#superior ... in a way..

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

"you should wake up early to watch the sun rise!" is actually the dumbest possible way to guilt trip people into getting up early. hello, the sunset? exists too? every day even. and is equally gorgeous. and fits into many people's free time. you're awake, work's over and holyshit--THATSA SUNSET BABY!!!

[owlbelly]

so. i understand where the sentiment "listening to an audiobook is the same thing as reading the book" is coming from - i mean, yes, the bottom line is you are taking in the same words in what is possibly a more accessible (or maybe just more enjoyable) format for you! and i'm 100% in agreement that "book snobs" who say "no you didn't really read it" if you listened to the audiobook are full of shit. ofc you should engage with stories in whatever way works for you, there is no moral or intellectual superiority to reading words off a page vs. listening to them

but it also is different? an audiobook is a performance. choices a narrator makes about line readings can drastically influence the meaning of the lines. even just different voices, accents, etc. - there are creative choices being made by the person delivering the words to you, and that affects your experience of the story in a different way than if you were making those choices in your own head. it might even change the way you visualize what's going on!

this isn't a bad thing it's just An Actual Thing & i think it's worth talking about. it rubs me the wrong way when people act like accommodations (and for many people audiobooks are an accommodation) always result in a completely identical experience, or even that they should, & if you suggest that people accessing media in different ways are having different experiences it's somehow ableist

anyway on rare occasions i really enjoy audiobooks but mostly they are much less accessible to me than words on a page (i need to be able to reread, flip back and forth, go at my own pace) & i also just really strongly prefer to encounter a text on my own before hearing someone else's performance of it, if possible! again i don't think it's "better" to read a physical book i just think it is a Distinct form of experiencing a story & acting like the two things are entirely the same is sort of doing a disservice to both

[cegan]

Carl, some people have immunity to the virus. I can share it with you, but we have to hurry.

[sibblank]

half this site will call you a rape apologist if you admit to ever having enjoyed a cartoon boob and the other half will call you a puritanical cuck if you think incest porn is gross

[artarete]

lambert: some of that was pretty worrying actually narinder: i didn't say they were good reasons

[triaelf9]

"how do you enjoy *insert fandom here* I hear they're the worst"

Find the ppl who enjoy the thing you like the way you do. Ignore, mute or block the ppl who don't.

Ta-Da~

[phantomoftheorpheum]

listen, I think audiobooks are great. I think they "count". I'm not bothered by people calling listening to audiobooks reading. however, I think a large part of the reason people are annoyed by this recently is that there are many, many people online saying, "I've read 300 books this year" and then posting a lot of stuff implying they are superior to (or like to read more than) people who haven't.

But then, all it takes is to scroll back on their profile a little ways to find out that they "read" 300 books because they listened to audiobooks on 3x speed while they were doing other things and flat out didn't listen or absorb any of it and couldn't tell you what 90% of those books were about even if their life depended on it. And THAT is not reading. If you're actually taking in the story, sure, then you've read the book. If you're speed running the process without paying attention, then no, that's not reading. I would say the exact same thing about skimming/flipping through the book.

[bedforddanes75]

im not american but some of you guys are just fucking stupid ong what do you MEAN youre not gna vote because you disagree with like one part of what youre voting for. like okay me when im fucking thick

[luxolin]

My friend said they were reading Gideon the Ninth and then sent me this pic

[ladamania]

“On the 6th Day of the 2nd Month of the First Year of the Kampo era. Taking a moment of my free time, I wish to express my joy of the cat. It arrived by boat as a gift to the late Emperor, received from the hands of Minamoto no Kuwashi.

The color of the fur is peerless. None could find the words to describe it, although one said it was reminiscent of the deepest ink. It has an air about it, similar to Kanno. Its length is 5 sun, and its height is 6 sun. I affixed a bow about its neck, but it did not remain for long.

In rebellion, it narrows its eyes and extends its needles. It shows its back.

When it lies down, it curls in a circle like a coin. You cannot see its feet. It’s as if it were circular Bi disk. When it stands, its cry expresses profound loneliness, like a black dragon floating above the clouds.

By nature, it likes to stalk birds. It lowers its head and works its tail. It can extend its spine to raise its height by at least 2 sun. Its color allows it to disappear at night. I am convinced it is superior to all other cats.”

