#and ESPECIALLY a novel

[notbecauseofvictories]

I'm re-reading the Discworld series for reasons, and honestly the most relatable part of reading these as an adult is how many of the protagonists start out being tired, used to their little routine and vaguely disgruntled by the interruption of the Plot. Sam Vimes wants to lie drunk in a gutter and absolutely doesn't want to be arresting dragons. Rincewind is yanked into every situation he's ever encountered, though he'd much rather be lying in a gutter too. (Minus the alcohol. Plus regretting everything he's ever done said witnessed or even heard about fourth-hand in his whole life.) Granny Weatherwax is deeply suspicious of foreign parts and that includes the next town over; Nanny has leaned into the armor of "nothing ever happens to jolly grannies who terrorize their daughters-in-law and make Saucy Jokes"

Only the young people don't seem to have picked up on this---and that's fortunate, because someone has to run around making things happen, if only so Vimes and Granny and Rincewind have a reason to get up (complaining bitterly the whole time) and put it all to rights. Without Carrot, Margrat, Eric, etc. these characters don't have that reason; they're likely to stay in the metaphorical gutter and keep wondering where it all went wrong or why anything has to change.

............well, that's not quite true. You get the sense that Vetinari knows how much certain people hate the Plot. And as the person sitting behind the metaphorical lighting board of Ankh-Morpork, he takes no small pleasure in forcing the Plot-haters specifically to stand up, and say some lines.

#I finished guards guards just yesterday and I forgot that vimes and wonse were set up to be mirror images #both boys from the shades of very different natures; who made good (ish) in wildly different ways #also it's interesting reading this books from an adult perspective; my mind isn't blown that these books exist #anymore; plus I've read so many good books since #and they're not perfectly constructed novels! especially these early books; #there are plenty of spots where I can feel the narrative get thin; where there's more handwaving than I remember #but each book IS better and tighter; the jokes are funnier and the irony sharpens; the footnotes are better utilized #the characters are getting more interesting and complicated as opposed to set-ups for jokes. #it's an illustration of someone getting better at their chosen field and that in itself is more impressive than I was anticipating. #discworld

[langernameohnebedeutung]

ngl, I'm beginning to take issue with how in conversations about anti-intellectualism almost automatically, the face of girls and women will be slapped on the problem.

#'all those tiktok girls who only like marvel films and' - why do you always say girls and women? are the guys filling opera halls instead? #'women in their mid 20s who still only read YA novels' okay sure that's an example and relevant discussions can be had #but it reminds me of the mocking tone in which people speak of 'chick-lit' to use women's interest as an indicator of lower value #while in fact women are reading more than men in EVERY single genre of fiction. Women are doing a lot of (often unpaid) labour #supporting libaries supporting theatres supporting cultural events #meanwhile there is a pretty big overlap between toxic masculinity and anti-intellectualism #(especially misogyny and homophobia) #especially when it comes to things like ballet or opera or musical or generally dance #in fact it is often the female investment in specific things that makes them less 'valuable' in general consciousness #for thousands of years the theatre was well-respected and a high form of art - and now it's a 'wife-thing' #the father who will teach his son that theatre and dance are for girls - how is that never an example for anti-intellectualism

[ffcrazy15]

Someone needs to do an analysis on the way the Kung Fu Panda movies use old-fashioned vs. modern language ("Panda we meet at last"/"Hey how's it going") and old-fashioned vs. modern settings (forbidden-city-esque palaces/modern-ish Chinese restaurant) to indicate class differences in their characters, and how those class differences create underlying tensions and misunderstandings.

#This is neither a criticism nor a compliment of that artistic choice #I just think it's really interesting #Like even looking at the Five: #Tigress talks in an older style than the others because she was mainly raised at the Jade Palace #While Mantis talks like Joe-schmo off the street because he *was* a streetfighter and an ordinary guy #Shifu and even Tai Lung talk like they're from an old-fashioned novel or kung fu movie #Po talks like a modern guy you'd meet working in a twenty-first century family restaurant #Part of Tigress's initial disdain for him in the first movie is clearly because she considers him to be low-class/a commoner #(And therefore an intruder into the world of the Jade Palace and the rest of the Kung Fu masters which appears to be semi-noble). #Shen looks genuinely off-put and disgusted when he has to respond to Po's greeting with a “...hey.” #And when Po wants to appear more legitimate as a warrior he adopts a more “legendary”/old-fashioned way of speaking. #In the aesthetic language of KFP old fashioned=noble/upper class and modern=common/lower class. #This translates entirely naturally—I think especially to an American audience—but it is wild once you notice it #Because you realize: “Hang on—shouldn't *all* these characters be talking like they're living in the medieval era?” #“And what does it mean that they're not? What is the movie attempting to convey with this—probably entirely subconscious—artistic choice?” #kung fu panda

