#it's from her essay on Edgar Allan Poe

[a-ramblinrose]

“We do not think of it every day, but we never forget it: the beloved shall grow old, or ill, and be taken away finally. No matter how ferociously we fight, how tenderly we love, how bitterly we argue, how pervasively we berate the universe, how cunningly we hide, this is what shall happen. In the wide circles of timelessness, everything material and temporal will fail, including the manifestation of the beloved. In this universe we are given two gifts: the ability to love, and the ability to ask questions. Which are, at the same time, the fires that warm us and the fires that scorch us.”

― Mary Oliver, Winter Hours: Prose, Prose Poems, and Poems

[eerie-night]

i always like stumbling across fic rec lists so i thought about compiling a list of some of my favorites and linking the tumblrs of the authors (but if i cant find them ill link twitter or ao3) bc theyre all fucking awesome

BSD

and all i loved, i loved alone- @featherxs

“An ability?”

— on the past, present, and future of one Edgar Allan Poe.

SOOOO GOOD!! its what originally got me so into bsd and its such a good reread too

(don’t) stop the rain- miniekooki

Akutagawa Ryuunosuke finds himself taking care of the Twain family after an unfortunate turn of events.

And he also finds himself considering Mark Twain as more than just an annoying prick.

(ALTERNATIVE TITLE: the domestication of akutagawa ryuunosuke)

i loveeeeeeeeee this and how it goes about describing the family its sooooooooo good

Haikyuu

as bright as a blackhole; and twice as dense- cereal_whore

“Kageyama’s being bullied,” Yamaguchi grits, expression steeled.

Tsukishima lowers his book quietly, and stares, eyes wide.

“As if he has enough social competence to realise he’s being bullied.”

“Tsukki, please.”

Meant to be 5 times Tsukishima accidentally and very reluctantly saved Kageyama from his own social ineptness, and one time Kageyama does the same for him, but we ran into problems bc OP can't count.

(or: everyone is srsly stressed over kageyamas existence, but kageyama, despite having the common sense of a Five Minute Crafts video, is like those buff himbos within the tsundere category. so he somehow ends up wholly unscathed throughout this shit, while everyone else doesnt)

tldr: kageyama lacks forethought, and everyone but him suffers the consequences of it.

i eat this shit up omg omg its great its funny and it makes my day better read it

but not for spring to well up- tookumade

Miya Brothers

Sellers & Buyers of Antiques & Curiosities

Suna Rintarou squints at the small sign attached to the front door of the brick shopfront.

He wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting. Something flashier? More brass? The Miya brothers could do with a pot plant out the front. The shopfront has one single large window that’s covered by a plain white curtain, so maybe they could open that up and have some of their antiques and such on display so people get an idea of what they buy and sell. Maybe a paint job for the door, which is the most boring brown Suna has ever seen. There is nothing he can say about it—it’s not nice nor ugly, it’s just boring.

Or, maybe Suna could stop giving any more of a damn about this shopfront and just get his appointment over and done with.

After ending a relationship with a fiancé, Suna returns home and tries to heal from heartbreak. Here, he finds friends in the form of the Miya brothers, and learns patience, forgiveness, and what happiness means to him.

this sounds repetitive but…..SOOOOOOOO GOOOOOD i love the emotion and how it deals with sunas ex and like everything about this fic is gold

JJK

“To Chase”- @diggingupgrave

Megumi has never thanked the man who raised him.

god…no words except read it you will not regret it

FE3H

A Fair Day’s Work- featherhearted

“I may have some coffee in the place for you,” said Prime Minister Aegir. “Let me show you how much better I have become at brewing it to your taste.”

“If you insist,” said Minister Vestra but he sounded pleased. To Delarivier, who had literally made it her profession to attune herself to his tone (usually ranging from sort-of-murder-y to extremely-murder-y), Minister Vestra sounded very pleased indeed.

Ferdinand and Hubert's long-suffering aides figure out a way to work fewer hours.

im a whore for outsider povs and this one takes the cake and does laps around my brain when i try and sleep

TMA

a glass essay- fairbanks

Right out of university Jon's run out of time to run from the Web. The only way he knows to escape one domain is to give yourself to another, and he's always been good at being alone.

He really wasn't imagining the Lukas family would take him in at all, let alone arrange him to marry some smarmy ass named Peter Lukas.

yet again something to reread till you memorize every word and still cant get enough

now for authors that i recommend HIGHLY and a fic or two from them:

@blackkatmagic

i recommend everything shes written but my top favorites currently are:

Cor Cordium

Fox dies. He wakes up. And then things start getting weird.

its so so good and kats soooo good at characterization and descriptions and could prob make paint drying interesting

out of night (out of nothing)

It's the duty of the Temple Guard to keep the Sacred Spire, the Force nexus at the heart of the Temple. Feemor's always done his duty gladly, kept it safe, kept the light burning. Order 66 changes everything. Changes him. Changes the Spire, too.

Hevy, Cutup, and Droidbait are just caught in the currents and trying to make the most of their second chances, but an unstable Jedi and new powers don't make anything easier.

the concept is so cool and the execution is even better she could probably sell me air and id go crazy for it

trade your heart for bones to know

A week after an attack that nearly killed him and his son, Jaster Mereel finds Mostross dead on a battlefield. His killer is a Jedi, grievously wounded, who Jaster takes into his care. By Mandalorian tradition, Jon Antilles owes him a life-debt, and Jaster is cunning enough not to let such a thing slip away.

It's meant to be an entirely political arrangement. It doesn't stay that way for long.

not to sound like broken record but god this is fucking fabulous

i totally recommend checking out ALL her works but these were the first ones i thought of out of the ones that are currently updating

@x-authorship-x

she has written sooo many good fics im just going to recommend my favorite series and you can go from there

Eyes

Shisui is way too strong to have his eye taken by Danzo

He's the only one smart enough to master the simplest of techniques to legendary proportions

He was sweet and kind and, despite everything he'd seen and all the things he'd done, he wasn't afraid to hope. To dream for something better.

A series for Shisui

the characters, the plots, the descriptions all add up to something amazing

llamallamaduck

do yourself a favor and check her out, you will not regret it. unfortunately, i will restrain myself to only recommending one fic but DO check the rest out

With no root in the land —(To keep my branches green)

He is not a human and he is not a beast and he is not a creature, but he is. He is a being, then. A being that changes and learns and lives. He thinks his name is Ani.

this is the fic that i first read by llamallamaduck and its a really good introduction to how fucking amazing she is at doing crossovers and writing in general

i hope you enjoy these as much as i have :)

[dead-dog-dont-eat]

(same anon about the zestious ship)

Ooh! I wanna learn abt her! Tell me /pos

sure thing!

-Her name is Marzanna Morde (she took Zestial's last name since neither Pentious nor Zestial are married)

-She has two middle names, first one being "Pen" (Pentious thought that since he was her daughter she would take a part of his name) and the second being "Allan" (like from Edgar Allan Poe, the poet/writer; I hc that Zestial loves to read his works and wanted to take the middle name). Though, they figured she would have the option to interchangeably use her middle names.

-She's aroace and uses she/they pronouns (I originally wanted her to be aroace and have a second orientation, like lesbian or bisexual, but I'd figured she'd mostly stay as aroace aaaand also b/c I want more aroace ocs)

-Her name comes from the Slavic Goddess, Marzanna, who is the bringer of death and symbol of winter. But people call her "Marza" for short and as a nickname. (Zestial mostly gave her that name cuz he is SUCH a gothic edgy boy imo)

-I would imagine that Marzanna and Pentious would have the same dynamic as Charlie and Lucifer - just be a spitting image of each other and just being precious like if Pent literally gave birth to her (ik snakes don't give live birth, and lay eggs, but yknow im saying it as an expression)

-Even though she's Pentious' kid, she is DEFINITELY also Zestial's kid as well. Her personality aspects of Zestial would also overlap some parts of Pentious' characteristics in her. I would imagine someone would try to pick on her (like verbal teasing or sarcastic comments on how her taste in fashion is "so good"), of course, she knows highly aware that they're trying to be bullies to her, and she would do a full-on, essay-like psychology analysis on why they're being mean to her as well as doing Shakespearen-like insults--leaving her wanna-be bullies in a state of embarrassment or some times even crying (bc most of her bullies would be entitled or snobby brats)

-Even though she can take care of herself from entitled people, Zestial is definitely protective of her. Most people are VERY aware of Marzanna being the daughter of one of Hell's most powerful overlords and rather be smart to not harm her in any way. However, there are some stupid and naïve people who didn't believe it and would try to do so--only to immediately piss their pants when they hear Zestial's voice from behind them.

-While she does have Zestial's gentleman-like patience that she inherited from him, she wouldn't tolerate on Sinners and others talking shit towards Charlie (who she considers to be her Aunt since Charlie is pretty much her dad's closest friend) and her dad, Sir Pentious, since people are always mean to him in every aspect. Plus, when she's mad, she is just as scary as Zestial himself.

-Marzanna also views Carmilla as her Aunt as well since she is also her dad's friend as well. And she considers her daughters as her own cousins as well. Carmilla is just as protective as she is as a mom on keeping Marzanna safe and away from harm--even treating her like she is her niece since she loves her friend's daughter. Carmilla's daughters also view Marzanna as their cousin and Zestial and Sir Pentious being their uncles.

