#please just read one article

[cryptidnest]

Me:

#please just read one article #bsd #bungo stray dogs #bungou stray sogs

[pianokantzart]

#look I know this is one of the dumbest things I've ever posted and reads like a corporate buzzfeed article #but consider: I genuinely am curious please tell me #mario movie #super mario bros #the super mario bros movie #super mario brothers #brain is latching on to Toad society tonight for some reason #It just looks so cozy. 90% of them are just hanging around with free time to spare #getting groceries and chatting with friends #Like dang... Peach be good at her job. That is an optimal society if I've ever seen one. #polls

[alasarys]

Pato O'Ward – Quien, Enero 2024

#in case anyone's interested in reading the full article #or just looking at all the pretty pictures #i am done in by the opening photo #i need every one of my fast boys to recreate it #please and thank you #pato o'ward #2023

[guiltyonsundays]

In defence of Will Ladislaw

George Eliot's characterisation of Will Ladislaw is one of the few aspects of Middlemarch that is not universally praised, with no less a person than Henry James commenting in 1873 that he lacked “sharpness of outline and depth of color”, making him the novel’s “only eminent failure.” And while Will's character is certainly not as clearly defined as some of the other characters in the novel, I believe that this was absolutely intentional on Eliot's part. Middlemarch is full to the brim of characters who believe they know exactly what they want—not least among them, our two protagonists, Dorothea Brooke and Tertius Lydgate, whose ardent ambitions and inflexible attitudes lead them into catastrophic errors of judgement and unhappy marriages.

By contrast, Will's lack of strongly defined goals and his changeability are almost his defining character traits. He's aimless and pliable, prone to rapid mood swings and drastic career changes, with even his physical features seeming to "chang[e] their form; his jaw looked sometimes large and sometimes small; and the little ripple in his nose was a preparation for metamorphosis. When he turned his head quickly his hair seemed to shake out light."

Will’s inscrutability is closely tied to his ambiguous status within the rigid class structure and xenophobic society of Victorian England, with his Polish ancestry and “rebellious blood on both sides” making him a target for suspicion. He is repeatedly aligned (and aligns himself) with oppressed, marginalised, and outcast populations—Jewish people, artists, and the poor.

He serves as a narrative foil for characters like Lydgate and Edward Casaubon, who prioritise specialist expertise above all and are consequently incapable of broad knowledge synthesis. He critiques Casaubon's life's work as being "thrown away, as so much English scholarship is, for want of knowing what is being done by the rest of the world." By contrast, Will serves as Eliot's defence of the value of a liberal education. One of the first things that we learn about him is that he declines to choose a vocation, and instead seeks to travel widely, experiencing diverse cultures and ways of life. He has broad tastes and interests, trying his hand at poetry and painting before eventually pursuing a career in politics.

He also functions as a narrative foil for Dorothea. Will is initially apathetic to politics, whereas Dorothea initially professes herself to be disinterested in art and beauty. This is perfectly encapsulated in their exchange in Rome, when Dorothea declares, "I should like to make life beautiful—I mean everybody's life. And then all this immense expense of art, that seems somehow to lie outside life and make it no better for the world, pains one", to which Will replies, "You might say the same of landscape, of poetry, of all refinement [...] The best piety is to enjoy—when you can [...] I suspect that you have some false belief in the virtues of misery, and want to make your life a martyrdom.”

By the end of the novel, Dorothea unlearns some of her puritanical suspicion of sensual pleasure, whereas Will becomes more serious, compassionate, and politically engaged, dedicating his life to the accomplishment of humane political reforms. They are both flawed individuals, who ultimately become more well rounded through their relationship with each other. Admittedly, Dorothea's influence on Will is more significant than his on her—and once again, I believe that this was intentional on Eliot's part.

In my opinion, the negative response to Will Ladislaw at the time of Middlemarch's publication (and in the centuries since) was and is profoundly informed by gendered expectations of masculine dominance in romantic relationships. Will's marriage to Dorothea has often been described as disappointing, with many readers and critics viewing the ambitious Lydgate as the embodiment of the ideal husband that Dorothea outlines at the beginning of the novel—a talented man engaged in important work for the betterment of humanity, to whom she can devote herself.

