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the-sun-is-also-a-star · 6 months

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"For someone who loved words as much as I did, it was amazing how often they failed me."

-- If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio

“Because freedom, I am told, is nothing but the distance between the hunter and its prey.”

-- On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

and as for poetry, i like to talk about "Written in my Dreams by W. C. Williams" by Allen Ginsberg with other people because it's short and rolls over the tongue nicely and i like to come back to it, puts a smile on my face, you know?

i'll also never forget "A Carcass" by Charles Baudelaire from when we read it at school years ago and then again in high school and i have now chosen Les Fleurs du mal as one of the books for my oral school leaving exam, so it's definitely one of those authors i read once and was never able to get out of my head

and last but not least, Louise Glück (may she rest in peace) and her "Theory of Memory" which includes the ending "Right now you are a child holding hands with a fortune-teller. All the rest is hypothesis and dream." and i simply don't have a choice but to love this one

i have so many more favourites, but these are the ones i can think of right now hehe <33

what r ur favourite poems and quotes??

those are brilliant actually

mine are quite, different to what one may think but i like finding meaning in things that other people think are only surface level :

思い出なんかいらん - we don't need memories

this is from the anime haikyuu LMAO which is a fucking volleyball anime and it is the team motto of one of the teams. It is quite honestly my life motto at this point. I used to live in the past, excused people for thing they do now because they were different in the past. they were different in my memories. I was so focused on the past i forgot to enjoy my present. I am done doing that. My memories hold me back. I am tired of it.

"to love and lose and still be kind" - warsan shire

this is pretty self explanatory. i dont think I've had a hard life. but i certainly haven't had an easy one. i have a habit of giving too much of myself to people. I'm working on rectifying that whilst still being kind.

"but i cut people out like tags on my clothing" - conan gray

I LOVE people watching its one of my favourite songs. but this line is really important to me. I've cut the tags off of my clothing for as long as I can remember. ever since i was a kid. I also have a habit of cutting out people the second they break my trust. as easy as cutting off tags from my clothing. I don't think its a good habit or a bad habit. it just. is.

"It's always the ones who are quietest who often have the greatest things to say" - TJ Klune, Wolfsong

This is from one of my favourite books of all time. I was a quiet child for a while. I never got excited for anything and after a while my parents suspected I had childhood depression, we still don't know for sure if I did. It makes a lot of sense though. It took me a while to become confident in my own voice and my own opinions. this quote is really important to me.

"Men don't cry. My daddy taught me that. Men don't cry because they don't have time to cry.

I must not have been a man yet because I cried. I bowed my head and cried." - TJ Klune, Wolfsong

This isn't personal to me in anyway, I just really, really love this part of the book and these two lines in particular.

"I'll be your hands." "I'll be your sanity." - TJ Klune, Ravensong

love has always been something I've read about. but this quote takes the damn cake.

as for poems,

At a Funeral by Dennis Brutus

I analyzed this poem for an English Lit class and the story behind why it was written really stuck with me. It was written after the death of Valencia Majombozi who was shot on the day of her graduation from nursing school. Its a protest poem and it just hits really fucking hard.

Death of a Naturalist by Seamus Heaney

This was the first poem that i ever took inspiration from. I had of course written before, but I really enjoyed Heaney's writing style so it strongly influenced my poem Quietude, which I am planning to submit to the empty inkwell publication...hopefully lol

Identity Card by Mahmoud Darwish

This poem is written as a form of protest poetry as well. Mahmoud Darwish was a Palestinian poet, for those of you who do not know and he wrote this poem about being asked for his identity card by Israeli Officers. Its really, really good.

#IM SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG JSHSKSJSK #this was really fun to make tho #poems #poetry #quotes #english literature #literature #poets #mahmoud darwish

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pacifymebby · 8 months

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Do you have any fave LGBTQ+ literature, tv, movies, content creators?