-Is so aroace that whatever comes out of her mouth as a respond to relationships is 100% relatable and funny. Like, imagine a gag scene where a couple (married, engaged or in a relationship) are fighting with each other because of something stupid, and the scene goes and shows Marzanna and Carmilla's daughters on a picnic blanket snacking on a charcuterie board and Marzanna comments: "And that, my dear cousins, is a prime example as to why I'm married to my own hobbies instead of other people." And Alastor (cuz aroace king 🔶💛⚪💎💙) would appear out of nowhere sitting next to them, midway of spreading some currant jam on a cracker with brie cheese, and reply: "HA HA! Two minds think alike, my dear!" Oh, and the representation; where as someone would ask, "Do you plan on marrying/dating someone?" And she would shrug and casually answer: "No, I'm aroace." And just go on with her day.

-Just like both her dads, she also partakes in hobbies and skills they have. Since she's Pentious' daughter, she is definitely skilled in inventing machines and other stuff including making blueprints of various architect--and Pentious would be so proud. Plus I would like to think that she likes to read gothic literature and books that her father Zestial owns, including poems and centuries-old textbooks about medical science and mythology.

-Lastly, her appearance: she definitely has fashion tastes from both parents. She likes to dress Victorian (mostly wearing masculine-presenting attire, not a fan of dresses) but when wearing them, she often goes with a darker hue of a color palette, like Zestial. She mostly wears blacks and reds like a typical vampire (since Zestial is technically a vampire, but more so like a spider and scarecrow), and other days she'll just wear black. Like being said, she does look like Sir Pentious--appearance-wise, but not in anatomy sense; she doesn't have a snake body like him, but rather bipedal legs, and she's also inherited Zestial's height making her taller than her other father as well. Her hood and eyes would DEFINITELY be that bright lime green color Zestial has; oh, and just like Zestial, she also has a second pair of eyes, but they don't appear unless she is really pissed off (like how Mammon's eyes didn't appear until he went full demon form).

[oleworm]

@girlmaturin tagged me! What were my six favourite books of 2023?

This is going to be a difficult one. First of all because I appreciate books for different reasons, it can be because I learned a lot, because it made me think about new things even though (or because of the fact) that it made me uncomfortable, or simply because it fits my aesthetic or thematic tastes. It wouldn’t be fair to pit completely different books against each other, but I’ll try to do what I can!

There’s also the fact that this is the year that I’ve read the most books in my life since I started counting them. Maybe not 100 but 96! You can laugh at me, but to be fair a lot of these were short books, or essays or short stories that I saved as an e-book and counted independently. I’ve been reading a lot of older books that I had at home or bought secondhand and it really makes me think that contemporary books are so big! It used to be normal to find lots of books that were 100-190 pages long about a specific topic or just because the author wanted to type out their thoughts. I don’t know how much the cost of publishing has increased, but it seems as if every book has to be definitive and huge in order to justify the expense.

1) The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe

I’m counting this as a book since I found it as an e-book on Project Gutenberg. I was a child the first time that I read it, so a lot of the implications went over my head. This time around I was fascinated by how it synthesises the ideas of the epoch—the insularity of the upper classes in a time of increased social mobility (Poe was, after all, an American) countered with eugenic fears of fixing unfavourable traits into a bloodline through repeated inbreeding. It’s fascinating that the text lays it out so clearly. There’s this line that stuck to me, about how the house of Usher never allowed any branches to grow too far from the trunk of the tree, and then there was this part when Roderick Usher describes the psychological traits that afflict the family—I say afflict because they are disturbing to him—not as a result of the circumstances of their lives, but a part of their inborn nature. It brought to mind the way that Vincent van Gogh described his depression to his brother, who also suffered from it. “The root of the evil lies in the constitution,” that is how I remember it, though I could be wrong because it was in translation and it has been quite a while since I read about the subject. It reminded me of that, and how people describe dogs with behavioural issues caused by poor breeding.

Anyway, a little insect encased in amber for the neuroses of an age!

2) The Silver Metal Lover by Tanith Lee

A sheltered girl falls in love with a realistic robot—you would expect a pulpy romance novel but this was so much more than that to me.

It’s a story about a girl that has been sheltered all her life and does not realise that she is being abused by her mother, who controls every aspect of her life by making her feel that she is too innocent, too stupid to make a choice even with such personal things as her interests or her physical appearance. There were some mean-spirited interpretations of this little book, calling it a poor littlen rich girl story. But rich girls can cry too!

But besides, the heart of the situation, beyond all the fantastic, futuristic aspects, is one that can happen to anyone, regardless of their socioeconomic background.

One thing that I like very much about Tanith Lee is her ability to join different genres and settings. For example, in this one she described economic inequality and labour issues caused by automatisation and at the same time had the socialite characters talk in a droll, misogynistic manner that is right out of Saki. But writing this review I realise that these are not elements that are discordant with each other, though superficially they appear to be. Of the popular writers I have read she is one of those who best understands that the long 19th century may well be even longer—ha-ha, historians, don’t kill me!

I found it funny to be reading this book at the height of the AI-debate, as one of its main plot points was the fear that artists had of being replaced by machines that could “create” new and better works from the wealth of artworks that had been made by human artists before. I’ll probably remember that, if I live long enough to see what happens later.

3) Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire, edited by Jehad Abusalim, Jennifer Bing, and Mike Merryman-Lotze

Before this year I hadn’t read any books by Palestinian authors, so when I saw that this book was being shared freely and that it had some names that I already recognised I thought it would be a good place to start.

The fact that so many people contributed to it was the main reason that I chose it, there are so many different points of view, everyone emphasises a different part of life in Gaza, their experiences with their family, their work, their fields of expertise. There’s university professor who describes not only the subject matter of his lessons, but also the difficulties faced by students whose classrooms and study materials can be destroyed at any moment. The architect talks about the settlement pattern in Gaza, and how families prefer to construct their own homes in a way that the extended family may continue to reside together, though logistically it is not always possible to do so. The student provides a narrative of her daily routine, and how everyone must plan their day around the water and electricity shortages, and what difficulties this presents to cooking, cleaning and studying, activities that a lot of us take for granted. Most of the writers talk about the anger and frustration of having to deal with borders and checkpoints, the separation of family and friends for years and decades at a time across relatively short distances in the Palestinian Territories, in Israel and neighbouring countries, as well as the loss of opportunities abroad when people are impeded from leaving or fear that they might be prevented from returning.

Somebody said that it wasn’t right that Palestinians should always have to humanise themselves to the eyes of foreigners, hoping that we might care. I agree, because it is true that we should care for other human beings without having every detail of their suffering described to us. This book has sad parts, parts that are extremely frustrating, but it has moments of fun and happiness too. And the authors wanted people to read it and remember, and I want you to read it too.

The publisher has shared it for free download here.

4) When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb

I listened to the audiobook for this one on the Platform Formerly Known as Scribd and have ordered a physical version to have at home. I was so sad when it ended!

I loved reading about Little Ash and Uriel, a Jewish demon and angel who leave their shtetl when one of the girls from the village goes missing on her way to America. The research that went into it made me want to read more about the historical period in which it was set, and it didn’t stay a resolution—I did end up reading a book about Jewish life in the Russian Empire!

As an immigration story, it made sense that one of the tensest moments in the book was the medical examination by the immigration officials—sadly, in many countries the discrimination of sick and disabled people is still a real problem, though I hope that it will change in our lifetimes, as it did with racial quotas. It’s sold as a Young Adult book but adults would enjoy it too, as it deals with complex issues in an accessible manner but without leaving them flattened.

5) The Idiot by Elif Batuman

As a reader of Russian literature I’m surprised that I didn’t find this book earlier! It was really funny and cute and you could tell how young Selin was supposed to be in this story. Like when she imagines her crush to be like a love interest in a Russian book even though they’re in the 20th century and he’s a completely different type of Eastern European just because his name is very similar to Ivan! There’s a very funny scene also where she talks with a psychologist about her mostly online relationship with this person and he says “Hm… He reminds me of the Unabomber,” and she gets all defensive about it because there is a kernel of truth to it, he is posing as this edgy intellectual and she does not truly know who he is outside these characters they have created in their epistolary world.

I love the way Selin talks about her friends and the books she reads, Elif Batuman really captured what it’s like to be that age, and it was refreshing to read a book about a girl where horrible things don’t happen to her and she can continue learning and being herself.

6) El miedo en el Peru, siglos XVI al XX, edited by Claudia Rosas Lauro

A series of academic articles about fear in Peru in the 16th to 20th centuries. What people were afraid of and what were the social, cultural, religious and political reasons that they might be afraid of a particular thing.

