#and the mind boggles it really does

[oldshrewsburyian]

I’m presuming that anyone not interested in a more or less minute account of my internal screaming will block ‘Persuasion reread,’ so here goes. Today’s internal screaming is provoked by the fact that we enter Volume 2 with Anne glad that she and Captain Wentworth have -- at least tacitly, at least partially -- reconciled; she’s grateful for what she takes as signs of disinterested friendship from him. She’s also fully convinced that he is going to marry Louisa, and that she will just have to cope with that. (Interestingly, Lady Russell’s ‘pleased contempt’ at this news offers further evidence of the fact that she apparently hates Wentworth’s guts, despite acknowledging that he did seem to partly appreciate Anne’s worth in ‘06. Seem to partly appreciate! I tend to concur with the critical opinion that Lady R. has a wilful blind spot around Wentworth’s sexuality. Anyway.)

There is more! in this chapter, we get some of Austen’s first hints to readers that Anne’s perception of Wentworth’s feelings is... less than accurate. We’ve already had, of course, his responses to Mr. Elliot. Now we get Anne, responding to Lady Russell’s compliments on her appearance, ‘amused’ to think that she may be afforded ‘a second spring of youth and beauty.’ A second spring, you say, Miss Austen?? Moreover, we learn from the Crofts that Frederick, in bringing them news from Lyme, has asked after Anne’s welfare. He hopes she isn’t worn out; he’s noticed her exerting herself on behalf of the Musgroves, and wants to be sure she’s all right.

For one thing, he’s the only person who does appear to have noticed this, or thought to ask after her. (The Musgroves, in their anxiety over Louisa, have a good excuse for not doing so, granted.) And I think that we have here some early suggestive evidence concerning what our favorite obtuse genius is thinking and planning.

#persuasion reread #anne elliot #frederick 'unconsciously nay unintentionally constant' wentworth everyone #jane austen #will not let us REST #frederick theodore wentworth PLEASE get your act together #incidentally (or more than incidentally) i keep thinking about how this is the level of devotion we see from him #while there is nothing officially between them! while on a conscious level he may NOT be thinking of her that much #i think about the behavior of this man after vowing in the sight of God to love honor cherish and keep (and to worship with his body) #and the mind boggles it really does #anyway #sophy croft is DEFINITELY going to be the least surprised person when her beloved baby brother announces his engagement #the admiral is a himbo and will probably take it cheerfully in his slightly gouty stride

[layla-carstairs]

I like how we know next to nothing about the wicked powers but Cassandra Clare has already shared multiple pieces of official art (some of which is clearly scenes from a book that she hasn't finished writing) and she's so real for that

#whenever I really think about all the official art it does my head in like just the amount of it is INSANE #like a lot series will have a set of character art or upcoming book promo pieces stuff like that #but nobody gets even remotely close to cc #I looked on the wiki & there's 102 images of clary on there #some of its covers but all of its official it's mind boggling #like. OVER ONE HUNDRED??? HUH??? #cassandra clare #bella talks #tsc #the shadowhunter chronicles #the wicked powers #twp #the last king of faerie #tlkof

[diarythebookwyrm]

So, uh...I've recently been reading the Emelan books by Tamora Pierce and Briar's Book hits a lot different in a post-Covid world, don't it?

#how is it #I ask you gentle reader #that a fantasy world with renaissance level technology #does better pandemic care than our world in the year 2020 #boggles the mind it does #emelan #briar's book #tamora pierce #like don't get me wrong #I loved the book! #5 stars #but holy shit Tammy had her third eye wide open writing that one #the moment that really hit me was Tris complaining her glasses don't fit right over a cloth mask

[asteracaea]

i finally had the time (and mental capacity) to sit down and close listen to the anthology tracks and holy shit, these songs are phenomenal. i am just blown away. this whole album is astonishing and i am so grateful.

#how does she continue to do it? #all these early reviews saying this album is not good are mind boggling to me #reviews should not be allowed until music has been out for weeks #it takes a while to really get music into your bones and understand it #you can't judge based on a first listen

[fromtheseventhhell]

A former slave came, to accuse a certain noble of the Zhak. The noble had taken her maidenhood, used her for his pleasure, and gotten her with child. Her new husband wanted the noble gelded for the crime of rape, and he wanted a purse of gold as well, to pay him for raising the noble’s bastard as his own. Dany granted him the gold, but not the gelding. “When he lay with her, your wife was his property, to do with as he would. By law, there was no rape.” Her decision did not please him, she could see, but if she gelded every man who ever forced a bedslave, she would soon rule a city of eunuchs. — ADWD, Daenerys I

A feminist icon, right ?