Okay so I'm still trying really hard to find queer books that I like because beyond Allen Ginsburg in college we weren't taught any LGBTQ+ authors/poets (except Carol Ann Duffy but the only thing I'd recommend about her work is to stay away because I hate it haha)(I probably hate it because of school tbh, sorry Carol) so anyway yeah, when it comes to this I've had to do all the searching myself and I don't really know how well I've done.

But for books:

🍂 Orlando / Virginia Woolf

I kind of can't believe Virginia Woolf wasn't on my other recommendations because The Waves is one of my favourite books (again I think you have to have a lot of patience but it is beautiful) and this one is brilliant too. A man wakes up in a woman's body and gender roles are revealed to be a little bit silly.

🍂 Thérèse and Isabelle / Violet Leduc

Erotic novella about two girls at boarding school, low-key spoke to me as a bi girl who kind of started realising her bisexuality when exploring sexuality was sort of thrust upon me by female friends at school I guess. It's just a good example of feminine sexuality and desire written by someone who knows.

🍂 Chelsea Girls / Eileen Myles

I'm very into Eileen Myles as a poet and these stories are so so so so so fucking good too!!!!

🍂 In The Dream House / Carmen María Machado

I got into this because it's what Google recs when you finish The Dangers of Smoking in Bed / Mariana Enriquez and honestly, I didn't enjoy it as much but it was still amazing. It's gothic horror af but also a really important work on abusive relationships within the queer community which the author has personal experience of and thinks isn't spoken about enough. Its really haunting, did fuck me up a bit but ultimately in a good way. But be careful because it does chronical abuse and that can be upsetting.

🍂 On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous/ Ocean Vuong

Another one where I love their poetry and think they can do no wrong tbh, I haven't finished this yet (I keep getting distracted but don't be put off by that I'm just really easily distracted!!) And I think it's wonderful idk. It's also written in quite a cool style which is always a bonus I find.

🍂 Our Wives Under the Sea / Julia Armfield

I actually only read this because I read an essay on the Exorcist and body horror by the author where she talks about her experience with having a cyst that had to be operated on twice. The essay was so stunning that I was like damn, gonna have to read that book everyone's talking about now and bestie, was worth it. The books class also.

🍂 Sister Outsider / Audre Lorde

I just think everyone should read Audre Lorde, Audre Lorde should have been on the curriculum instead of endless Simon Armitage idk. I read this and Your Silence Will Not Protect You as a 19 year old and they changed the course of my life idk.

🍂 Communion / bell hookes

Read this and broke up with my shitty ex boyfriend. It's not entirely about lesbianism but more kind of, love in general, platonic, romantic, what it really means to love. She talks about the feminist choice to choose lesbianism which was a phenomenon in the 70s and also discusses a lot to do with how misogyny impacts womens ability to love and be loved. It was a really important read for me, made all the more important because when I picked up the book my boyfriend ripped into her name and tried to be like lol what would you read her for...and then I read it and was like oh HE'S the problem.

Poetry:

🐇Howl / Allen Ginsburg

I know he's problematic but for me Howl was the prototype, the first massive poem I read and loved as an adult, the first one where language really sounded musical to me, the first poem I heard that Hurt. If you can you should listen to the YouTube of him reading it in San Francisco,that's amazing.

I also really like A Supermarket in California.

🐇 Sappho

Just all of it I guess, I think we're all eventually pushed towards Sappho and for good reason.

🐇Emily Dickinson

Read her letters to Sue, Open Me Carefully. I read these one summer between school years and I think they changed me. Her poetry in general is wonderful, some of it occasionally comes off as very old fashioned (shock horror our girl was born in the 1800s) but there's much to savour there. Also apparently there's a TV series about her life on Apple TV, I don't have Apple TV though so I haven't seen it.

As for TV and movies I don't think I have anything at all. I don't watch a lot of TV and I mostly only watch the same 5 old man movies on repeat. I think books have always been my thing, I can concentrate on reading in a way I can't concentrate on TV and also just the fact you can put your book in your pocket and get it out on the bus, in the staff room, at school, at the pub when you're waiting for your pals etc... I was always a headphones and books gal so I don't really have any recs for TV. Sorry :/

EDIT: Kill Your Darlings!!!! As in the movie, if you're into the beats you should watch it, it's very good and a real insight into what was in reality a pretty nasty little scene.