I am adding this to the list because of one specific article—it is introduced as being about the fear of one’s parents, but in particular it talks about a number of legal cases where people were attempting to leave monastic orders claiming to have been made to join under duress—either because they were underage at the time of their vows, or because they had been threatened with physical violence by their relatives, often their parents. I found it interesting, there is a clear parallel between being forced to join a monastic order and entering an unwanted marriage. The arguments that can be used are the same, that the person was too young to meaningfully consent, or only accepted to preserve a degree of bodily integrity. Many of these victims had been threatened, even with death, because the parents wished for their properties to pass on to another one of their relatives. Having taken a vow of poverty, a monk would no longer be entitled to it. It also happened sometimes that these young men would join a monastic order to escape violence in the home. There were other cases where it wasn’t a relative, but rather a priest or another religious authority that convinced a young person that he should take monastic vows, while being too young to understand them or not having received a proper explanation of the terms.

There were other cool articles, such as the one where the fear of piracy overlapped with the fear of heresy because most of the pirates that accosted the Spanish Empire were Protestants from Great Britain or the Netherlands, or the one about the people who chose or were made to starve to death under siege because of Royalist propaganda about the Republican army’s brutality.

This came out rather long… Because I haven’t been typing it directly on the computer where there are so many distractions. I ordered myself an AlphaSmart 3000 over the holidays, it’s an electronic typewriter that you can plug into your computer to transfer what you’ve written before. It’s very pleasant to type in, and it’s also satisfying to see how the letters appear on the word processor when the device transfers the text, it emulates a keyboard so it looks as if it were typing in real time. Don’t worry, I’m not being paid to advertise for a company that no longer exists. If people with similar tastes to mine found it fun or useful I thought I may as well try it out. So far I’ve written a story on this and half-way typed up a draft of a much longer one. Just make sure that if you use different languages on your computer that it’s configured to the English keyboard when you transfer text, otherwise strange symbols may appear!

I’m tagging @bacchanalium, @sifilide, @tetrachromate, @osmanthusoolong, @bogfox and @sherbertilluminated if they want to!

[ataraxiaspainting]

F A Q.

masterlist: it's in the works but not at the moment!

posting days: i'm trying to work on a more stable posting schedule for stories but i will most likely be answering inbox messages on tuesdays, fridays, saturdays, and sundays! mostly saturdays though.

tagging: feel free to tag me in anything! as long as the post in question does not do harm to me or others, of course.

writing history: ever since i was little, i've pretty much always had a love for making up stories and saving them on my laptop. i got into x reader works when i was in middle school i think... still am just as much into them now as i was back then.

art history: i've always loved to draw/sculpt too! i may not be the best at making art myself, but i have always loved looking at other people's works, especially paintings. my current pfp is actually a painting of ophelia from shakespeare's hamlet, done by alexandre cabanel.

music taste: i really only listen to classical and k-pop/j-pop, along with game osts. though my queen mitski breaks her way into my on repeat playlist multiple times a day. my favorite songs from her are buffalo replaced, i bet on losing dogs, i will, francis forever, my love mine all mine, i want you, stay soft, class of 2013, townie and last words of a shooting star. non-mitski songs are often either by red velvet, twice, king gnu, or kenshi yonezu.

book recommendations: i read a lot on days i'm not so busy, mostly reading thriller/horror stories. my main recommendations are notes from the underground by fyodor dostoevsky, i have no mouth, and i must scream by harlan elison, the cask of amontillado by edgar allan poe, the stranger by albert camus, the metamorphosis by franz kafka, uzumaki by junji ito, the talented mr. ripley by patricia highsmith, the collector by john fowles, misery by stephen king, coraline by neil gaiman.

favorite tropes: lovers to enemies, enemies to lovers, the reluctant hero, paying the price for victory, the mysterious neighbor next door, a deal with the devil, the unhappy ending, cults and religious extremists, mysterious things are happening, seducing an archenemy for an opportunity.

other fun facts:

-> i'm a criminology major.

-> i played a lot of instruments and sang a lot when i was younger. i'm trying to get back into it now. my favorite instrument to play was the electric violin and my favorite type of music to sing was choir-like osts like mourning from nier automata, lacrimosa from the one and only mozart, and song of the ancients from nier replicant.

-> i'm a huge animal lover. i often watch streams of horror movies, listen to video essays, or write while snuggling up with one of my dogs. i also often volunteer in community service, with most of it being either being at a shelter/adoption event or some sort of event involving a fundraiser in schools. i once happened to do an adoption event that happened to be fundraising more resources for schoolchildren, and it was one of the best moments of my life. got to pet a lot of animals too, and that made the time like ten times better.

CURRENT ANONS -> childe anon

this post will be edited/added to as life goes on.

[daincrediblegg]

Hello ❤️ Book ask game!

1, 10, 11, 48 👀👀

1.what is the best book you have ever read? So listen. Listen to me. I have been plugging The Vampire Tapestry to literally anyone who will listen to me ever since I read it. And I will do it again. I cannot express how hard to put down this book was for me (and for someone who is primarily a film/television consumer and an adhd bitch to boot? that says a lot). There are so many things about this book that make my brain go brrr from the atypical vampire narrative (featuring a dilf vampire- and you don't see a lot of those-whose condition is more biological than fantastical, but is nonetheless a complicated mess of a creature), to a really clever drawing back of the curtain and critique of the very genre it's meant to portray, and I literally don't think I'll ever be over it. I almost wanted to kiss my professor on the mouth for assigning this book (but I didn't). I still think about it constantly and I will never stop.

10. what book are you reading right now? I'm... actually reading several in a very asynchronous way. Of course I'm about 100 pages deep into the terror rn, I'm also working my way through May We Be Spared to Meet On Earth (collection of correspondence from members of the franklin expedition- which I'm certain was study material for some of the actors bc I feel like a lot of the letters in that are so clearly reflected in the characters on the show moreso than they are in the book- and honestly every single fucking letter from Francis Crozier is a heartwarming delight deadass). I'm not reading so much this semester but I'll be reading throughout the semester Miyazakiworld: A Life in Art (and it's had some really fascinating little anecdotes so far).

11. what book do you want to read but haven't? I honestly want to read more stuff from Miss Charnas. She fucking understood the assignment on so many levels with Vampire Tapestry that I really want to look into more of her. Ofc I have a ton of Jane Austen and Jane Eyre that are burning a hole in my bookshelf, and a little volume of the Lais of Marie de France that I want to take a more proper gander at. These. And so. SO. Many more. OH AND I FORGOT I also have been dipping my toes into historical erotica like Fanny Hall and it’s been tons of fun (and if anyone has some specific victorian recommendations I would LOVE to receive them- it’s VERY important lady terror research 😉).

48. what book would you give someone if they wanted a glimpse into your psyche? I really do hate to answer Edgar Allan Poe again BUT!!! in specific- I think anyone who wants to understand me and my approach to my writing and stuff? Look no further than The Philosophy of Composition. You wouldn't expect EAP to be such a brilliant essayist as he is but jesus christ I still think it may be the most fascinating and engaging essay I've ever read in my life. He articulates his points so poetically and so well and honestly? There's not a word in that essay that doesn't ring true for me to a lot of how I process things myself in my own writing- and things that are generally just great writing practice- like when I read it for the first time a few years ago I literally went "he's just like me fr" and I've felt soul bonded to the thing ever since. I also gave a presentation on it in my Gothic Lit class last semester that everybody really really liked (and of course. because I really REALLY fucking love this essay and this dude). And honestly I'd love to give that lecture again and I hope I get to.

BOOK ASK BAIT

[boygirloser]

after dracula daily my mom signed up for the edgar allan poe substack & even keeps up with the emails about other projects like podcasts... at this point shes literally one step away from discovering video essays im so scared i need her to be offline forever

[lotus-flower-writes-history]

The Unofficial Black History Book

Maya Angelou (1928-2014)

Trigger Warning - This chapter mentions s*xual assault, (Placed a guideline, just in case)

"You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them." - Maya Angelou

This is her story.

Maya Angelou was not just a poet. She was an author, historian, songwriter, dancer, playwright, performer, singer, stage and screen producer, director, and Civil rights activist.

She was born Marguerite Ann Johnson on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri. She had a difficult childhood. When her parents divorced when she was a child, she and her older brother Bailey moved to Stamps, Arkansas, to live with their grandmother, Ann Henderson. Her brother gave her the nickname "Maya," which she continued to go by.

Maya experienced firsthand racial prejudice and discrimination while she was living in Arkansas.

When she was seven, she traveled to St. Louis to see her mother and was raped by her mother's boyfriend. He was later jailed and then released.

When she spoke about the assault, her uncles banded together and killed her attacker. Traumatized and believing that her speaking about the assault caused a man's death, she became mute for almost six years and went back to live with her grandmother.

Maya has always been fascinated by the written word since she was a child. Throughout her childhood, she wrote essays and poetry and kept a journal. When she returned to Arkansas, she took an interest in poetry and memorized the works of Edgar Allan Poe and Shakespeare.

Maya moved back in with her mother, who was now living in Oakland, California, during World War II, when she was in her teens. She attended George Washington High School and received a scholarship to the California Labor School to study dance and acting.

She applied to join the Women's Army Corps during the war, but her application was denied because she had attended the California Labor School, which was rumored to have Communist ties. 

Maya was only 15 years old at the time, but she was determined to find work, so she applied for a job as a streetcar conductor. With many men leaving their jobs to fight in the war, women were able to fill their positions.