Daenerys never treats slavery as an evil in and of itself, as an affront to human dignity. It’s a legal technicality. It’s why she acted the way she did in the Lhazareen village, it’s why she doesn’t understand how she needs to treat her “handmaidens” differently if she wants them to understand they are no slaves, it’s why she can almost pettily declare Meereenese can sell themselves back into slavery if they want so long as she gets a profit. She doesn’t understand the fundamentals of why it is bad. The same way she doesn’t understand the concept of rape. That’s why her quest is so empty and doomed to fail. She doesn’t understand it and she doesn’t care to try.

I'm not even gonna bother putting energy into answering this cause it's obvious to me that you and reading comprehension have a strained relationship. You're just not smart and there's nothing I can do to change that. All I'll say is that you could only come up with interpretations like this by removing all context from Dany's arc and cherry-picking quotes. Luckily, the rest of us aren't reading the books with our eyes closed.

#anon #ask #fandom nonsense #what getting your info from a bullet point list on reddit does to a mf #I don't get the point in sending asks like this unless you're just assuming I haven't read the books either? #and am not aware of Dany's thoughts or feelings on the subject? or the context attached to the quotes you try and pull out of context? 😭 #mind-boggling...either way I'm not spending my time writing a long reply cause it's obvious you don't read #be easy...or not I don't really care #laughing cause I know anon thought they did something with this #/Dany doesn't understand slavery or rape/ and she's a formal bridal slave #also I would call slavery a lot worse than just an affront to human dignity so maybe you're the one who doesn't understand??

[littlerosette]

i think i’m going to start reading more books like the thorn birds rather than trying to force myself to get into the romance novels that are coming out now because i’m having soooo much more fun. writers in the 70s truly did not give an iota of a fuck about how their works would be perceived so they wrote whatever they wanted, whereas i think writers nowadays have an air of being apologetic for the story they want to tell. “i know murder is bad so i’m going to write three pages of how he can justify this to himself (and most importantly to the audience) so you guys don’t hate him!” FLOP

#and i feel like because of ao3 most romance novels today do this thing where they speedrun to the smut instead of creating an actually #engaging romance #like smut is fun to read but if i don’t care about the relationship i’d really rather go on ao3 to read about characters i DO care about #fucking #otherwise i’m just wasting my time #also why does smut have to come at the sacrifice of romance??😭 #most mind boggling thing ever. WRITE BOTH #my post #mini rant

[angorwhosebabyisthis]

having a lot of thoughts about how people use 'normalize' when they mean 'destigmatize' or 'make the nature of into common knowledge,' and how they conflate 'the perception of this thing as normal' with the thing actually being a normal occurrence, and how it is in fact incredibly harmful to try to convince people that an ideal situation is normal when that does not map onto their lived reality or the dangers they need to be aware of to avoid. it is 3:33am though so writing up an actual poast about it will have to wait for later

#whosebaby talks #this post brought to you by 'spreading awareness of what an abusive relationship is and looks like compared to a nonabusive relationship' #'is fantastic and i support it fully and think it's deeply important. giving people the false idea that abusive relationships are uncommon' #'and are flukes that go against the grain of society functioning as it normally does; is insanely dangerous to people who are potential #targets; and incredibly alienating and isolating and cruel to people who have already been targets' #'in uniquely awful ways depending on whether they're already aware of that or aren't. don't fucking do that' #it applies much more broadly than that; but it's an instance i think about A Lot and it's what led me to this line of thought to start with #there's also 'normal does not mean good and saying so has incredibly unbelievably harmful implications keep that shit out of your mouth' #but that is so obvious it boggles my mind that it has to be explained to anyone on this site; and it is talked about often enough #that i would rather focus on the parts i don't really see talked about much; if at all #also like the fact that 'statistically average' normal vs 'things are functioning as they usually do' is a critically important distinction #they are closely related and interplay heavily with each other but they are Not the Same Thing #and how 'normal' can refer to different layers and aspects of a subject--people with rare health conditions are not statistically average #and that by itself is fine. and those people having conditions that are disruptive to the usual functioning of a space or system #is avoidable in some cases by establishing as much infrastructure as possible to integrate their more common needs smoothly #and unavoidable in others; which means the normal functioning of a system/space that accommodates people with unexpected needs #has to account *for its normal functioning being disrupted sometimes* #and bend around that disruption without either breaking down or rolling right over the disabled people who Cause Problems #and at the same time 'rare health condition' gets applied to health conditions that are not rare *at all* to not only justify not bothering #to make the system integrate their needs in general when it could do so easily; but make it so that accommodating their needs anyway puts #immense and unnecessary strain on the system; so there is zero margin for anything you didn't specifically fight tooth and nail for already #anyway it's a really extensive subject and a fascinating one. for later. sleep now #abuse cw #ableism cw #the salt files #is there a name for that tag

[problemswithbooks]

Gonna be honest. It doesn't even feel like the manga wants me to think Hawks made a bad choice. Even now. Its just feels like a cliffhanger about the destruction that would have happened back then if Hawks didn't make the hardest choice. And then the heroes would have been utterly crushed.