[radley-writes]

UNPOPULAR WRITEBLR OPINIONS go go go

I'll start: editing the first draft is fine, actually

#writeblr #writers on tumblr #creative writing #original writing #I think once you get through the hurdle of finishing a novel especially #you have more confidence in yourself #and can edit as much as you fucking want and still know you'll get to the end of the first draft #and have a much cleaner draft overall! #it all literally just depends on how you like to work. there's no 'right way' to write a first draft.

[momochanners]

Yes, YES; This one gets it.

#bg3 #halsin #the bear thing is haha and all #but the scene/mood/dialogue is straight outta the pages of a racy romance novel #and for people that love this it's gratifying and touching that it's a scenario that's crafted with much care and seriousness #as opposed to being something to be ashamed of #as if emotions and intimacy don't belong in a narrative experience especially one so personal like idk A ROLEPLAYING GAME #to me THAT'S why this is a big thing for a flagship CRPG to go all in on #optional bear necessities aside #And we don't even know yet how the other companions' will be like #Gale & Astarion's will personally attack me I guess #Fed I am thoroughly fed

[kikicolors]

:/

#it makes me furious #especially when they use the my art tag along with ai art #its not ur art its thousands maybe millions of other artists' hard work ur profiting off of and somehow not feeling shame over? #imagine genuinely being proud of that #its completely unregulated and theres no rules #people are using ai art for their childrens books/illustrated novels and selling them on amazon #its so disgusting #i understand doing it for fun but you didnt 'make it' and you shouldn't profit off of it #artists on tumblr #Artists of Tumblr #Illustration #Digital Illustration #digital drawing #animal art #horse #ai art #anti ai art #arrow #arrows #animal portrait #equine #artists #art #digital painting #no to ai art

[puppyeared]

hello every nyan

fan character for Laika's Comet, by @catmask (go check it out!!)

#made the colors a lil more vibrant #his thing as a travelling magician to revive the arts is kind of inspired by the troupe in station eleven which is coincidentally a #post-apocalypse novel.. they go between towns performing shakespearean plays and i thought it was really interesting #especially in the context of the rest of the book. im rambling #his clothes are supposed to be an old magicians costume.. i like to think he lives in an abandoned theater when he isnt on the road #want to get around to designing his bunny assistant but im still padding out the details #i put way too much thought into this and im probably already attached lol #my art #myart #my oc #fan character #fc #sleight #furry #fur #furth #furthling...??? #eyestrain #bright colors #Laika’s Comet

[wasty28]

Reading Trash of the count's family and Debut or die at the same time is so funny sometimes.

In one book the MC curses, kidnap, rob, scam, beat up the bad guys at any given occasion but in the other he's like "these fucking bast-...,no let's calm down", I need to keep being level-headed.

#they are fundamentally different genre of novel so it is to be expected #but the difference is so funny especially when you've been reading tcf for a while only to come to dob and see that reaction #when they do share many similitudes #trash of the count's family #lout of the count’s family #tcf novel #text post #debut or die #park moondae #cale henituse

[lastofthe20thcenturygirls]

(ln8 spoilers) jinshi thinking except for my godly looks i am just average and then his smartass goes and kills around five birds with just one brand. someone whose status is so high that even his name can't be said by anyone except the emperor jinshi branded himself with the crest of the empress vowing loyalty to her assuring her he doesn't wants to take the place of her son. one-upping his "bro" with this who refuses to let him leave the line of succession wouldn't let him become a commoner doesn't wants to let him become a servant to the royal family. only slaves get branded and if this ever got out there will be chaos in the court. gyokuyou tho considers jinshi like a brother and he did swear loyalty to her but if she ever tried to cross his family her clan's brand on his body would be enough to prove her as an adultress which would be bad for her and her clan.