Maya was initially turned down because she was a woman of color. But that did not deter her, so every day for three weeks, she requested a job application but was denied every time. 

But this didn't stop her.

She eventually wore the company down, and they gave her an application. She stated on her application that she was 19 instead of 15 because she was under the legal working age. She was finally accepted for the job position and was the first African American woman to work as a streetcar conductor in San Francisco.

She was employed for at least one semester but then decided to go back to school. She graduated from Mission High School in 1944 and later gave birth to her son, Clyde Bailey 'Guy' Johnson. (He also became a poet later in his life.)

After graduation, Maya took on a bunch of odd jobs to support herself and her son. In 1949, she married Tosh Angelos, a Greek sailor who was an electrician in the US Navy. She adopted a form of his last name, "Angelou," and kept it despite their divorce in 1952.

Maya was very private about her marriages; she most likely married three times in her life.

Maya Angelou was well-known for her abilities as a singer and dancer, particularly in calypso and cabaret styles. Her performing career began in the 1950s. She was cast in a touring production of "Porgy and Bess" and later in the Off-Broadway production of "Calypso Heat Wave" (1957). She performed professionally in the United States, Europe, and North Africa.

In 1950, African American writers in New York City founded the Harlem Writers Guild to foster and support the publication of black authors.  

Maya Angelou joined The Writers Guild in 1959, became involved in the Civil Rights Movement, and was the Northern Coordinator of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a prominent African American advocacy organization. She even organized and starred in the musical revue 'Cabaret for Freedom' as a benefit for the SCLC.

Maya appeared in an Off-Broadway production of Jean Genet's 'The Blacks' in 1961, alongside James Earl Jones, Lou Gossett Jr., and Cicely Tyson.

Angelou spent the majority of the 1960s living abroad, first in Egypt and then in Ghana. She was working as an editor and as a freelance writer. During her time at the University of Ghana, she worked as a lecturer. While in Ghana, she also joined a community of "Revolutionist Returnees", discovering Pan-Africanism. 

She became close friends with Malcolm X as well. When she returned to the United States in 1964, she assisted Malcolm X in establishing the Organization of Afro-American Unity, which was later disbanded following his death the following year.

Maya and Martin Luther King Jr. were also close friends. When he was assassinated on her birthday, April 4, 1968, she stopped celebrating her birthday for years afterward. Instead, she sent flowers to Coretta Scott King, Martin's widow, for over 30 years until Coretta's death in 2006.

In 1969, Maya Angelou published 'I know why the caged bird sings', a memoir about her early life. Her friend and fellow African-American writer James Baldwin encouraged her to write her autobiography. 

As the first nonfiction bestseller by an African-American woman, her story of personal strength in the face of childhood trauma and racism made literary history.

It was nominated for a National Book Award, and while many schools tried to ban it due to the vivid depiction of sexual abuse, it was credited with assisting other Sexual Abuse survivors in telling their own stories.

'I know why the caged bird sings' made Maya Angelou an international star. It's been translated into many languages, has sold over a million copies worldwide, and continues to be her most popular autobiographical work. She went on to publish six more autobiographies.

Maya published a number of poetry collections, including "Just Give Me a Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie' (1971), which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, as well as several essay collections. She also recorded spoken word albums of her poetry, including 'On the Pulse of the Morning,’ and won a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album. The poem was originally written for and delivered at Bill Clinton's inauguration in 1993. 

She received another Grammy in 1995 and another in 2002 for her spoken poetry albums.

With the production of 'Georgia, Georgia' in 1972, Maya became the first African-American woman to have her screenplay turned into a film. In 1973, she received a Tony nomination for her supporting role in Jerome Kitty's play, 'Look away.' In 1976, she wrote 'Singin' and swingin' and 'Gettin' Merry Like Christmas," autobiographies about her early career as a singer and actress. And played Kunta Kinte's grandmother in the TV miniseries 'Roots' in 1977.

'The Heart of a Woman,' her memoir about leaving California with her son for New York and participating in the Civil Rights Movement, was published in 1981.

In 1986, she wrote "All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes," a lyrical exploration of her years spent living in Ghana and what it means to be an African-American in Africa. 

In 1994, she wrote "Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now," a collection of inspirational essays that features Maya's insights about spirituality and living well. 

In 2002, she wrote 'A Song Flew Up to Heaven', an autobiographical work that explores Maya's return from Africa to the States and her struggle to cope with the assassinations of her close friends, Dr. King and Malcolm X. The book even ends when, at the encouragement of James Baldwin, she begins to work on 'I know why the caged bird sings'.

In 2008, she wrote 'Letter to My Daughter'. It was dedicated to the daughter she never had and features essays of her own advice for young women about living a life with meaning.

In 2013, she wrote 'Mom & Me & Mom', a memoir where she discusses her complicated relationship with a mother who abandoned her during childhood.

Maya also published cookbooks. Interested in health, she published. "Hallelujah! The Welcome Table: A Lifetime of Memories with Recipes" (2005). And 'Great food, all day long' (2010).

Maya Angelou was honored by numerous organizations both nationally and internationally for her contributions to literature. Wake Forest University appointed her to the Reynolds Professorship of American Studies in 1981. And in 2000, President Clinton awarded Maya Angelou the National Medal of Arts.

Maya was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2011, the country's highest civilian honor.

In 2012, she was a member of the inaugural class inducted into the Wake Forest University Writers Hall of Fame. She received the National Book Foundation's Literary Community Award the following year. She also gave many commencement speeches and was awarded more than 30 honorary degrees in her lifetime.

On May 28th, 2014, Maya Angelou died at the age of 86 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. In her honor, memorial services were held at Wake Forest University and Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco.

In honor of her legacy, the US Postal Service issued a stamp with her likeness on it in 2015.

President Obama issued a statement about Maya Angelou, calling her "a brilliant writer, a fierce friend, and a truly phenomenal woman. Angelou had the ability to remind us that we are all God's children and that we all have something to offer." He wrote.   

In May 2021, it was announced that Maya Angelou would be one of the first women to be honored with a new series of quarters from the United States Mint.

Maya Angelou was truly a phenomenal woman.

_

Previous

Clara Hale

Next

Ruby Bridges

___

My Resources

[crossover-enthusiast]

Hehehehe yeah

Wait wait

Okay so since Raven has a weirdly big victorian ass vocabulary due to her having read Edgar Allan poe since she was a child, imagine like Ethan or someone else ending up finding one of her writings(like an essay for school or somethin). Only to then be baffled at the fact that this came from a teenager and not some middle aged victorian writer/poet. /j

HAH

"You wrote all this? I didn't take you for copying Shakespeare's homework" - Ethan, joke

"I didn't copy it, I wrote it myself!" - Raven, not understanding that was a joke

[celluloidandthecity]

An Early History of Detective Fiction (Part 2)

Wilkie Collins ‘The Moonstone’

Before looking closer at the novel, it’s important to note that I am looking at the historical societal conditions into which The Moonstone was published, and also how Wilkie Collins engaged with contemporary themes in the work itself, and how that informs and enhances the experience of his work in the 21st century.

While Edgar Allan Poe was birthing an embryonic detective fiction genre on the other side of the Atlantic – albeit with a distinct European flavour – the cultural climate in Great Britain was also undergoing important societal changes.

Wilkie Collins published an essay in 1858 called The Unknown Public in which he stated

‘The future of English fiction may rest with this Unknown Public which is now waiting to be taught the difference between a good book and a bad’.[i]

In the early parts of the 19th century, the price of books was prohibitive, and there had previously been no demand from the ‘servant class’. But life was changing; several important changes during the century had necessitated a shift in thinking. The first was the Industrial Revolution, and the removal of previous barriers to education for the working classes. And the second was the way in which the working, and the upwardly mobile, middle class were able to readily access reading material on a scale that had previously been unimaginable. These societal shifts laid down perfect conditions for the arrival of The Moonstone in 1868.

The production of low-end ‘penny dreadfuls’ – garish tales of the courts recounted in gory detail, had proliferated during the first half of the century. With more people able to read, and defying the commands of loftier elders in society, who believed that reading should be confined to religious texts and moral lessons, the ‘penny dreadfuls’ fed a growing appetite for sensation, until eventually a new genre was spawned – the ‘sensation’ novel. In his study Crime Fiction 1800 – 2000 (2004) Stephen Knight states

‘What the sensation novel did was bring both Gothic sensibility and that popular energy into the domain of conventional respectable fiction – and so achieve a greater effect by suggesting that strange and terrible events could occur right within the respectable home.’[ii]

Knight further states that although other writers such as Catherine Crowe, Caroline Clive and early Charles Dickens had used crime as a mechanism for sensation, they had not been the runaway successes that Collins had with The Woman in White in 1860. Collins set a template for his sensation novels with this book, and it was truly a sensation. Elements of form and structure that sprang forth from the popularity of the ‘sensation’ genre included  

The ‘private’ becoming ‘public’ – divorce, bigamy and birth out of wedlock were themes that were no longer to be hidden from public view

Changes to the representation and centrality of women in the plots – at either the ‘virgin’ or ‘whore’ end of the paradigm (could easily apply to difference in class between Rachel Verinder (virgin) and Rosanna Spearman (whore) in The Moonstone. Women were also very likely to be authors of sensation novels.

