#The Book of Embraces

[ariel-seagull-wings]

PARADOXES

@themousefromfantasyland @the-blue-fairie @princesssarisa @gravedangerahead @sabugabr @lord-antihero @tamisdava2 @professorlehnsherr-almashy

(Eduardo Galeano)

If contradiction is the lung of history, paradox must be, it occurs to me, the mirror that history uses to tease us. Not even the son of God himself was saved from the paradox.

He choosedto be born in a subtropical desert where never snowed, but snow became a universal symbol of Christmas since Europe decided to Europeanize Jesus.

And to make matters worse, the birth of Jesus is, today , the business that gives the most money to merchants that Jesus had expelled from the temple.

Napoleon Bonaparte, the most French of the French, he was not french.

Was not Russian Joseph Stalin, the most Russian of the Russians; and the most German of Germans, Adolf Hitler was born in Austria. Margherita Sarfatti, the woman most loved by the anti-Semite Mussolini, was Jewish.

José Carlos Mariátegui, the most Marxist of Latin American Marxists, believed fervently in God.

Che Guevara had been declared completely unfit to military life for the Argentine army. From the hands of a sculptor named Aleijadinho, who was the ugliest of Brazilians, the highest beauties of Brazil were born.

American black people, the most oppressed, created jazz, which is the freest of the musics.

In the confinements of prison was conceived Don Quixote, the most errant of knights.

And to top it off of paradoxes, Don Quixote never said his most famous phrase. He never said, "Sancho barks, a sign that we are riding."

"I notice you're nervous," says the hysterical man. "I hate you," says the person in love. "

There will be no devaluation" says, on the eve of devaluation, the Minister of Economy.

"The military respects the Constitution," says the Minister of Defense on the eve of the coup d'état.

In its war against the Sandinista revolution, the United States government paradoxically coincided with the Communist Party of Nicaragua.

And paradoxical had been, after all, the Sandinista barricades during the Somoza dictatorship: the barricades that closed the street opened the way.

#eduardo galeano #el libro de los abrazos #the book of embraces

[perplexingly]

“Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus” by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1818) // Frankenstein from the Royal Ballet (2016) // National Theatre Live: Frankenstein (2011) // Frankenstein: The Metal Opera (2014) // Frankenstein (TV Miniseries 2004) // Creature (TV Miniseries 2023)

Grief of the Creature across various adaptations

#I’m sorry I’m not done with this brainriot yet 🥺 #Frankenstein #I like it when the Creature embraces Victor in the adaptations even though he doesn’t in the book #it feels right #he doesn’t do it in the vimeo musical or the 1994 film adaptation #he kinda does in the Puppet Opera but it’s hard to see on a screenshot

[obsob]

making and weaving and loving! like we have done for millennia!!

#mine #original #ough. hello. #happy new year!!!!! first drawing of th year!!!!!!!! #also LAKSBF 15k followers. hello. welcome #i taught bf how to crochet n hes making a blanket....the irl insp for this piece... #im so proud of these colours....i used an actual real life colour palette..n i think that is th way forward #also . gradient maps my beloved #why have i always refused ur warm embrace....... #dont pay attention 2 the wool bowls okay ive seen a picture of one like once #i do want one however. tho why r they so expensive #its a bowl w a hole in it. relax #ive been listening 2 the silmarillion audiobook as ive been working...i love it sm its like incomprehensible #like. idk what ur talking abt but i love it all th same!! #i tried reading it last year n was like.......okay anyway #rereading gay nuclear disaster book rn....natasha pulley would it kill u 2 write a smut scene #i want 2 see th horrible little scientist man get railed #next book after this is . 1030 pages oaodghsdugd #my goal is to read 50 books this year but i do not think that will happen bc i refuse 2 read books less than 400 pages skjdgbskjd #someone ask me about books. i have so many opinions abt books #okay good evening. i leave u w love

[wigglebox]

Suptober - Day 7 || Black Cat [x]

#suptober23 #destiel #destiel fanart #dean winchester #castiel #spnfanart #wiggleart #Cas embraces the cat distribution system #dean is skeptical lmao #I love fluffy black cats so I made this one fluffy #and it took me way too long to draw lmao #the tree and some background stuff will be lined for the coloring book but I didn’t know how I wanted it to look until coloring #so it’s why it’s not lined lol #also I wish I could have a cat I’m so allergic

[nemfrog]

The art of kissing. n.d.

Internet Archive

#book cover #covers #kiss #kissing #kisses #embrace #nemfrog

[aroaceleovaldez]

Something something Jason feeling like he doesn't quite fit as "Greek" or "Roman" as a metaphor for bisexuality, particularly the semi-canonical bi-coding in his half of experiences during the Cupid scene and how Favonius and Cupid speak to him in parallel to the scenes confirming Nico is gay.

