#I also wrote an essay about the book

[soliusss]

daily listening of hip to be square makes the day a little bit brighter

#i love the patrick Bateman Walkman playlist #autism be damned my boy has exceptional music taste #I don’t really talk about American psycho on here but it’s definitely one of my interests #I’ve read the book 3 times and watched the movie 3 times #I should read it again #I also wrote an essay about the book #analyzing alienation #best piece of media ever #solius posting #gay people really have a hold on literature #two of my favorite books are by gay men *salutes*

[bijoumikhawal]

hello! i hope it's alright to ask you this but i was wondering if you have any recommendations for books to read or media in general about the history of judaism and jewish communities in egypt, particularly in ottoman and modern egypt?

have a nice day!

it's fine to ask me this! Unfortunately I have to preface this with a disclaimer that a lot of books on Egyptian Jewish history have a Zionist bias. There are antizionist Egyptian Jews, and at the very least ones who have enough national pride that AFAIK they do not publicly hold Zionist beliefs, like those who spoke in the documentary the Jews of Egypt (avaliable on YouTube for free with English subtitles). Others have an anti Egyptian bias- there is a geopolitical tension with Egypt from Antiquity that unfortunately some Jewish people have carried through history even when it was completely irrelevant, so in trying to research interactions between "ancient" Egyptian Jews and Native Egyptians (from the Ptolemaic era into the proto-Coptic and fully Coptic eras) I've unfortunately come across stuff that for me, as an Egyptian, reads like anti miscegenationist ideology, and it is difficult to tell whether this is a view of history being pushed on the past or not. The phrase "Erev Rav" (meaning mixed multitude), which in part refers to Egyptians who left Egypt with Moses and converted to Judaism, is even used as an insult by some.

Since I mentioned that documentary, I'll start by going over more modern sources. Mapping Jewish San Francisco has a playlist of videos of interviews with Egyptian Jews, including both Karaites and Rabbinic Jews iirc (I reblogged some of these awhile ago in my "actually Egyptian tag" tag). This book, the Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry, is avaliable for free online, it promises to be a more indepth look at Egyptian Jews in the lead up to modern explusion. I have only read a few sections of it, so I cannot give a full judgment on it. There's this video I watched about preserving Karaite historical sites in Egypt that I remember being interesting. "On the Mediterranian and the Nile edited by Harvey E. Goldman and Matthis Lehmann" is a collection of memiors iirc, as is "the Man in the Sharkskin Suit" (which I've started but not completed), both moreso from a Rabbinic perspective. Karaites also have a few websites discussing themselves in their terms, such as this one.

For the pre-modern but post-Islamic era, the Cairo Geniza is a great resource but in my opinion as a hobby researcher, hard to navigate. It is a large cache of documents from a Cairo synagogue mostly from around the Fatimid era. A significant portion of it is digitized and they occasionally crowd source translation help on their Twitter, and a lot of books and papers use it as a primary source. "The Jews in Medieval Egypt, edited by: Miriam Frenkel" is one in my to read pile. "Benjamin H. Hary - Multiglossia in Judeio-Arabic. With an Edition, Translation, and Grammatical Study of the Cairene Purim Scroll" is a paper I've read discussing the Jewish record of the events commemorated by the Cairo Purim, I got it off either Anna's Archive or libgen. "Mamluks of Jewish Origin in the Mamluk Sultanate by Koby Yosef" is a paper in my to read pile. "Jewish pietism of the Sufi type A particular trend of mysticisme in Medieval Egypt by Mireille Loubet" and "Paul B Fenton- Judaism and Sufism" both discuss the medieval Egyptian Jewish pietist movement.

For "ancient" Egyptian Jews, I find the first chapter of "The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words 1000 BC-1492 AD” by Simon Schama, which covers Elephantine, very interesting (it also flies in the face of claims that Jews did not marry Native Egyptians, though it is from centuries before the era researchers often cover). If you'd like to read don't click this link to a Google doc, that would be VERY naughty. There's very little on the Therapeutae, but for the paper theorizing they may have been influenced by Buddhism (possibly making them an example of Judeo-Buddhist syncretism) look here (their Wikipedia page also has some sources that could be interesting but are not specifically about them). "Taylor, Joan E. - Jewish women philosophers of first-century Alexandria: Philo’s Therapeutae reconsidered" is also a to read.

