#yes I know it's a racist novel

[edenfenixblogs]

Some Excerpts As I Read

Reader Note: I have read The Color Purple and would never dismiss the importance of Alice Walker’s work. However, let’s not pretend that she’s too sacred to critique and treat like any other artist who does something racist. Her work to combat anti-black racism and highlight Black American struggles do not permit or excuse when she engages in other forms of bigotry.

I have never seen someone make a public stink about the extraordinarily racist poem, of which the section quoted above is only the tip of that particular racist iceberg.

In fact, I did not even know that Walker had written this horrible “poem” (if you can call an antisemitic diatribe with weird spacing a poem) —despite being very active in leftist spaces for my whole adult AND adolescent life and being an avid reader or both novels and poetry until 2023.

It was brought to my attention when she caught flak for being a TERF, as an incidental aside to prove that she was actually bigoted in several ways. A trait she ALSO shares with JK Rowling.

Look at these headlines. This is what comes up when I search “Alice walker transphobia.” They clearly label her as a TERF. But they do not make the same claim about her identity as BEING an antisemite. It is removed from her. Antisemitism is clearly not the focus here, which is fine. It is older news. These stories are reporting on her more recent bigotry. Cool.

These are the first results that come up when I search “alice walker antisemitism.”

The first result is from The Times of Israel, which makes sense, because that’s a place where a lot of Jews live and a lot of Jews will be upset by the things she wrote. But it also doesn’t make sense, because Walker is American. Why is the FIRST result about her antisemitism from an international newspaper that happens to have a large Jewish readership?

Why is the NYT headline about how Walker feels about her own bigotry, instead of how her Jewish readers feel?

The New York Magazine Article looked interesting so I clicked it. It was interesting. You should read it. It is an Op-Ed written by a Black, Jewish woman named Nylah Burton. Kudos to her. It was important. And non-Jews need to read it. It was written in 2018.

The Atlantic is next and primarily takes on the work of critiquing a different article in the New Yorker which also minimized the importance and harmful impact of antisemitism.

And then things get interesting. Still, on the first page of results, is this juxtaposition.

Among the many striking things here is the fact that the Jerusalem Post is writing from 2023. Al Jazeera is writing from 2019.

If you’ve read any of the above links or text you will note that yes, Alice Walker’s “offense” is indeed antisemitism. It’s not really debatable. She’s done many, many horrifically antisemitic things.

And yet, Al Jazeera jumps in, unprompted, to defend a known antisemite? Why?????? Oh, because she supports Palestine.

Well…perhaps…just maybe…supporters of Palestine shouldn’t want to leap to the defense of antisemites who spout blatant misinformation about the I/P conflict, demonize the Jews they know personally, and trade in antisemitic conspiracy theories.

Unless of course…they don’t care that they are pushing pro-Palestine Jews out of leftist spaces in the first place.

When did it become acceptable for leftists to excuse someone’s bigotry as long as the bigot agrees with you on other stuff?

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for leaving a hate comment on an author's social media?

so there's this author who recently got exposed for review bombing the books of other authors, mostly POC authors, while giving their own book 5 stars. the victims gave them the chance to handle this privately (which means they could still have their career intact if they chose to do so) and honestly I would've had so much respect for them if they chose to say "yes I did this, I'm sorry, this was coming from a place of insecurity and jealousy" but instead they made up conversations with a non-existing friend to try and blame them while painting themselves as a victim. on top of that they pulled the "I'm not racist I have autism & ADHD and I struggle with my mental health" card when people tried to hold them accountable.

I (23F) want to be an author, it has been my dream since I learned how to write as a child. I also have autism & ADHD. I also struggle with my mental health. and none of these things make me act deliberately racist???? I can be and I am sympathetic with them because dealing with bad mental health is horrible but they were handled their dream career, a book deal, promotion, beautiful art for their novel, and the chance to handle this privately and they still chose to try and escape consequence. I couldn't believe this so I left them a comment saying they were fucking ungrateful for living their dream and choosing to throw it all away just because they wanted to rip the spotlight from others... when any mildly capable author is also a reader who probably likes to read more than one author!!! it's stupid to treat one another like competition!!!!!

I'm angry but if I'm being honest, deep down I'm terrified - terrified that their behavior and their excuses will make editors want to not give other disabled authors a chance. we fight so hard to be taken seriously and this person, on top of trying to make things harder for POC authors, chose to make things harder for other disabled authors as well. but even though they were wrong, I know acting like a dick online is not the answer so AITA here?

What are these acronyms?

[tishalfdeadwaffles]

(The secret history spoiler warning)

unironically the thing I love most about the secret history is that it’s messed up by all means. Each character from the Greek class is messed up one way or another, and their faults, their fatal flaws—they’re not just any flaws no, they’re flaws that make these characters horrid. Yes they had cute interactions, yes I always think about their time in the countryhouse, when they were by the lake and Camilla injured her foot, Francis in his robe and Henry in his suit with the trousers rolled up to the knees, looking like a banker in an old impressionist painting, as he wades into the water, Charles saving Richard a sandwich and almost getting in trouble for it, bunny being kind to Richard at the start of the book and trusting him to the very end, the way bunny and Marion were so old married couple coded, Judy Poovey talking Richard’s ears off and being a girl 🎀, Henry beating up that jock for Camilla