Something something the camps as metaphors for traditionally acceptable forms of relationships and Nico living as a rogue outside of them, rejecting expectation (ergo in himself representing a metaphor of queer identity and living outside of boxes and defined/usually hetero-allonormative/binary ideas of what love/relationships should look like) versus Jason struggling with the expectation to conform to a label and even discussing with Nico both of them remaining at CHB together.

Something something the inverse of Jason shifting away from the camps after he breaks up with Piper, feeling lost and unable to find a place between the camps as he begins to explore his queer identity properly for the first time versus Nico only remaining at CHB because he has entered a relationship. In this essay I will-

#pjo #riordanverse #jason grace #nico di angelo #analysis #i know ive semi-rambled about this before here #but i was thinking about it on the discord the other day #for those in the discord forgive it being mostly copy/pasted from my rambling lol #i say ''semi-canonical bi-coding'' re: the Cupid Scene because. well. it's in the text! it's pretty overt! #which means it's pretty canon but nobody ever really discusses it and Rick has never acknowledged it #but also he never acknowledged Reyna's aspec-coding until a rare instance of him responding to q's on twitter #(that chain was also specifically sparked by me in that instance - due to him replying to my open letter about aspec coding in the series #- which i still find amusing cause it is SO obvious he didnt read it) #and he only like once acknowledged his mostly unintentional aspec-coding of the Hunt on goodreads #and very frequently goes ''death of the author - whatever i say outside the books is irrelevant and doesnt matter. read it how you want.'' #''if you can get it out of the text then there's your canon.'' which i respect. reject ''word of god'' canon embrace analysis

[ofbreathandflame]

With the rise of booktok/booktwt, there's been this weird movement against literary criticism. It's a bizarre phenomenon, but this uptick in condemnation of criticism is so stifling. I understand that with the rise of these platforms, many people are being reintroduced into the habit of reading, which is why at the base level, I understand why many 'popular' books on booktok tend to be cozier.

The argument always falls into the 'this book means too much to me' or 'let people enjoy things,' which is rhetoric I understand -- at least fundamentally. But reading and writing have always been conduits for criticism, healthy natural criticism. We grow as writers and readers because of criticism. It's just so frustrating to see arguments like "how could you not like this character they've been the x trauma," or "why read this book if you're not going to come out liking it," and it's like...why not. That has always been the point of reading. Having a character go through copious amounts of trauma does not always translate to a character that's well-crafted. Good worldbuilding doesn't always translate to having a good story, or having beautiful prose doesn't always translate into a good plot.

There is just so much that goes into writing a story other than being able to formulate tropable (is that a word lol) characters. Good ideas don't always translate into good stories. And engaging critically with the text you read is how we figure that out, how we make sure authors are giving us a good craft. Writing is a form of entertainment too, and just like we'd do a poorly crafted show, we should always be questioning the things we read, even if we enjoy those things.

It's just werd to see people argue that we shouldn't read literature unless we know for certain we are going to like it. Or seeing people not be able to stand honest criticism of the world they've fallen in love with. I love ASOIAF -- but boy oh boy are there a lot of problems in the story: racial undertones, questionable writing decisions, weird ness overall. I also think engaging critically helps us understand how an author's biases can inform what they write. Like, HP Lovecraft wrote eerie stories, he was also a raging racist. But we can argue that his fear of PoC, his antisemitism, and all of his weird fears informed a lot of what he was writing. His writing is so eerie because a lot of that fear comes from very real, nasty places. It's not to say we have to censor his works, but he influences a lot of horror today and those fears, that racial undertone, it is still very prevalent in horror movies today. That fear of the 'unknown,'

Gone with the Wind is an incredibly racist book. It's also a well-written book. I think a lot of people also like confine criticism to just a syntax/prose/technical level -- when in reality criticism should also be applied on an ideological level. Books that are well-written, well-plotted, etc., are also -- and should also -- be up for criticism. A book can be very well-written and also propagate harmful ideologies. I often read books that I know that (on an ideological level), I might not agree with. We can learn a lot from the books we read, even the ones we hate.

I just feel like we're getting to the point where people are just telling people to 'shut up and read' and making spaces for conversation a uniform experience. I don't want to be in a space where everyone agrees with the same point. Either people won't accept criticism of their favorite book, or they think criticism shouldn't be applied to books they think are well written. Reading invokes natural criticism -- so does writing. That's literally what writing is; asking questions, interrogating the world around you. It's why we have literary devices, techniques, and elements. It's never just taking the words being printed at face value.