and jinshi did this in front of these two people and maomao so now she is the only one who can see him naked and the emperor cannot order him to marry anyone which was something that was definitely gonna happen had he not done what he did. as a bonus he gets to spend more time with maomao after a long time and he did all this while saying the exact words: empress gyokuyou, your enemy i shall never be in front of maomao reassuring her because she once muttered i don't want to be an enemy to empress gyokuyou and he had heard her but before he could tell her that he had no intention of doing that either he couldn't because of the lishu incident. one of the major reasons maomao hadn't accepted her own feelings for jinshi one of the obstacles he promised to remove for her. even though he doesn't even know that maomao's concerns about her becoming gyokuyou's enemy had to do with his birth secret his true status. that no matter what he is the rightful successor. something jinshi himself isn't even aware of and yet without knowing that he did this to deal with it all in a single way most preferable to him: masochism

#(this is very messily worded but hey this time there's a paragraph break at least) #kusuriya no hitorigoto #the apothecary diaries #light novel #jinshi #no maomao doesn't think that jinshi is stupid or that has no critical thinking skills and like ????? #my guy has self-esteem issues yes but he is smart enough that maomao compares other people with him even lahan #and lahan is actually a genius #i will not stand for jinshi slander especially the one that undermines him #he's done so many smart things but i have been in awe of him for this esp #maybe bc i get him not wanting to be the ruler #not wanting to marry some rando (i think he is demisexual so that's another reason) #this whole plan was just so perfect and 🙇🏽‍♀️ #anyway does anybody else think suiren was absolutely willing to prepare the brand not only because she supports jinshi #but also because she is the biggest jinmao shipper and maybe SHE suggested him to get maomao there #the thought of jinshi marrying anyone other than maomao must have been scary for her #if in the future jinshi does ends up becoming the emperor jinshi and she are going to go crazy over the harem issue #knh text

[secretmellowblog]

Before writing Les Mis, Hugo’s beloved 19-year-old daughter Leopoldine tragically drowned. As a result Les Mis is full of drowning imagery— drowning as a a symbol of impossible grief and loss, drowning as a symbol of being left behind by a society that doesn’t care about protecting your life, drowning as a method of suicide.

The les mis letters chapter today is the first chapter where Hugo highlights the drowning imagery that becomes central to the rest of the novel. The horrible symbolic death Valjean suffers as a result of being entirely isolated and forgotten by a society that doesn’t value his life is also foreshadowing of Javert’s eventual death.

Throughout the novel, Eponine also frequently talks about her desire to drown herself in the Seine; Thenardier monologues about how “the river is the true grave” and when bodies fall in it “justice makes no inquiries;” later Valjean escapes prison by faking his death by drowning, and so on and so on. There’s this emphasis that drowning doesn’t just mean death, it means erasing yourself from existence. It means you’re forgotten.

One of the saddest references to the death of Leopoldine is the way Valjean and Javert learn about the other’s death (or “death.”)

Hugo learned about his daughter’s death not from a family member/friend, but by reading about it in a newspaper. He was on vacation away from his family at the time. He was reading the news in a cafe and happened to stumble on an article about Leopoldine’s horrible tragic drowning, which was how he first learned that she was dead.

When Javert learns about Valjean’s “death” in prison (when Valjean pretends to drown in order to escape), he learns about it by reading it in the newspaper. When Valjean learns about Javert’s death by drowning, he learns about it by reading it in the newspaper.

So…yeah :(. Les Mis is full of all these agonized metaphors around drowning (as a metaphor for death/grief/being entirely forgotten by the people around you) and part of that comes from Hugo’s own deep personal trauma around the death of death of his daughter.

#les mis #les mis letters #lm 1.2.8 #Victor Hugo #death cw #: (((((((((((((( #but yeah #I think pilferingapples was the person who first made me aware of this and :;((( #Hugo’s grief over Leopoldine also obviously shows up in the way he writes Valjeans relationship with cosette #and it is very :( #….. #Les mis spoilers #spoilers #it feels very weird to tag this novel with spoilers #especially about stuff like ‘the symbolic meaning of drowning’ #but i guess I do talk about plot details so?

[miixz]

Mu Qing being chosen as the major representation for lower class struggles in the TGCF fandom (as far as I've seen it at least) is a choice that I find... interesting.

I understand where it's coming from, of course, and I see how his bitterness at the class system could be relatable, but it feels odd to me that Hua Cheng is missing from those discussions while we've seen that he was very much not living in any luxury as a child. He was in fact worse off than MQ who got to study cultivation and work for the prince.

I don't quite know how to put this into words, but I do think it says something about unconscious biases that the man who was able to ascend and enjoy being at the highest class he could possibly aspire to be while doing nothing to further criticize those systems is the one propped up, while the one who did achieve success but through unconventional means isn't.