Despite all this, Charles remains an incestuous drunkard and an abuser, Francis remains a melodramatic man who’d ask just about anyone he thinks attractive to bed on the first meeting, he’s also an anxious mess and refuses to believe there are consequences to his chain smoking, Camilla is manipulative and we know little of her bc of Richard’s idolisation, Richard morbidly longing for the picturesque at the expense of others’ lives and viewing the Greek class through rose tinted glasses, bunny was a homophobe and racist and leeched off everyone’s money—he literally put Richard on the spot during one of their first interactions in the book when he took him to the Brasserie and had Henry pay for everything—and looking through his sick friend’s diary and he was so darn annoying I couldn’t stand him at all in the first read, and even that might as well be exaggerated because it’s only Richard’s perspective on him, and bunny seemed to be well liked in the university by those outside the Greek class. I don’t even know where to start with Henry, I’m gonna have to make a separate post for him alone at this point. And even Judy, remember when Richard met her in the bathroom and she was talking about her slamming into Camilla when Camilla JUST entered the place, and when Camilla called her out Judy just dunked her beer on her because being drunk is a perfect excuse to see that as the right thing to do? And then when Henry and Charles went up to defend Camilla Judy called them abusers for defending her? 😭 though Henry breaking Spike’s bones is another thing to be honest. and don’t get me started on the bacchanal—the four of them killing an innocent man in their frenzy and getting away with it and brushing it under the rug later on. They’re literal murderers, and that’s before the plan of murdering Bunny was introduced

and ALL of them are chainsmokers and alcoholics to a dangerous point, can you even imagine the smell?????

anyhow, the main point of this ramble, is that to get a good sense of what this book is really about, I’d suggest rereading it at least once. Donna is a master of her craft, and this work of hers is anything but shallow, even the flaws are so perfectly placed and shadowed by our unreliable narrator to the point where there’s a big bunch of readers who completely ignore them (think of how there’s critics and readers who assume that Lolita is a romance novel) , but if you look from a more rational angle you’ll understand what Donna was trying to communicate

and I love love love how she did all of this

[makingqueerhistory]

I know you used to have a book wishlist, where did that go?

Yes I did, it was gently retired, though we had some very generous people who sent me books (THANK YOU <3 I continue to be shocked and warmed by this community's generosity) I found that I am much more of an audiobook person. I have trouble keeping information in my mind if I am reading it physically. That being said, I have also begun requesting books from my local library, which has been a massive resource that has assisted me more than I could have imagined before I started using it.

That being said, there are some books that I wish I had access to still, just because they don't have audiobooks. Currently my list is made up of:

Feeling Backward: Loss and the Politics of Queer History by Heather Love: "Feeling Backward" makes an effort to value aspects of historical gay experience that now threaten to disappear, branded as embarrassing evidence of the bad old days before Stonewall. It looks at early-twentieth-century queer novels often dismissed as "too depressing" and asks how we might value and reclaim the dark feelings that they represent. Heather Love argues that instead of moving on, we need to look backward and consider how this history continues to affect us in the present.

Prairie Fairies: A History of Queer Communities and People in Western Canada, 1930-1985 by Valerie Korinek: Prairie Fairies draws upon a wealth of oral, archival, and cultural histories to recover the experiences of queer urban and rural people in the prairies. Focusing on five major urban centres, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Regina, Edmonton, and Calgary, Prairie Fairies explores the regional experiences and activism of queer men and women by looking at the community centres, newsletters, magazines, and organizations that they created from 1930 to 1985.　

Racism and the Making of Gay Rights: A Sexologist, His Student, and the Empire of Queer Love by Laurie Marhoefer: Racism and the Making of Gay Rights shows how Hirschfeld laid the groundwork for modern gay rights, and how he did so by borrowing from a disturbing set of racist, imperial, and eugenic ideas. Yet on his journey with Li, Hirschfeld also had inspiring moments - including when he formulated gay rights as a broad, anti-colonial struggle and as a movement that could be linked to Jewish emancipation. Following Hirschfeld and Li in their travels through the American, Dutch, and British empires, from Manila to Tel Aviv to having tea with Langston Hughes in New York City, and then into exile in Hitler's Europe, Laurie Marhoefer provides a vivid portrait of queer lives in the 1930s and of the turbulent, often-forgotten first chapter of gay rights.

If you wanted to fund my ability to get my queer hands on these books, here is the link:

[olderthannetfic]

All the griping about #ownvoices claiming to represent diversity but really just forcing minority authors to write very particular ideas of what a "minority experience" is that please what publishers and "progressive" readers of majority groups want to see.... makes me feel like that movie American Fiction can't come out soon enough. I mean idk how much penetration that will have with the YA and genre publishing industries but. It floored me when I realized the novel it was based on was like 20 years old.... it just shows how while we might have a different publishing-industry label for it, black authors feeling like their books get ignored if they don't write for a particular (racist, tbh) fantasy of what the "black experience" looks like is an evergreen problem.

--

I know someone who's a tv writer, and they're always calling her up and using the word 'urban'. She's a dork. She should be writing for Gus from Psych or just any old show, not whatever it is they think she's going to be good at.

The real sticking point for a lot of white readers isn't a heavy book about issues: it's connecting with a trashy beach read about a Mary Sue who happens to be black. Or, for those of us who read trash m/m, asking us to have a black man as our single perfect tear woobie of choice.

I don't know why this is so hard for us. (I mean, racism, duh, but specifically why? It's all very well to blame the R word, but there are a million flavors, and unraveling stupidass underlying assumptions and bad behavior requires grasping what's going on more precisely.) I suppose it's a lifetime of training about otherness and who's allowed to be fragile and perceiving every single instance where the fairytale princess doesn't match our hair and eye color exactly—yes, even if she's white—as a demand that we never have personal wish fulfillment fantasies again. The atrociousness of a lot of media doesn't help, particularly for fanfic, but that's not the whole of it. A lot of people act like you ran over their cat if you ask them to identify with a sensitive, vulnerable black character in iddy trash fun.

