#on tumblr thinking I’m doing something for having a blog

[crumblinggothicarchitecture]

“And the relative simplicity of her music works with people who just want something mindlessly play in the background. It's also really easy for average people- who have no musical background- to sing along with. The lines are simple rhymes, and she never really uses any specialized vocal techniques like Vibrato. Basically, it's music for bland people who think salt is a spice.”

Some of your takes are valid and it’s healthy to critique anything that amasses such a large following in pop culture. However I would argue there is a way to do this without coming across as a pretentious undergraduate who read a few required and recommended readings from the syllabus and now sips their tea with a pinkie protruding. Let’s remember that tumblr is not inherently full of academics and defining anyone who hasn’t got a certain level of education as average or bland is such an Americanised, my way or the highway way of thinking.

It is possible to have differing opinions to others without insulting their intelligence or falsely presenting them in a certain way. Average people as a term in general, is quite elitist and classist. For example, I have a PHD in literature and am a classical musician. I work in publishing and academia.

That said, I still enjoy pop music, sometimes something can just be enjoyable and it’s not that deep.

Criticising Taylor Swift is low hanging fruit for a lit major who claims to be allied with as many causes as yourself. Or, if you do decide to continue with it, I hope you do it in a more articulated manner that focuses more on the quality of your arguments, and not just an assumption that those who oppose you are stupid or “bland” when I suspect the truth is much more complex than that, as it always is.

Best of luck with further studies. I hope to see more diverse content from you in the future, maybe some literary analysis of contemporary texts, or other artists who you deem intellectual enough to enjoy, or some recommendations.

Honestly- I do not know with which tone I should address this anon. I cannot tell if you are being hostile- but I certainly feel that you are being condescending.  

Thanks for at least direct quoting my words with which you draw issue. I appreciate it- some people send me critiques but fail to outline which of my posts is the problem.  

I can capitulate to exactly one of your points- and admit it is a good point- that I am overly sassy on occasion. The post you are angry about is just me chitchatting with someone about Swift’s live shows- it wasn’t a literary analysis. I cannot do an academic analysis of her live shows- but that does not mean I don’t have an opinion of them.  

Again- it was opinion not argument or analysis. Not a serious post. This is not a blog where I am going to speak like an academic all of the time. I’m here to have a little fun- and try to remind myself why I actually do love what I do for a living.

Generally speaking- I will try to make a more obvious, clear difference between what is just an opinion and what is a researched, literary argument on Taylor Swift in my future posting. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.  

There are some other things about your ask that I want to address, because it struck me as a bit unnecessary.  

You say that I’m “coming across as a pretentious undergraduate who read a few required and recommended readings from the syllabus and now sips their tea with a pinkie protruding” (para. 1). This is condescending. No, I did not simply “read a few required and recommended readings” to complete my education. You say you’ve got a PHd in the same discipline- and yet you want to tell me all I did for my degree was read a couple of books? You should know the kind of intellectual work that goes into real literary study. I am trying to show people with this blog, at least in some small way, that while literary study is not so straightforwardly quantifiably valuable like, for instance, physics- it is still a real discipline. With real requirements on argumentation and logic. It takes intellectual skill to wrestle with concepts in literary theory – but more so to apply them in synthesis and interpretation of textual evidence.   

SO, why are you essentially patting my head and saying “aw-cute she read some books and now thinks she’s smart?”   

To be clear- I am not in undergrad. I have finished two different degrees and am currently working on my third.

Why would you accuse me of classism and elitism predicated solely on a bad joke in a post wherein I am not even doing any real literary analysis? What prompted that? I made no effort to even pretend the post in question was little more than opinion- my real posts however, about literary analysis, I take great pains to research and edit those together with care.  

Also, “Americanized” what? Are you American? Because people ‘round here don’t care about what level of education you’ve got? The access to education varies remarkably state to state- and down into Latin American too- and we all know it. So, there is very much a culture of “help each other out when struggling” and not a culture of thinking that everyone of Earth needs to go through American University in order to matter. What are you talking about? Do you think American’s hold the monopoly on having Dogmatic views or “my way or the highway” thinking? That’s obviously not true- so what are you trying to say here?  