You can identify with a character's trauma and still understand that their badly written. You can read a story, hate everything about it, and still like a character. As I stated a while back, I'm reading Fourth Wing; the book is terrible, but I like the main character. The worldbuilding is also terrible, but the author writes her PoC characters with respect. It's not hard to acknowledge one thing about the text, and still find enough to enjoy the book. And authors grow when we're honest about what worked and what didn't work. Shadow and Bone was very formulaic and derivative at points, but Six of Crows is much more inventive and inclusive. Veronica Roth's Carve the Mark had some weird racial problems, but Chosen Ones was a much better book in terms of representation. Percy Jackson is the same way. These writers grow, not just by virtue of time, but because they were critiqued and listened to that critique. C.S. Lewis and Tolkien always publically criticized each other's work. Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes had a legendary friendship and back and forth with one another's works which provides so much insight into the conversations black authors and creatives were having.

Writing has always been about asking questions; prodding here and there, critiquing. It has always been a conversation, a dialogue. I urge people to love what they read, and read what they love, but always ask questions, always understand different perspectives, and always keep your mind open. Please stop stifling and controlling the conversations about your favorite literature, and please understand that everyone will not come out with the same reading experience as you. It doesn't make their experience any less valid than yours.

#long post #literary critique #literary criticism #booktok #books & libraries #booktwitter #but yeah it’s really hard for me to embrace booktube #and BookTok when the conversations that are most prevalent #are the ones telling people to not be critical of what they’re reading #esp the ones who desparately don’t want to understand differing opinions #‘how could you not like this’ or ‘how could you hate this character’ #easily #because I can #a traumatic backstory isn’t gonna erase a bad story #it isn’t going to make a character or book compelling #more trauma doesn’t make the story more complex #see: with fourth wing. #thank you for reading this long rant #congrats if you make it to the tags💀😭

[virtuouslibertines69]

"If you're going to love someone or something then don't be a slow leaking faucet----be a hurricane.” ― Shannon L. Alder Art by Muhammed Salah

#literature #quote #reading #writing #book #novel #author #writer #books #shannon l. alder #art #artist #illustration #sketch #drawing #muhammed salah #love #passion #couple #embrace #smoke

[hanafubukki]

I hope when Silver is put to sleep, we can see him visit the knight of dawn and his mom.

Let them have a chat before he gets awoken.

So he can feel the love of both family.

Let him hug them and be loved by them one more time before waking up in the arms of his diasomnia family.

I also want this for Malleus as well, let him see his mother before his OB breaks.

Let him see how loved he is by everyone, not worshiped, but loved.

Let him accept that his birth brought so much joy to others, like Lilia and maleficia.

That he’s not alone

Let these two brothers be loved

#I want more knight of dawn content #but I also want him to see both of his families #something about how sweet it would be for him to accept his past and the love of his bio family before taking the Vanrouge name #I think it would be sweet #malleus seeing his mother and how she love him and her singing him the lullaby before he wakes up #fully embracing the draconia in him and just seeing how precious he is #him seeing both his mom and his diasomnia as family #just so he knows how loved he is #twst silver #twst book 7 #diasomnia #malleus draconia

[heteromerous-rhyming]

i hope that if we get a second season, that they show circe's island not (just) as a spa, not as silly or superficial or frivolous, but as the refuge that reyna remembers it as. if they keep the spa imagery, i hope that the spa that they portray is one that celebrates all types of beauty. the spas/saunas from my childhood are places where i often saw grandmas and older women, places for them to take a breath away from a rapidly hurrying world.

i hope that even if percy and annabeth take the same actions they did in the books, that the consequences of freeing a pirate who was clearly going to terrorize circe's community are dealt with, are shown as an ominous portent.

(basically i want what they did with medusa to be the template for how they reimagine circe's island)

#i also hope that they all pronounce it as kirke #but that's just a personal thing #ngl did that particular scene in the books remind me of the problem of susan? maybe #only later and thinking back on it though #pjo tv show #percy jackson #percy jackon and the olympians #annabeth chase #honestly i just really want to see leah sava jefferies as annabeth embraced by this community #i want them to point out things that made her strong and made her beautiful #that might have been overlooked by percy or grover #oh wait shoot also #spoilers #pjo spoilers

[a-typical]

Women with ADD - Sari Solden

#ADHD #actuallyadhd #actually adhd #adhd things #adhd memes #neurodivergent #atypicalreads #sari solden #women with attention deficit disorder #attention deficit hyperactivity disorder #attention deficit disorder (add) #nsnv #reading #bookblr #books #ADD #relationships #friendships #making friends #Women with Attention Deficit Disorder: Embrace Your Differences and Transform Your Life #self help #nonfiction #mental health #health #psychology #1990s #90s

[ariel-seagull-wings]

WEDDING CELEBRATION OF REASON AND HEART

@lord-antihero @princesssarisa @professorlehnsherr-almashy @themousefromfantasyland @the-blue-fairie @sabugabr @gravedangerahead @tamisdava2

(Eduardo Galeano)

Why does one write, if not to put the pieces together?