[catholic-character-tournament]

Round 1 - Side A

Propaganda below ⬇️

Claude Frollo Propaganda:

This man got horny and his response was “that woman must burn”

I love him so much. More seriously Book Frollo is much more ambivalent than Disney Movie Frollo which makes sense because we're talking about Victor Hugo VS a children's movie. He didn't kill Quasimodo's mom, he took him in (when himself was only nineteen and already in charge of his own baby brother since their parents had died not long before) when he was left on the church's doorstep. I mean, he does quite a few reprehensible and slightly evil stuff afterwards but he had a good start, you know ? He taught Quasi to communicate by signs when he became deaf because of the bells. He was also very much into alchemy which was pretty cool. His behavior towards Esmeralda was still very much not okay but I'd like to point out that Phoebus is also a jerk in this one. And Quasi's quite a bit amoral because no intelligent enough to understand some stuff

I actually haven't gotten very far through the book yet but from the musical (not the disney one the other one it's SO GOOD) I can confirm he sucks at being catholic. literally tells a child over and over that he's ugly and unlovable until he fully believes it and won't let the kid go outside. https://genius.com/Alan-menken-out-there-lyrics (lyrics to the song in which frollo convinces quasimodo he's unlovable. ableist as hell and shitty in every way you can possibly imagine and it breaks my heart every time. feel free to listen to the actual track but it doesn’t get good until about 40 seconds in) frollo keeps saying it's good and right to punish sinners himself, and it's not right that the wicked go unpunished. there's a really satisfying moment in the musical where quasimodo sees him for what he is and repeats his words back to him (7:45 - 8:54, frollo is the one with the insanely deep voice) and it gives me goosebumps every time to hear that "yes you do" link to that video: https://youtu.be/HL7WZcTIgus

I honestly wrote this submission because I suffered from severe insomnia for being reminded that I might have poor taste when it comes to enjoying media since I enjoy Disney version of Frollo even after I watched other versions of this character. (I am so sorry the host yes I am that annoying anon lying in the dark little corner of your ask box. I have no other thing to do in my life so hello again) His character is different from the original novel version, and to be honest as an adoption, that is NOT necessarily WRONG. He had more struggles with his pride and his self-imagine in the Catholic framework. "Beata Maria, you know I am a righteous man, of my virtue I am justly proud" as the opening line of his villain song, clearly states his main struggle throughout the movie--pride and self-imagine (super-ego) vs lust and instinct (id). Once his self-imagine in the Catholic framework was on shaking ground, he bent his twisted sense of "righteous" to make him less painful. Tbh, the novel version used the example of Bruno d’Ast to justify his hornyness, so it's just classical Frollo behaviour no matter which version it is. (SMASH THE TABLE) HAVE YOU READ~~THE NOVEL~~ I REPEAT: HIS CHARACTER IS NOT JUST "I HATE WITCHCRAFT AND I AM HORNY AND RACIST". I REPEAT: HIS CHARACTER IS NOT JUST "I HATE WITCHCRAFT AND I AM HORNY AND RACIST". I REPEAT: HIS CHARACTER IS NOT JUST "I HATE WITCHCRAFT AND I AM HORNY AND RACIST". I am sorry for the noise pollution in your submission Google form. I should have taken my sedatives regularly. I am truly sorry. Also please don't bully me in the debate, novel/musical enjoyers. LOOK, I AIN'T YOUR ENEMY. I LOVE NOVEL/MUSICAL FROLLO, I JUST LOVE DISNEY VERSION AS WELL, I AM AS TORMENTED AS YOUR FAVORITE CATHOLIC PRIEST. I am not a native tongue, so I tried my best to express my thoughts/feelings/justification why Disney version should be a qualified candidate as well. If you tried to debate with me, I would be drowned in my poor English. Sorry again.

Javert Propaganda:

His whole deal is like, “can someone still be good even if they’ve broken the law? Can you still be godly if you’re a felon” He really believes that by upholding the law, he is absolutely in the moral right all the time. And when he realizes that’s not true, it absolutely destroys him

he is the law and the law is not mocked <3 he is also. so gay. i'm sorry i refuse to believe you're even a little heterosexual if you chase jean valjean for like over 20 years for breaking parole and/or bread theft and recognise him by his muscles and have a major moral crisis as soon as he's nice to you one (1) time also he gets called out by a child that one time?? that was fun ALSO HE UHH???? THINKS HE SCREWED UP ONE TIME AND LIKE. ASKS HIS BOSS TO FIRE HIM???? (the boss is valjean he doesn't know that yet dw abt it) also uh uhm. he jumps into a river,,,, but before he does that he feels the need to put his hat on the fence nearby so it doesn't get wet lmao he's so silly goofy <3333

[siryouarebeingmocked]

Carter and Lovecraft, by Jonathan L. Howard (2015)

I really wanted to like this book.

I've read a few Lovecraft novels and stories, and I liked them. So when I saw this on my friend's bookshelf, I borrowed it, and read it.

Tried to.

The first real fly in the ointment? NYPD protag sees his partner take a 9mm retirement in front of him on a creepy case, and becomes a private detective. Mysterious lawyer shows up at his office one day and says there was a bookstore owner in Providence, Rhode Island, who has been missing and just declared dead.

The protag gets the bookshop. He's not sure why.

Protag goes to the bookshop. Owner's niece, Emily, is there. She's been running the shop alone since the owner vanished, and she co-ran it when he was alive. Also, she's biracial. Would be played by Zoe Kravitz in the movie, he thinks.

Her name is Lovecraft.

As in, she's a descendant of ol' Howard Philips.

She notes the irony; a black-ish "mulatto" descendant of an anti-black racist.

"Okay," I think, as I checked the publication date. "You've gotten that token bit out of the way. Now, can we move on?"

Apparently not.

As protag starts looking into the disappearance and other weird stuff, he decides he needs to get his eye in. So he goes to a gun range, where he needs to sign up for the NRA first

and ends the session by "re-engaging the safety" on his Glock.

Fun fact: stock Glocks don't have manual safeties, AFAIK.

In the next chapter, protag thinks about how he used the gun. He hates the NRA and the whole "gun fetish" thing, but he needs the iron, just in case.

Two strikes. Three if you count the safety thing.

Yes, I know an NYPD cop might be a bit bigoted about the issue, especially considering how his partner died. But it really feels like the writer's opinion.

In fact, let me just-

Yep. The writer is British. This sounds awfully familiar.

It was about this time that I realized something. The protagonist has no traits that aren't directly related to being a cop or detective. Absolutely none.

I don't think we know what he does in his off hours. No friends. Nothing but the job.

