ass friend for as long as you can stand it, before you call his name, trying to get his attention above the noise both the music and himself are making.

“hey plato,” you yell. “or socrates, whatever, i don’t remember. can you come here please?”

namjoon crouches and thank god his haphazard bed sheet costume covers everything it needs to cover. “hi y/n,” he slurs, and you feel like you’re genuinely at risk of him tumbling right off the edge and you winding up crushed underneath him. you really wish yoongi had taken namjoon instead.

“come down, please?” you ask sweetly. you have no idea how to handle a drunk namjoon. drunk namjoon is not exactly anything like sober namjoon, apparently.

you thank every spiritual entity you can and can’t think of when namjoon slides off the table obediently. it’s a blessing that drunk namjoon is more susceptible to listening to you than sober namjoon is, as you grab onto his wobbly figure to keep him upright and not faceplanted onto the floor. though you get the feeling if he goes down, you’re going with him.

now that you have namjoon, the crowd is slowly starting to dissipate. you search the room for yoongi, entirely unaware of the curious eyes on you - if anything, you figure it’s just people wondering about namjoon’s next move, since he is still talking very loudly about philosophers.

you catch sight of yoongi. he’s kind of hard to miss, because - well - everyone’s caught sight of yoongi, it seems. the all black thing is working wonders for him.

for a moment, you just watch. there’s a crowd of people around both him and hoseok, and you think you might’ve only seen this scene in movies or tv shows, the way girls surround yoongi, batting their eyelashes at him, offering their help, but even to someone as oblivious as you, you can tell the offer is only to spend a little extra time with yoongi.

you’ve never really thought hard about it before - never had to - but the fleeting moments when your brain randomly registers that both yoongi and hoseok are very handsome locks in now, solidifying in your brain who exactly you’re friends with.

yoongi isn’t smiling anymore, ducking his head and nodding and trying to get through the crowd with a tipsy hoseok. if you didn’t know any better, yoongi might’ve looked annoyed by the attention, which only seems to make him garner even more.

but you know better. just a little bit. you know he’s just trying to calculate the fastest way to make it out of the crowd without being rude, but it translates into a stand-offish attitude with curt responses before his eyes find yours. you try to smile, but between the nagging feeling in your chest and the literal weight of namjoon on your arm, it looks a lot more like a grimace.

you see more so than hear yoongi say a few words, then he slips through, towards you. “trade,” he says, sounding slightly out of breath, and suddenly you’ve got hoseok’s arm looped over your shoulder, and namjoon is wrapped around yoongi. they’re sobering, slowly - but yoongi has to elbow namjoon hard in the gut to get him to jolt up a little, stumbling towards the nearest exit you can find.

you glance at yoongi as he leads the way out, and something about the way he looks over his shoulder at you sets off butterflies in your stomach that you choose to ignore. he’s just a little extra handsome today, that’s all. the definition of tall, dark, and brooding.

it’s an excuse you won’t be able to use for much longer, but while you still have a far from sober hoseok draped over you, that’s what you’ll settle for.

yoongi collapses onto the curb beside you with a loud exhale, drawing his knees up and hanging his arms over them. hoseok is passed out on the grass beside you, while namjoon is still up, stumbling as he wanders about, but you can tell he’s slowly sobering up. yoongi keeps his eyes on him though, making sure not to lose sight of him.

you sit in silence together, waiting for the uber yoongi had called for. you pull your knees up too, wrapping your arms under your thighs. even with the gloves on your hands extending up to your elbows, you still feel cold. yoongi doesn’t look much better, goosebumps raising along his bare arms.

“thanks for coming tonight,” he says suddenly, voice a little gruff. two months into knowing him but every so often you still find yourself adjusting to the way yoongi speaks, listening carefully for the undertones rather than the surface level. he doesn’t look at you, keeping his eyes trained on namjoon, but he continues, a little softer this time, “you really didn’t have to. hoseok’s a little…” yoongi trails off when he can’t quite find the words, nose scrunching. “well, he wouldn’t have forced you,” he settles on saying. yoongi finally turns back to you then, but the way he looks at you makes you wish he’d go back to tracking namjoon. there’s a flutter in your chest that’s getting a little too dangerous, a little too soon.

you shrug it off. “it’s okay, i wanted to come,” you reassure him. “he was right. it’s part of the college experience.”