High melodrama – exaggerated feeling and heightened emotions (the strange behaviour of Rosanna Spearman and her eventual suicide in The Moonstone

I briefly touched on the availability of affordable books had sparked a change in British society in the 19th century, and will expand this here to take into the account the timing of the release of many sensation novels mid-century. Although lending libraries had been around since 1725, it was with the founding of the Mudie’s Lending Library system in 1840 that the public began to engage with reading on a large scale. Books were issued one volume one at a time, which was an incentive to get through books quicker, and membership to Mudie’s soon reached 50,000 annual members[iii]

This meant that Collins and other sensation authors such as Mary Elizabeth Braddon (author of Lady Audley’s Secret) were reaching audiences never before reached. Which meant that anticipation for new novels was high and detective novels were moving into the mainstream.

It was into the atmosphere that The Moonstone was released in 1868, and it was obvious that Collins had stepped further towards establishing literary conventions in the form and structure of the novel as Poe had with his Dupin stories.

There is a jewel theft at the heart of the novel, and again we are faced with an incompetent police presence. The local police are baffled by the crime and a specialist is called in. But there are significant differences between The Moonstone and sensation/embryonic crime novels that had been published so far (including Dupin, and of course Sherlock Holmes)

There is a police specialist who, far from being an ‘all seeing’ being who makes all the right calls, overlooks the actual solution, even though he has made some shrewd observations in the course of the tale (the paint on Rachel Verinder’s bedroom door, the inner passions of Rosanna Spearman)

There is not one single narrator, instead the novel is multi-layered, not only between narrators, but also between styles – diaries and reports. As disorientating as this can be for a first-time reader, it arguably keeps the narrative fresh and engaging, considering it was written so long ago, and has, in my own opinion aged a lot better than some of its contemporaries.

Collins was also unafraid to explore social issues in his works – especially those which portrayed the position of Britain, and British society in a less than favourable light compared to the triumphal narrative of the mainstream. Looming large in The Moonstone is a conversation about the British Empire and the negative impact of Empire, represented by the presence of the three Brahmin throughout the tale. Collins frames the narrative around the theft of the sacred stone and the righteousness, determination and dignity of the Brahmin are seen to triumph at the end of the book, with the return of the stone to its rightful place – hardly a glowing recommendation of Britain’s imperial standing.

Lyn Pykett, in The Sensation Novel: From The Woman in White to The Moonstone, also points out that the role of the women in The Moonstone rises above the status of roles typically allocated to women in fiction of the era. Pykett says

‘Cuff is defeated by the silence of women (Rachel and Rosanna), by feminine reticence (Lady Verinder) and the failure of individual women to conform to dominant stereotypes’[iv]

Although the climax of the novel returns Rachel Verinder and Franklin Blake to their conservative roles of man and wife, the self-willed Rachel provided a template for the role of women as the driving force in detective fiction.

[i] Symons p.50

[ii] Stephen Knight, Crime Fiction 1800 -2000, Palgrave, p.39

[iii] Shafquat Towheed, Reading Wilkie Collins ‘The Moonstone: Readership, Form & Context, 2022, p. 11

[iv] Lyn Pykett, The Sensation Novel, Northcote House, 1994, p.35

[yatsugareboyf]

Poe x female reader

Confession and dating headcannons plz

sorry this took a while heres loml poe

confession and dating hcs with edgar allan poe

yknow that trope where

he writes a bunch of love letters but he doesnt end up sending them?

yeah thats him . thats poe w you

like all his letters would range from short poems to full on essays and even debated on writing a novel where he can guide you

but he just trashes all the ideas bcs he thinks you wouldn't like it :((

but he asks ranpo for help and ranpo is like, "bitch u better send her one rn or else she'll find all of them and u wouldn't want that"

so he puts himself together and makes this moderately long letter (he still thinks its not enough for someone like you)

and asks ranpo to leave it at ur desk when u get to work (assuming u work for the ada)

no bcs when he says its not enough hes lying

that letter had you SOBBING

like atsushi thought u got a death threat or smthn 😭

u had to step out of the office to collect urself and ranpo is just laughing his ass off

ofc u were so touched so u had to send a letter back to poe

(ranpo does not like where this is going)

so there was this time where u and poe were just sending letters to each other via ranpo

one day he had enough and instead of bringing your letter to poe he literally dragged you to poe

so now u and poe are sitting across each other, awkwardly looking anywhere but each other despite shamelessly flirting in letters

when poe was abt to speak, karl beat him to it and started circling around you and sniffing you

u were abt to PANIC like THIS IS KARL

but then he jumps up to your head and lays down there 

which causes u and poe to laugh a bit

“excuse my karl, y/n, i think hes very fond of you”

“well i hope hes not the only one whos fond of me”

so now u two just talk and flirt for a bit and u didnt notice the time

"oh, poe-kun, its getting a bit late. we should do this another time?"

"definitely! uhm, how can i contact you?"

so yeah u exchanged numbers

he definitely jumped around w joy for a bit

so u guys went on more and more dates and u got to know each other more and

fr ranpo is the best thing that happened to the 2 of u bcs if he didnt step in yall would just stay labeless forever

"so what are you two supposed to be?" - ranpo, who let himself join ur bakery date

"what do u mean ranpo-san?" - u, who is currently sharing your already tiny seat w ranpo

"like, r yall dating or?"

"d-dating? i mean-" - poe, who's going insane

"yeah? are we not...?" - u, who's being smothered by ranpo's crumbs

"oh... i guess we are" - poe, whos exploding on the inside

ok skipping the awkward parts yall r actually chill

its more of a shared silences and small talk kind of relationship

u dont have to say much for poe to understand and vice versa and you're both content with that

some may not believe y'all when u say yall r a couple bcs both of u arent rlly that affectionate (physically)

which initially got to poe's head

so he tried to like, awkwardly put his arm around u in public or kiss your forehead

u like the affection but u know poe isnt rlly into pda or a lot of physical affection anyway so u told him that he should express his love in his own way rather than what appeals to others

and ofc, his way is through writing!

honestly i love handwritten letters notes and even poems and he'd deliver that always

probably even makes those "open this letter when ure sad" type of gifts?

yeah. Yeah

for poe, he likes to have quality time with you

and even if earlier i said he doesn't rlly like physical affection, he does appreciate it every once in a while

cuddles and being in each other's arms isnt that often, but often enough that u dont rlly get deprived of it

poe enjoys baking with you (even if ranpo literally comes out of nowhere to eat them)

omg yall probably r plant parents

like tending to plants in his enormous garden

I FORGOT POE IS RICH THIS MF IS GONNA SPOIL U subtly

like u spare one long glance at a necklace book its on ur desk w a pretty note

u smiled at a cute piece of furniture? bam its in ur room w a cute letter

u wanted to get new cosmetics? tada hes taking u shopping and slips a little paper in the bag

hes a very observant lover and he knows when u want/need something most of the time

aaaa i love him actually

[forthegothicheroine]

February 2022 Reading Report

Read:

Nobody’s Perfect: Writings from the New Yorker by Anthony Lane

The Many Faces of Van Helsing (anthology)

Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Gwen, in Green by Hugh Zachary

Princess Pamela by Ray Russell

Sea Star by Pamela Jekel (DNF)

Snow, Glass, Apples by Neil Gaiman and Colleen Doran

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale

Taiping Tales of Terror by Julya Oui

Welcome to Hard Times by E. L. Doctorow

The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa

Where the Drowned Girls Go by Seanan McGuire

Goth: Undead Subculture (essay anthology) (DNF)

Still Reading:

Poe: 19 New Tales of Suspense, Dark Fantasy and Horror Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe (anthology)

Does this month have a theme? Let’s call it Deadly Women. Most of these books have some kind of femme fatale or dark heroine in them. Femme Fatale February!

I finished Nobody’s Perfect, of which I’d previously read many reviews and essays but never the whole thing straight through. I love Anthony Lane so much. He’s arch and witty and perceptive, and though he’s known for his caustic reviews (of which Indecent Proposal was my favorite), he has the ability to be bitingly funny when he loves a movie, too (of which his Speed review was my favorite.) His essays enlightened me as to how Nabokov constructed sentences and how high fashion brands really make their money (perfume and accessories.) His short reviews of the bestseller lists in the 90s and 40s may be my favorite of all the essays in book, where he tackles everyone from Ayn Rand to Sue Grafton. His writing is a very good example of how intelligent criticism can be.

I’ve been meaning to read The Many Faces of Van Helsing for a while now, and I finally did! None of the stories blew me away, but there were a few good ones (my favorite being The Infestation at Ralls by Thomas Tessier, a slightly gross story about Van Helsing dealing with an incubus with some great characterization for our favorite doctor.) On the whole I didn’t care for the stories where Van Helsing was evil, but at least My Dear Madame Mina by Lois Tilton gave a believable reason in his obsessive love for poor Mina Harker. With all the stories about his wife ending up in an asylum, I was grateful that in Kim Newman’s Diogenes Club continuity she ended up okay!