Heck, Miss Lovecraft has more personality than him, and she takes up a lot less screen time.

Protag decides to give Lovecraft half the business, so he can become a silent partner. People start dying in physically impossible ways - like the dude who drowned in his dry car in a parking lot - our hero looks into it.

He also ends up learning about a local family, the Waites. Rich, keep to themselves on their own land, been around since before the area was officially settled, apparently.

The local who tells him about all this says the younger ones are oddly attractive. The family has distinctive big eyes.

Anyone remotely familiar with HP Lovecraft just went "Oh, right, they're fishmen. Got it." I've seen this trope done better before, like in the comic Shadowgirls.

Hero looks into the archives, finds records of a racist Town Council rant by an early Waite, back when they were still into trading. Including slaves. Specifically, patriarch Newton Waite went to a council meeting and said black people should serve others, and shouldn't have self-determination.

The archivist intern says it's was "a different time", and that's just how people were back then.

Of course, he adds "People who talk like that now - no pass for them."

End scene.

Like this extremely mainstream, boring opinion is some kind of

In the next scene, protag chats about the fit he had near the Waite place. Learns about another mysterious death. When he chats about it with Emily, he suddenly realizes she's hot.

Then the narration tells us that he was a racist bigot in his teens, though he thought he was being sensible at the time. He now knows he was wrong, but he still feels sparks of it when he reads about some black kid doing some stereotypically black thing, which gives certain white people "a hard-on of righteousness".

And, of course, his time spent walking away from "instinctive racism" means his dating pool opened up. Like Emily Lovecraft, for example.

The most stereotypically black thing would probably be crime. Or being a single mom or deadbeat dad.

 Sadly, I know of plenty of black people - from my black majority home country - who fall into one of those categories. Or two. Three if you include "poverty", but we're Developing, so that barely even counts.

Also, this basically came out of nowhere. Not Emily being hot - I mean, look at Zoe Kravitz - but his unsolicited thoughts on racism.

All of these issues have also been issues for many concerned black people. For decades. The 'stereotypically black things' might be bad themselves, not because they make racist white people feel smug.

This is precisely where I closed the book for good. I would've put away the bookmarks, but I needed the page so I could write this rant.

Honestly, writing all this made me realize that I should've given up long before I made it halfway through the book. But I just kept hoping it would get better.

Doing the same well-worn cliches in a modern setting doesn't really make them interesting. Neither do the little 'racism is bad, mmmkay?' bits.

[theminecraftbee]

I’ve been seeing some writing advice that annoys me lately, and so, here’s some advice about writing advice from me:

“your teachers taught you wrong”, “unlearn the way your teachers taught you x”, and “you don’t learn in school” kinds of framings are often disingenuous. normally at the middle/high school level you aren’t learning creative writing, which is what most writing advice posts on tumblr, by contrast, are about. yes there ARE problems with the five paragraph essay and similar structures, but those are mostly to teach you how to structure an argument, not to teach you how to write a short story or novel. your teachers weren’t misleading you; your teachers were teaching you to do something totally different than what you’re trying to do now. cut them some slack and remember that you do have to know the basic principles to know when to break them.

gonna say that again: advice that says “throw out this basic convention/grammatical rule/formatting standard” is missing the point of throwing those things out. yes, in creative writing you can throw all of that out if you want to. however, you have to know the basic rules to understand when to break them. basic rules are there because they’re relatively easy to understand for the reader and largely invisible; breaking those rules becomes noticeable. just make sure you’re breaking them because you want it to be noticed, and in a way that makes it so your point is still legible. (similarly, advice saying “never throw this thing out” is probably also missing the point.)

advice suggesting to always structure sentences or paragraphs a certain length is typically wrong. the actual answer is typically that you should vary it. varied sentence structure and paragraph length is easier and more interesting to read than it all being the same, and the more extreme breaks of pattern become more noticeable and impactful if you don’t do them the whole time. so like, yeah, keep that in mind.

you do have to still read. sorry there really isn’t getting around it, if you want to write good you need to read the kinds of things you want to write.

the lines between “trope”, “cliche”, “beloved genre convention”, and “emotional and impactful twist” are super thin and depends on circumstance. unless the thing is like, actively racist, there aren’t many tropes/cliches/conventions that are universally bad. they’re tools for the circumstance. this is where knowing what tone you’re going for helps a lot and can help you figure out what tools are most useful.

genres are marketing tools and shouldn’t be the driver of what you write. however, genres have fans for a reason, and understanding the conventions of the genre you’re trying to write will help you a lot. yes this is contradictory I know but that’s just how life is. generally ignore advice about a genre that comes from someone who doesn’t like that genre, but also ignore advice that suggests that you can never do something in a specific genre (once again useless it’s actively bigoted or something you know the drill).

it’s actually perfectly okay to write for other people. you should know what audience you’re writing for. just don’t write entirely for other people, and if the numbers make you feel bad, find ways to cut the numbers out of your life. you should write what makes you happiest, after all. for most of us on tumblr this is a hobby and not a job. you just don’t have to feel guilty for imagining an imaginary audience while writing or even getting validation from a real audience, because those things are perfectly normal too.

you don’t have to write every day unless you want to. practice is important to write good, as is like, actually writing, but burnout will hurt you, so figure out a pace that works for you. as long as that pace makes sure you still write with somewhat regularity, it is between you and no one else how many words that is or how frequent it is.

you’re here to have fun. sometimes it won’t be fun; sometimes it’ll be emotional or a grind or frustrating or infuriating. that’s fine too, you don’t have to feel ecstatic glee every moment of the writing process. you’re allowed to have bad writing days. you also shouldn’t feel miserable the whole time. if you don’t have fun when you’re writing ever, not even the euphoria of having a completed final product, then take a step back.

you’re doing great, I promise. writing advice is bullshit. even this advice is probably bullshit. do what works for you. this is the literal definition of an art and not a science, after all.