#pacifymebby recs #pacifymebby books

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butimnotasexyrussian · 3 months

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1, 2, 7, 13, 18, 27, and 30. :D

So it turns out that I can only access my inbox from mobile because when I log in through desktop, Tumblr still says I have no asks, which is so fucking annoying but we're making do.

Anyway.

From the unique writing asks post:

1. What themes would you like to write about that you feel don't get explored very often?

I think it's the nature of fanfic that most people that stumble across stuff I've written are looking for romantic pairings, which is great because if I've written for them, it means their dynamic makes me want to chew concrete and I love being able to share that with readers! But as someone on the ace/aro spectrum (we're still figuring this out), I think it would be really interesting to explore themes of asexuality and/or aromanticism through characters in a respectful and meaningful way. I don't think I'm at the point in my personal development where I can do that quite yet, but I'd love to some day.

2. What are some common elements of stories you are tired of seeing? What would you avoid writing about?

This one's a tough one because I'm genuinely pretty open to whatever. Like whenever I'm like, hmm don't think I like that, something will come up and inevitably prove me wrong. I didn't think I'd ever be into cheating, but then there's like every canon Roisa fic ever. Also Rose being Luisa's stepmother is still weird but hasn't stopped me.

Oh, one trope I do hate though is magic babies. I spend most of my time in wlw fics and while I'm fine with adoption fics, I hate it when someone in a wlw couple magically ends up pregnant and everyone's weirdly happy about this and no one is freaking out about it. It just doesn't do it for me. It's a huge commitment and the fact that a biological baby is like the "next step" to fulfillment in their relationship and doesn't strain it at all is so icky to me.

7. Favorite description in your wip?

I am literally so bad at descriptions but please enjoy this brief excerpt from my gap princess diaries 2 au I haven't updated in a year lol.

Mon fidgets for a bit before Sam takes off her suit coat and drapes it around her shoulders.

"Oh," Mon says. Sam's wearing suspenders and that distracts her. It takes her a while to remember to say, "Thank you."

"You looked cold."

She was not cold. It's actually a pretty mild night. Mon does not mention this as she pulls the coat tighter around herself. It smells fresh, vaguely like saltwater air.

13. What traits do you share with your original characters or what traits do you wish you shared with them?

I think whenever I do end up writing original characters, they're always like plucky sidekicks who are only there to give the protagonists a kick in the ass. I'd like to be able to not overthink as much and just see the situation clearly and tell it to people as bluntly as my OC's seem to.

18. What writers have inspired you with their use of language? What are some of your favorite quotes?

It's been so long since I've read anything so my mind is blanking right now, but I'm always amazed by how much feeling poets can put into their words. I remember sobbing throughout Ocean Vuong's On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous. The older I get, the more I identify with everything Mary Oliver has written ever. My mentally ill boy Kafka is always a mood. I wish I could remember anything any of these people have ever written but I have nothing but dryer fluff in my head. I'm sorry.

27. Do you have playlists for your wip? What are some of the songs in it?

Sorry, I usually don't have playlists for writing! I should actually start though because it has gotten me over writer's block a couple times, but for the most part, I just play whatever song I'm currently obsessed with. My ADHD means that I tune the lyrics out and I'm just vibing with the beat, although if I loop a song enough times while writing, every time I hear that song afterwards, I'll always associate it with the process of writing that fic, which is pretty cool. I don't think I've written anything over the past twelve months, but my current song on repeat is Animal by VEAUX if you wanna check it out!

30. What is some of the best writing advice you've read or received? Why does it work for you?

The thing about advice for me is that I'm always seeking it out and hoarding it like wow, I bet this would work for me and then...not doing anything to implement it. One thing I did end up using though, is from a Tumblr post that was like, "order everything in your sentences the way a movie scene would play out so the emotional punch comes at the end, like she came into the kitchen, saw the creeping puddle of blood, and discovered her brother's body." I'm paraphrasing obviously because no one can find anything on this hellsite, but this really made me realize that I kinda just threw everything together and hoped it made sense (once again, probably due a little bit to the ADHD). I'm not sure if anyone's even noticed, but I like to think it's made my writing a bit more coherent and easier to follow.