Silvia Moreno-Garcia has said she makes it a point to vary up her book subjects and styles, and Certain Dark Things is a fun urban fantasy about vampires in a futuristic Mexico City. I’ve grown bored with a lot of urban fantasy conventions in the last several years, but this one captured me by keeping its vampiric antiheroine mysterious for a good portion of the book and inventing some genuinely creative vampire biology. This would be a good book for people who like spooky monsters and hardboiled crime but aren’t big horror fans- it’s tense without being very gory. And the introduction gave me a bunch of classic Mexican vampire movies I now have to see!

Gwen, in Green was described in Paperbacks from Hell as one of the strangest and most unusual books Grady Hendrix had ever read, and I can certainly see why! It’s the story of a housewife’s descent into a combination of madness and possession as she drifts away from her clueless husband and towards the lure of nature- especially whatever’s in the pond near her new home. It’s partly erotic horror, partly nature’s revenge on developers and polluters, and partly a tale of sexual politics that I’m still trying to untangle. (Misogynist? Misandrist? Both? Neither?) I picked it partly as my Novella choice for the Books in the Freezer challenge, and as it is in fact short and zippy, you may as well check it out if the description I gave interests you.

Ray Russell is a beloved short story author of mine (author of the brilliant novella Sardonicus, and screenwriter of the goofy movie adaptation) so I was very excited to find out he’d written a full length Victorian gothic novel, Princess Pamela! It turned out to be tongue in cheek but also genuinely depraved (more modern gothics need to be genuinely depraved!) There’s some bodice ripping and political murder, and it moves into alternate history in the latter third, which was an exciting surprise. My only real disappointment was the copout ending, but it didn’t completely spoil the fun.

I was excited to read Sea Star, which was supposed to be a bodice ripper about Anne Bonny, and had a wonderful cover! Sadly, the backstory they gave her kind of ruined it for me. Sure, we don’t know a lot about Anne Bonny so I guess she could have been a southern belle with slaves, but did they really have to choose that backstory? I guess it’s a fantasy, like Elizabeth Swan starting out as a fine lady in fancy clothes, but it’s a distinctly unpleasant fantasy. (Am I a hypocrite for being happy about piracy but unhappy about plantations? I don’t know?) Once I saw how long it would take for her to actually get to pirating, I decided it wasn’t worth the wait; a shame, because she had sex with Hornigold and I wanted to see have many other Black Sails characters she would sleep with.

I’d already read the short story Snow Glass Apples (and heard an audio play adaptation!) but the graphic novel version was absolutely worth the read for its stunning artwork. It reminded me of some of the gorgeous illustrated fairy tale books I had as a kid, though they did say in the section with sketches that they tried not to make the art too kid-friendly for fear of giving the wrong impression. If you haven’t read the story already you absolutely should, and this is a perfectly good way to read it. Do you like Snow White and witchcraft and vampires? Of course you do.

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher was a bit of a let-down, though it isn’t exactly bad or anything. It’s an historical true crime book about the murder of young Francis Saville Kent by- maybe- his sister Constance, the detective who first took on the case, and how it influenced contemporary detective and sensation fiction like The Moonstone and The Woman in White. I understand that author Kate  Summerscale wanted to stick purely to the facts, but the Road Hill House case is so strange and interesting that I wanted something much more in depth. Did Constance commit the murder or was she covering for someone with her sudden, strangely-worded confession? Couldn’t Summerscale have at least discussed the question, even if she didn’t want to make her own conclusion? Someone on goodreads said it read more like a thesis paper than a book, and I can see that.

Taiping Tales of Terror is a decent collection of local monster and ghost stories, with a look at small town Malaysian culture, which I knew very little about. I chose it as the Monsters entry in the Books in the Freezer challenge, though it could also fill the Translated entry- maybe I should rework my potential list? It reads a bit more like a YA book than adult horror, but the lines between YA and adult are plenty blurry as it is. I was fascinated to see hw many different cultures have variations on the ‘dismembered woman’s head dragging its entrails’ monster; maybe, as with vampires, it ties back to the way bodies decompose? The ending twist was a good one, well-suited to campfire stories.

I haven't read many western novels, despite having watched plenty of western movies, and it was good to get to one of the classics with Welcome to Hard Times. The title gives a good indication of the central theme- it’s not completely Deadwood-style lurid crime, but it’s a story of the trauma that comes after an outlaw attack, and the efforts to rebuild a town, and the question of whether it will protect the citizens in the future or all be for nothing. Jack Torrence is mentioned reading it in the book version of The Shining, and I imagine it was chosen thematically because it features the disintegration of a family into madness and violence.

The Cat Who Saved Books is a Japanese YA novel that’s definitely on the more unambiguous kid side of YA, a fantasy of metaphorical lessons translated into concrete characters and places ala The Phantom Tollbooth. I would have liked it a lot more as a child, but I still appreciated it. I would certainly follow a mysterious cat that asked me to help save books! Reading it right before Where the Drowned Girls Go was appropriate, as I could imagine it being one of those ‘child goes through a magic door’ settings. (Also, if any Japanese readers can tell me whether it was realistic/legal for an underage kid to just live and work at a bookstore on his own with his aunt sometimes checking up on him, please let me know!)

As mentioned already, my next book was Where the Drowned Girls Go! This entry in the Wayward Children series, about what happens to children who return from portal fantasy adventures, was much darker and more horror-focused, placing its characters in a dystopian school that’s meant to make them forget they ever encountered magic. I was a little disappointed that the school was so purely evil, as I had thought it would be nice to have a counterbalance to the main school where the kids want nothing more than to go back to their fantasy worlds, but that wasn’t where the plot wanted to go. It was still enjoyable, and at least we did meet kids who had good reasons for not wanting to return, and there was at last sympathy for parents who had no idea where their kids went when they fucked off to fairyland. The cliffhanger ending definitely worked in getting me hyped up for the next entry!

Goth: Undead Subculture was the book unread on my shelf for the longest time, and now I feel a bit guilty that I ended up putting it aside. It was a lot more academic than I’d expected, which is not normally a problem for me to read, but it turned into a slog and I finally decided not to force myself to finish something I wasn’t enjoying. I did like the points it made about goth (and subcultures in general) existing in this weird liminal area where it’s partly rebelling against mainstream conformity but also creating its own things to conform to and buy. I’ll keep it around in case I want to try again, or at least try specific essays.

I’m trying to catch up on a bunch of Ellen Datlow’s fantasy and horror anthologies, and  Poe: 19 New Tales of Suspense, Dark Fantasy and Horror Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe is a good one so far! I loved Kim Newman’s take on the Corman/Poe/Price movies starting a literal curse where they can only remake Usher over and over again, though the next story about creepy homeless people was less to my taste. The introduction mentioned the rule that none of these stories could be pastiches, which I think is for the best. Let’s see if anyone does a take on Hop-Frog, my favorite Poe story!

[the-portrait-of-seraph]

This Month’s Review...

We read twelve books this month, apart from the four I’ve uploaded. I was supposed to work on this post yesterday and post today, but my neck was bothering me (and still is wtf) and so I’m doing this today.

Week One:

The Mother [Gorky, Maxim]: 8.5/10

Great book, I like Gorky’s style and I understand the point we wanted to convey. Based on true events, the story follows Pavel and his mother (the true protagonist) and Gorky shows the spirit of the proletarian movement through his characters/writing. 

It’s actually my second time reading it, so some things feel different to me than the first time, like Pavel’s transition from a drunk like his father to a man dedicated to the emancipation of the proletariats. It’s a liberating feeling to see it over and over, alongside the growth of the Mother, from a cautious, politically unaware factory worker to a mother who wishes to support her son and take part in the revolution? Pardon my language, but that is hot girl shit right there.

Gorky is credited with the creation of the sub-style(?) of Soviet Realism, the artistic movement most prominent at the time of Stalin, which I still have a lot to learn about and I felt like that’s why I had a hard time “sticking” to this book?

I only read this book because my father adores Russian literature, especially Gorky and Pushkin. This is one of his favorite books and I felt like I ended up reading it for validation-

Nevertheless, an amazing book! I will be re-reading this in the future and maybe I’ll do an analysis on it. 

The Portable Edgar Allan Poe [ Poe, Edgar A.]: 10/10

First thing’s first, I will love Poe until my last dying breath. He has (almost) everything I look for in an author, His prose, imagery, and macabre flair??? Absolutely gorgeous.

As a collection of 110 short stories, essays, observations, and letters, you get a solid 360º of Poe’s life and work. I actually finished this in one day, I was on a 4-5 hour car ride and this was the only book that was keeping me from going insane.

He is one of the greatest writers in the U.S and internationally (imo), influencing authors like Fyodor Dostoevsky, H.P. Lovecraft, and Edogawa Ranpo (who’s name is actually based on the Japanese pronunciation of E.A. Poe). In Japan, Poe’s and Dostoevsky’s works were the first foreign works translated and brought there.

Poe has lived an interesting life (and death), which impacted his writing and many themes. My personal favorite works in this collection are “Berenice”, “Ligeia”, “The Philosophy of Composition”, and “Art and the Soul”!

My money was well spent on this book, I’ll definitely come back to read it time to time. I’ll put my Poe post link here!