[myster3y]

welcome!

about me

my online name is kiara, feel free to call me kiki or kay! i'm a scorpio, ravenpuff, artist, and worrier. i am also the biggest alec benjamin and grayson hawthorne fan you'll ever see.

what to expect

this blog will have all sorts of post from books, to reblogs, to vents, to the most randomest things ever. literally whatever i like lol.

interests

i love art! i'm also getting into reading slowly. i love playing clarinet and music in general. don't get me started on science, I AM A SCIENCE GIRLIE ALL THE WAY!!! i also love drawing cats and the rain.

if you wanna be my friend or talk to me

don't be afraid to talk to me. I would love to hear what you said, even if its a vent of something stupid. I love to talk to others, and I hope and I can make your day a bit brighter.

special mutuals:

@never-enough-novels, @letmeseeallthefrogsinthecity, @not-nomi, @banilikesfictionalpeople, @hathorneheiress, @blocked-zombieartist, @berryzxx, @urbanflorals, @skeelly, @urbanflorals, @hijabi-desi-bookworm

FAQ Q: do you know @not-nomi and @letmeseeallthefrogsinthecity in real life? A: yes, i do know nomi and vivs in real life. Q: where do you live? A: AMERICAA RAHHH 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🦅🦅🦅🔥🔥🔥 Q: how old are you? A: i don't like to expose my age online but i'm 12-18 years old! Q: how did you come up with your username? A: @hathorneheiress helped me! credits to her!

notes:

please don’t tag me in picrew chains or anything super long because i don’t have time to answer it. also sorry if i cannot get to your tag game.

i am a minor. please don’t interact if your older than 18 unless i do first.

transphobes, racists, etc., please don’t interact.

[study-with-aura]

Tuesday, April 9, 2024

Today went very well. I am glad that I was able to catch up on my posts during my break earlier. I am now eating my evening snack, and then I will get ready for bed before spending a bit of time with my parents until it is time for sleep.

I am not quite sure if I am a fan of statistics quite yet seeing as conditional probability took me a little longer to understand, but I do think I finally figured it out so it made sense in my brain. On the other hand, the book that I am almost done with is so good. They mentioned the father of taxonomy, who I only recently studied in Biology. Yes, I forgot his name, but it isn't important as he did a terrible thing by assigning value to a person based on their race and said that there were four races, and technically even five, and then he assigned them an order and why they were in that particular order. Apparently, that was one of the ideas behind race realism which is pseudoscience at best in which geneticists even say there is no actual scientific backing for despite how it is often displayed. Although, I am finding this out from this book, with what I know in general, I trust it. Sometimes non-fiction can be difficult to read, but when it's written like this, and because I like history, I don't want to put the book down. It's strange that I somewhat remember hearing about some of the events mentioned in the book, but I can't recall it perfectly. I was only 7 then!

Tasks Completed:

Geometry - Learned about conditional probability + practice + learned to check for independence with conditional probabilities + practice + honors work

Lit and Comp II - Reviewed Unit 23 vocabulary + read chapters 54-55 of Emma by Jane Austen and finished the novel + took quiz on Emma (12/10)

Spanish 2 - Copied and studied clothing vocabulary

Bible I - Read 1 Samuel 13-14:1-15

World History - Learned about Anne Frank + read some of Anne Frank's writings + learned about Nazi ideology

Biology with Lab - Completed virtual mystery "lab" story (14/15)

Foundations - Read more on thoroughness + took next quiz on Read Theory + read steps of Monroe's "Motivated Sequence" + read about the psychology of persuasion

Piano - 60-minute piano lesson + practiced for one hour

Khan Academy - Built into coursework

CLEP - None today

Streaming - Watched Greatest Events of World War II in Color episode 3

Duolingo - Studied for 15 minutes (Spanish, French, Chinese) + completed daily quests

Reading - Read pages 323-376 of Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed by Dashka Slater

Chores - Laundry

Activities of the Day:

Personal Bible Study (2 Corinthians 6)

Ballet

Pointe

Journal/Mindfulness

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What I’m Grateful for Today:

I am grateful that my piano teacher was very proud of me today for having three of my pieces fully memorized and almost a fourth!

Quote of the Day:

Without music, life would be a blank to me.

-Emma, Jane Austen

🎧10 Pieces from Romeo and Juliet, Op. 75 - Sergei Prokofiev

[graaaaaayy]

fine I’ll make a bloody intro post

hello, I’m Gray. I post random shit, mostly about books. I’m kind of a jack of all trades, master of none. But then I always say it’s better than being a master of none.

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The Basics :

He/Him. I’m 16. I’m half Italian, half English. I live in Canada, and I’ve lived in five other countries before. Im neurodivergent and the living embodiment of the term chaos bisexual. Yes I still have a British accent, idk why so many people want to know.

Askbox is always open, just think before you ask though. DNI -

. Terfs, Queerphobes, transphobes, racists, and generally shitty people. Controversial opinions not welcome this is a no politics zone.

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Interests :

books. Books. BOOOOKS (fandoms listed below)

the mcu

biochem, psychology, SCIENCEEE

skateboarding but I’m not good at it

basketball but I am good at it. Being 5’7 crushed my dreams of going pro. Oh well.

running, lifting, the works. I do it to stay sane so don’t give me that look.

electro-tech cause I have my dads engineer genes. historyyy————————————————————————

Fandoms (just the main ones)

SJM - acotar, tog

the folk of the air series

PJOverse, Rick Riordan’s books in general. Harry Potter (it was my entire childhood but I don’t post much about it cause JKR ruined it by being a TERF)

Any form of Sherlock Holmes

The MCU (basically all of it)

The Kingkiller chronicles

Fourth wing

The Shadowhunter novels

Grishaverse

Heartstopper

random romcoms here and there

edit : somehow forgot to add Nerdfighteria ?

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Music :

Hozier, Conan Gray, James Arthur, James Taylor Watts, Queen, Bastille, Aviici, The Lumineers

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Random Facts :

I speak 3 languages: English, French, Italian and I’m learning Spanish.