Did you miss the part of my Bio where I talk about being a teacher? I am a teacher in one of the poorest- most unfunded places in the country. My friend- I am repulsed by the idea of classism- I take my position in my community very seriously. Knowledge is not a stick with which I attempt to beat others down- Please understand that.  

Next, you say it is possible to critique without insulting people’s intelligence (para. 2). um, I did not insult anyone’s intelligence? I said their taste in music was bland, which does not correlate to an assumption on their intelligence. Um- I have also said many times that I like simple pop- music. Am I calling myself stupid because I’ve been listening to “Espresso” by Sabrina Carpenter on repeat? NOpe. It’s just a silly little song- and dancing to it makes me feel cute, young and free- but it’s still a bland song with no literary or moral value. What exactly is the problem here?  

Okay, within this same point you draw issue with my use of the word average, saying that “average people, as a term...is quite elitist and classist” (para.3). Okay, you misinterpreted my use of the word “average” here- as I was not referring to people as “average” because they have no education, or a different education compared to my own. I was only using the term in the most colloquial sense- meaning “in general” or “on average” as in the median percentage of people have no musical background- therefore they find simplistic pop music the easiest to digest and the simplest thing to play in the background or sing to on car trips. It’s pleasing to the ear because we don’t have too much “work” into understanding it- that's what I mean when I say it’s bland. 

If oatmeal was a type of music- it would be pop music. bland filler- but you know it can still be good.   

Okay, let’s talk about your final point “Taylor Swift is Low Hanging Fruit” (para. Whatever I can’t be bothered to count). Ummm? A billionaire musician who has massive worldwide acclaim and social impact is “low-hanging” to you? I mean yeah- she's clearly not worth study through the lens of poetical semiotics, or God forbid- Linguistic Morphology; however, there are several different ways a good analysis of her work could function- through feminist, Marxists, Post-colonialist, or anything under the umbrella of cultural studies. I also intend to do a rhetorical analysis on her use of “lower class” aesthetics and how that attracts the audience she wants. And, I’ve done a couple of syntactical analyses. However, I had to prop those up with a dichotomization of her work to someone with more impressive literary value, like Kendrick Lamar, because her work alone is not strong enough for that type of analysis.  

Apologies if I have written a return, you did not expect or want- perhaps, I should be less sensitive on the internet. I do often brush off people's condescension, especially when I notice that they are extremely young or just do not know anything at all about my field of study. Because why worry about uninformed opinions? I wanted to speak with you, however, because you do care. It is obvious, and I am glad that people do care. I admire you for caring about the integrity of the discipline- but I really wasn’t doing what you thought I was doing.  

 I admire anyone who also studies Literature, and you say you’re a classical musician, I think that’s so impressive! I love classical music! Rachmaninoff makes me feel insane! I love it! You know that one O’Hara poem? The one that is an ode to Rachmaninoff’s birthday that ends “you’ll never be mentally sober” because I feel that line in my bones. And don’t even get me started on Tchaikovsky- Truly, you might never hear the end of it. (CAnnoNS!!!!??? what a guy)

 I just wanted to clear up anything that you found offensive- but I also defended myself because you do know what I’m talking about when it comes to literary study- and so the conversation took priority over the other meaningless “hate” messages I get. And- boy howdy- I've been getting hate messages pretty much daily. 

Promise to no longer be condescending to me and I think we ought to be friends and not fight- let me start- what did you concentrate on for your PHd? 

 I, myself, focus on post-colonialism, feminist theory, and post-modernist thought in American Literature. I work mainly within US Multi-ethnic literature, though, outside of school, I have an intense fascination with medieval or ancient Literature- primarily, these days, classical Sanskrit poetry. Last year it was an obsession with old Norse literature- lol I like to switch things up. Have you ever read the Heliand? It’s about Viking Jesus- so cool and written in old Saxon! But, anyway, I think the unique prosody of Sanskrit is so neat-o. My other obsession is this one old french poem called "le roman de silence" what a crazy little gender-bending 13th century thing that is (haha). And this doesn't even get into my philosophical preoccupations- though I believe I will discuss those on my blog, too, at some point.

