#reading posts

[nerdypursuits]

Finished: Carmilla

TITLE: Carmilla

AUTHOR: Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

CATEGORY: Classic, Adult Fiction

GENRE: Horror, Gothic Fiction

PUBLISHED: 1872 (2019 for the particular edition I have)

REPRESENTATION: F/F relationship of sorts...

CW: period typical racism/sexism/homophobia, questionable consent issues, destruction of corpses

TROPES/THINGS IN IT: vampires, subtext queer themes, gothic settings, Victorian attitudes, atmospheric slow burn plot, aggravating men

THOUGHTS: This read was...interesting. It is a classic, so you will have all the gross attitudes of the era. Lots of casual racism/sexism etc. But this is also, one of the OG vampire novels. It also is one of those foundational type of gothic novels.

In a way, I felt like I've read this before, because the genre does follow a lot of the same beats this book did, even now. We've changed the attitudes and subverted the tropes. Writing style has also changed over the years. But the ideas of gothic are all in here and it's mostly interesting just to see how the genre has changed.

RATING: 3 out of 5

#books #booklr #reading posts #read in 2023 #adult fiction #classics #classic books #gothic fiction #vampire books

[writtenroses1813]

I’m so sorry but in the nicest way possible do yall actually read books or just read words??? Cause I’ve been seeing that trend of people not understanding how “snarled” and “eyes darkened” and “eyes softened” etc. was used in a book and like…

Genuinely, do yall just not have imagination?? Or not understand figurative language??? Also eyes do literally darken and soften have you not lived a life??? How do you read with no imagination? Is this how you get through so many books in one month - you simply don’t take the time the understand the words as they are read?

#funny #funny post #booknerd #books and reading #book blog #booklover #booksbooksbooks #booklr #bookworm #booktok #book tumblr #bookish #bookblr #reading #currently reading #books

[supreme-leader-stoat]

I'm afraid that I have the worldbuilder's disease and it is terminal.

#this is a callout post for me and me specifically #if it reads as a personal attack then that's on you

[throesofincreasingwonder]

"A story doesn't need a theme in order to be good" I'm only saying this once but a theme isn't some secret coded message an author weaves into a piece so that your English teacher can talk about Death or Family. A theme is a summary of an idea in the work. If the story is "Susan went grocery shopping and saw a weird bird" then it might have themes like 'birds don't belong in grocery stores' or 'nature is interesting and worth paying attention to' or 'small things can be worth hearing about.' Those could be the themes of the work. It doesn't matter if the author intended them or not, because reading is collaborative and the text gets its meaning from the reader (this is what "death of the author" means).

Every work has themes in it, and not just the ones your teachers made you read in high school. Stories that are bad or clearly not intended to have deep messages still have themes. It is inherent in being a story. All stories have themes, even if those themes are shallow, because stories are sentences connected together for the purpose of expressing ideas, and ideas are all that themes are.

#original post #text post #500 #1k #2k #btw i know my definition of death of the author is loosey goosey here #it wasn't the main point so i went informal with it! as ppl in the tags have pointed out it isn't exact #and i do recommend reading the wikipedia article or similar (possibly even the essay itself if you're narsty) if you want to learn more! #wasn't expecting this to take off so my apologies to my barthes-heads out there #love you mwah #5k #10k #15k #20k

[acepumpkinpatrick]

Since western media (especial American) are working overtime to suppress South Africa's hearing and Yemeni voices I want you to keep these 3 points in mind:

Not 1 major American news outlet broadcasted the South Africa case hearing on Thursday, but they broadcasted Israel's case hearing, today, Friday 12/1/2024.

Yemen has repeatedly said that the Red Sea blockage is because it's following its duty to upload "Article 1 on the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the crime of Genocide" and IS NOT to "endanger the freedom of navigation in one of the world's most vital waterways" like Biden put it, in his statement.

Gaza Strip is still under severe bombardment. Don't allow yourself to get used to it. They just bombed an entire neighborhood in Khan Yunis which is a southern city! And as of recently the electricity has gone off in a hospital because gas has ran out.

#gaza strip #read my reblog of this post #gaza #palestine #israel #free palestine #yemen #Hands off Yemen #south africa #icj hearing #icj #ישראל

[gemsandjunk]

god imagine logging on one day and learning:

the amv you made for a relatively niche ship a couple years ago has gotten a huge spike in views out of nowhere

a massive youtuber apparently stole it to put in his video essay because he just couldn't be bothered to watch the actual show???

the only reason people know about this is because some guy dedicated half of a 4-hour long video essay to calling the guy out for never having an original idea in his life.

like genuinely. how do you even begin to react to that

Edit: I am not the op of the amv!!! That is someone else!!! Please don’t spread misinformation!!!

Actual op’s (who is not me) reaction to this:

id in alt text

#hbomberguy #james somerton #nifty’s junk #pls read the edited part I don’t want to get a callout post over this 😭

[bardofavon]

not to be controversial bc I know this is like…not in line with shifting opinions on fanfic comment culture but if there’s a glaring typo in my work I will NOT be offended by pointing it out. if ao3 fucks up the formatting…I will also not be offended by having this pointed out…

‘looking forward to the next update’ and ‘I hope you update soon!’ are different vibes than a demand, and should be read in good faith because a reader is finding their way to tell you how much they love it. I will not be mad at this.

‘I don’t usually like this ship but this fic made me feel something’ is also incredibly high praise. I’m not going to get mad at this.

even ‘I love this fic but I’m curious about why you made [x] choice’ is just another way a reader is engaging in and putting thought into your work.