I’m in the IB program, I skipped a year and I’m graduating in June.

I just ran my first 5k :)

I’ve dislocated the same kneecap 3 times. Don’t ask how idk how.

I read fast, and I have a photographic memory.

That’s all I can think of for now. You guys better give this notes it took so long to make this

[st-el-la-luna]

Okay but like, what's with fandoms and their recent obsession with "purifying" themselves and the content in them?

It's one thing if a content creator is outed as a pedophile or a racist or a xenophobe.

What I'm talking about is this newfound hatred towards dark fics and dark subject matter in general. It's like people don't understand that it's fiction. Fiction is not reality. Even if the writing is disgusting or amoral, it's not real. And you don't have to read it.

People have been writing weird shit for ages. So how come we only ever see these purity enforcers attacking fic writers or fan artists in fandoms?

Like, in the COD fandom I've seen a bunch of people getting hounded for posting or consuming dark content, I've also gotten a couple messages about it. And, like, hey buddy? Who really cares.

Fiction and reality are two separate things.

Also, why are you attacking me, a 20 year old who lives with their mom and writes for their ten consultant followers and not, oh, I don't know...

Stephen King, who has that whole underage sewer orgy scene in It.

Or the e creators of call of duty for creating literal propaganda. Because, hey besties, yes, that's what COD is. Propaganda. They want you to see it and be like, "yay, guns and the military!" And that's the thing about fiction. It's allowed.

The issue at hand is, in my mind, an issue of deeper reading comprehension or complex thoughts. And a lack of understanding of catharsis.

No one is saying these things are good. But these things exist in the world, like it or not. And in my mind, it's better to portray them in fiction than not at all. Because at least in portraying it awareness can be spread.

And again, if you don't like something, if it triggers you, just don't read it. It's simple. Like if you're watching a movie and can't stand blood so you cover your eyes not to see. You aren't going to go after the director are you? No. You're going to take steps to protect yourself against content you don't want to see or consume.

I think it's an issue of separating fan works from "real" works. Those who say fan art isn't real art or fanfiction isn't real writing. So perhaps in those people's minds, fan works, not being "real" means that they shouldn't portray things we see in reality.

All this to say here's a non-definitive list of novels with dark/disturbing content that these people would want to oppose:

It by Stephen King: The kids having an orgy in the sewers, child abuse, sexual abuse

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov: pseudo-incest, hebephilia

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Attwood: Women being stripped of rights, education, loss of bodily autonomy, forced breeders (at the hands of a government)

The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks

The Road by Cormac McCarthy: People keeping other people for food, people keeping women as breeding stock (at the hands of bandits in a post-apocalyptic world)

Flowers in the Attic by V. C. Andrews: child neglect, child abuse, forced isolation, incest, rape

1984 by George Orwell: totalitarianism, government surveillance, insignificance and weakness of the individual

The Stand by Stephen King: sex, rape, ableism, abuse of handicapped people, violence and killing

Maus by Art Spiegelman: depiction of violence, concentration camps, Nazis, Nazi imagery, dehumanization, starvation, mass murder

Frankenstein by Marry Shelley: human experimentation, grave robbing, necromancy, technical necrophilia, murder, revenge, suicide

In the Miso Soup by Ryū Murakami: pedo/hebephilic relations, sex industry, murder

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy: graphic depictions of violence, use of slurs, child abuse, infanticide (? Been a while since I read it so I might be misremembering), pedophilia, rape, sexual assault and violence

Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica: cannibalism, forced breeding, objectification, slave trade, people being bred and sold for meat

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess: sadism, sexual violence

The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum: captivity, torture, torture at the hands of children, violence, sexual violence, based on a true story

Lord of The Flies by William Golding: shows the truth of human nature, dissolution of society and it's rules, violence as a basal instinct

The 120 Days of Sodom by Marquis de Sade: sex, sexual violence, rape, sex trade, pedophilia, incest, abuse, literally just the whole book

Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh: mental illness, drug use/addiction, infant death

American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis: violence, gore, rape, murder, torture, misogyny, sadism

A lot of these books, though considered scary and disturbing and gross, are also seen as classics.

It's not the fault of the author or the media they create, but that of the consumer.

You can find it icky and gross after reading or watching such things. Most of the time you're supposed to. That's a good thing, it means you're human. These things make you think and feel and emphasize.

To control what can and cannot be written is censorship. To control how certain things are portrayed is censorship.

Be aware of the media that's out there, because these disturbing things are real issues out there. And if you can't stomach it, don't consume it.

Simple.

[door]

my friend asked me for murder show recs and i put together a list of a bunch of them and thought i'd also share it here in case anyone else who was not raised by the glow of mystery! on pbs might want an intro. extremely subjective commentary, obvs. enjoy.

hello. welcome to the world of finding television shows about people getting killed comforting. it's fucked up, but who isn't. here's a list of the ones i like and why and where to watch them.

midsomer murders (1997-current): this is one of those sterotypical "it ran for 25 years and did nearly 18 episodes" british shows. it was adapted from a book series, which are the early eps. they're really fucked up and great imo. the later ones lose that sharpness, but until seasons 20+ i think it's a really solid show. the theme song is performed on a theremin. pluses: every great british actor shows up at least once, incredibly great deaths, lots of hyper niche hobby groups, tom barnaby is the best. minuses: showrunner brian true-may quoted as saying that his version of "english countryside" is entirely white. he was booted from the show at that point, however. i've watched the entire series 2-3 times, except for s5e3 "Ring Out Your Dead" because there's a death in it that i found particularly tragic the first time i watched it and have no desire to revisit it (but ymmv). robyn's fave ep is s3e3 "Judgement Day," because a brass band plays the show's theme song at a village fete and also Orlando Bloom is run through with a pitchfork. (ACORN)