Anyway- perhaps I will talk about my more niche interests on this blog- all good things in time. I have no interest in solely focusing on Taylor Swift forever- but I do want to finish saying all the things I’ve been holding back for years. I think it’s important- because Swift holds such a massive influence over people. It’s healthy, as you said, to critique people like that.  

Okay- Sorry I talked soo long. Peace Out :)

[emeraldbabygirl]

Hi :) it’s been awhile since I’ve actually had conversations with my mutuals here and I feel bad about it as always but I just wanted to post and say hi and that I think about my oldest mutuals often and hope y’all are still alive and well no matter where you are on your life journey. I know well all busy with jobs and finding what we want to do in life and that’s okay but I just wanted to say that I miss you all and miss all our cute talks and I appreciate you guys coming into my life when you did and meeting you all and sometimes I see you liked a post and I see your username in my notifications and it makes me smile. I miss you guys and I’m sorry I never reached out :( I’ve become bad at keeping connected to people but I want you all to know that I appreciate you all being in my life and I hope sometime we can have our fun conversations again. I hope what I said makes sense, it always sounds better in my head. I just hope y’all are well and if you ever come back to tumblr sometime you can say hi or leave a message even if it’s small, I enjoy the surprises and idk hi :) I miss my mutuals you guys were my first friends when I started building my blog up and I just really appreciate all the kind words and everything you’ve done for me and I wanted to say something even if I couldn’t message you individually. Sometimes it’s easier for me to make a post like this. I still think about you all and wonder how things are and I remember your usernames and pfps and it brings back memories, even if we didn’t talk a lot, maybe I mentioned you in some tag games or I popped in to say hi.

I wanna make something for you all as a thank you for just being a part of my experience here on tumblr even if we don’t talk anymore I want to do something to show my appreciation so I recently fiddled around and made some lil collage/edits and I want to make some for you guys if you’ll let me. Just tell me some things you like, like an actor or singer or animal and some colors and anything and I wanna put something together as a thank you for talking to me when I was still a young blog? Does that make sense? Cause I didn’t have a lot of followers just a couple mutuals and some of you became really close friends and I appreciate you for that.

Of course now I wanna make something for everyone but I’ll just tags the people I’ve known on here the longest and if you want me to make you something please let me know or you don’t have to. I like making things for people and stuff. Ok tagging @excindrela @yovibeispretty @seoulmates98 @ithinkilikeit-reactions @yuta-the-mountain-man @cherryeoo @uwunnie @thirdxporsche @dmbjwhxre ..I think I’ll just tag everyone that I’ve felt something special with, people that I’ve had come into my blog and played games with and stuff like that cause I really think about all of you and wish you all the best :) @wh0sthe5pecial0ne @wheezing-pterodactyl @bandluvr97 @chrismequick @despairvb @impeachybabie @atinystaypixie @princessjazzyjazz @juicylivy @boxyg28 @lowavocado4701 @witchy-weve-monbebe @ateezaligned @henlex @rai-scutum @khathastrophe @kidinthemoonlight @pleasemeosaur @moonlight--cafe @the-moon-baby @axelwolf8109 @dreamlesswonder86 @axishonor @7zenisss @straysugzhpe @halalhyungwon @elenilote @ninamarie1994 @gungumeloh @jaejoongs-nipple-piercing @dungbeatposse @hyugaruma @awritersstuff @star2fishmeg @starstruckforyou @belphies--pillow @sleepystrawberrybunny @khami-143 @simpforchuchu @thistaleisabloodyone

Even if we don’t talk a lot or anymore I see some of your posts on my dash and I’m like ‘I rember you omg’ and I get a little happy. Ok enough yapping I just wanted to say some stuff and I hope all of you are doing well and if not I’m sorry :( I hope things get better for you! Have a good day or night or evening wherever you are <3

[veone]

I don’t like you and you have me blocked, I don’t own you anything at all.