Invisible Man [Ellison, Ralph]: 9.5/10

Absolutely powerful and insanely complex, Ellison writes about one Black man’s struggles from expulsion to racial riots, he creates a work of art that generations on top of generations will relate to.

This is my first work of Ellison’s, and I am in LOVE. I admire him and his descriptive language, he makes reading worth-while. I’m definitely going to try and read more Black literature in February because it’s going to be Black History Month!

After finishing this book, I was hit with deja vu, like I had read something similar before. It was Dostoevsky’s “Notes from Underground”. After doing some research, I had found out that Ellison was directly influenced by Dostoevsky’s Underground Man and the structure of his work was similar to that of “Notes from Underground”!

This book holds a special place in my heart as a WOC and third-culture kid, even though I’m not Black.

I would give a bit of a warning to those who are sensitive to/ triggered by violence, discrimination, usage of racial slurs, death, etc, but that’s what the story is suppose to show, making it a flavorful read.

I would like to recommend this book to everyone, it’s amazing! The idea of a man who is not physically invisible, but socially invisible because people choose not to see him is such a mind-boggling concept. The beginning and epilogue are single-handedly the best things since sliced bread???

I actually bought this book at the destination of the 4-5 hour road trip after one look at the blurb, and I don’t regret bringing more books on the trip because this one kept me occupied!

Week Two:

The Collected Tales of Nikolai Gogol [Gogol, Nikolai]: 10/10

We need to talk about Gogol, seriously.

This man was a true literary genius? He is one of Russia’s most praised authors and he’s not actually Russian? He was Ukrainian and used his view as an outsider to write about Russian society/life with elements of satire and the grotesque, making his work very crunchy!

(He’s my beloved Russian literature husband, no. 2)

It’s actually said that Akutagawa took inspiration from Gogol’s work “The Nose” for his own work of the same name! I love seeing some of my favorite authors influence each other.

Also, Gogol’s stories are so absurd, you’ll laugh until your heart stops, The “Diary of a Madman” and “The Nose” are absolute comedic goldmines, but we can’t just forget “The Overcoat”!

Fun fact: E.A. Poe and Gogol were born in the same year (1809) and both are now considered the some greatest authors. They also used similar themes and both inspired Dostoevsky. I felt like they may have been very good friends or would burn each others manuscripts- (Also Gogol’s birthday is on April Fool’s Day)

In conclusion, go and read Gogol’s works! I highly recommend “Diary of a Madman”, “The Overcoat”, and “The Portrait”!

Eugene Onegin [Pushkin, Alexander]: 11/10

This is a work of art, the fountainhead of Russian literature, Alexander Pushkin, everyone!

Reading a realist novel in the style of Romantic poetry makes me feel emotions I’ve never felt before. I feel like we don’t talk about Pushkin enough, he’s Russia’s greatest author, paved the way for other writers, yet many people still don’t know who he is outside his home country???

I actually started to appreciate poetry because of him (and Poe) and I wrote my final assignment paper on him!

I like Pushkin’s prose, it’s amazing how he could tell a story about three men in poetry. Lensky was my favorite :) 

Alexander Pushkin deserves all the love in the literary world, “Eugene Onegin” may be the best book I read this month. I know since it’s a novel in verse (poetry), it may look at little challenging at first, but it’s seriously worth all your time, it’s insane.

There’s so much more I want to say about Pushkin and I’d like to read more of his work!

A Thousand Cranes [Kawabata, Yasunari]: 9.2/10

As expected of the 1968 Nobel Prize (in Literature) recipient! I definitely enjoyed this one better than “Beauty and Sadness”!

Fumiko, my girl. I just felt so bad for her throughout the whole book. Imagine the guy you’re serving tea to has had a sexual relationship with your mother and she takes her own life? I don’t think I could live with that.

Also leave Chikako and her birthmark alone, damn you guys are mean-

There’s a certain poetic-ness to Kawabata’s works and I live for it. I really liked the last chapter, I almost cried while reading it. Kawabata makes self-destructive habits so much more alive with his words.

It’s a very short book, only 100 pages long, so there’s not much to say; I finished it in one sitting!

Of Dogs and Walls [Tsushima, Yuko]: 9/10

I ugly-cried while reading this, so I can’t give it a 10.

There are two stories in this book, The Watery Realm and Of Dogs and Walls, both are really sad if you think about it. In the first one, the narrator (who I think is Tsushima herself) says that no matter how horrible her husband was, she couldn’t bring herself to fully resent him, because he was the man she loved and married. The narrator also talks about how her mother beat her because she was her mother’s only child since her brother and sister knew their father, but not the narrator.

Tsushima’s works often talk about childhood and how it shapes our memories, as well as single parent life.

in Of Dogs and Walls, A girl’s childhood memories and family’s dog, become the most important pieces of herself, and she reminisces about the days she used to take care of her older brother.

Tsushima has won the Akutagawa, Izumi Kyōka, and Tanizaki Jun’ichirō Prizes, some of Japan’s most highly coveted literary prizes!

Fun fact: Her father was the famed I-novelist, Dazai Osamu, whose real name was Tsushima Shuji, I’ll put a link to my Dazai post here

The Stranger [Camus, Albert]: 8.9/10

I’m going to be very honest here, “The Stranger” is overrated-

I love Camus, but I feel like “The Stranger” has been abused by the media and the people, it’s lost its flavor?

Meursault’s mom dies, he freaking shot a man, and the only thing he talks about when on trial is his mom? Although that might be a leitmotif trying to prove Camus’ point on philosophy.

I understand that this book is to explore the “nakedness” of humanity and absurdity as a philosophical idea, but it seems overbearing to me. The whole book made me feel nauseous as I write this review,

But I do like Camus’s writing style, the short sentences sometimes say more than Dicken’s five page description of a house-

I guess I have a love-hate relationship with Camus, I like the style, but not the plot.

Week Three:

Anna Karenina [Tolstoy, Leo]: 10/10

There is a lot to unpack here, I might make a separate post on it sometime.

You have the life of the fortunate but unhappy Anna Karenina and her drama-filled, self-destructive life (and affair with Vronsky). Amongst this chaos, is Konstantin Levin, a man who struggles to find a meaning in life. 

Read this for Levin, trust me, it’s such a wonderful experience.

A perfect mix of living-room drama and pensiveness, Tolstoy’s usage of polyphony makes the lives of all of those involved with the Karenins and Levin unique.

Truth be told, I did not like Karenin from the start, I was ready to fight this man with my bare hands and a spoon, but when he visited Anna when she was supposedly dying? The tenderness of the moment had changed my mind of him completely, along with when he was taking caring of Anna and Vronksy’s baby girl when she rot away, knowing that the child was not his own? Forgiving Vronsky??? I was trying very hard not to cry.

I think I relate to Anna a little too much, help- (Anna kinnie moment haha) But my favorites are Kitty, Dolly, and Levin!

Kitty and Levin were so cute, esp whenLevin was coming home from looking at a plot of farmland (?) and all he could think of was arriving home and kissing Kitty??? Oh, great heavens, someone get me a cold towel and glass of water. (Felt like their relationship might have needed a few couple’s therapy sessions but)

There is just so much to this book, and I’m sorry for not being able to do it justice-

The Myth of Sisyphus [Camus, Albert]: 9/10

This. This is a work of art.

Definitely prefer this over “The Stranger”. As a philosopher, Camus loves to talk about the absurd and how life revolves around it.

The one thing Camus and I have in common, we both have an interest in Dostoevsky, Camus’ essay on Kirilov is so good as a character analysis and a way to further Camus’ point, so I won’t be giving it away, please go and read it!

This book is also pretty short, so I don’t want to give a lot of it away. I found “The Myth of Sisyphus” pleasing to read, I might use it as inspiration for my next work.

The Makioka Sisters/Light Snow [Tanizaki, Jun’ichirō]: 10/10

My first and last complaint is the title. What is “ThE MaKiOkA SiSteRs”? The original title is “Light Snow” and it’s said that the translator Edward Seidensticker had difficulty translating the title since a direct translation wouldn’t make sense to foreign readers.

Has a bit of a gossipy air around it? Sort of like a conversation I would overhear at a brunch?

The story is about the titular Makioka sisters, a once well-off family from Osaka, now with their declining fortune, they struggle to find a husband for the third sister, Yukiko. The youngest sister, Taeko, is waiting for Yukiko to get married, so she can come forth with her relationship with Okubata. But Taeko has feelings for Itakura, a photographer who rescued her from her sewing school during the flood in the story. Taeko’s affection for these men end up getting her disowned by her family- 

The air of the start of WWII and Allied occupation in Japan also play a part in the story, it really adds spice to the decline of the Makioka,

This was actually my first Tanizaki work, and I enjoyed it very much. I like Japanese literature because it’s themes and writing styles are different from that of Western styles and I really like Tanizaki’s writing!

I look forward to reading more of his works :)

The Flowers of Evil [Baudelaire, Charles]: 8.7/10

Going to be serious here, I don’t really read poetry. It’s never been my thing, I never end up finishing a collection.

Baudelaire is considered a great poet in France, along with Verlaine, and for good reason. He has talent, I liked his collections “Wine” and “Death”, they stood out to me the most.