“some things you don’t need to experience,” yoongi says dryly, and you laugh, earning a flash of teeth back when he grins. he leans back on his arms, heaving a sigh. “we are not cut out for this.”

you hide a smile. considering namjoon is currently explaining in intense detail to a shrub the concept of free will vs determinism, you’re inclined to agree. when namjoon wakes up with a raging hangover tomorrow, you have no doubt the first words out of his mouth will be, “i told you this was a bad idea.”

yoongi pulls your attention back, reaching over to pinch lightly at the cloth of your costume. “i didn’t ask earlier. what’d you come as?”

your ears turn pink, but you attribute it to the cold, and not the brush of his hands as he pulls away. “katara, from avatar,” you admit shyly. “but i didn’t really have much time to prepare, so i guess it’s not obvious.”

you slide your arms out from under your thighs, fiddling with the gloves. “i was hoping the gloves might keep me at least a little warm, but it only really helped for dodging all the sticky stuff inside. nobody told me frat parties are really…” you make a face. “gross.”

yoongi snorts. “yeah,” he agrees easily. he sucks in a breath between his teeth. “let’s not do this again. once is enough.”

“you didn’t try partying last year?”

yoongi glances at you through his peripheral. “i need hoseok to remind me to smile,” he arches an eyebrow. “somehow i don’t think parties suit me.”

“the girls in there would probably disagree,” you mumble under your breath off-hand with a tilt of your head. you don’t expect it when yoongi leans in closer, trying to hear you.

“hm?”

you clear your throat. “nothing,” you draw away, choosing to watch namjoon instead of focusing on yoongi’s proximity. you can still feel yoongi’s eyes on you, and suddenly you don’t feel altogether that cold anymore, cheeks heating from his gaze.

“you know,” he starts again, bringing your attention back to him. “i like this better.”

you blink back at him questioningly. “what’s better?”

the corner of one side of his lips pulls up, and his next words tug at your heartstrings.

“talking to you.”

the next couple weeks changes a lot of things for not only you, but yoongi, too. you don’t attribute it to the party (and neither does yoongi) - but hoseok and namjoon always have their ears to the ground, with the latest news in campus gossip.

okay - maybe just hoseok does. namjoon only knows because -

“if one more person asks me if i’m your boyfriend or if they know if you’re dating someone-!” namjoon accidentally tips over a bottle when he collapses onto the bench across from you, scrambling to grab it before it rolls off the table. you watch patiently when it inevitably does, namjoon nearly falling off the bench to grab it and place it back on the table.

he huffs. “anyway. as i was saying. people keep asking me about you, y/n.”

you raise your hands, shrugging. “i don’t know why. you’re the one that made all the commotion that night, joonie.”

“it’s because they think you’re cute,” hoseok slides onto the bench next to namjoon, nursing a cup of coffee. “people keep asking me for yoongi’s number, too.”

you pause at that. “there were a lot of girls around him that night.”

hoseok shrugs. “he was always popular in his major. lots of the engineering kids like him. but you know him,” he gestures towards yoongi who is crossing the courtyard to join you. “he’s a bit… scary looking.”

you turn your head, and true to hoseok’s word, yoongi’s expression is flat-lined again, bordering on annoyed. he has his hands shoved into his pockets and a beanie pulled low over his ears, wired earphones in. he looks unapproachable. he looks like someone who doesn’t want to be bothered, at all. he looks like the classmate you were sure was going to hate you for the rest of the semester, without rhyme or reason, just for existing.

but then he reaches you, and his expression transforms, a small smile forming on his face and his eyes lighting up. he tugs his earphones out, and swings his legs over the bench to sit next to you, hands pulled out of his pockets to rest on the picnic table.

“hi,” he greets softly. he doesn’t look so untouchable anymore - just cozy in his hoodie, happy to be around his friends. you can’t seem to take your eyes off him.

he swipes his beanie off his head, ruffling his hair a little. then, before you can realize what’s happening, he tugs the beanie over your head, making sure it’s snug over your ears.