- journal entry of 22-year-old Emperor Uda on March 11, 889 CE and earliest record of a cat in Japan [x]

Black Cat (detail) by Hishida Shunso, 1910 [x]

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

main take aways from Halloween (1978) rewatch:

michael myers is canonically 21??? this bitch should be at the club

*sees tiddies* ***MURDEROUS RAMPAGE NOISES***

that's it that's the movie

outside of the fact that everyone who has sex is murdered by the narrative, this is a surprisingly chill portrayal of female sexuality? these teen girls are horny and actively enjoying Getting It On with their boytoys. no pushy boyfriends sneaking in through their bedroom windows--these ladies are taking the initiative to sneak out and GET SOME. one of them gets laid and then immediately orders her boyfriend to get her a beer. (yes she gets Slashered soon afterward, but so does the boyfriend so honestly, gender equality.) yes the Final Girl is the only one not having sex, but she's not bullied for that, nor are her friends slut shamed except possibly by being murdered by the narrative

actually the only character who is shown being morally condemned on-screen is michael myers. specifically FOR his violent overreaction to other people's sex lives. (people he is spying on). metaphorically, the villain is American Puritanism sticking its judgy nose into other people's business.

aka Michael Myers Is A Republican

but actually the real villain is the doctor. guy's a judgemental, shaming, pathologizing asshole. and he's been in charge of michael's care since he was SIX YEARS OLD? kid never had a chance. i'd go on a killing spree too

also the parents. where are the parents? it's halloween night and all the teenage girls are home babysitting their younger siblings? come to think of it, michael's first victim was his own older sister, whom he killed while she was babysitting him. teen girls are really shouldering a labour burden here. maybe parentification is the true villain

side note: mike commits his first murder wearing a clown costume...which is never referenced again? his 'iconic' costume is a generic mask and wig and jumpsuit, when we coulda had a Killer Clown Michael Myers??? travesty

i like how the Final Girl and her friend casually smoke weed in her car. yeah she's an honor student and her friend is the sheriff's daughter. yeah they smoke weed. so what it's 1978

(to reiterate, mike is 21 and should be at the club. im not saying he shouldn't be rampaging, im saying it's sad that he broke out, tasted freedom for the first time in his life, and immediately snuck back into his childhood home to go rampaging. let's have a remake where he goes to a nightclub and has a few beers. maybe some slutty dancing. then rampage)

oh no he's hot

[knighthans]

Remus: I went into a church yesterday and heard God

Lily: wow really? I didn’t even know you were religious

Remus: I had my walkman and David Bowie was playing

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Why didn't anyone in the series ask why the yeerks didn't ask Seerow for morph tech in order to escape their parasitic life?

Two things!

Thing 1: There are not only laws but taboos against sharing andalite tech. Ax loves his friends, but he still struggles with telling them about andalite tech when doing so would save their lives. He's less worried about breaking laws than he is about betraying his entire species, and he's genuinely scared that telling humans about andalite tech will lead to a second Yeerk Empire. Presumably most andalites feel the same, judging by their appalled reactions any time one discovers human morphers.

Thing 2: As of andalite-yeerk contact, morphing technology is new, poorly understood, and widely feared. We know that ~30 years later, Elfangor and Arbron still don't understand morphing and have only morphed once apiece — they're terrified when Alloran tells them to morph, and regard Alloran's willingness to morph as an outlier. So way back when Alloran was an aristh under Seerow, we can assume that morphing tech was even more rare and widely feared.

Personally, I headcanon that the two-hour limit wasn't discovered until years into the R&D process, and that even today "two hours" is an estimate based on past nothlitizations. So andalites discover morphing tech, they try it out... and a bunch of them get trapped forever. And they don't know why. And anyone trapped as a prey animal loses their mind in addition to losing their body. And maybe after much trial and (catastrophic) error, they discover that it's safe to stay another shape for 5 minutes. For 10 minutes. For 15. So on, until they get up to ~120 Earth minutes and people start getting trapped again. If that's the case, if 100s of beta testers are nothlits, then no wonder most andalites only morph when they have no choice. No wonder they're baffled and even awed by the Animorphs' casual comfort with morphing.

[tarutaruga]

guess I am not immune to star rail after all......

[feraldude]

textbook definition of “>:3”

[pigeonentity]

thinking about how, as much as he thinks he's better than humans, the master's spent so much time with them after chasing the doctor around. he gets human references, he listens to human songs, watches human shows, and, even if it's for disguises, he lives as a human sometimes. honestly the doctor sometimes struggles with a lot of that