#not as weird as i wanted it to be

[straydog733]

Reading Resolution: “Hangsaman” by Shirley Jackson

21. A novel by a famous author, other than the one(s) they are best known for: Hangsaman by Shirley Jackson

List Progress: 2/30

Some stories just don’t coalesce. The pieces are all there, and you can see what the author is going for, but the whole ends up being just a bit less than the sum of its parts. Hangsaman, an early novel by horror giant Shirley Jackson, has a lot of big ideas, but when they don’t gel together by the end, the result is a small story. Not a bad one, just one that seemed like it was going to be a lot more impactful than it ended up being.

Jackson is known to this day as an author of atmospheric, creeping horror born out of social mores, typified in her biggest successes The Lottery, The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle. The lead of Hangsaman, Natalie Waite, is a typical Jackson protagonist: a repressed, disturbed young woman who retreats to fantasies when the world around her is too restrictive. Natalie has grown up under the controlling guidance of her academic father, and when she steps into a world partially beyond his grasp (a women’s college hand-picked by him), she gravitates to other big, controlling personalities. She feels adrift, even when pulled into the orbit of a dysfunctional married couple: her English professor and his former-student wife. Nothing has prepared this young woman to forge her own path, and her world cannot withstand the lack of boundaries for long.

Hangsaman is divided into three major sections, and while each of the three is interesting in its own way, they don’t seem to communicate much with each other. This works well in the transition from the first to the second: a traumatic event that happens at Natalie’s home is quickly moved past as she is caught up in the chaos of going to school, and the narrative reflects Natalie’s refusal to cope with her trauma. But moving from the second section to the third feels like entering the ending to a different book, as aspects that have been slowly simmering are suddenly brought to a full boil. This coincides with the introduction of Natalie’s strange friend Tony, who is such an escalation of previous themes of the book that she should have perhaps been left on the cutting room floor.

Shirley Jackson was a talented author, and there is a lot of effective uneasiness threaded through Hangsaman. But all in all, it ends in neither a bang nor a whisper, but a bit of a shrug, and it is clear why this is not one of Jackson’s most-remembered works.

Would I Recommend It: Not really.

#straydog's reading resolution #shirley jackson #hangsaman #not as weird as i wanted it to be

[fandomsandfeminism]

Yall wanna hear a kinda funny, kinda sad story about my grandmother and hetero-normativity?

Ok, so... when my grandmother was in her 50s (I was an infant), she met a woman at the Unitarian Church. And, as can happen when you meet your soul mate, this event made it impossible for her to deny parts of herself that she had fiercely hidden her whole life.

All the drama- their affair being found out, the divorce with my grandfather, the court battle over who got the house, happened while I was a baby. Even in my earliest memories, it's just Mama Jo and Oma, and my grandfather lived elsewhere (first his own apartment, then a nursing home, then with us.)

But here's the thing- no one ever explained any of this to me. No one ever sat down and was like "hey, Rosie, so do you know what a lesbian is?" It was the 90s. It was Texas. I think my mom was still kinda processing all this, and just assumed that like... I was gonna figure it out. Don't mention it, let it just be normal. Like I think my mom thought that if she explained the situation, she would be making it weird? I dunno.

But like. In the 90s, in all the movies I had seen and books I had read, do you know how many same sex couples I had seen? Like. 0. Do you know how many "platonic best friend/roommates" I had seen? A lot. I had no context, is what I'm saying.

I literally thought this was a Golden Girls, roommates, besties situation until I was like...I dunno, 11? 12?

It was actually their parrot, an African Grey named Spike, imitating my grandmothers voice saying "Johanna, honey, it's getting late", that triggered the MIND BLOWN moment as I realized that *there's only one master bedroom and it only has 1 waterbed* when all the pieces finally clicked.

Anyway. I think it's a real important thing for kids to know queer people exist, for a lot of reasons, but also because kids can be clueless and it's embarrassing to have your grandmother be outted by a parrot because everyone just thought you'd figure it out on your own.

Anyway, here is my grandma and her wife, my Oma, after they moved to Albuquerque to be artsy gay cowboys and live their best life. They helped run a "Lesbian Dude Ranch" out there (basically just with funding and financial support. As Oma has explained "traditionally, most lesbians don't have a lot of money" so they wrote the checks and let the younger ladies actually run the ranch.)

