#literary icon

[mibeau]

[Book Review] 🖋Agatha Cristie [Little People, Big Dreams]🖋

🧮 Score: 3.5/5.0

■ Emphasising the values of determination and creativity, this book provides a simplified version of the life of the Queen of Mystery; Agatha Christie. My personal favourite of her many books is “Peril at The End House”.

It is not only a biography but also an inspirational read. It encourages children to persevere and follow their dreams and believe in their abilities, inshaAllah, anyone can achieve greatness. An empowering quality to nurture.

■ The illustrations are whimsical and colourful, adding a visual dimension that complements the storytelling. Starting with Agatha’s childhood and early influences, weaving through her passion for writing and her contributions to the world of literature. The narrative is presented simply and engagingly to children without sacrificing the essence.

■ The inclusion of real photographs of Agatha Christie at different stages of her life allows us to relate to the real person behind the legendary author.

■ Overall, this is a captivating educational book that introduces young readers to the life of a literary icon. Perhaps, it serves as a fantastic starting point for nurturing an early interest in literature as well as knowing more about the remarkable life of Agatha Christie.

[grassbreads]

I've been doing a lot of reading lately about the history of vampires in fiction and how the vampire as we know it today first entered literature, and the subject is honestly fascinating. The traditional folklore around vampires and vampire-like creatures is largely very different from what we'd think of as a vampire today, and it's also very different from how vampires appeared in even their earliest literary incarnations.

For one thing, there's nothing particularly alluring about most traditional vampires. They're bloated corpses that have crawled out of their graves, not dashing mysterious counts in lonely castles. They're not a particularly stylish or sexy monster.

However, from pretty much the moment that western literature first turned to the vampire myth for inspiration, writers saw something in the concept to sexualize. The poem "Der Vampir" (The Vampire) by Heinrich August Ossenfelder is often cited as the first ever true literary depiction of a vampire (published 1748!), and it is about a man corrupting a chaste and religious woman through his unwanted kiss/vampiric bite. John William Polidori's 1819 short story "The Vampyre" is widely seen as the first work to truly codify vampire fiction, and the titular Vampyre Ruthven is in large part inspired by the womanizing Lord Byron. Le Fanu's Carmilla depicts an intense attraction between Carmilla and her victim Laura. Stoker's Count Dracula is a man with overly flushed lips and hair on his palms, marks of Victorian fears of sexuality.

From the very start, vampires in literature have been a sexual monster. They're emblems of the seductive and terrible—the kiss of death that you can't help but be drawn to anyway. A violent forced intimacy that will corrupt you and drain away your very life force. There's a great deal of xenophobia and fear of the un-christian in early vampire fiction as well, but the fear of sex and sexual assault have always been a driver of literary vampires' horror and allure. Writers seem eternally split between desire for the vampire and revulsion at that very lust, even from the moments that the creatures first graced the page.

There's a great tradition of vampiric fiction both using vampirism to evoke sexual predators and making vampires themselves desirably sexy. Thus, given that it is very concerned with sexual assault and bodily autonomy as themes, often uses predation by a vampire to evoke sexual violence, and is deeply horny about vampires and blood drinking, Jun Mochizuki's The Case Study of Vanitas is actually one of if not the best modern successor to the canon of early vampire literature. In this essay, I will

[frenchnewwaves]

Joan Didion's Packing List:

TO PACK AND WEAR: 2 skirts 2 jerseys or leotards 1 pullover sweater 2 pair shoes stockings bra nightgown, robe, slippers cigarettes bourbon bag with: shampoo toothbrush and paste Basis soap, razor deodorant aspirin prescriptions Tampax face cream powder baby oil

TO CARRY: mohair throw typewriter 2 legal pads and pens files house key

“This is a list which was taped inside my closet door in Hollywood during those years when I was reporting more or less steadily. The list enabled me to pack, without thinking, for any piece I was likely to do. Notice the deliberate anonymity of costume: in a skirt, a leotard, and stockings, I could pass on either side of the culture. Notice the mohair throw for trunk-line flights (i.e. no blankets) and for the motel room in which the air conditioning could not be turned off. Notice the bourbon for the same motel room. Notice the typewriter for the airport, coming home: the idea was to turn in the Hertz car, check in, find an empty bench, and start typing the day’s notes.”

