#me rambling abt this book

[kenobihater]

of all the star wars movies, which of them do y'all 1) enjoy the most 2) consider the best quality and 3) think you've rewatched the most. add your answers in the reblogs or replies, i'm genuinely curious how much of an overlap there is within everyone's three answers. mine don't overlap at all! they're revenge of the sith, empire strikes back, and the force awakens :^)

[chimerahyperfix]

You’re looking for something— no, someone, too, aren’t you?

(I can’t comprehend how you understand what’s going on, with your lifeless shell. Craft as you are.)

[readingloveswounds]

the constant question of whether i am identifying a gap in literature or if i'm just a big dummy who can't search a catalogue

[northern-passage]

i've been thinking a lot about the word "representation" and what it means and how it's changed over the last few years, particularly when it comes to the writing/publishing landscape but also in movies and tv shows… and i really don't like it anymore. to be clear, of course i think it's important to have diversity in your work, i'm not saying i hate the concept of representation. but i do really dislike the way it's used now, and i really just hate the word itself

in a broader sense it's just become a marketing tool. i'm not impressed by any publisher or author who just describes their book by listing all of the minorities/identities the characters represent as if that should be enough. it feels very gross, very exploitative and disingenuous. it also really bothers me because it's always marginalized identities- which i understand Why, but it feels very othering to me (and again. Very exploitative as an advertisement). you would never list out "cishet able-bodied white man" as a character description to pat yourself on the back over. so why do it to everyone else? why insinuate that one is the "default" and the other one is "special"? (and when i say this i'm mainly talking about advertisements/marketing. i understand why people would specify about characters in descriptions with the plot, but i don't like to see an ad that's just "this book has gay people!" with nothing else)

which then leads me to my other point, which is that a lot of people treat "representation" as if it's "too hard." like "oh i don't know enough to write about that, i don't have that experience, etc" which is a fair way to feel! however… it's weird that people only say this about writing trans characters or characters of color. i'm writing a story right now with a character who is really into motorcycles. i personally do not know that much about motorcycles, so i researched what parts are what & what different kinds of models there are & what basic bike care looks like. i guarantee Most people will have to google something at some point in their writing process. so what's the problem? it also, again, feels very othering when authors treat certain groups of people as "impossible" to write, "too hard" to understand. they are just.. people. you write them as a person. and then you figure out the rest later.

and i think part of the refusal or fear to write something outside of your experience is because of the way representation is treated as So Special. these characters are So Special that they aren't allowed to be anything other than "representation." they're Not allowed to be characters with complex emotions and interesting motivations, they have to just be Trans or Gay or Disabled or whatever. they're not allowed to be people. which means, at the end of the day, we loop right back around to where we were at the start….

there is bad representation. there are depictions of certain marginalized people that are harmful and that are damaging, i'm not trying to minimize that or argue against it at all, in fact we should all be mindful of that while writing and reading. but i also think it's possible to swing too far in the opposite direction as well and put certain groups of people on a pedestal and not allow them to do anything at all but be Perfect Representation, if that makes sense.

[cosmictap]

Thinking about RQG 176/177 (Last Words) again

which i’m gonna note this: MAG 200 is also called Last Words. There’s probably nothing to that but i like it

but anyway, Zolf and Wilde in those episodes keep getting to me, Wilde, in all his bastard glory, i think genuinely does just want an *actual* proper relationship that isn’t professional, and as for Zolf, well. id go as far to say a rivals/enemies -> friends/ life partners pipeline

But they’re overdone, we all know zolf and wilde, what i’m here to talk about is HOWARD FUCKING CARTER! He genuinely just makes me so upset sometimes, especially in that episode, from what i can remember, it’s pretty clear that he was shut down as a kid, told to shut up when he’s talking ‘too much’ and even (i think) tells Azu to be quiet because he didn’t want her to be in trouble on his behalf????? he devastates me truly i’m in love with him and i think he deserves all the hugs in the world!!

and just. Cel. I don’t have enough words to describe how I feel about them, first off, one of the first just. casual *canonically* queer characters i’ve properly come across in media, not to mention i’m actually in love with lydia nicholas, Sasha was my whole life before she went </3

[risetherivermoon]

yk how ppl say shit like "i wish i could erase my memory of reading this book so i could read it again for the first time"

childhood trauma makes it so that i can't remember most of my life past 2021 so i actually don't remember reading some of my favorite book series...like i just know that i enjoyed them, but i read them at One Of Those Times, so

im debating rereading the lunar chronicles, the divergent series & the hunger games for these reasons,

[dizzybevvie]

Shut up bc im thinking about Tallstar's Revenge and how wide and wondrous Windclan feels bc Talltail desperately wants to be a moor runner but also desperately wants some form of relationship to his dad AT ALL. Im thinking about how confined and restricting Windclan feels after sandgorse's death and how Talltail's jaded attitude completely reshapes everything around him im thinking about how when he finally leaves after its been built up to for AGES he meets Jake which is such a breath of fresh air for both of them until he goes to kill his father's murderer and just... doesnt. Hes told the truth about Sandgorse's death and he doesnt get the revenge he abandoned his home for, but its not triumphant. Hes now at a standstill. Hes still bitter and angry and grieving and the only difference is now he has to turn back without the satisfaction. And he returns home and begs Jake to come with him, but he doesnt, because thats not who he is. Im thinking about how Talltail returns to Windclan and misses it so much, and the air is sweet and the moor is open and wide but he has still lost so much. Hes lost Sandgorse, Jake, the honour he thought he'd bring his father. But hes a warrior, he'll always be a warrior

[ccircusclwn]

man im PISSED OFF

pinterest suddenly removed comments n likes from a pin that i created n i cant do anything abt it!!! what the fuck!!!! i fucking hate pinterest!!!