Oh, yeah, I can totally see this interpretation of those scenes with Hawks and AfO, but I think that shows the poor writing of the story in and of itself. There are stories where the point is that it can have multiple interpretations, but the way bnha is set up that doesn't feel like Hori's intention (and if it is, he's not doing a good job writing it that way).

Part of the reason I saw it as the more Hawks Critical way was because of how other fans were talking about it--clearly a lot of people see it as Hawks past coming back to bite him in the butt. All I saw were people cheering it on and happy that he was getting his punishment for killing Twice, and of course ignoring how poor the writing was for this set up.

Because, yes, your interpretation is more plausible given how Hori wrote past events. Hawks killing Twice didn't do anything but save a a lot of people during the first war. The villains might have still retreated but Twice would have continued to fight for his friends and given the lack of care any of the LoV show for Shigaraki's condition and still blindly follow AfO, it's easy to assume Twice would be 100% fine with taking orders for him. This would have lead to a Sad Man's Parade anyway, and perhaps and even worse one that included cloned nomu and AfO's.

If Hori wanted Hawks to be wrong and this be his comeuppance for his actions there were one of two things he should done to pull this off at least moderately well.

Have Hawks actually straight up murder Twice. For all that people say Hawks killed Twice on orders and acted due to giving into his brainwashing from the HPSC, that's just not true. Hori went out of his way to show that Hawks only killed Twice after he had lost most of his feathers to Dabi and Twice was escaping in order to use his Quirk. Hori even had Twice kill a Hero in order to save Toga, proving his intentions were violent. If he wanted Hawks to be wrong and following orders similar to how Nagant did, all he had to do was have Hawks stab Twice in the back without even a second thought, or trying to talk him down at all.

Show Twice being unsure/ concerned about the PLA's plans and the part they want him to play in it. Something that Hori absolutely refuses to let any of his villains have is doubt or remorse for their actions. If we'd been given a few panels of Hawks and Twice bonding where Jin voices that he has some reservations about the plan. He joined the LoV for the feeling of family and he still feels that, but with the added MLA members he's worried that things are changing. He wants his freinds to be happy but isn't sure if trusting the MLA is a good choice. Plus, he doesn;t trust the doctor and is worried for Shigaraki, who he thinks the doctor might be tricking or hurting in someway. At the end he just fiuguires he's not a smart guy and he should trust his freinds, but it's clear the idea of using his Quirk to possibly level Japan still weighs on him.

Either of these would have helped show Hawks as wrong. The first one has Hawks do something actually morally wrong. Even if Twice his fine with the plan as he is in canon and as seen by Deika he's still willing to level cities for the LoV, it'd still be wrong for Hawks to just stab him in the back without even trying to arrest or talk him down as he does in the manga.

The second has Hawks knowing Twice is having conflicted feelings, giving him something to try and change Twice's mind about using his Quirk, and bring in doubt that Twice would 100% act like he did in Deika City and help the PLF destroy all of Japan and kill innocents lives just because his friends say so. It also could be used to foreshadow AfO's take over of Shigaraki and how the LoV feel about it. It makes Hawks wrong for killing Twice because there's a chance he might not use his Quirk to deadly effect, yet Hawks kills him anyway. It also means that Sad Man's Parade being used against the Heroes is his fault because now Twice/Toga is using it for revenge. There was a chance Jin would have changed his mind, but Hawks betrayal makes sure Jin uses his Quirk for revenge.

Using both together would be even better.

But as it is Hawks wasn't wrong for taking out Twice, and if Hori plays it off as if he was, it's not going to work very well. He made the villains way to remorseless and over the top violent, showcasing multiple times how much Twice was willing to do for his friends. On top of that if Twice's Quirk does turn the tides, it only proves more how right Hawks was to kill him during that first war. Because it's 100% certain that Jin would have used his Quirk had he lived, that Heroes losing major ground to it or people getting killed by it, only shows how the first war would have been a loss had Twice lived.