—Joan Didion, “The White Album” (1979)

[amouristie]

estrelas

a magia saía de seus belos lábios e quando ela falava a linguagem do universo - as estrelas suspiravam em harmonia.

𝅄 ♡ moodboard by amouristie | effect by @harupsds​ 𝅄 ♡ like or reblog if you save, dont repost

[imstrongerthanallmymen]

ship of the century <3

[ct-multifandom]

I don’t usually make posts like this, but I’ve been seeing a lot of anti-intellectual junk lately, and I really think we need to put the word “pretentious” up on a shelf until people learn what it actually means.

It doesn’t describe someone who likes artsy-fartsy deep meaning media. People who are pretentious are fake. They’re posers trying to be sophisticated and unique, not like other girls. They pretend to only like stuff they think will make them sound cool when they talk about it. They want to act like they know something you don’t, and they want attention for it.

By definition, if you genuinely enjoy something, you can’t be pretentious. If it resonates with you, and you analyze it, and you don’t care what people think, that’s the polar opposite, actually. If you love obscure experimental prog music, if you watch underground high concept indie films through English teacher eyes, if you spend hours in a modern art museum reading each piece as a vessel for storytelling, if your backpack’s full of poetry books that inspire you, if you play underrated games that were someone’s passion project, if you have an interest in studying the classics or the masters, you are not pretentious.

Of course, some people just don’t like some stuff, and that’s fine, but that’s not what this is about. Don’t let anti-intellectuals shame you for enjoying things just because your interests are inaccessible to them, because they refuse to be brave and put effort into critical thinking. You’re not stuck up for refusing to overlook the craft of artists.

[bruciemilf]

MARGARET ATWOOD YOU LYRICAL WHORE

[funky-sea-cryptid]

there’s something to be said about how the devils have a king, the same thing the humans have. and how they’re the only other species besides spirits that can be contracted, except it’s never by choice. it’s always via a ritual and the subsequent asskicking. humans are like “ough the devils are evil the devils are evil” when the devils are used for evil and are crickets when liebe makes the choice to be good. it’s because they can’t really confront how similar they are to devils, really. they can’t face that the traits about themselves, so they project them onto the “bad” species.

[flowersandfashion]

so, we all agree that Jo March is a lesbian, right?

[liusia-piu]

Those who masturbate to the "great russian literature" and its "depressive aesthetics" have simply never read "Fedko-brigand" or the incredibly feminist works of Lesya Ukrainka

[riri-of-the-valley]

this is me if you even care

make reading a habit ☆ https://riri-of-the-valley.carrd.co/#

[amouristie]

Despite knowing they won’t be here for long, they still choose to live their brightest lives — sunflowers.

𝅄 ♡ moodboard by amouristie | effect by @harupsds​ 𝅄 ♡ like or reblog if you save, dont repost

[blackswaneuroparedux]

The significance of a myth is not easily to be pinned on paper by analytical reasoning. It is at its best when it is presented by a poet who feels rather than makes explicit what his theme portends; who presents it incarnate in the world of history and geography, as our poet has done. Its defender is thus at a disadvantage: unless he is careful, and speaks in parables, he will kill what he is studying by vivisection, and he will be left with a formal or mechanical allegory, and what is more, probably with one that will not work. For myth is alive at once and in all its parts, and dies before it can be dissected.

- J.R.R. Tolkien, Beowolf: The Monsters and the Critics (1936)

[echolitmag]

Are you into mad wizard shit and murder? Well then, you should submit to our "Mysteries and Magic" theme!

It's open till July 1st, so do it before it's too late! You can find out how to submit at echolitmag.com!

[joncronshawauthor]

The Most Iconic Mothers in Fantasy Literature

In the enchanting world of fantasy literature, where magic and mystery blend seamlessly, there lies a special breed of characters: mothers. These matriarchs of the mystical realms stand out not just for their maternal instincts, but also for their extraordinary abilities to juggle the fantastical with the familial. Let’s dive into the pages of fantasy and meet ten of the most iconic mother…