theravenvanadey

[theravenvanadey]

“Growing Around Grief”

Lois Tonkin, 1996

[theravenvanadey]

[theravenvanadey]

[theravenvanadey]

franz kafka quotes that make me go absolutely feral

““There are times when my longing for you overwhelms me, so often I can only think of you with teeth clenched.”

“I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I can only explain it to myself.”

“I am forever chained to myself; that’s what I am and that’s what I must live with.”

“I am constantly trying to communicate something incommunicable, to explain something inexplicable, to tell about something I only feel in my bones and which can only be experienced in those bones.”

“I have spent my entire life resisting the desire to end it.”

“Dear Milena, I wish the world were ending tomorrow. Then I could take the next train, arrive at your doorstep in Vienna, and say: ‘Come with me, Milena. We are going to love each other without scruples or fear or restraint. Because the world is ending tomorrow.’ Perhaps we don’t love unreasonably because we think we have time, or have to reckon with time. But what if we don’t have time? Or what if time, as we know it, is irrelevant? Ah, if only the world were ending tomorrow. We could help each other very much.”

“I mustn’t look at you too much or I won’t be able to take my eyes off you at all.”

“So we’ve drifted apart entirely, Milena, and the only thing we seem to share is the intense wish that you were here, and your face as close to me as possible. And of course we also share this death wish—this wish to die ‘comfortably’ but in reality, that is wish small children have anyway, like myself, for instance, during arithmetic. I would see the teacher leafing through his notebook, probably looking for my name, and would compare my inconceivable lack of knowledge to this spectacle of power, terror, and reality. Half dreaming with fear, I wished I could rise like a ghost and run down the aisle between the desks, fly by my teacher as light as my knowledge of mathematics, somehow pass through the door, then, once outside, I would pull myself together and be free in the wonderful air which, in all the world know to me, did not contain any greater tensions than those found in that classroom. That would have been ‘comfortable’ indeed. But that’s not the way it happened.”

“I’m tired, can’t think of anything and want only to lay my face in your lap, feel your hand on my hand, and remain like that through eternity.” 

“I am dirty, Milena. Infinitely dirty. This is why I scream so much about purity. No one sings as purely as those who inhabit the deepest hell—what we take to be the song of angels is their song.”

“Written kisses don’t reach their destination, rather they are drunk on the way by the ghosts.”

“It’s so wonderful to have received your letter, to have to answer it with my sleepless brain. I can’t think of anything to write. I’m just walking around here between the lines, underneath the light of your eyes, in the breath of your mouth like in some beautiful happy day which stays beautiful and happy even if my hed is sick, tired.”

“I have the true feeling of myself only when I am unbearably unhappy.”

[theravenvanadey]

[theravenvanadey]

“Something about summer makes me want to get shotgun married and exchange poems written in biro on napkins from a diner as our vows. I think if somebody asked me to marry them right now, I'd say yes,”

— Dakota Warren, an excerpt from a letter I will never send.

[theravenvanadey]

some books recommendations for my beloved mutuals <3 (part one)

Perfume by Patrick Suskind

The secret history by Donna Tartt

Socrates apology by Plato

Carmilla by Le Fanu

anything by Poe

Inferno by Dante Alighieri

Crime and Punishment by Dostoevskij

1984 by Orwell (my favorite book tbh)

Fight club by Palahniuk

The catcher in the rye by Salinger

anything by Dan Brown

the general in his labyrinth by Marquez

looking for alaska by John Green

the Japanese lover by Isabel Allande

misery by Stephen King

the name of the rose by Umberto eco

pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Dracula by stoker

anything by Murakami

[theravenvanadey]

II.

While running, I thought about the other books The Secret History reminded me of: first and foremost, Donna Tartt’s other novel The Goldfinch (no surprise here really). Both novels are written in the first person POV. Both are populated with characters who have issues with substance abuse. Both have homosexual undertones. Both grapple with themes with philosophical and moral implications. Both are beautifully written.

I also thought about Looking for Alaska by John Green, because of the structure of the novel. The Secret History is divided into two parts: before Bunny’s murder, and after Bunny’s murder. (Spoiler alert) The same goes for Looking for Alaska, which is also divided into two parts: before Alaska’s death, and after Alaska’s death. Also the fact that it is set in a boarding school (not exactly the same as Hampden College, but the mood is there).

Similar to Looking for Alaska, John Knowles's A Separate Peace is also set in a boarding school, and just like A Secret History, explores the loss of innocence through an evil act.

Another book The Secret History reminds me of: Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami. Both novels are narrated by men looking back to their college days, and the events during those days that changed their lives forever. Both are atmospheric, filling the reader with a sense of dread and impending doom.

[theravenvanadey]

“You spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth, thinking about how you'll escape one day, and how awesome it will be, and imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do it.”

“You just use the future to escape the present.”

- John Green // Looking For Alaska

[theravenvanadey]

Born in a Second Language, Akosua Afiriyie-Hwedie

[theravenvanadey]

mary oliver, when I am among the trees

[theravenvanadey]

The Death of Julius Caesar by Vincenzo Camuccini [x]

[theravenvanadey]

The actual meaning of Runes

When dealing with runes, their name should be analyzed first. The alphabet is called “Futhark” based on the beginning letter of the first six runes’ names.

“Runes” aren’t a singularity. There’s the Elder Futhark and the Younger Futhark, also called Futhork. Than there’s also regional varieties such as the Nordic runes, Frisian runes, Anglo-Saxon runes and varieties due to changes through time. Something that looks like a rune but isn’t is called a “tectiform”.

Etymological there are plenty of Germanic varieties of the word. Rún is Old Norse/Nordic, Old Saxon rūna, Middle Dutch’s rune or ruin and rúna in Gothic. In Finnish runo means “poem”.

The word “rune” in essence means “secret” but is also a word used for “confidential conversation/writing”, “concealment” but also “counseling”.

The meaning of the word was held literally. It was not meant for basic administration, conversation or education. Few people actually knew how to read or write runes. It was reserved for a select but also elite part of society.

This brings us to Odin. The tales tell how he hung himself from the branches of Yggdrasil for nine days to gain the knowledge of runic wisdom. This makes him the god of the hanged (Hangagud), god of runes (Rúnatyr), father of magical songs (Fadir Galdrs) and wise one (Svidur). Knowing runes was viewed as knowing (some of) Odin’s magic and/or power.

Runes were used for “runic magic” a not very specified kind of magic in the Eddic texts. Individual runes were given names, such as the first rune, Fehu which means cattle or wealth. Naming individual characters is a common historic practice. These are not to be taken literally, but often are in modern esotericism and fantasy. Germanic Runic spells however are a weird thing. There are mystical inscriptions on the back of brooches, stones, wooden artifacts, etc. We know what they say, but not what they mean.

Mostly runes aren’t actually that far fetched. They are found on grave/memorial stones or a craftsman’s signature on an object. An example of this is the Nolby stone; “Bergsven and Sigfust and Fride raised this stone in memory of Bure, their father. Fartägn carved this stone”.

[theravenvanadey]

Sunrise, Louise Glück

[theravenvanadey]

the thing is, ellen bass

[theravenvanadey]

KOREAN COWBOY (AFTER PHILIP) by kanami @pinkmoon1972. id under cut.

Keep reading

[theravenvanadey]