[olibavee]

i haven't added them officially bc i do not have any other fantasy creatures in the world so i feel like they wouldn't fit. but i want to put dragons in red rot so bad. but not big dragons. these dragons are like small dogs. small dogs that can also set things on fire.

[soldier-poet-king]

Ok not gonna actually put my replies on someone's post bc that's RUDE (and it's not borne out of ill will I genuinely like discussing this stuff but idk if that is appropriate here!! I don't know this person!! I am bad at knowing when to open my mouth!) but I really liked the theology of vespertine? I didn't take it as things done in the Lady's name are Valid Religious Actions, nor did I take it that both good and evil come from the Lady. Its clearly based off of Christianity, and i thought the questions it asked about theodicy were quite interesting (and perhaps my favourite bit of the book, and why I found it so moving).

It was less that the Lady causes xyz bad thing to happen, and more that the Lady /allows/ xyz bad thing to happen only so that ultimately some good can be brought out of it. Which, imo, is very in line with a Christian view of theodicy, esp in the Pauline epistles (and Job, and obvs the Gospels). Evil is brought into the world by human action, but that human action is allowed to happen (BC free will) and ultimately is transformed toward the Good. That doesn't mean that ppl aren't shitheads who claim that their evil is divinely sanctioned, nor that hurt people do not (understandably) blame the divine and lash out in their hurt. But that ultimately, for whatever ineffable reason the inexorable will of god PERMITS evil to occur, knowing in divine wisdom and grace it will be transformed to the Good.

That's not a comfort. Not really. I think it is frightening and terrifying and awe-inspiring and horrible all at once. I have my own personal feelings on the subject. I just think it's an important distinction, and fwiw much closer to my own reading of the book. Its the same sort of troubling not-answers to questions of divine providence, grace, and the will of god that the sparrow duology examines (in a much less harrowing way, albiet, the sparrow is heavy).

Idk man I think I'm just fascinated by theodicy and conceptions of evil in non dualistic universe where evil exists despite an omnipotent and all-good divinity. I think the Augustine Brainrot got me.

[theplantqueer]

Been reflecting on my assumptions that anyone who sparks my disabled rage, protectiveness or exhaustion must be abled, and the kneejerk reaction to frame it as a slight by the abled world upon me/my loved ones/our communities.

To be clear, there's many appropriate times and places for acting in defence of us crips, Mad, ND, Deaf, ill and otherwise disabled people. It feels impossible that there'll be a day without that need some time in the future.

And.

I don't think it's as simple as that binary of us vs them. To truly internalise that anyone, anywhere can be disabled (including that random cunt who was just ableist to you!), I think we - I - need to break down this binary of abled & disabled. Not in an "ableism doesn't exist" way or a "disabled is not a useful category" way, but more: There are so many ways to have a body, and to be honest most of the bodies in this world are non-normative.

Whether through being disabled, racialised, fat, queertrans, intersex, gender non-conforming, impoverished, or any other kinda so-called "deviance" from the ""norm"", we have some shit in common! Namely the many varied experiences of existing outside the oppressive boundaries of "normative" bodies. The experiences we have of having these bodyminds in this world are real and important to name, and. the ways we group each of those experiences have arbitrary and ever-evolving, societally/culturally-defined boundaries.

I think in order to be able to not presume the ableist stranger abled-until-proven-otherwise, I/we also need to also come to terms with the ways we let each other down, disappoint each other. Perpetuate shit we shouldn't because the world is a rough place to exist and try to grow. I do it, and so does this random stranger.

So do my family members who deny their disabilities and wonder why I don't or can't do the same. So do average height crips who forget Little People exist in access audits & checklists. So do the Deaf people who express their unneeded sympathy when I talk about my wheelchair use, and so do the disableds who ask why there can't just be one sign language that everyone worldwide uses. So does the other wheelchair user who avoids my solidarity glance at the shops. So does the non-immunocompromised cane user who's dropped all pandemic precautions. So does that neurodivergent person who's forgotten they're not the only one in the vicinity with Brain Shit going on.

We love and uplift and protect and care for one another, absolutely! but we can also fuck each other over just like anyone else. We disappoint each other in big or little ways all the time. It doesn't make us abled, it makes us imperfect people in a world solely populated by imperfect people.

[jupiterimpact]

any tgcf fans wanna be mutuals

[kuragesoda]

WE ARE SO FUCKING BACK ‼‼‼🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️

[caruliaa]

(also can just vote based on whatever one u think id like lmao just curious which one the people think hatchetfield fans wld like more)

[seventh-district]

not even gonna tag this properly bc i don't wanna get Involved but i do have some Thoughts i need to get out into the void so here we go

(aaa quick edit: CW for mention/discussion of Boothill leaks)