I haven't found much on the temple of Onias/Tell el Yahudia/Leontopolis in depth, but I have the paper "Meron M. Piotrkowski - Priests in Exile: The History of the Temple of Onias and Its Community in the Hellenistic Period" in my to be read pile (which I got off Anna's Archive). I also have some supplemental info from a lecture I attended that I'm willing to privately share.

I also have a document compiling links about the Exodus of Jews from Egypt in the modern era, but I'm cautious about sharing it now because I made it in high school and I've realized it needs better fact checking, because it had some misinfo in it from Zionist publications (specifically about the names of Nazis who fled to Egypt- that did happen, but a bunch of names I saw reported had no evidence of that being the case, and one name was the name of a murdered resistance fighter???)

#cipher talk #I find Leontopolis fascinating because after the first time a bunch of Egyptian Jews built a temple in Egypt a second guy did it #And allegedly had a not terrible scriptural justification! And the temple lasted for THREE EXTRA YEARS after Jerusalem was sacked! #Never let anyone tell you there was only one temple #There's also other stuff but this is what I immediately had #Some books I have I'm pretty sure just aren't good to start with lmao they're about very specific stuff #Modern Middle Eastern Jewish Thought: Writings on Identity politics and culture is interesting and includes Egyptian Jews #But it's definitely got a zionist bias. It's mostly essays #I'd definitely recommend reading up on Joseph Cattaui and Murād Farag because they were simply so influential #Even though Farag was a dumbass that wrote the first Arabic defense of Zionism #Ya‘qub Sannu‘ is also fascinating- he spent a lot of his time defending Muslims to European audiences so some people assumed he reverted #He didn't he just took a hard stance on it. Also he got exiled for criticizing the Khedivate #All 3 are in MMEJT iirc

[bonefall]

As a big sibling with a lil sib with epilepsy, when they read TBC they Honestly thought if they got struck with lightning reciting the lord's prayer they'd be cured like Shadowsight is from their epilepsy. I had a discussion with them on how that's not how it works, but ge was so upset they took it away from Shadowsight that he hasn't picked the books back up and has stated that 'he hopes Ashfur wins and starts a new religion.,'

I do not even know how to respond to this besides saying that your little sibling is 100% right to be pissed and I now also hope Ashfur wins and starts a new religion.

#Legit I did not know that Shadow's epilepsy being taken away was so deeply upsetting to SO MANY people #I put it back because putting it back was just the right thing to do (even asked the small following I had at the time what type to portray #(they picked the full tonic-clonics. I would have just done localized or absence if they'd asked me to) #And I did all that research for one single anon who asked for an epilepsy herb guide #So holy cow I didn't know that SO MANY people were snubbed and upset by canon's choice to do that. I'm so sorry #Your little sib isn't missing anything btw they do just go on to confirm that Shadow no longer has seizures. #In book 4 of TBC they say that it was all Ash all along and that's what they've stuck with into ASC #I'm sitting on an essay about... That plot thread. The Ashfur Grooming one #But it's in my drafts because I was a bit afraid of controversy #because i think it was written poorly. Even on top of Book 4's pivot to retcon away Shadow's seizures #I know a lot of people like and are invested in the grooming subplot of TBC. But. I think it was executed AWFULLY #and its really telling that THIS is the plot they tout as grooming *by name* in-canon.-- #--and that Shadow has to 'pay' for what he 'did' in some way as if there was ever a choice in the books they wrote-- #--But seemingly didn't even seem to clock that what was happening in Spotted's H was grooming until there was intense backlash #and a big part of my contention is the way that Book 4 suddenly tries to retcon that Shadow was groomed from the time he was a child #when it was actually part of book 1 that Shadow was able to personally tell the difference between a real vision and Ash's suggestions-- #--BECAUSE he didn't have an accompanying seizure #So like... just know it's also NOT just 'you' if you connected to the character that was epileptic. It WAS there. It was a BIG part of him #Book 4 retconned it so that his epilepsy was part of a long scheme when before that point it was part of him #''ohh ur destiny is to see into the shadows'' BULL SHIT!! #bone babble

[geodebiome]

i think hannibal lecter's (tv show version) relationship with god is so cool to think about. love this fucked up little cannibal and how he keeps challenging god to show his face for once. will you speak to me if i turn this man into a cherry blossom tree?

