curseofmxcbeth

[curseofmxcbeth]

I could walk down the halls, and empty rooms would yawn mockingly at me from every side. God, but life is loneliness, despite all the opiates, despite the shrill tinsel gaiety of “parties” with no purpose, despite the false grinning faces we all wear. And when at last you find someone to whom you feel you can pour out your soul, you stop in shock at the words you utter—they are so rusty, so ugly, so meaningless and feele from being kept in the small cramped dark inside you so long. Yes, there is joy, fulfillment and companionship—but the loneliness of the soul in its appalling self-consciousness is horrible and overpowering.

The unabridged journals of Sylvia Plath

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detail at badgley mischka fall 2009

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on longing, romance, and every in-between.

References:

1: painting by Filippo Lippi

2: John Koenig 'The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows'

3: painting by Anthony van Dyck, 'Portrait of Mary and William of Orange'

4: uncertain, will be added once found

5: painting by Luis Caballero

6: 'Elegy for My Sadness' by Chen Chen

7: a fragment of ourselves returning v, 2018 by Beatrice Wanjiku

8: Richard Siken

9: uncertain, will be added once found

10: Tumblr post by @mothicalspoken

11: uncertain, will be added once found

12: Joan Tierney

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r: Why do you feel compelled to remind others that your choice in reading material is “above” theirs?

I read plenty of "trash" literature myself, and you're not a worse or better person for reading "good" or "bad" books. I read plenty of shit books and haven't touched probably 70% of the western literary canon.

what I mean by some books are above others is that the art of the literature, the quality of the writing, and the quality of the content. There is obviously nuance in what IS good writing, and no clear line of what's bad writing or good/bad taste. This tumblr post is 100x worse than a published non-fiction journal paper that has been reviewed, edited, and researched.

If you want to be "well read" there's a lot to read, I personally am not that well read in the scheme of everything. But to argue online that disliking beach reads/romcom novels/etc. is classist is ridiculous./ claiming the lower classes cannot understand more complex or older literature is ridiculous.

Is looking down on "trashy" novels like a colleen hoover book classist?

I see this comment a lot on tiktok, and I don't think so myself. There are ways to expand your taste and circle as someone with less education, who is not as well read, who is poor, someone who is using a second language or as someone who is young.

Sally Rooney's novels are similarly accessible in terms of price, availability, and they're written in plain english. They're also a "young adult" romance, but cover some more advanced themes like self discovery and provide more meaningful dialogue on relationships and mental health. You do not need to read the western literary canon/classics to be well read or refine your tastes (there are significant class divides and accessibility issues in relation to some of these texts).

There is poetry available free online that contains more advanced literary devices, meaningful content, and food for thought than the wattpad-esque smutty fiction of booktok.

Reading purely for entertainment is still reading. And there is always a place for books that are just entertainment but some texts in terms of complexity, meaningful content, and the art of the writing some texts are above others.

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— Mary Oliver

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��The Reconciliation of the Montagues and Capulets over the Dead Bodies of Romeo and Juliet’ by Frederic Leighton, c. 1855.

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Is looking down on "trashy" novels like a colleen hoover book classist?

I see this comment a lot on tiktok, and I don't think so myself. There are ways to expand your taste and circle as someone with less education, who is not as well read, who is poor, someone who is using a second language or as someone who is young.

Sally Rooney's novels are similarly accessible in terms of price, availability, and they're written in plain english. They're also a "young adult" romance, but cover some more advanced themes like self discovery and provide more meaningful dialogue on relationships and mental health. You do not need to read the western literary canon/classics to be well read or refine your tastes (there are significant class divides and accessibility issues in relation to some of these texts).

There is poetry available free online that contains more advanced literary devices, meaningful content, and food for thought than the wattpad-esque smutty fiction of booktok.

Reading purely for entertainment is still reading. And there is always a place for books that are just entertainment but some texts in terms of complexity, meaningful content, and the art of the writing some texts are above others.

#dark academia #classic literature #booktok #bookblr #colleen hoover #fiction #popular fiction #academia #romantic academia #writing #book discourse #literature

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People are oceans. You cannot know them by their surface.

- Beau Taplin

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fav notebook + current bedspread

#aesthetic #dark academia #dark academia aesthetic #academia #romantic academia #red #red aesthetic #vintage #retro aesthetic #writing #writers on tumblr #writeblr #creative writing #my photos #amateur photography #my journal #journalling

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to my dear, with all my love ♡ x

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JACOB ELORDI as Felix SALTBURN (2023) dir. Emerald Fennell

#this is really academia aesthetic ok #i dont j love him

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AN ART NOUVEAU ENAMEL FLOWER BROOCG, Designed as a sweet pea flower with iridescent enamel petals, mounted in gold

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Cat on Constantine’s Foot, Palatine Museum, Rome

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If there's one thing I really really liked in Saltburn was Felix as some distressed Juliet, with his gold plastic wings, wearing a tank top and jeans

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Yeah the sex was good but did it have themes and motifs

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“In my poetry class, I’ve always had students memorize something, a few things. I feel that if they’ve forgotten everything I’ve said, if they haven’t written anything down all semester and just stared out the window, at least they’ll come away with a poem memorized.

So one day, years ago, I was on the subway in New York, and a guy across the aisle kept kind of looking at me and finally he came over and said he recognized me as his teacher. I’d taught him about 10 years before that, or more. He’d since become an oncologist, and I congratulated him on his success. Then he said, “You made us memorize a poem.” And I said, “Yes.” And he said, “I’d like to say that poem for you.”

And it was a little poem by Emily Dickinson that he’d carried in his head, and maybe in his heart, for all those years. Over the roar of the 6 train, he yelled that poem in my ear, and I think it was probably the most satisfying pedagogical experience I’ve ever had.” -Billy Collins, in a conversation