[calamitydaze]

long tag ramble below u have been warned

[bunflora]

i like yapping here its fun. freeing in a sense

[foxgloveinspace]

oh my god you gave permission to send vids and i lasted all of 30 minutes before needing to send something 😂

BUT!!!

iv crying 🥺🥺🥺 the love for iii these last few shows has melted my heart and clearly the bands too

https://x.com/vesseltoken/status/1734391886901616999?s=46

i cannot suffer alone with this one i’m so sorry

Well, as I watch this and suffer. here, sleep token official instagrams account second to last pic…. Our boy AdamRosssi knows what we want, haha.

🥺🥺🥺

Oh no……

[selfcarecap]

If you write your fic in that small stupid font, and I still read all of it and reblog it, please appreciate it 10x more than usual because (and I don’t even need glasses) reading a whole fic (or even just a blurb of multiple hundred words) in that dumb font really hurts my eyes and my brain

This is not aimed at anyone specifically but can you not see how dumb this is? A whole FIC like this? Are you mad? Whoever first did that needs to be kicked off tumblr

But everyone can do whatever they want of course 😁😁😁

[userastarion]

i am extremely grateful for my lil tumblr community (those i follow and those who follow me) and i love them all and tbh it seems really stressful to have a larger following bc the more people you have, the freer they feel to say whatever they want to you, and i am incredibly grateful to (i hope) have fostered an environment of kindness

[polyamorouspunk]

So apparently if you save tumblr urls for too long tumblr takes them back 😂

[anguis-sapphire]

Oh no the bots have learned how to message

[the-trans-dragon]

.

[admiralichor]

“wlw dni” “mlm dni” our experiences are the same. sorry if you can’t be fucked to find solidarity in being queer tho

[fanby-fckry]

Hey, remember that old tumblr glitch where blocked blogs could still reblog your posts but it didn’t show up in your notifications? Is that still a thing?

Asking because a minor started a reblog conversation on one of my posts and I didn’t catch it until after another minor reblogged replying. They’re both blocked now, but like, are they gonna be in the notes just hidden from view or did that get patched?

[ju-ji]

It’s fascinating to me how many people read my posts when I put organizational tags on them instead of just. continuing my rambling in the tags….. it’s almost like attaching searchable terms to your posts puts them in front of eyes other than those of your 2.5 inactive followers…..

[deathxproof]

technically I get out of work early (compared to my usual schedule) tomorrow so I’m…. Hoping to get some writing done. or I could pass out as soon as I’m home from work because wake up early. who’s to say.

[ts-witchy-archive]

Low Energy Devotional Activities and Ways to Connect with the Gods

Let's be honest, religion and consistent practice can be HARD, especially when you're chronically ill, disabled, mentally ill or neurodivergent. This is a list of lower energy practices you can do to connect with your Gods when you're having a rough day.

Pray. You don't have to say the prayer. You don't have to do the full cleansing and offering. Just think about the prayer. It could be as simple as "'Deity Name', thank you. I'm thinking of you and appreciate you."

Dedicate any self care you do to the Gods. You've got to take meds? awesome. it's now a devotional activity.

If you can, light a tea light candle. You can think about who you're dedicating it to as you're lighting it.

Tell them about your day. Have a simple conversation with them (again, this can be in your head if needed).

Offer some water! Water is a great offering if you don’t have the energy to cook, collect or buy something.

Incense is also a great offering because you can light it then forget about it and your house won’t burn down (if you follow regular safety measures). 

Resting. Your deities want you to be okay. Dedicating your rest to your deities is especially great if you feel guilty for allowing yourself time to heal.

Turn on a video of someone reading mythos! 

Put on a deity playlist. There are plenty of pre-made ones on Spotify. 

Veil or bind your hair! Whenever I’m low energy I’ll throw my hair in a ponytail and bind it that way. It doesn’t have to be extravagant. 

Make a Pinterest board for them!

Post on a digital altar! There are plenty of discord servers that have digital altars and temples. You could also make a devotional Tumblr blog. 

Change your phone lock/home screen to something that reminds you of your Deity.

I hope this is helpful to anyone who needs it! Take care of yourself first and foremost. If you don't think you can manage something on this list then thats perfectly fine too! you're not a bad person for not being able to do something spiritual or religious. Ultimately, these things are not a necessity. Don't stress :)