#hannibal #seriously i just wrote a bunch of incoherent shit about jsut this topic on discord. #if i have the essay energy ill try to write it coherently on here #also specified the tv show cause i have Not yet read the book and the movie its been ages since i watched it #while ive been autism beast about the tv show since i was like 14

[gaybearwedding]

hi hi hello i have been gone forever due to various reasons such as “work” and “mental illness” and “having developed a kpop hyperfixation that has been occupying most of my attention recently” but i need everyone to know that i saw off book live twice last week (in philly with a friend and then in nyc with my girlfriend) and it was truly so everything. i didn’t get many pictures but i did get a few and none of them are very good but one of them is of jess’ amazing stool balancing act and that’s all i need really

#flow of the rings a volcano story i love you forever and ever #tryin’ the musical i love you also #also i asked a question during the talkback at the philly show :] #if it gets released as an episode and you hear someone named will asking about the hedgefrog logo that’s me <3 #i want to be active on here more i miss it #i’m thoroughly enjoying being a little unhinged about kpop with my friend bee (the one i saw the philly show with actually) #but it does make a little sad that i haven’t been as fixated on zach and jess lately #they are still everything to me though don’t get it twisted #it’s very much a Special Interest TM so i will probably have other z&j phases #but regardless i do enjoy this silly little corner of tumblr #and i love that pibe has like Actual Fan Content now it’s beautiful #and i AM going to finish and post my malpal fic i PROMISE i just. don’t know when 😭 #accidentally wrote an essay in the tags whoops #anyway i can’t promise i won’t disappear again but i’m gonna try to be more active #mine #off book #play it by ear #pibe #zach reino #jess mckenna

[hella1975]

ive got an essay due at 3pm tomorrow and ive not even looked at it i am so so unserious about my degree and by the grace of some higher being i somehow keep managing to crawl through it's actually getting a bit funny

#me and an old friend of mine used to have a running joke during a-levels that im just one of those people where shit Works Out #and it started bc we shared two a-levels (english and economics) and in BOTH classes i regularly didn't do the homework #or the reading etc and yet it would ALWAYS work out for me #like we'd walk into a class neither of us having done the homework and they'd get yelled at while i went under the radar somehow #or that one english essay i got the highest score in the class when i literally hadn't even read the fucking book it was on #and when we pointed the theory out it started just becoming really prevalent #like no matter how late i am for things i'll arrive and by some miracle the thing im late for is also late (e.g a train or teacher) #like im just one of those people that has very very mundane luck #and low and behold i am fighting this degree with bloody fists putting the absolute bare minimum in for my own sanity's sake #and i SOMEHOW keep pulling through. literally failed two modules last year and STILL got a 2:1 average #and the last essay i wrote was the worst essay id ever done in my life and i get my standards are higher bc ik im good at essays #but the point still stands and you know what? i got a FIRST #literally was pure waffle i have never blagged it so hard and i got a FIRST #and all this shit just makes me cockier and cockier and go even more by the skin of my teeth and it ALWAYS WORKS OUT #it's soooo silly but im not complaining. anyway ill keep u posted about this essay <3 it's econ history so is actually interesting #but the most ive done for it is ask the sc ai lmao and for context degree-level essays usually require a good few days of graft #live love laziness #hella goes to uni

[eggtqrt]

fahrenheit 451 i never finished but it was a GOOD BOOK

OMG FAHRENHEIT 451 WAS LIKE MY FAVORITE HIGH SCHOOL BOOK will never forget that ray bradbury predicted airpods

#also not to go crazy in the tags #but if i were to rank the books i read for high school classes #romeo and juliet 3/5 if you read it as a comedy its actually hilarious #catcher in the rye 3.3/5 it was memorable at least...my friends and i made fun of holden so much #of mice and men 1.5/5 sorry john steinbeck i am not a fan #the scarlet letter 0/5 I HATED THIS BOOK the reverend was pathetic #the great gatsby 3.5/5 honestly i have no notes idk #frankenstein 4/5 learning about mary shelley was SO interesting #jane eyre ??/5 i have a complicated relationship with her. on one hand i did not enjoy the plot on the other hand i wrote some banger essays #and fahrenheit 451 ofc was a solid 4.5/5

[ghoulietbat]

Fahrenheit 451's dismissal of the importance of other artforms

something is pissing me off about farenheit 451 and i'm sure it's been said before because this is quite a book but ill say it anyway. im only on page 54 so i have yet to judge if this is a good book or not, but i like it so far. it's a beautiful love story to books and writing and the written word, and it's about how important it is to share stories. i am a storyteller, i tell stories in many ways, but i am first and foremost an illustrator, with a love of cartoons and animation. i consider every method of storytelling an artform; and intellectual, important ones at that: oral histories, pop songs, stand up comedy shows, cartoons, a kid's oc, books. and i believe that at the end of the world, humans need art, and not just one form of it. every art form is as important as the next. so what pisses me off is that it seems like Ray Bradbury does not consider anything but books to be an effectively important artform. He makes a bold claim, describing cartoons and pictures as a lazy method of storytelling.