“there,” he looks pleased with himself. “not so cold anymore.”

he throws the hood of his hoodie up in replacement of his lost hat, and smiles at you in that way where his eyes disappear, curving into happy crescents.

you’re in trouble. you know you’re in trouble. yoongi has half the campus on their radar; you can’t be letting the little things yoongi does tally up in your head, immortalize themselves into vibrant memories when they’re just habits that yoongi has. you shouldn’t put meaning into everything he does with you just because he happens to accidentally seem mean and cold on the outside when he’s actually gentle and warm. it’s not that he’s being special to you - he’s just being yoongi.

but when you’re not paying attention, too busy bickering with namjoon about something inconsequential (that’ll inevitably be a contention point for the two of you for the next three weeks anyway), yoongi sneaks glances at you. the stony expression he’s so well known for fades away, leaving just the faint outline of a smile and soft eyes that follow your every movement.

when yoongi’s around you, his default changes. there’s no need to remind him to smile - around you, it’s the only thing he knows how to do.

series masterlist ; neon signs

#yoongi x you #yoongi fluff #yoongi x yn #yoongi x reader #yoongi x y/n #yoongi #min yoongi #fluff #series: nsyg

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2d-dreams · 1 year

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Hi, and happy STS! (As usual, I am @writeblr-of-my-own, this is my main and apparently I can't switch them).

Everyone of us has recieved the influence of someone or something when we first started writing. That is either because we like someone's techniques and we imitate them to better our own, or we were unintentionally influenced by a piece of media or literature we consumed, even as kids. So, for today's question let's talk inspiration!

What is a piece of media or literature, an author, a concept that inspired you? Do you have a role model that you try to imitate a bit in your works? For example in the way they do descriptions, or in how they create settings!

FORGOT TO ANSWR IM SO SORRY

Well, when it comes to my Flatland writing, obviously I'm inspired by Flatland, but just in terms of idea.

My writing of flatfiction is inspired by Flat Dreams but not in a very orthodox way. Flat Dreams is good, yes. But not as a flatland fanfic. I very dislike seeing Flatland fanfics of the style of just shapes with limbs. Well, not dislike. They are wonderfuly written, but they aren't Flatland to me at all and I cannot experience them properly.

A Flatfic loses its essence of Flatland there. When an apostle is brought to 3d they recognize a 3d house as a 2d house. They have 3dimensionality and so the flatland is lost. It no longer makes sense that bumping into someone is so dangerous, the foundation of flatland in expecting perfect angle regularity resides in the fact that in the 2d world, you cant waste your time checking each angle of the person [you cant see the entire shape immediately], so assuming configuration by one angle brings forth the hate towards irregulars, an attempt to justify it beyond just "not perfect". The flavor of the arts of Sight Recognition, Feeling and Hearing and how the lower classes are practically blind, is lost.

I audibly sighed when I realized Flat Dreams was of this style. I liked the fic, but if you imagine "human" instead of "triangle", it is the same.

Flat Dreams inspired me, by the immense disappointment, to write in 2d. I still am not perfect, but i try. Yes, such a fic may not be the most interesting, 2d life is boring, plain.. well, more like.. PLANE. [this is a pun] but it is 2d.

I am also greatly inspired by xenofiction authors! i liked The Wild Road [my name Cy is from the book] and Watership Down and have many more xenofiction books to read. I am purely a xenofic writer. I find comfort in the nonhuman. I cannot bring myself to relate to or care for human or humanoid characters, i dont know why. I love the strangest xenofiction, like The Bees book that i have yet to find to read. Hence why I write the strangest xenofiction too, that of bidimensional shapes [The Arts of Being], insects [Insecta series], plants [They Whisper at Dawn], even of human body cells [yep. A story called Autophagia] though most are currently unfinish. My love of xenofiction literature specifically might have started before warrior cats, when i read of a childrens book called Alphabet Soup, where characters were letters with personalities based on their letter.

Human-book related, i did enjoy some human books. Childrens books. Two which are mexican and to translate their titles is waste of time. These were The Little Prince, Mamá es Alérgica and Una Noche para Bruno. These were what i can only describe as mundane fiction within my mind. Una noche para Bruno specifically. I love the details of the third one on just life. A childs view of the world. Actually, just realized what these 3 books have in common.. the way a child sees the world. Have i not been brought to a place near adjacent to xenofiction again?

#sorry bad wording critical spoons #asks

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seyaryminamoto · 9 months

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Hey! Not related to your story but rather to your native language. Do you’ve got any tips for learning Spanish in a (possible) fast way? Any sites or recommendations for learning techniques? Anything that makes it easier.