#ask #thanks for the ask #takami keigo #Hawks #Hori writes really weird #where it's impossible to know what he's trying to write/say #like he clearly wants the Heroes to be wrong on some level #yet refuses to actually make them fuck up that bad or do unquestionably bad things #and the Heroes that do (Endeavor) get a redemption #like it still boggles my mind people read the Hawks fight and still consider it cold blooded murder #and totally seem to disregard the fight after Dabi shows up #like saying he didn't to kill Twice because he had him subdued--as if Dabi didn't have him cornered and Twice was escaping #or disregarding that Hawks inner monologue states that he never intended to kill Twice #so that means the bit when he looked to be stabling Twice in the face was actually just to kill the clone coming off Twice #and should really be angry that Hori used it as a cheep ploy/ cliffhanger to get more readers #something he still does to this day with things like Bakugou's death #bnha 374 #bnha

[bobzora]

downloaded sif2 which is up there for the title of most depressing game ever oh my god why does it exist. my many years of sif(1) data refuses to even transfer for the album lmao. this game is so deeply flawed and it is on a doomsday countdown. but also i felt the crazy nostalgia rushing into me when i started playing some of my old go-to songs like wow i remember this beatmap perfectly i really do. too bad it’s a very deeply doomed live service game instead of like. just a normal rhythm game. that i can keep. lmao

#bobtalk #so many aspects of this game are truly mind boggling. meanwhile at sif’s peak it was legit peak. #whatever. anyway as someone who fell off of love live around the time nijigaku season 1 was airing it’s so weird seeing all these songs i #don’t know. like i’d legit never heard any liella songs before this. LOL. #or the newer aqours solos?lol. etc. #man. in my love live feelings right now. and those feelings are very mixed. but i sure do have them #turns out what you were crazy about at age 12 really does stick with you! lmao #in more ways than one am i right ayyyy 👈👈(reference to how i fucked up my arm playing sif)

[starstaiined]

i turn 22 in like a week. what is time???

#i have planning this birthday since like middle school #and its happening #i really didn't think it ever would #like not to get sad #but i didn't think i was going to make it to 18 #and now 22 is a week away #and ive figured out a path in life #im healing #back in school #doing things i love with people who care #and its just #mind boggling to me #it really does get better #anyways its like almost 4 i should probably sleep i have class tomorrow #its just so #i love you all <3 #and i promise it does get better #even if it isnt always easier it gets better

[odetolovers]

it is absolutely wild the way i’ve allowed people to treat me

#every year i write an end of year recap i’ve been doing it since 2019 #this year So much happened but one of the big things was breaking up with my ex #and it genuinely blows my mind how badly i was treated and the fact i stayed as long as i did #year and a half of clownery when i knew after 4 months i’d been sold a lie 😭 #i feel so bad for past me because girlie you didnt deserve that!! nobody does!!! #it’s helped me sm in my current relationship because i know what it’s like to be the collateral for someone’s self hatred #it’s motivated me to heal and develop self esteem so i dont do that to my wonderful partner #they have really shown me what love is and let me tell you! it’s nothing i experienced with my ex! #mind blowing mind boggling i am never letting Anyone treat me that appallingly ever again #literally crazy i wish her a lot of healing and growth cos goddamn how are you terrified of being a bad person yet treat people like you #treated me. no wayyyy no way #i so believe in that thing of what people are most scared of they’re most likely to do #goddamn! 2023 man. wild time #valentina talks #i definitely made many a mistake which is why im not really like. Angry at her because i understand and i’ve had to change a lot and grow a #lot too. i think everyone just is perpetually making mistakes and growing and that’s okay. but it doesn’t mean the people you hurt need to #forgive you or think your actions were okay #just yeesh. i’m glad it’s over and i moved on

[anghraine]

I just saw a post of unpopular Austen opinions which complained that Elizabeth and Darcy don't really interact enough to believably fall in love. It argued that Jane and Bingley, though they don't have any on-page dialogue, seem to have more solid basis for their love than the leading couple does. (The OP's favorite Austen couple was Emma and Knightley, by the way.) Since I know you completely disagree, I was wondering what you would say to refute that claim.

That perspective is so diametrically opposed to mine—to the point that I find it pretty asinine, tbh—that I wouldn't even bother, honestly. If someone can assume that Jane and Bingley are having meaningful entirely offstage interactions because the exposition keeps telling us they're in love, but assumes Elizabeth and Darcy are not having substantial meaningful interactions on or offstage in the face of contradictory exposition, we don't have much to talk about. The standard there is so wildly inconsistent that I don't see the point of conversation.

It might be relevant that I'm not particularly invested in Emma/Mr Knightley, though. I really like Emma herself, but Emma the novel isn't my favorite, and I suspect being pretty 'meh' on Mr Knightley is part of the reason why.