Poirot (1989-2013): truly the goat. David Suchet bodies this role. i don't know how familiar you are with christie, but hercule poirot was her recurring detective character, a fastidious little belgian living in 1930s England. in this show, it's the late 1930s for 20 years, and the sets and costumes are so good. not a single streamline moderne property in england is overlooked. the early episodes are short--40ish minutes each--but they transition to 90 minutes at some point. they adapt all of the poirot books, with the big ones--murder on the orient express and death on the nile--done as higher budget tv movies. (BRITBOX)

marple (2004-2013): another christie adaptation, with 2 actresses playing miss marple in sequence. they also adapted a bunch of non-marple stories to have miss marple in them. set post-WWII, mainly countryside english mysteries. (BRITBOX)

miss fisher's murder mysteries (2012-2015, film in 2020): set in 1920s melbourne, mfmm follows independently wealthy private eye phryne fisher. it's an adaptation of modern novels, so it's less conservative than the christies. phryne's best friend is a suit-wearing lesbian doctor. it's a sharp, smart show, and phryne herself (as well as her relationship with buttoned-up detective jack robinson) is very sexy. it ran three seasons and was followed by a crowd-funded film in 2020, which isn't GOOD, but it is FUN. there's another a spin-off set in the 1960s called miss fisher's modern mysteries, which follows phryne's niece. again--not good, but fun. nothing beats the og series tho. (ACORN)

lewis (2006-2015): this is technically a spin-off of the inspector morse series, which started in the 80s, but i've never watched it so you should be fine. this follows very un-academic inspector lewis and his very academic assistant DS hathaway in EXTREMELY academic oxford england. i really dig the pacing of this, as well as how profoundly weird smart people can be. the big downside is the actor who played hathaway is laurence fox, who's a real stinker of a dude. right-wing, racist, etc. so. ymmv. (BRITBOX)

vera (2011-current): vera is a nearly retired, irascible, set in her ways detective in northumberland. she heads her own department, so part of the appeal is definitely trim youngsters dashing to do her bidding with a "yes mum." she drives a huge old land rover, wears a raincoat everywhere, has no patience for class barriers, and in short i love her. in the newer seasons there is also a detective in her squad called Jaq who is a very cute butch. (BRITBOX)

dalgliesh (2021-current): adaptation of pd james novels following detective-poet adam dalgliesh. set in the 1970s, which sets it apart and which i quite enjoy. his character is really sensitive and thoughtful is a way that's unusual for cop shows. (ACORN)

annika (2021-current): i'm gonna dive into some of the weirder ones now. annika is still pretty serious, but the title character has a habit of breaking the 4th wall to loop the audience in on the meta nature of her thoughts--usually relating to a book or story. it's set in glasgow and they investigate marine crime specifically. annika is played by nicola walker, who full disclosure i find VERY attractive. she's norwegian, she's odd, and she's trying her best. she has a teenage daughter who's gay. (PBS)

queens of mystery (2019-current): this one is VERY odd. think british murders meets pushing daisies. there's a narrator, and occasional technicolor flights of fancy. it follows a very serious detective who was raised by her three aunts after her mother was killed. she comes back to work in her home town and has to navigate both sides of her life, plus still wanting to know who killed her mother. production was interrupted by covid, so the main actress changed between seasons, but the new person is also very good. (ACORN)

brokenwood mysteries (2014-current): this one is sort of...sillier than the rest? it's a new zealand show set in a small town. it's fairly queer (although not nearly queer enough), and one of the things i love the most about it is it maintains a roster of recurring characters (which i think is only possible because of the small size of the NZ film industry). pretty good maori rep, especially jared, a local who seems to know or be related in some way to everyone in town. i adore him. he's off the show now, and i miss him. (ACORN)

mcdonald & dodds (2020-current): set in bath, this is an odd couple partnership of an ambitious young cop lately from london and a shy older cop who has lived in bath all his life and hasn't seen action in a decade. their interactions are funny and lovely, and it's refreshing to see a black woman character allowed to be ambitious. (BRITBOX)

[mexicancat-girl]

I saw some of your takes abt tbosas (and it was refreshing seeing someone with media literacy talking abt it), but as a fellow latin-american person, I wanted to ask you a question: did you also feel extremely disturbed about the way coriolanus talked and thought about D2, its people and its customs? the way he talked and mocked them made me think so much about the way gringos talk about latam that made my skin crawl, but idk, maybe it was just me, so I wanted to know the opinion of another person who's latine too ☠️

Coriolanus is incredibly xenophobic throughout the novel. It made me feel disgusted every time he disparages the people of the Districts, and the Plinths specifically.

As someone who's parents immigrated to the US many years ago, I could see the Plinth's story heavily mirroring that of immigrants. Leaving behind one's homeland and attempting to assimilate, to play the good citizen. But no matter what you do, you're not "American" enough to fit in America. You are ostracized and isolated by white folk. But you're not wanted where you came from, either, because you've picked up too many of the new customs and scrubbed away your identity to fit in.

Sejanus even admits that he doesn't feel like he fits anywhere, that he still feels like he's part of District 2, he's still District, even all the years of living in Capitol. That people only tolerate him and his father because of their money. The way he was isolated since he was a child--to the point that the only friend he feels he has is Coriolanus, just because the other boy didn't outright mock him--says a lot.

Sejanus being played by a Puerto Rican actor also adds to the immigration themes, especially mirroring the current situation with the US colonizing Puerto Rico.

The fact Lucy Gray is played by a latine actress, and Coriolanus goes out of his way to insist she isn't fully District to both himself and the people of the Capitol to help her win, just shows that she is treated as 'one of the good ones' and a model minority. She didn't 'take away' anyone else's status in the Capitol like the Plinths did with their arms dealing--which is partially why Sejanus and the Plinths are so despised by the elite of the Capitol--so she's given much more leeway as an underdog.

Overall, yes, the way Coriolanus spoke of Sejanus and his family made my skin crawl. It reminded me a lot of my own experiences as Latine in the US.

Coriolanus goes out of his way to mock Sejanus' empathy for the poor and downtrodden, his closeness to his mother, and the way they gift those close to them food/dishes from their homeland. And yet Coriolanus takes their charity, takes advantage of their kindness and empathy, and even adores how nice the cooking tastes from Ma Plinth, despite his inner monologue insulting all of it.