That would help me a lot. Gracias 🙏

Related to my previous ask. Any tips how to learn the right pronunciation?

For efficiency's sake, I piled both asks into the same one, haha.

In all honesty... learning a new language is kind of particular to each person. Some people respond to some methods, some to others. The most popular current method to learn a new language is Duolingo, I have parents who are unhealthily hooked on it (?) (okay but for real, they keep going to war with total strangers to stay in the top 3 of the diamond league or something?? who'd have thought my parents would join anything that feels like a battle royale game... certainly not me!). But for some people, it might be easier to take a proper class with human instructors rather than a green owl (?)

Personally, I learned English extremely early in life, which made it so I picked it up and never really put it down. The great, sophisticated method through which I learned... was watching TV in English as a little kid :'D I couldn't watch Disney shows in Spanish because we only had access to the USA Disney channel in my youth, therefore, if I wanted to enjoy my cartoons and my animated movies, I had to figure out wtf anyone was saying, and through a mix of asking my parents and my older sisters what each word meant, I somehow started picking it up a lot more than I ever realized I had.

This might sound a little impossible for you now since, yes, kids pick up languages faster than adults, and better, usually, since it becomes kind of instinctive to them. But it's not completely pointless advice: while I'm a HUGE advocate for watching TV shows in the original language they were created... I suggest that you watch shows dubbed in Spanish. Whether Latin American or European Spanish, you pick whichever accent and style you prefer, haha. But watch TV shows or movies, whether produced in Latin American countries or in Spain, or simply dubbed, and you'll be practicing while having fun! Put on subtitles while you're still not confident in your knowledge, it's wild how that actually helps you pick up words and meanings without your awareness. In this case, I bring up my years of experience being the weaboo I proudly was: I can understand a lot more Japanese than I realized simply because I've been watching anime in Japanese with subtitles since I was 11-years-old. That certainly helps in making certain things click in your head without your awareness. It's so real that when my mom started watching K-dramas, and made me watch them with her, I took to picking up a few simple elements of Korean structure, some basic words, obviously not enough to pretend I actually know/understand Korean, but enough that I was surprised to find that, with zero intent to learn the language, I still picked up a thing or two by instinct!

The other major advice is basically the same thing but a little more sophisticated and deliberate: read a book translated to Spanish. Preferably, a book you already know by heart. Find a translated version of any books you're really attached to... and keep your English copy nearby, too. If something is confusing? Take your English copy and find the same scene. Use a dictionary too in case you're confused about the exact meaning of the words. But when you're revisiting something familiar in another language, you pick up a lot of things, sometimes intentionally, sometimes not so intentionally.

I don't know if I had other ideas on how to help beyond taking a class or so, but for now, I think this should be a good starting point and my best advice based on my own experiences learning other languages. So... good luck! Hope you learn plenty! :D

#futuristicbelieverjellyfish #I am profoundly sorry for taking ten million years to answer this ask #because I drafted it #since I thought I had other things to add #and I don't even know if I did anymore #but here goes #tonight is answer all the things you can night #and this was waaaaay overdue #sorryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

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highfantasy-soul · 1 year

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So I have THOUGHTS (not bad ones, just 'hmmm interesting') about Mat's story in the finale. Book spoilers be ahead!!

So I've seen a lot of discussion about the holes in Mat's memories and what that means for how the show is changing that aspect of the books up. So in the books, the dagger eats holes in Mat's brain and he can't remember a lot of his life - like, his real, this incarnation life. So when in Rhuidean, he goes through the second stone archway and asks for the holes in his memory to be filled and the delightful Eelfinn oblige.

HOWEVER! This is something I think people talking about the tea from episode 7 are mis-remembering: those memories the Eelfinn give Mat are canonically NOT of Mat's past lives!! The tea seemed much more akin to the flicker-verse in book 2 when they use the portal stone - but even that isn't a direct translation as the portal stone shows you alternative paths in THIS lifetime, not your past lives.

And coming back to the Eelfinn - Mat distinctly remembers being on BOTH sides of a battlefield at one point. So two memories taking place at the same time - ergo, these are not his own past life's memories. It's theorized in later books that maybe these are memories the Eelfinn or Aelfinn have taken from various visitors to their realms over the years that the person traded away for some benefit or another and they just slapped them into Mat's brain - focusing on the ones from great generals over the centuries.