Thanks for asking! I'm love you!

#aparticularbandit #ask games

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tasteofyourblood · 1 year

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Tag Game To Better Know You! Send this to people you'd like to know better!

tagged by @lovingpoet (hi bestie! 💕💕)

what book are you currently reading?

just finished On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by ocean vuong last week!! and kinda started albert camus' The Plague (and by kinda i mean like.. 2 pages)

what do you usually wear?

love me a good oversized jacket, high waist wide pants, and currently layers of turtleneck & sweaters y'know how it is but the keyword to my style is Loose

how tall are you?

5'6 i think, average female height which is HATE, god i wish i was tall

what’s your star sign? do you share a birthday with a celebrity or historical event?

aquarius & don't think so? (just googled, alicia keys that's interesting)

do you go by your name or a nickname?

nickname which started as like internet privacy thing but now it feels kinda weird even having irl ppl know my full name

did you grow up to become what you wanted to be as a child?

HAH! i wanted to be a fashion designer so No but i am finally exploring clothesmaking as a hobby!!!!!!!!

what’s something you’re good at vs something you’re bad at?

good - languages & memorization. bad - planning aka impulsion (basically all the necessary precaution stuff for sewing & making clothes i Don't do and then suffer the consequences)

if you draw/write, or create in any way, what's your favorite picture/favorite line/favorite etc. from something you created this year?

did a lot of glitter edits this year gkdfnfn and the first one i made for saw 2004 is still my fav 👌 exquisite (oh! also knit a cardigan, first even knit project! and started a dress project just last month)

dogs or cats?

cats, smth about cat content just Hits more than dog content for me.. Oh also!! my black cat Bean and the 4 stray cats that constantly visit my door now

what's something you would like to create content for?

i really really really wanna write a merlin fic someday, it's been on my mind for years but 1. i hate writing and 2. haven't had an idea that Sticks yet (ALSO WANNA MAKE A BEAUTIFUL BIG RED KNIGHT OF CAMELOT CAPE WITH THE DRAGON SIGIL AND ALL SOMEDAY)

what’s something you’re currently obsessed with?

not obsessed but just spent the last 2 months slowly binging seinfeld and just finished the finale this morning so (tis good 👍)

what's something you were excited about that turned out to be disappointing this year?

social event at work that turned out to be really awkward for me BUT! the 2nd one I went to ended up being a lot better :D

what’s a hidden talent of yours?

words? idk i love long words so all that memorization during sat & gre studying i still remember And the word floccinaucinihilipilification that I learned from a child genius competition show probably back in 2014 or smth

what's something you wish to have at this moment?

beautiful natural fiber fabric (preferably wool & linen AND LACE!) and all the knowledge of clothesmaking in all of history, PLEASE

tagging @inkmaze @mlentertainment @safodebuenosaires @eyeldritch @katealot @human-sweater-vest @lilmoonlad @meat-wentz and every other little molecule on this plane of existence 🪷🤙

#this was fun!! also tommie i wanna see your knitting 👀#tag game #about me

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deadpanwalking · 3 years

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do you have any book or poetry recs about the relationship between immigrant mothers and their kids? i've started night sky with exit wounds and i really like it so far.