Suzanne Collins really did well with showing how much of an entitled, miserable racist little piece of shit he is. I just wish white fans could see his flaws for what they are instead of being dazzled by his actor's good looks.

[olderthannetfic]

The previous convos about sensitivity readers and purity culture in booktwit types definitely feels familiar. I'll never forget when I was querying agents a few years ago with a novel I wrote, and I was told my writing "caused discomfort," was "problematic" and could be seen as racist/anti-black and having a lot of instances of queerphobia and misogynoir. The novel was a horror-fantasy story that actually was based on the transatlantic slave trade but on a different planet (So, yes, I would hope that this kind of story would be disturbing and cause discomfort in the reader. Mission accomplished). The plot covered several generations of the captured aliens who were enslaved (a la A Hundred Years of Solitude), the fallout of their enslavement, and the mistreatment of the enslaved people as a result. Most of the agents who requested the full manuscript said they liked the story, but I was met with many intrusive questions about my identity, race, gender, and sexuality and urges to work with a sensitivity reader should we progress forward as agent and writer. I am a Black, femme nonbinary, bisexual person. This was all fine and dandy with them, so they wanted to make this information about my identity public for consumers to appease the Twitter crowd and dissuade callout posts from the functionally illiterate. I wanted to maintain my dignity and not disclose any personal information. (They assumed it was because I was in the closet or something. I was not then and am not now. My identity just isn't anyone's business if they want to read a book, simple as that. This was also especially because there are mentions of sexual assault of some characters, and that kind of information definitely isn't anyone's business to know about an author. Period.) I also didn't want to hire a sensitivity reader because they were advertised to me as someone who performed outrage at works for a living (It also didn't help that I was linked to a few sensitivity readers who were very vocal on YA book Twitter and SFF Twitter. No thank you.). This was, apparently, a problem. That was when I decided publishing may not be for me, at least traditional publishing.

--

Yeah, sadly, I feel there is an audience for that book, but you're going to have to find it yourself. Anything YA adjacent is too outrage-driven without the necessary nuance, but a lot of more oldschool SFF circles are too full of the kind of sensitive, delicate white guys who wouldn't get this book either. Maybe an indie black press? Somewhere with a more literary bent that thrives on controversial books? Depending on how horror-y it is, maybe there's an avenue to pursue there. Horror fans do include a lot of manbabies too, but those circles can be more open to actually dark stuff.

At least self publishing is easy now, but self publishing and then getting a significant number of people to buy and read the book is hard.

I promise that decent sensitivity readers exist, but the ones that crowd is going to send you to are... not equipped to deal with dark horror fantasy, in my opinion.

And as a writer, I wouldn't work with anyone I didn't know pretty well anyway. How are you supposed to evaluate the feedback of a rando? What if they fundamentally don't get your genre?

If you do decide to press on, I think I'd look for like-minded fellow writers to begin with. Start a club. Serialize your stuff in the same place. IDK. There are plenty of grown-ass adults who buy books and who like nuance. There's got to be some way to find your audience.

It would be a pity to give up just because publishing is full of cowards.

[changingplumbob]

hey, 4-6, 28, 43, 44 questions for Reece 👀

resource

*does warm up arm stretches*

My boy Reece!

What is your sim’s ethnicity?

Reece is your basic average white person with no culture (I feel like I can say this as I'm also a basic average white person with no culture [also being white is not a culture and if someone says that they're probably a racist to some degree]). In my lore his family is from France way back when (obviously anyone who has strong ties to a European country is not a basic white person) but I haven't had much chance to do much with this fact. It'll probably come into play more when he and his siblings get around to having kids (because let's sing ALL the french nursery rhymes)

Does your sim have any nicknames?

Yes but also no. Samir has called him Blondie since way back when they first met (yes Samir likes blondes). Now he's a YA Samir has also started to call him Gorgeous, this is a good pg choice if they are around others. When they're alone and Samir is feeling romantic he calls Reece a good boy. When they woohoo he also calls him REDACTED and REDACTED because Reece does enjoy his kinks.

Outside of his relationship though he does not have any nicknames. His family have never shortened his name when talking to him, and all his friends call him Reece. Some people's names don't get the nickname treatment, like Devin or Adam.

Do they have a job? If so what is it?

He is applying for University at the moment. He may be a happy forest hippie but he is a genius. He will be doing a biology degree (just like his older sisters Charlie and Keira) and it looks like he'll be able to get into the distinguished degree.

I think his ideal job would be a forest ranger. Using his smarts to make sure the local flora and fauna is maintained you know. But this is not an option in game... If you know of a mod that adds this career though let me know! His second choice is to be a doctor (yeah he's so stupidly brainy the medical field is his second choice)

Does your sim like books? If so what’s their favourite one?

He wasn't always a fan of books, he's been an outdoor lover since childhood, but now that he's a geek he does like to read a bit. For non fiction he'd go with a book talking about plants. Fiction... he is a fan of werewolf romance novels. I do not read them so I can't tell you his favourite but it'll be whatever one has the most steamy parts.

Bonus: There is a 100% chance that Samir will lightly restrain Reece and read him the steamy bits with sporadic kisses until Reece is begging for woohoo. Maybe I should make this a scene in their next chapter? I don't know how the screenshots would go but it would be fun!

What is a wish your sim has?

General gameplay would have me believe he wants a kid. Plot wise he wishes that they can figure out what happened to Samir's parents so that Samir can heal (as much as you can heal with your parents having being butchered). He has already achieved the Inner Peace lifetime aspiration and is working on the Zen Guru one.

What is a flaw your sim has?

He gossips all the time, probably about things he shouldn't (but he's not telling anyone Samir is a werewolf unless Samir says it's okay). He is indecisive, he often thinks of many choices and options but will be slow to take action. This is where Samir's tendency to be rash can balance out their efforts.

That was fun, I love you really Reece!