#this is the grandmother who passed away unexpectedly earlier this month #she was so cool yall #and so weird #they got married twice by the way once when Massachusetts legalized it and once when New Mexico did #they hiked the grand canyon together #they had a european river cruise planned for this fall #she was 89 and she wanted to see the whole world with her wife #and they were working on it #literally i thought they were roommates #and there was only one bed

[noesa]

i think the thing that is specifically bothering me about the conversation about the new hbomberguy video ("live your life in a way so that hbomberguy doesn't tear into you for 3 hours", "hbomberguy has figured out how to death note someone through video essays", "oh new hbomberguy video [incredibly dense paragraphs of text] i now despise james somerton") is that it really feels like people aren't paying attention to what hbomberguy was actually saying. like, as much as he wanted to make people aware of the plagiarism issue, he also very explicitly did not like the fact that he might even remotely have a financial incentive to make those sorts of videos. and rather than the last video, which was a "get mad about this" call to action, hbomberguy spent this whole video sympathizing with the people who were directly out indirectly affected, and wanted the focus of people's attention to be on uplifting small queer creators

but also, negativity drives engagement so i guess it's to be expected.

#esse.txt #hbomberguy #this is just kinda weird vomit #but i wanted to get it off my chest #10k

[aberrantcreature]

When I read a fanfic I like, the author becomes a mini celebrity to me. So when an author with a work I like kudos’ or comments on my own fanfic I just-

#ao3 #fanfiction #fanfic #just fanfic things #just fanfiction things #i want to scream and cry #and hug them #without seeming weird tho #archive of our own

[gibbearish]

love when ppl defend the aggressive monetization of the internet with "what, do you just expect it to be free and them not make a profit???" like. yeah that would be really nice actually i would love that:)! thanks for asking

#yes i want things to be free like ??? that is not a weird desire #'but but it costs money to keep up' ok and? how is that my problem #the government has plenty of murder dollars they could reallocate a few to make internet services universal if they wanted #also these companies were perfectly capable of supporting themselves before the internet got drowned with ads so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ #edit: muting notifs on this post bc new additions have kind of petered out #so no one feel bad about adding something someone else has said‚ it is not bothering me im just trying to keep my #notifs page cleanish lol #also since i saw some people are being redirected to read my tags: firstly hiiiiii this is a special secret message for you:3 #secondly i have learned since making this that the reason they were able to support themselves previously was because #of investors bankrolling everything #and theyre now finally realizing that theyre never going to actually make a profit and arent as willing to invest #however thats just a minor correction and doesnt change my overall point #once again. so many murder dollars #so thats why im just adding it here in the tags rather than making an actual correction #anyways . love yall 💕 #origibberish #bigger gibbers

[perfectlyripeclementine]

calling my lover "mine" but not in the way that my toothbrush or notebook are mine, mine in the way my neighborhood is mine, and also everybody else's, "mine" like mine to tend to, mine to care for, mine to love. "mine" not like possession but devotion.

#nonbinary love #nblnb yearning #nb4nb #nblnb #wholesomeposting #yearning hours #ive been thinking about how some languages dont have a possessive tense #so you dont say “i have a thing” but rather “a thing is by me” #and like im not usually one for psycho linguistics and like critical thoughts etc etc etc #but i really like the framework of responsibility/commitment rather than ownership #i think about this mostly in terms of ecology #and relation to land #but i also love it as it applies to language shared between lovers #like i LOVE calling them mine or for them to call me theirs #but i'm also nonmonog and that was kinda weird to square for a while #and it clicked one time when i was talking about my neighborhood and i was like well #when i say my neighborhood or my city it's understood i'm not taking it away from anybody else #its understood i just mean the city where i live #so why cant we apply the same to lovers? #mine in the way i want to show up for you again and again #ok #done now

[ciearcab]

how do you live?

#the boy and the heron #how do you live #studio ghibli #artists on tumblr #art #illustration #counting this as my first big drawing of the year bc i started it just after new years… v happy i stuck it out to the end #i loved this movie a lot #i want to draw weird herons all the time now

[abracadaze]

i feel so bad for nikola tesla like imagine spending years beefing with a guy who has conned the public into believing he's some sort of supergenius when in reality it's his overworked employees developing all of his world-changing inventions and you end up dying broke and starving and alone and then 100 years later another guy cons the public into believing he's some sort of supergenius when in reality it's his overworked employees developing all of his world-changing inventions and he's doing it all IN YOUR NAME. he must be rolling in his grave like a fucking rotisserie chicken

#when penelope scott said ''you promised you'd be tesla but you're just another edison'' she was so right. she gets it #edit: now that this is getting popular i just want to say please don't deify/martyr tesla #yes he was dealt an awful hand but he also had some very bad opinions especially towards the end of his life. like eugenics #he was clearly struggling with untreated mental illness and was also a product of his time so i'm not trying to cancel him or anything lol #but people in the notes saying ''my poor baby boy tesla did nothing wrong'' is weird. you know that's weird right. #daze.txt #100 #500 #1k #5k #10k #20k #30k #40k #50k #60k #70k #80k #90k #100k #speechless btw. about the 100k notes thing

[blackpnk]

Andre Braugher as Raymond Holt Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Season 1

#brooklyn nine nine #b99 #andre braugher #b99edit #tvedit #this news shattered me i loved him so much #i wanted to make something in honor of him so im making a gifset of his greatest moments from every season <3 #ray holt #raymond holt #tvfilm #* #gifs* #gifs #fun weird fact: cupcake match is my fave holt quote