#really i think austen was pretty profoundly disinterested in jane/bingley except insofar as their relationship affects elizabeth/darcy's #and as a recuperation of hero/claudio with a much improved claudio #and that its kind of mechanical function does show in how their arc is structured and written (or mostly not written) #comparing that to elizabeth/darcy is mind boggling to me and comparing it /positively/ is absurd #in my opinion blahblah #princesssarisa #respuestas #austen blogging #austen fanwank #otp of otps #bingley x jane critical #mr knightley critical #ngl i predictably wrote a longer version of this and was deciding whether to even keep it #when tumblr crashed so no lol

[elvisabutler]

“That was between him the audience and god” OH MY GOD perfect

i'm glad to hear that you think so! i'm for real just gonna straight up be a baby deer about that blurb/fic. it's gonna happen, i just have to write more than like half a sentence at a time every time i open it lol.

#i really am using a tsn gif like i'm 2010 me again aren't i. #like. jesus me you're thirty not eighteen now. #but let me tell you i haven't been this fussy about a fic in that long. #also when i say 2010 it does not quite process in my brain that that was 12 years ago. which boggles my goddamn mind. #BUT YES. ANON THANK YOU FOR THE COMPLIMENT. #i shall treasure it and hold it close. #ally answers asks

[crockersbian]

*another wave of homestuck-critically-enjoyers bring up the serious ethical issues homestuck has*

*ANOTHER wave of the more naive fans go through the “OH NO AM I A BAD PERSON FOR LIKING THIS COMIC AND/OR HOW CAN I CONTINUE TO LIKE THIS COMIC WHEN I GENUINELY KINDA HATE IT NOW” emotional gutter* (that like. i’ve already been through to a nigh-dysphoric degree so hearing about other people dealing with the problem that quite frankly i, despite having a decade of experience with, have no good answers for besides “like the piss comic or don’t! learn to criticize things you like or distance yourself from things you don’t feel capable of liking!” is just. fucking. frustrating. sad. my only fucking advice gives *me* guilt because its just blunt and mean. like idfk how else to put it, if you can’t like homestuck while fucking *hating* major aspects of it if not the comic as a whole then i’m not sure if its a healthy thing to keep up with.)

(for the record by “hating” i mean like. within a clinical or cathartic standpoint, not taxingly or dysphoric in the more general sense. Like if you read it and its still *fixating* but you feel like dogshit because of all the bad things you’ve come to realize about it you should probably give it a rest.)

#like for me i spent YEARS trying to divorce myself from my love for it because i fucking hate its bullshit so god damn much #but like. i eventually came to the conclusion that trying to deny that bit of myself was actively detrimental to my health a bit? #so now i'm here and i still do hate it but like its also the best fucking webcomic ever made and a beatiful nightmarish brain parasite that #i revel in and adore except the parts that suck ass (but frankly in sucking ass manage to elevate the rest of it SOMETIMES to the point that #i struggle to imagine it without it. like fix-its are fine but they'll never be capable of replacing that atrocious mess that is canon) #the misogyny and homophobia integral to homestuck is fucking FASCINATING to the point that i honestly love it FOR that. it sets off my 'bein #'being able to relentlessly criticize something guilt-free without a care to having to address the author with any sense of personal dignity #because fuck hussie LOL get bent' glands #the fact so many kids STILL gravitate towards homestuck boggles my god damn mind bc while i too was a homestuck kid it. really does NOT feel #ethical to still be happening if that makes any sense sldfjkkjlsfdjlkfsdjsdfkllkj kids should NOT be put in positions where they feel #compelled to go through these sorts of ethical minefields AND THE FACT THIS IS ABOUT A WEBCOMIC IS SURREAL

[daisityy]

ok so like ao3 fics are peak and we all know it wattpad is you’re starter pack that you eventually grow out of but where do tumblr fics stand i feel like no one ever talks about tumblr fics ??

#i wanna know man #like fan fiction wise what does it account for #discussion #fan fiction #discourse? #is it good #is it bad #it is mind boggling #it’s really a hit or miss

[smores100]

.

#yeahhh.....so i'm not getting any sleep tonight #and there's really nothing left to say after reading posts and comments made on this hellsite #other than there's something deeply *deeply* wrong with you #like. i wish this shit didn't still surprise me. and yet it does. the mind simply BOGGLES. #i'd cry but i'm too busy trying not to panic #but wow guys. WOW. can't wait till we all start stanning isis next and support their beheading practices #jfc this planet is in dire need of a reboot #jumblr #personal