More cartoons in books. More pictures. The mind drinks less and less. Impatience. (p. 54)

As someone going into the animation industry, i took great offense to this. What i believe is truly meant here is that the people who consume cartoons are lazy, and that i can agree with (after all, it is much easier to watch the Loony Tunes than read Shakespeare), but in the same vein he is calling the people who made the cartoons lazy as well; that the people who make cartoons and the people who enjoy them are dumber and lazier than those who create and enjoy books. i understand the importance of the written word, and i certainly believe people don't read enough, but he clearly values books higher than visual art forms. he makes this defense against classical artists, so we know that he does not deem visual art unimportant:

And at the museums, have you ever been? All abstract. That's all there is now. My uncle says it was different once. A long time back sometimes pictures said things or even showed people. (p.28)

but then this itself shows a bias toward classical art, and he does not view abstract, or modern, art as real art. i think this, in part, is because he is a product of his time. tv and cartoons are new and strange, the funny pages in a newspaper are just for kids, and comic books are for delinquents. i understand his feelings on modern abstract art, but it is art and it is just as important as Michelangelo; and these are both as important as Faulkner.

he shows a hatred for other mediums, like music, and television, and film. and i know, i know, it's about how things are made more simple so that people can consume quickly and without thought, but to imply that music and cartoons and film requires no thought is an insult to those complex and beautiful art forms. think about the love and care that is needed to create them. is it not comparable to your own when you write a novel? but now i must come down off my high horse, and tell you that i think all artists share this bias for their own art form, and i can't blame Bradbury. you can only have one favorite, and his is books. i just think that all artists should be able to recognize each other as equals.

#no one gives a shit about my rants or my writing at all #but i dont really care #essay #short essay #writing analysis #book analysis #farenheit 451 #ray bradbury #writing #yeah i wrote this high. fuck you #books #rant #also i stole this book from the dorm rummage sale. they read this for class and i was like man i wish i was in that class... #well youre in luck buddy boy! #i hear that most people hate this book though. so i guess ill just keep reading. #animation #cartoons #art

[synonymroll648]

reblog with ‘me’ as a comment or in the tags if you want to be on the taglist for the ‘the vackers got their teal eyes from hatsune miku’ essay that spiraled way out of control

hey to all the people still saying me: the essay is up now :) 

#kotlc #keeper of the lost cities #kotlc shitpost #kotlc vackers #fitz vacker #biana vacker #alden vacker #i know too much about hatsune miku now #i did way too much research #went down way too many rabbit holes #god explaining what i did over break is gonna be so fucking funny #'hey izzy what'd you do?' #well you see i kept writing fanfiction and then i made a joke about children's book series elves being descended from hatsune miku #and then i wrote an essay about how my claim 'made sense' but it went off the rails really fast #and then like. holiday shit. also i was kinda forced to study for and take my driver's permit test #and ofc there's more fanfiction in there but yeah. how about you random person i made up for a conversation with myself on tumblr dot com?

[opiumvampire]

my friend’s boyfriend’s ex-goth mom keeps trying to offload her old accessories onto her (and by extension me) and today I was gifted what I have lovingly been calling the “Gerard Way Exposed For Plagiarism Shirt”

(featuring Annie)

#yes obviously i know the difference between plagiarism and making a reference #as if known comic book guy Gerard Way wouldnt intentionally quote Sandman in one of his songs #also I just wrote a video essay about Characterizations of Death and Sandman’s version features heavily in it so now I can rep my girl

[yarrowleef]

prompted by nothing in particular, reminder that this blog is very old and I started it when I was a sophomore in high school, and as much as on one hand I am grateful tumblr preserves old deleted posts for Tumblr History reasons, I do also live in dread about all of my old text posts that were reblogged a couple times and now just Live Out There, running feral, breaking into trash bins on other peoples blogs, god knows what.

anyway, if you ever see a text post of mine from like, before the 2020's, I almost definitely don't agree with what I said anymore, or at least I don't agree with how I said it.

actually scratch that, most of the time I don't even agree with my text posts from 3 months ago

what i'm saying is I dont have any irl friends caught up on warrior cats so, in lacking a private outlet, sometimes I just throw up an unfiltered and unexamined midnight cat thought onto the blog and then delete it and everyone should agree to be super nice to me and pretend they didn't see them <3