I just feel like a lot of authors take any comment that’s not perfectly articulated glowing praise in the exact manner they’re hoping to receive it in bad faith.

fic engagement has been dropping across the board over the last several years, and yes it’s frustrating but it isn’t as though I can’t see how it happens. comment anxiety can be a real thing. the last thing anyone wants to do is offend an author they love, and that means sometimes people default to silence.

idk where I’m going with this I guess aside from saying unless a comment is outright attacking me I’m never going to get mad at it, and I think a lot of authors should feel the same way. ESPECIALLY TYPOS PLZ GOD POINT OUT MY TYPOS.

#ao3 #archive of our own #fanfiction #tbh even if I got a comment that said ‘I hate you I’m going to kill your family’ on chapter 75 it still means they read 75 chapters first…. #it just makes me sad to see so many writers shouting into the void #and also see ppl complain openly about the specific types of comments they receive #posting screenshots on Reddit like ‘should I be mad at this’ CALM DOWN #sigh

[hiramstolowitski]

everyone come look at this fucking AITA post i just saw

#good omens #good omens spoilers #it really took reading the whole post to get it #as soon as i saw ‘i waited for him’ it clicked #the comments have me SCREAMING

[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

[nerdypursuits]

Finished: Unwieldy Creatures

TITLE: Unwieldy Creatures

AUTHOR: Addie Tsai

CATEGORY: Adult Fiction

GENRE: Sci-Fi/horrorish, Classic retelling

PUBLISHED: 2022

VIBES: Frankenstein but make it queer and go even harder on the social commentary

REPRESENTATION: Queer cast of characters, biracial MCs

CW: abuse (physical and sexual), parental abandonment, societal sexism/racism/homophobia, death/murder, body horror, morally dubious MC (it is based on Frankenstein guys), questionable ethics in science

THOUGHTS: This is a phenomenal modern adaptation of Frankenstein. In it, we switch between two characters: Z who is the book's version of Dr. Frankenstein who tells her story to an assistant, named simply Plum. Then we also get the "monster's" version of events later on.

The writing in this is wonderful. The characters are fully developed people who you sympathize with, even as they do monstrous things. Tsai wonderfully weaves in the themes of the original book, while also bringing in new angles to the story such as the cycle of abuse and how society can form a person and many other things. This was a great read that packed a powerful punch.

MY RATING: Four and a half out of Five

#booklr #books #reading posts #read in 2023 #adult fiction #lgbtq reads #diverse books #Scifi books #classic book retelling #retellings

[orcboxer]

those first couple weeks after escaping a time loop have gotta be disorienting as all fuck. all those little cues that used to tell you what's about to happen are now triggers that cause you to brace for something that isn't coming. you have to relearn the permanence of death -- hell, you have reacquaint yourself with the entire concept of finality altogether. everything keeps changing but it never changes back and you keep having to remind yourself that this is normal. "it won't reset anymore," you echo to yourself, over and over and over, like a broken record, like you're still trapped in a loop, like someone who escaped the time loop but was doomed to bring it into the future with them

#orcspeak #edit: this is not about fanfic nor is it about a specific fanfic nor is it about a specific show or movie or book #this post is about the time loop trope itself which occurs in many different stories spanning many different art forms #i don't read or write fanfic and I'm not looking for fanfic recs and whatever character you think this is about there's #an 80 percent chance i don't recognize their name

[peoplevsbirds]

#i only posted an excerpt #the whole article is worth reading #free palestine #palestine #jews for palestine #free gaza #gaza #anti zionisim #anti zionist jew #kaddish for the soul of judaism

[cottonspotten]

*person has consented to being eaten; they’ve donated their body. they died without suffering. you can cook the meat. you will not get sick from the meat.

bonus: explain why!

#reblog for sample size etc etc #personally i would absolutely try human meat if given the chance #poll #polls #cannibalism #cottons thoughts #pinned #<- insane first post to read if youve only just discovered my blog but i want results!!! i want numbers and sample!! #cannibalism tw

[softhe4rted]

first read on @exitmusicfrafilm’s post about 2023

#so i made this last night :’) #it has stayed with since i first read it….. and it’ll never leave #the wound is not the size of my life #it gets better i know it i know it #reminder !! #hi my post #poetry #digital illustration

[mylittleredgirl]

okay tumblr’s exclusion from the twitter social media ban list is hilarious but genuinely we do not belong on there. if a real human person asks “where can i find you on social media” and your choice is a swift death or revealing your tumblr, most of us would simply expire. half of y’all change urls every week like you’re in witness protection. just imagine for one second attaching your wholeass government name to your latest two am clownposting and tell me that didn’t send a cold chill down your spine. the only place i ever want to see the words “connect with me on tumblr!” is on the ao3 profile of an author i’m actively stalking. anyone in the world can follow me except anyone i personally know. antisocial media.

#with apologies to beloved mutuals ekjohnston and adibkhorram but this post had to be made #you are braver than any marine etc #i revealed my url recently to some very nerdy lifelong blood-oath level friends and lost feeling in my hands for like six hours #we read each other's livejournals during our peak Dramatic Feelings And Bad Choices years and it still gave me pause #rip twitter #that tumblr lyfe #containment breach

[bisclavaret]

a day late to my 6 years on t anniversary ✨🏳️‍⚧️ a short comic about looking back

#trans pride #transmasc #comics #autobio comics #transgender #this reads a little more melancholy than I meant it to! #I think I forget how far I’ve come #like oh yeah this rules actually my body’s changed so much #also I grew my hair out and I’m less blond now #anyway I love being on testosterone :) #life saving magic potion that makes you hot and happy #my art #Magnus post art at a reasonable hour challenge (impossible)