However, one of the central themes of the novel is that people are often mistaken in their beliefs about what they want, and Dorothea's marriage to Edward Casaubon certainly demonstrates that she would not in fact be happy living her life in submission to a man who does not respect her opinions. I firmly believe that Lydgate's misogynistic attitudes and expectations would have made it impossible for him to be happy in a marriage of equals with a woman like Dorothea. He is explicitly drawn to Rosamond Vincy because she has "just the kind of intelligence one would desire in a woman—polished, refined, docile."

By contrast, George Eliot made a deliberate choice to pair Dorothea with a man who is not ashamed to be influenced by her, and indeed looks up to her as his moral superior. Through Dorothea's influence, Will discovers his life's work. In turn, by marrying Will, Dorothea is able to pursue her true passion. As a result of their influence on each other, these come to mean the same thing—reform. Thus, George Eliot grants Dorothea Brooke a subversively feminist, politically progressive, and profoundly cathartic ending: a life of companionate marriage, sensual pleasure, and meaningful work, in which Dorothea can devote herself (within the limited means available to her as a woman in the 19th century) to the achievement of just and compassionate reforms that "make life beautiful" for everybody—herself included.

#PUT SOME RESPECT ON HIS NAAAAAME #hello please enjoy this fucking essay that I wrote #I haven't cited them here bc I'm not insane but I did in fact read several academic articles while writing this post #so if you wanna see my sources/ do some further reading let me know #i love pouring all my fandom energy into content that no-one gives a shit about #(girl who just posted an Alias Grace fic that noone will ever read and is currently working on a Middlemarch fic noone will ever read voice #Middlemarch #George Eliot #Mary Ann Evans #Will Ladislaw #Dorothea Brooke #Edward Casaubon #Tertius Lydgate #classic literature #19th century literature #classic lit #books

[dramatic-dolphin]

i love the modern web 👍

#i just wanted to read the article. the article. one article please.

[dionysus-complex]

.

#obviously I do not support more warfare and violence and believe that recent us/uk military actions can only lead to more suffering #but if I see one more post where a leftist uncritically presents the houthis as some sort of legitimate democratically elected government #I swear to god please just read some reputable articles on the recent history of yemen before wading into the discourse sphere #anyways that’s all i’m saying on this one. praying for peace and for self-determination and dignity for all yemenis and palestinians

[weirdgirlcroix]

slowly becoming the guy that reads terms of service and privacy policies for fun

#if no one's gonna post a clear well researched article on how much data tumblr live steals #then i'mma do the research myself #until i get bored cause this shit hella dense #but i'm doing it #i read the tos for adobe google and i think microsoft too a few weeks ago...... #not every single one of their products but like. yk #on that note if anyone has a clear explanation of the relationship between tumblr live and user data #please send it over #i've seen plenty of posts abt it but i didn't save them just like/rb #and this blog is unorganized so i'm prolly never finding those posts again lmao #ken's shit

[chaoswillcalmusdown]

the transphobia wave that sweeps swedish liberals every now and then is truly so. wild. mind boggling.

#privileged white people making wild claims and whipping out graphs that don't really say anything #vs white leftists trying to bring common sense into the picture #you can't bring common sense to these jk rowling wannabes #anyways my fave professor of special education is listed on the 'common sense' article #which doesn't surprise me but brings me a little peace #gunnlaugur is an icon among straight white cis men in academia #they really think one changed law is going to equal every single teenager getting gender re-assignment surgery #so many supposedly educated people just. suddenly can't read #and apparently have never met a teenager ? #the words 'biological gender' are gonna give me hives #'there are only two biological genders' from people who have never studied science beyond age 15 #girl. please. pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease.

[xumoonhao]

what i read in may 2023 💖

WHAT I READ THIS MONTH: MAY 2023

(entries marked with an * indicate favourites; entries marked with a ! indicate things i didnt like)

ONLINE ARTICLES

The Millennial Vernacular of Fatphobia by Anne Helen Petersen | Culture Study

The Medical Medium and the True Believer by Dan Adler | Vanity Fair

How Many Well Intentioned People Dehumanise Children by Racheous | Racheous

How Horror Reflects Societal Fears by Frankie Wallace | The Review Geek

* What If You Actually Cared About Tea? by Jordan Michelman | TASTE

Here’s How to Actually Be Kinder to Yourself by Jenna Ryu | SELF

Inside the Delirious Rise of ‘Superfake’ Handbags by Amy X. Wang | The New York Times