Dictee by Theresa Hak Kyung Cha

The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henríquez

Infinite Country by Patricia Engel

Ghost Of by Diana Khoi Nguyen

Bread Givers by Anzia Yezierska

Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

Lena Finkle's Magic Barrel and Petropolis by Anya Ulinich

When I Was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago

Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat

The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen

Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid

The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston

Typical American and Mona in the Promised Land by Gish Jen

Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez

The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu

Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth by Warsan Shire

#toni morrison's beloved isn't technically an immigrant story but every instinct i posses tells me otherwise so 🤷‍♂️#i haven't read jimmy sanitago baca yet but a lot of people seem to like him #listen this is my favorite subgenre of immigration literature and i could probably incapacitate 3000 dashboards if i went on #also if you haven't yet DO read on earth we're briefly gorgeous!#i read much of the night and go south in the winter #anonymous #assbox

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northern-passage · 2 years

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Do you have any book recommendations?

oh boy... i'm probably not the best person to ask because i haven't finished a book in over a year (lol) but i can give you some that i remember fondly (but take it with a grain of salt since i haven't read them in years)

sharp objects by gillian flynn

annihilation / southern reach trilogy by jeff vandermeer

not my father's son by alan cumming

universal harvester by john darnielle

on earth we're briefly gorgeous by ocean vuong

wishful drinking, the princess diarist, shockaholic & postcards from the edge by carrie fisher

the luminous dead by caitlin starling

the night circus by erin morgenstern

the revenant by michael punke (there is something about the way this story ends that keeps me up at night)

umm now for more recent books, aka books i have bought and may have started but have not finished 😶 but to give you an idea of my ever growing stack of books lmao....

i'm actually currently reading a cloak of red by brenna gawain and really enjoying it (it's what i've been reading over the holidays during travel) i haven't read any of the other books of the underrealm but i can definitely recommend this one and if you're into fantasy (i'm assuming if you're here... you are lol) then definitely check out the publisher and the other books, they focus on diverse fantasy and i'll definitely look to them in the future whenever i get another fantasy itch.

crying wolf by barbara truelove (this is next on my to-read list and if you've read blood moon it's by the same author :-))

sharks in the time of saviors by kawai strong washburn

the left hand of darkness by ursula k le guin (sorry i'm showing up late with starbucks to le guin's work but i cannot recommend her stuff enough)

the last duel by eric jager

the only good indians by stephen graham jones

the priory of the orange tree by samantha shannon

elatsoe by darcie little badger

three parts dead / the craft sequence by max gladstone (coincidentally this is a CoG author though i did not know it at the time of purchasing this book which has been on my bookshelf for years... but he also wrote choice of the deathless)

the girls by emma cline

the way through the woods: of mushrooms and mourning by long litt woon

h is for hawk by helen macdonald

pachinko by min jin lee

umm now are these recommendations... idk i haven't read them yet LOL but idk maybe you'll see something you like. the last time i was actually consistently reading i read a Lot of non-fiction, i like memoirs and i like historical non-fiction but i know not a lot of people vibe with that (the last duel i expect most people to not care for but i saw the movie trailer and was curious about the story behind it bc that stuff interests me)

i read alan cumming's not my father's son in college but it really stuck with me and again all of carrie fisher's books.. she is a great storyteller and really fucking funny. i've read a lot of books on environmental history ie the national parks and the forest service in the US because i worked for them for a few years, and i've tried to read a lot of indigenous authors as well - braiding sweetgrass by robin wall kimmerer is essential reading at this point.

anyways sorry if you were coming here for fantasy recs i don't really read fantasy surprisingly :-( and i've read a lot of horror but not a lot of GOOD horror lmfao. stephen graham jones i definitely recommend tho he has quite a few other horror books as well, the last final girls by him is also on my to-read list. when i was younger i read all of danielle vega's books as well but for the life of me i cannot remember if they were like... good. lmao. a lot of times i start reading a horror book and it becomes very clear they are going to go down the "scary mentally ill person stops taking their medication" route and so i have a lot of half-read and abandoned horror books... if you all have any horror recs i will GLADLY take them pls

#i've read a lot of westerns too but i wont recommend any bc honestly. none of them are very good LOL #authors in that genre tend to lack any nuance and it feels a lot like. idk it's just gratuitous #unnecessary violence and racism #not to say you cant have that in your western since it is relevant for the time period but like. we can tone it down a bit lmfao #'it's historically accurate' my ass #ANYWAYS hope this gives you. something #sorry i dont read very often anymore #ask #anonymous

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