He doesn't remember the entire life, just parts of them - he remembers random dances, battles, and subconsciously knows the Old Tongue now.

I can see him still going through the archways (I really do hope they keep that in the show, maybe just giving him his prophesies for the future from Tear and his ashandarei, hanging scar, and medallion in Rhuidean) and just leave out the memory bit.

It actually works a bit better for me the way the show might have done his battle memories: I read his scene with the Heroes of the Horn as him remembering our Mat from the books as they indicated at the end that he'd done enough to become bound to the horn if he so chose. It's been theorized who book Mat was a reincarnation of, though never confirmed (to my knowledge), one of the most popular theories I think being King Aemon, last king of Manetheren and I think that would totally fit: Mat's past lives are of generals who perhaps struggled against the Dark, but eventually all held to the Light.

Having the blowing of the Horn give you your past lives' memories makes a lot of sense to me. Maybe he only temporarily got them, though since he's tied to the horn and so couldn't be 'called forth' since he was already there, they decided to give him his memories like the rest of them have to aid in battle and then they'll dissipate with the Heroes. We shall see.

But yeah, totally loved Mat's Horn blowing moment though shame on me for not realizing what he was saying in the Old Tongue!!!! I thought it was just a generic battle cry like he does in the early books and not a single brain cell in my skull recognized the words he was saying even thought I say them to myself VERY FREQUENTLY and want them TATTOOED UPON MY BODY!!!! Seriously, I have no idea how I missed registering what he was shouting - though it did seem an odd place to say it as "it's time to toss the dice" isn't really a regular thing to shout in battle, you need a bit more of Mat's story to understand why he'd say that - but if we're going with the reading that show!Mat has just remembered book!Mat's life, it makes sense that he'd pull out his old battle cry. Anyways, done ranting about how frustrating it was that I missed the most iconic of iconic wot sayings the first time around.

show!Mat: I love you. I like this possible iteration of his battle memories. Good soup. I would like more, please.

#wot on prime #wot show spoilers #wot book spoilers

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sabakos · 2 years

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so you appear to be studying Ancient Greek—that’s really cool and I have to ask, 1. why and 2. how

I am! Mostly out of necessity, because I'm also interested in ancient Greek philosophy, especially metaphysics, so I've been picking it up mostly as I go along reading the source material - I'm nowhere good enough at the grammar to read it on my own but I can usually recognize enough of the vocabulary to read the greek and english in parallel and get a rough idea of what it says. It's especially helpful when the english is really awkward, which is usually just a butchered translation / situation where it's hard to convey the exact meaning of the Greek in English. Also, I find that now that I know enough to realize how misleading the English can be it's almost impossible to read a translation again without having a million questions about what the text is actually saying, it's as if I never really read any Greek philosophy before so much as a bad interpretation of it.

As for the how, I don't actually know very much Greek yet, so I lean pretty heavily on Perseus to look up words in LSJ when I want to just translate a passage. I also occasionally refer to Greek: An Intensive Course by Hansen and Quinn, which is probably what I'll eventually sit down and work my way through if I decide to learn it "for real." If you want to learn it, that's where I'd recommend starting, it has a lot of translations exercises and goes through the finer details of unusual tenses and grammatical cases we don't have in English, noun declensions, etc. There's also a youtube lecture series by Harvard's Ancient Greek department that runs through that whole book. It's definitely what I would do if my primary interest was the Ancient Greek language itself.

I've mostly only gotten away with not doing that yet because I'm primarily interested in pre-Socratic philosophy at the moment, and most of the surviving fragments from anything before Plato are pretty short. They also often use rare words (or common words in weird, archaic ways) so half the time there's debate about what exactly some given word means anyway. So I haven't learned much "Attic" Greek really like I would through the book because the things I want to read the most aren't written in it. I'd absolutely need to do that before tackling Plato or Aristotle though.

For example, I'm reading the fragments of Parmenides' poem "On Nature" right now and there's a lot of words where the example reference (and sometimes the only use of the word) is... Parmenides himself. So i need to look it up anyway and even look at the etymology sometimes to get a better sense of what it's really saying. That's also where the grumbling about γίγνομαι comes from - "come into being" implies a much closer link to εἰμί/εἶναι, "to be" than someone in the early 5th century BCE might have intended. Or it only took on that later meaning because of Parmenides or interpretations of him. basically it's really complicated even with very simple, common words like that.