[doggirlhen]

they should make shopping for cables easier i think. there should be a service where you pick the ends, you pick the length of cable, you pick the like. color and texture of the cable (shitty plastic, nicely woven, bare metal, whatever) and then they make it and ship it to you for a reasonable fee

#barks #i have kinda nice headphones with a weird cable end you plug into them and shopping for that is so annoying #the one that came with the damn things felt super cheap to me so i got a kinda nicer one of amazon #but i still want a like. Proper Nice one #very annoying finding it

[franeridart]

more dragon

#my sketches #one piece #monkey d luffy #monkey d dragon #monkey d garp #real talk and jokes aside i think dragons childhood with garp wasn’t all that bad #since he actually was a marine at some point right so he must have at the very least respected garp #garps way of raising a kid that actually wanted to be a marine must have been somewhat different too #all in all i think leaving luffy to garp wouldn’t sound like such a weird thought to dragon ?? #i get why hed go there i mean #garp tho…………….. #what was that man even thinking………………….

[multidimensional-trashcan]

just dreamt i had a dream where i posted something along the line of 'Neil Gaiman could just post a video of himself doing a forward roll and it would get notes' which got reblogged by Neil Gaiman with a video of him doing a forward roll. then i woke up (in my dream), immediately went on tumblr and made a post about how i had that dream which once again got reblogged by Neil Gaiman with a video of him doing a forward roll. So now i woke up for real and immediately went on tumblr to post this because i really need to know what the fuck this means.

#this was such a weird dream... #neil gaiman #forward roll #now i want to see neil gaiman doing a forward roll ngl...

[ibtisams]

I AM DOING A HUNGER STRIKE FOR GAZA

It has been almost 200 days of genocide in Gaza, and during this time Palestinians have been in the worst stage of starvation and famine. Children have begun dying from starvation and malnutrition, and more and more photos of Palestinian children are coming out where the child is nothing more than skin and bones.

Personally, I know I take the food I eat for granted every single day. I am no more deserving of a meal than the children of Gaza, so for that reason me and a few of my friends will be doing a minimum of FIVE day hunger strike in solidarity with my brothers and sisters in Palestine.

We will be starting on 1 May, as to hunger strike safely there is preparation needed. I making this post now in case anyone wants to join me and will want to prepare. I am not doing a dry hunger strike, I will be having fluids and I also don’t believe I will be able to hunger strike safely for more than 15 days for health reasons.

“Sponsor me” on my hunger strike!

If you send me proof of a $50 USD donation to Anera (the equivalent of feeding 180 Palestinians), I will add ONE day to my hunger strike (a maximum of 15 days)

Join me on my hunger strike!

If you think this is something you would be able to participate in, I encourage you to participate in any capacity that you can- as long as you’re doing it SAFELY

Here is a resource I have been following to prepare ***YOU CAN’T JUST START A HUNGER STRIKE BY CUTTING OUT FOOD COMPLETELY AND NOT PREPARING***

If you want to participate, please do your research and do it safely. I am doing this for the Gazan children who don’t have a choice right now, and I know in my heart I owe it to them. There is so much we consider a basic right and take for granted that people in Gaza don’t have access to. This hunger strike is solely in solidarity/raise money for Anera, there is no specific end result.

More information on hunger strikes (and why they needed to be prepared for if you’re choosing to do one)

#in case anyone gets weird about it I am Palestinian #this is important to me #I also am not kidding a hunger strike can go very wrong if not done properly #so if you actually want to do it properly you need to be preparing and doing research #ask box is back open for proof of donations #🦢

[the-holy-ghosted]

Girls will say "this is my beautiful wife" and their beautiful wife is just a weird looking man

#the heron speaketh #delighted to see the blorbo tags on this one if it takes off but i want everybody to know that this post is about #the terror #goodsir my sad pathetic wife harry goodsir #his fluffy muttonchops and big wet eyes like a baby cow have bewitched me. im going to wlakinto the sea #ive been such a normal kind of sad lately let me be a little fuxking derangwd on main for a while OkAY. OKAY. let me be weird ive earned it

[canisalbus]

These started out as MLP versions of the dog lads but quickly got away from me and became just their own thing. Machete is a medieval unicorn and Vasco was inspired by Renaissance tack and carousel horses.

#own art #own characters #CanisAlbus #Machete #Vasco #once again being reminded how weird and difficult horses are #and troubled by the fact that if I want to depict Vasco doing equestrian things I sort of have to eventually figure out how to draw horses

[transgaypiratesanta]

I think that platonic cuddling should be allowed.

no, wanting to hug someone and have them fall asleep in your lap is not breaching PDA (public displays of affection) rules. I just want a hug.

#aromantic #asexual #let people hug others! #It’s not weird! #It’s normal! #I JUST WANT A HUG!