#yarrow speaks #i have remembered why I have had a life long aversion to text-communication #everything ever said Is So Permanent and Easily Scrutinized and also Lacking The Context Of Tone #horrifying! #does anyone remember that unhinged essay I wrote after reading Tigerheart's SE #I did not intend to sound so mad in it. I was trying to exaggerate the depths of my feelings for like. absurd comedic effect #but reading it later its like oh no I just sound So Serious And Angry about this stupid cat book that I didnt actually care about

[yourqueenb]

The Problem with TPA

Ok get comfortable y’all cuz this is extremely long. So long that I actually decided to break it up into a series of short essays instead of making one monster of a post 😬 But in my defense, I went into this book expecting to use all of my diamonds only to end up mining it in the end, which means I have a lot of thoughts 😭

The first four essays touch on what I thought were main issues in the story. Gab, Gear, and Garb is more about minor problems and commentary. Without further ado though, the essays are below. If anyone actually reads them (even if it’s only one lol), lmk so we can discuss!

What is a Spy? ~ 1 min. read

Authenticating The Architect ~ 3 min. read

Let’s Talk About Rowan ~ 3 min. read

Agent Gray is… Gray ~ 3 min. read

Gab, Gear, and Garb ~ 3 min. read

The Bottom Line ~ 3 min. read

#choices tpa #choices the phantom agent #choices #choices stories you play #playchoices #can’t believe I wrote multiple essays about a Choices book in one go 🥴 #I don’t even like writing tbh #but I do like talking about the stories with people #and I was truly let down by something I had been waiting a hot minute for 😪 #never again tho #I just hope it’s organized enough bc I tried to come up with something that was readable and didn’t just sound like a 1000 pg rant 💀 #also the read times are just estimates so take them with a grain of salt #I’ve been told that I read fast but I know there are people who read faster than me so 🤷🏽‍♀️

[nebby-stardust]

Not to say I don't think Victor Frankenstein isn't a pathetic wet cat of a man who is totally useless, however, I did just get horribly sick from stress and stress alone, and I too focus on projects way too hard so I can relate

#victor frankenstein #the modern prometheus #frankenstein #what I am saying is i am also a pathetic wet cat of a man #wrote an essay on this book and needed to force myself to take breaks and oooooh #the whole time i was just like: the book warns about this #this essay is my monster #*dawning horror or something* #y'know just being a theater kid about things

[kaurwreck]

When Yosano tells Kajii that he's an idiot and then he stabs her in the hand. That's me @ Fyodor, except he can't stab me in the hand because I refuse to read Crime and Punishment.

#bsd #bungo stray dogs #bsd fyodor #“didnt you write a fyodor meta essay based on details from crime and punishment” #yes and i also wrote a closed book exam essay on symbolism and familial tension in The Glass Menagerie in 10th grade #for which I was given a B but my teacher did note it would have been an A- if I hadnt confessed to having never read it #the difference is that I have read excerpts from and academic articles about crime and punishment #whereas I have never read a single sentence from the glass menagerie and now can't on principle

[theatremp3]

i like getting to have book azcrow as completely separate from tv azcrow bc then it means i can use tv azcrow to indulge in stuff like raphael crowley or a/c knew each other as angels that would thematically undermine the original messages of the book that i love but are still in their own way fun and interesting concepts to explore

#book and tv are like. same characters. different message and thematic implications #(so also different versions of the characters as a byproduct of that) #the essay i wrote about the book does talk about azcrow being gay but it’s not about azcrow being gay bc that’s not the point #the tv show on the other hand IS about azcrow being gay #rambles

[godofsmallthings]

wait did I misunderstand your tags or do you not like ellen hopkins? she wrote the crank trilogy right?

yes! i loved her as a preteen/young teenager but haven't read her books since and idk if i would like them now bc i'm way out of her target demo. looking back i feel like she was kind of yanagihara-esque (the author of a little life) in the way she piled on tragedy after tragedy, but i also understand that there is a fine line between exploring heavy topics that so many teens do go through & glorifying those topics. those kinds of poetry books were super popular at the time and she was definitely one of the best of those authors imo. anyway i probably wouldn't read/enjoy her books now but they were super important to me when i was younger (so to answer your question...yes but also no but also yes but also no lmao)

#the book i wrote the essay about was perfect btw! that and impulse were my faves by her iirc #also rumble #ask