My tumblr url is another example of that kind of archaic word, other than the Philodemus poem I translated where I rendered it as "brittle" the only uses of it are two mentions in Hippocrates' On the Sacred Disease (i.e. epilepsy) and a byzantine dictionary of rare words by Hesychius. The few things like that I've actually gone and translated have been pretty good practice, but it takes a really long time - I think even after I could read that poem, for example, it took me a good 10 hours or so to render it in English so that it makes any sense. It's really worth it to learn though - there's a lot of structure, wordplay and, ambiguity in Greek poetry that just disappears in translation.

If you're also interested in philosophical works in greek, I've also found the philosophical lexicon by F.E. Peters pretty useful (though it's kind of dated) and also Beekes' etymlogical dictionary especially for older works and rare words. everything i mentioned is on library genesis too, I pretty much never buy books.

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lee-hakhyun · 1 year

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sorry for continuing to spam your inbox; i am very enthusiastic about the secondhand information i hear, and i love hearing your thoughts a lot. lemme know if it gets annoying, though!

last thing about the 41st round being an alternate version here like the 1863rd round leading to 1864

you see, the secretive plotter first tried to change things himself - but in the end, he was just revisiting a past he couldn’t change, thus continuing the cycle of regressors reliving their grief

but secretive plotter’s actions regarding the alternate 1863 is different. it’s different because he had gotten someone else to help change yoo joonghyuk’s ending

first han sooyoung, in order for her to ensure his death - the closest thing to suicide the secretive plotter could have, via the disconnected film theory. and then kim dokja, who was brought in out of spite, wanting to prove to himself and the reader that his presence changes nothing.

except it did change things. it created a world that the secretive plotter - yoo joonghyuk of ways of survival - had never heard of before. all because he had, whatever the intentions were, asked for help. and this theme of reaching out for help is actually echoed throughout the story; if none of the details are changed, it just becomes another stage transformation, but if there’s someone else, if you’re not repeating the same events alone… you could write a better ending

it’s even in the revision of the ‘world after the fall’. i never actually read it in full myself, but there’s a translation of the last chapter available online for free if you look for it. there, yoo joonghyuk makes a sudden appearance at the very end; as the story’s lonely protagonist jaehwan waits to die under a bookshop’s debris caused by an earthquake, he is suddenly saved by a character from the book he was reading while trapped. and when jaehwan bemoans that his rescue was only possible because of literal cosmic intervention, yoo joonghyuk responds;

“there are some things that we can’t change ourselves. it took me a long time to realize this.”

and here lee hakhyun is, a writer, brought in to rewrite the story of a wordline often spoken of as a tragedy, making decisions that neither yoo joonghyuk, han sooyoung nor kim dokja would have ever done.

god i wish i was in a position to pay for the chapters. i’m betting it’s delicious over there

noo anon i love hearing your ideas too keep talking!! oh that quote. things that can't be changed

and maybe things that can be changed by someone else. lee hakhyun's exclusive skill is literally one that rewrites, if there's someone who is meant to rewrite a story now it's him

lee hakhyun never knew kim dokja personally, and maybe because he didn't write orv specifically for him and having written so many settings for characters that never showed up in orv, he's clearly paying more attention to the extra characters, giving everyone in geumho station a chance to survive as for why, i think it's a difference in core values kim dokja and han sooyoung, prioritizing the ones closest to them over everything else and yoo joonghyuk + now lee hakhyun, while keeping those close to them also doing more to aid those who they don't know

it might just be my interpretation, but it's interesting and lee hakhyun ending up in cheon inho's body.. a man who did not care for other life at all. and the way he's constantly calling himself a villain even as he's trying to save people

i am so interested in seeing how lee hakhyun develops, there's so much that could be done with him i drafted something about this and never posted it but lee hakhyun is more 'just some guy' than kim dokja. his trauma stemming from him being just so normal, and the specter in the phantom prison saying there's nothing in him there's something there about him inciting himself as other people to act as them, and him using kim dokja's story in his trauma, i just can't put it into words yet

authors ending up in their creation and having to deal with their own world,, (i love you too shang qinghua)

#orv side story #orv #orv spoilers #really need to read twaft sometime #i got distracted a few times (understatement) so i jump around a lot #probably lost my train of thought a few times #ask

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