* Fish Are Not Insentient Dullards by Ben Goldfarb | Nautilus

Listening To The Creatures Of The World by Karen Bakker | Noema Magazine

The plastic road to Everest Base Camp by Madigan Cotterill| Canadian Geographic

! The 10 most iconic jewels through history by Daisy Woodward | BBC

The Titanic of the Pacific by Tyler Hooper | Atavist

TIMELINE: Deinstitutionalization And Its Consequences by Deanna Pan | Mother Jones [may 17]

World's Best--And Worst--Places To Be Mentally Ill by Allen Frances, MD | Psychiatric Times

BOOKS

! Son of a Trickster, Trickster #1 by Eden Robinson (2017)

! Blind Tiger, The Pride #01 by Jordan L. Hawk (2021)

* Tastes Like War by Grace M. Cho (2021)

! Don't Believe It by Charlie Donlea (2018)

! Untamed by Glennon Doyle (2020)

#im pretty sure i read a few more articles in there but i forgot to save my document at some point and when i recovered it some #links were missing . theyre lost to time now. goodbye forever #anyways! it truly is on brand for me to have forgotten to do this...😔 but!!! i did get it done which is good enough for me <3 #also please...look at the books and how only one was good 😭 may was NOT a good book month for me 🫤 #they were all just...so boring or just not good at all. especially untamed like!!! maam im sure youre a kind lady but oh. my god.... #i related to your book not even a little bit. god bles </3 #reading list #🎆.txt

[thats-a-lot-of-cortisol]

My mom just sent a message to the family group chat suggesting that my siblings download the 'For the Strength of Youth' magazine on their Gospel Library app and talked about how much the youth magazines helped her testimony growing up and like, cool. Fine. Don't know why the 'sending random spiritual thoughts in the gc' thing started out of nowhere when it hadn't been a thing for a decade but this is just another one of those, and you're ofc allowed to talk about things that are significant in your life.

I don't think sending the 'What I Did When Someone Close to Me Challenged My Faith' article right afterwards was strictly necessary though 🙃

#hi bg mutuals 👋 i'm gonna vent about this from time to time. if any mutuals dont want to see it block the 'apostake' tag #trying not to read too much into it b/c I think I did last time something like this happened #and i dont want to make an ass of myself even if neither time would actually be in front of my parents #but like...i know that they know that one of my sisters is clearly PIMO #they went through her phone a couple weeks ago and i have no idea if they read my texts w/ her #but if they did they probably saw the conversation i had with her about some of the really common shelf-breakers #and telling her to take looking into it at her own pace b/c it's scary and overwhelming #(a conversation SHE started btw) #and when i talked to my parents about the larger context of that whole situation i talked about not having space to step back #and their response was that they give plenty of space b/c they dont make her go to seminary??? #that's not the same thing as letting her openly question & potentially leave the church idk what to tell you #like. besties i dont know for sure what caused it (which is NOT making things better. it just feels potentially passive aggressive) #but from my end? it sure looks like it might be a reaction to that. probably not JUST that (friends exist) but. #if you think I'm whispering anti-mormon rhetoric into my siblings' ears just ask me. i'm very much NOT doing that #i'm just. talking? to them? when and if they come to me with questions? #and not making my answer 'well there's a reason our parents raised us in the church! ☺️' #(an actual argument given in the article my mom sent) #hate it. thanks #apostake #jay rambles #ok to interact #im not challenging anyone's faith. my patience though? INCREDIBLY challenged #gotta figure out how to work my way around a 'hey please dont send spiritual thoughts to the gc *I'm in*' talk tactfully #they've been pretty chill about me leaving over-all?? at least to my face #haven't pushed me to go to church w/ them; was fine with me not visiting for easter; didnt try to convince me to not drink coffee; etc #it's just. frustrating that they're not giving my siblings that still live with them that same grace #my sister's 17 ffs #it's very possible im way overreacting to the article. but what is tumblr for if not screaming into the void #religion #mormonism

[sunflowers-and-a-tardis]

"oh my goodness african countries are so corrupt i can't believe how it's even possible those africans are so backwards it's okay though that could NEVER be america" you sound so dumb. you sound so fucking dumb what the fuck. you are literally no better than them. you just dress up your corruption with fancy ribbons and call it democracy. you're just an ignorant little shit who has no idea what the world is actually like. you live in the america bubble. there literally was apartheid IN THE USA until the THE SIXTIES!!!! your politicians are crying crocodile tears and you're eating it up!!!! you are a hypocrite at best and a bigot at worst, stop hiding it from us and from yourself. you're not fooling anyone. you're not a good person just because you can't see that your precious joe biden isn't any better than robert mugabe or tedoro obiang (look them up if you don't know who they are). he's out here funding a fucking GENOCIDE he DOES NOT CARE ABOUT DEMOCRACY!!! wake the fuck up!!!