From the moment we enter school or church, the Education dismembers us: it teaches us to divorce the soul of the body and the reason of the heart.

Wise doctors of Ethics and Morals must be the fishermen of the Colombian coast, who invented the word sentipensante (feelithinker) to define the language that tells the truth.

#eduardo galeano #literature #the book of embraces #el libro de los abrazos

[utilitycaster]

I genuinely believe the fact that so many popular Imogen/Laudna fics are no-powers AU is, if not the main cause, at least a factor in why so many people resist or even are hostile towards any interpretation of Imogen that isn't largely sweet and harmless. Like, write the fic you want, but Imogen in particular is someone so fundamentally shaped by her powers that to write a no powers AU is to write what is essentially a completely original character who happens to share her name.

I think it's made even more obviously a factor because many of those fics try to reconstruct aspects of Imogen's personality by giving her anxiety or agoraphobia (or both) but the problem is that those are purely mental illnesses, rather than something that both gives her powers and penalties (again, the X-Men problem). Some real-world mental illnesses cover the symptoms of Imogen's abilities, but none cover the abilities themselves. It's quite literally a removal of agency: they take away what she can (and frequently does) do with her powers, leaving only the negative effects on her behind while eliminating the negative effects she can have on others. No wonder there's this overwhelming push to woobify her from that corner; they've utterly defanged her and are now crying that other people who can still see her fangs (and even like them) are talking about them.

And the thing is, for all I can be negative about fanon, it is, ultimately, fine - so long one can either keep it separate in one's mind from canon or else remain in a particular fanon sandbox. But unfortunately people leave the sandbox, and when other people respond to the canon Imogen, who as of episode 81 (RIP CRStats) has voluntarily used Detect Thoughts/Open Mind 60 times and has openly stated her intent to use it specifically to know what her party members are doing in advance and theoretically prevent it, the fanfic crowd is utterly unable to react to this intelligently. The idea of Imogen they have is sweet girl with severe anxiety and a goth girlfriend. The problem is this construct exists only in their favorite fanfic writers' domestic fluff modern AU no powers setting. And frankly, I'm not interested in talking about that warped mirror version of her when I could have all the fascination, complexity, glory, and agency of the real thing.

#i also think that turning imogen's issues into specifically mental health only is for lack of a better term Not Great. #i remember when she took off the circlet people on twitter compared it to her going off her meds as like. a sympathy thing. #and. while obviously the psychiatric field is not without many flaws and prejudices. generally going off meds is. not a good sign. #i will say i would love to see the no-circlet au in which imogen stops ashton. i don't think that goes well at ALL. #like i don't know if they stick around after that. #cr tag #anyway been thinking about the role of fanfic a lot lately in case you couldn't tell #we are finally admitting the importance of They Would Not Fucking Say That and should embrace it #and i'm obviously thinking quite a lot about the book i just posted about a lot too #it is depressing that people are more comfortable with Girlfailure than Selfish #that a woman is only allowed memeable and sanitized quirky faults. GOD FORBID she want actual power. #(were i to be called selfish by someone i respect i'd feel bad but talk through it. girlfailure though? i'm stabbing them.)

[kingcriccket]

not to post about animorphs but tobias is very much a link situation where its like. you can think of him as a trans man and you can think of her as a trans woman and you can think of them as nb and all of them are true. but if ur thinking of him as a cis guy you are incorrect <3

#animorphs #it's alive! #tobias animorphs #tobias fangor #guy who finds existing in his human body so unbearable he ignores the horror of the transformation & embraces it immediately #and traps himself as a hawk kind of on purpose soon after #its like. morphing is body horror but if ur body is already a horror 2 u... maybe there's a freedom in it actually. #in choosing which horror u want for once #im thinking abt him. trans character of all time. im right. #books

[aszmxm]

Despite all your flaws, someone wishes to be near you, to see you, to have your company, someone loves you

#books & libraries #quotes #arabic qoutes #arabic #booksbooksbooks #you and me #embrace your flaws

[gothiccharmschool]

The Vampire Bookcase in its new home. Remember, embrace your cliches. Embrace them so hard they squeak.

(And as always, almost every shelf is double-stacked.)

#embrace your cliches #vampire books