I do like his usage of rhyme and rhythm, it’s a bit hard to describe though. 

I don’t enjoy French poetry as much as I enjoy Japanese poetry, but I’ll have to keep looking for a poet that suits my taste.

Whew, that is a lot of words. I didn’t know how I would break this news to you guys, but I’m writing a book of poetry and will be publishing it this year! I’ll find a way to make sure international purchase is accessible if you’re all interested! Happy Lunar New Year to those who celebrate it, 여러분 새해복 많이받으세요

[omegawolverine]

go deep and talk about why you really like a south park character in the way dsmpblr makes whole essays about c!tommy :>

everyone probably thought this was gonna be about craig but surprise...pete supremacy moment.

now, i need to make this clear to my mutuals who dont watch south park: pete appears as a main character in about 3 episodes and a background character in like 5-7. dude doesn't have much screen time compared to a lot of other characters. on top of that, he doesnt really have a character arc all by himself; basically, where you see him, you also see henrietta, michael and/or firkle, in almost every case. i say all that to say he is still probably the most well rounded goth and there is also these small little details about him that make me feel fucking crazy but in the best possible way. like, for starters, this mfer drinks his coffee black to look hardcore but he has been seen throwing heaps of sugar into it afterwards, which none of the other goths do. also, he's an absolute fucking cunt, but he genuinely cares for his friends a lot. example: in goth kids three dawn of the posers s17e4, henrietta is sent away to a camp called troubled acres and she returns emo, which is a huge shock to all the other goths bc they hate emos and its a whole thing where michael firkle and pete then have to get help from the vamp kids despite having previously burnt down hot topic and sending their leader, mike, to scottsdale, arizona via fedex and then after recruiting the vamp kids they summon edgar allan poe who's a little bitch baby in death much like he was in life. now, doing all this shit really shows how much the goths care for each other already right? well, tldr is that what they thought was essentially a goth conversation camp controlled by plants was actually just a set up for a tv show and the producers were tricking some old dude into thinking that the plants were actually making him convert goths to emos. this obviously fucked with the few people who were supposedly "converted" to emo via "plant mind control" when they found out, henrietta included. she couldnt believe that she flipped sides so easily and there was no actual mind control involved and, to make matters worse, her two other goth friends (firkle excluded bc he was also "brainwashed") saw this happen and found out that the truth was just that henrietta was gullible enough to fall for it (i mean. she's like 9-10 ofc she did). so what did pete do? the fucker lied. he essentially back tracked on the truth to tell henrietta "no actually we defeated the emo brainwashing plants just now!" and she made a whole dramatic show of "changing back" after pete said this. and he said it just to save her from the embarrassment of having been emo for no reason. king shit imo. also him and the other goths canonically pick up sad conformists to gothify which i think is funny but also very telling of the fact that they're actually nice people who want to help others, even if their ways include horrendous poetry circles and satanic rituals.

but like. that all being said, on a physical level, pete has both the best and worst possible appearance (/nsrs obviously, there is some downright HORRID combinations made in this bitch but yall get my point. this is both a lame outfit and one that i think i would hate if i saw it on a real person) on the show and i mean this in the most loving way. grey shirt. black pants. red bolo tie. purple creepers. red roots. pox marks. he is canonically seen as kinda ugly so he dresses goth bc being goth is more noticeable than being ugly. this is literally a point made in the show. and i think that is both fucking hilarious and really sad.

anyways. idk how much more i can say about this dude bc of how little the show gives him but i would die for more of him in canon. like i just wanna see him and the homies front and center again. but, before i end this, imma give you a bonus fun fact that i think is very on brand and says everything you need to know about the goths Ever in one shot. in the south parq vaccination special the goth kids are seen in the only black masks in the entire episode (as far as i recall) stealing vaccines for themselves. icons, truly.

[brokehorrorfan]

The Sergio Martino Collection will be released on Blu-ray on August 3 via Arrow Video. The Blu-ray box set collects three Italian giallo thrillers directed by Martino: The Case of the Scorpion’s Tail, Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key, and The Suspicious Death of a Minor.

1971's The Case of the Scorpion's Tail is written by Eduardo Manzanos, Ernesto Gastaldi, and Sauro Scavolini. George Hilton, Anita Strindberg, Alberto de Mendoza, and Ida Galli star.

1972's Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key is written by Ernesto Gastaldi, Adriano Bolzoni, and Sauro Scavolini, loosely based on Edgar Allan Poe's "The Black Cat." Edwige Fenech, Luigi Pistilli, and Anita Strindberg star.

1975's The Suspicious Death of a Minor is written by Sergio Martino and Ernesto Gastaldi. Claudio Cassinelli, Mel Ferrer, Lia Tanzi, and Gianfranco Barra star.

Marc Schoenbach designed the artwork for the slipcase. Each film is housed in an individual Blu-ray case with reversible covers featuring new art by Chris Malbon and Matthew Griffin (pictured below) and the original key art.

Previously available individually, all three films have been restored in 2K from the original camera negatives with original uncompressed mono Italian (with English subtitles) and English audio tracks. Special features can be found below.

The Case of the Scorpion’s Tail special features:

Audio commentary by writer Ernesto Gastaldi, moderated by filmmaker Federico Caddeo (in Italian with English subtitles)

Interview with director Sergio Martino

Interview with actor George Hilton

Jet Set Giallo – Analysis of Sergio Martino’s films by film historian Mikel J. Koven

The Case of the Screenwriter Auteur – Visual essay by film historia Troy Howarth

Theatrical trailer

Image gallery

Recently widowed Lisa Baumer is summoned to Athens to collect her husband’s generous life insurance policy, but soon discovers others are willing to kill to get their hands on it.

Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key special features:

Interview with director Sergio Martino

Unveiling the Vice – Interviews with director Sergio Martino, writer Ernesto Gastaldi, and actress Edwige Fenech

Dolls of Flesh and Blood: The Gialli of Sergio Martino – Visual essay by film historian Michael Mackenzie

The Strange Vices of Ms. Fenech – Featurette on Edwige Fenech by film historian Justin Harries

Filmmaker Eli Roth on Sergio Martino

Abrasive drunk Oliviero amuses himself by holding drunken orgies and abusing his long-suffering wife… but when a series of grisly murders shakes the local community, Oliviero finds himself in the frame.

The Suspicious Death of a Minor special features:

Audio commentary by film historian Troy Howarth

Interview with director/co-writer Sergio Martino

Undercover cop Paolo pursues the Milanese criminal outfit responsible for the brutal murder of an underage prostitute, but finds himself up against a killer-for-hire who’s bumping off witnesses before they have a chance to talk.

[overelegantstranger]

ruggesnome said:

that sounds ...nice of you. I am mostly too tired to word rn but might return in the morning if I can make anything of thoughts involving how a lot of what I deal with (as a student, but bc of the field) has a more uh rigidly defined right or wrong ness.

No, absolutely, and I realise our fields are different and have different expectations. However, one thing I’ve been realising (and hope I keep on this opinion after tomorrow’s marking meeting with my supervisor!) is that...even if there are rightnesses, and wrongnesses - which there are! - one of the things I’m trying hard to do is frame these in the most positive and encouraging way I can.

For example, there is a right and wrong way to cite your sources, to write an introduction, to set out your points, to quote. Everything I’m marking on and indeed everything I’ve commented on, either has a right or wrong or is on a scale of rightness and wrongness.

However, my big thing is, as a student I put SO much weight on those wrongnesses and felt SO bad and SO stupid over them. But you know what, these are skills. They are things that take practice, and they are hard. And maybe I won’t have room for this in the actual marking, and maybe after 16 bloody scripts I’ll be too exhausted to do this as well as I want to, but I want to acknowledge that these are people, many of them teenagers, who haven’t done this before! And they’re trying really hard! (I am not naieve. I went to this very university with several people who didn’t try hard - but imo we should always assume people are trying their best, rather than assuming the opposite.

So these are people trying so hard, and they deserve the things they did well to be acknowledged and celebrated, and the things they got wrong to be, if need be, explained, and to be encouraged by the fact that these are skills to learn, not reflections of them as people.

I want to go in to marking as if I were marking myself, and I want to show these students the love and encouragement and pride that I wish I had been shown more consistently, and that my favourite teachers did show me. I want to go into it with the primary energy of “what did you do right“, not “what did you do wrong.”

And maybe that’s not a thing every discipline can do on every test or assignment. But I never want to be the lecturer who made me feel so awful that I wanted to die every time I came home from her class, and I always want to be the lecturer who made me love my work. 

I still remember one of my classmates saying that her marker had said on her essay misspelling Edgar Allan Poe’s name is unacceptable at this level, and I remember her clear (if she was trying to disguise it) flinch at the whole thing. And I think it’s low to dig at people’s spelling mistakes when often they’re innocent, or accidentally missed, or autocorrected wrong. I’d far rather just go through and just correct them and then say at the end “there’s some spelling issues here so just go through another pass next time”.

The thing is, the point of telling people what they did wrong is so that they know what to improve on, and they won’t be motivated to improve if you’re sharp and snappy with them. And I think that’s a rule of thumb that holds true across the board, even if not every assessment gets to work that way