#rant sorry #politics #fuck joe biden #please please i am begging actually read just one (1) article about african politics before you talk about them #you sound ignorant and awful #you just assume everybody there is a terrible person and that the people are just starving and live in mud huts #get educated #america

[xaveria]

I am curious about your dislike for The Legend of Korra! Are you open to elaborating on that more?

This article does a better job explaining most of it than I can. Outside of everything mentioned there I just think it’s badly written, it’s politics are garbage, I don’t like the characters, it does a bad job expanding the world, and overall I just never wanted ATLA to become a Franchise™️

I think a lot of people overlooked the show’s flaws because of the hail-mary Korra/Asami ending which clearly was never the plan from the start. Like sure I’m happy Korra is bi but Asami was a capitalist war profiteer so I don’t really care that much in-universe if they hold hands or whatever.

SORRY LMFAO I’M A HATER. However we are popping the biggest bottles when Makorra is canon tomorrow lives in my heart as the best thing to come out of that mess of a show.

#turning off reblogs on this one cause i got a little spicy #its okay if you like korra i don’t think it makes you a bad person or whatever don’t come for me #i just have Opinions of the Hater variety #please actually read that article and not just my petty bitchy thoughts!

[jhonny]

“Which makes me wonder if the memeification of IBS might be part of the problem. While the condition’s visibility may suggest a net positive, could it have the inadvertent effect of leaving sufferers resigned to symptom management instead of pursuing a cure, viewing the disorder as a fluky feature of their bodies rather than a distinct condition that merits precise intervention?”

^^^ IBS tumblr, i implore you to read this article in full. the above is the most immediately relevant except from it, but there’s a lot of information in the full piece that may be useful. like that IBS is not even a real diagnosis, but an umbrella term for a bunch of symptoms relating to an ‘unclassified gut issue’. wild.

#ibs #ibs tumblr #gut health #astonishing to read an article written by someone who seems to understand Exactly the relationship the internet has with ibs. #also attack me if you must but it's tiring to hear ibs talked about the way it is. #like it just seems to be one of those things people are so resigned to. or thought of as a fact of life. #like... yes it's reasonably common but that doesn't mean it should be treated so flippantly. it's . not normal to have these issues. #please look after yourselves. #inb4 i get killed OBVIOUSLY not everyone has access to good health care. #i know. i know. i know.

[foster-the-moths]

I'm definitely not the best authority on this but please please PLEASE talk to other people about what is going on in Gaza right now. I spoke to my mother about it, and she went from being neutral to horrified. She's doing her own research, and we're learning more together now. Most people in the US haven't heard about what Israel is doing. Tell them about how Ethiopian Jews were given birth control without their knowledge or consent (this article is from 10 years ago, but it's still important). Tell them about the white phosphorous. Tell them about the blackout in Gaza. Tell them things that I'm sure I'm missing, but are just as important. Hold Israel accountable. Leave voicemails/call your representatives.

#i'm making this unrebloggable because i would not be able to handle getting a lot of attention or being perceived right now #especially since this is mostly just a small compilation of other post and articles ive read #but PLEASE talk to people. even if its just one person that person could tell their friends and family. #palestine #israel

[when-did-this-become-difficult]

I want a modern Edith Wharton to take on Bama rush

#I'm so serious I just read an article about the class politics of it and I really really really think we need Edith back. Just for one novel #just one. please #<- is thinking

[twowink]

He Would Not Type That

#.txt #I DO UNDERSTAND that htat was probably to avoid a black stoner stereotype i get it but also velma just destroyed a lot of #the context for the original characters in general and i just think this is one of the funnier changes #IM NOT WATCHING IT BTW I DONT HAVE THAT LITTLE RESPECT FOR MY BRAIN im just reading articles #alot of them are shitty abt the race thing as if thats not the smallest issue w it MINUS WHAT THEY DID TO FRED PLEASE #HES NOT A RICH ASSHOLE STEREOTYPE PLEASE #i need to rewatch sdmi #amia.txt