Being the king of a city full of ghosts just isn't as glamorous of a fantasy to live vicariously through as a golden palace in the heavens, I suppose, in spite of this being something MXTX is actively criticizing in her book.

#tgcf #i don't think anyone is inherently bad for this or anything #but i do think there's some unexamined bias going on when hc's relationship with class struggles gets ignored while mq's gets propped up #especially on occasions in which the flaws in mq's logic (that he admits himself later on in the novel) go unexplored

[nibbelraz]

sometimes i think about your sqh twins in terms of speaking english as a 'sibling language'. tfw your brother is literally god and you are his self insert with less anxiety. they're both shang qinghua because of polite name things but everyone knows if you want the softer one you ask for feiji-hua not niechi-hua. (neichi as in rodent) sy figures out that at least one of them is bound by reincarnation via "my brother in christ where are my fucking scrolls"

Oh yeah in the twins au OG! Shang Qinghua is just a more confident, more scheming self insert. I wonder if this means at some level he also has the hots for Mobei since it's still Shang Qinghua.

God thinking about the beef between Og! Shang Qinghua and Shen Yuan would have is so wild because this peak lord who was notorious for awful reasons suddenly does a complete 180 and now bonds and hits your brother while they talk in the THE LANGUAGE ONLY SPOKEN BY YOU AND YOUR BROTHER

#the idea of english as a sibling language for the twins tho is an amazing idea actually because as a sibling we do have our own language #svsss #shen qingqiu #shang qinghua #Shang Twins #the SCROLLS I CANT #i didnt say this in the ask but i do also wonder if Airplane bro shang qinghua just told his brother about everything from the start lile #like #yeah im god #yeah i made this world #yes this was a harem novel and thats why things are the way the are #yes technically you were a self insert but hey you're the cooler one!!! #and OG Shang Qinghua just accepted it #but hes wary of Shen Yuan especially as said hater of his Bros work #nib text #ask

[witchlingcirce]

I so desperately need the fight scene between Janus and Thule!Simon. Thule Simon NEEDS to be the one who kills him, it would be so poetic.

I’m actually so curious about Thule Simon, I wanna know how he feels about Clary dying, about Isabelle dying! I wanna know why he hasn’t helped. HE NEEDS TO BE IN TWPPPPP PLEASEEEEE.

#the shadowhunter chronicles #thule!simon #Thule #thule!jace #the dark artifices #queen of air and darkness #qoaad #tda #the mortal instruments: graphic novel #the mortal instruments #tmi #tsc #shadowhunters #cassandra clare #cassandra jean #gotsm #jace herondale #Simon lewis #need there fight to be so nasty #Simon needs to win #I know his pent up anger against Jace is crazy #especially since by the time of when things diverge in Thule they weren’t that close #IM SO HYPED #CASSIE PLS

[shiftywing]

i just know this still haunts him

#especially pathetic in the graphic novel because in the book the fight lasts for a little bit longer #but here he gets beaten in like 4 seconds rip #wof #wings of fire #icicle #qibli

[ravenkings]

i really wish v for vendetta (both the movie and the graphic novel) hadn't become associated with deeply irritating (and often reactionary) online political subcultures bc it really does slap so fucking hard

#re: the movie someone needs to write something about how two very famous and popular wachowski sister projects #(i.e. the matrix and v for vendetta) #became these loci for online far right symbolism and narratives #it's especially weird since both the matrix and v for vendetta could be read as pretty trans-coded #and are both VERY explicitly grounded in left-wing politics........... #i just don't get it tbh #anyway i'm reading the graphic novel now and really enjoying it #v for vendetta #text

[pharawee]

"Khun Yai, what makes you like plumeria? They're quite an unpopular flower, aren't they? Because the Thai name means misery, which sounds quite inauspicious."

"So try smelling them. Their gentle scent makes me feel liberated, and they're also enchanting. I think they smell like you, Jom."

—I FEEL YOU LINGER IN THE AIR 💮 Episode 8

#i feel you linger in the air #i feel you linger in the air the series #ifylita #nonkul chanon #bright rapheephong #yaijom #yai x jom #ifeelyoulingeredit #thai bl #thai drama #bl drama #bl series #my edits. #are bathtub scenes a trope? #because i'm all over them #especially when they're as soft as this one #idk if the overlapping images of plumeria even work or look silly #but i tried ok #i really like plumeria #after i first read the novel i started growing 3 plumeria from seed #i hope they survive the winter because they're my plant babies now