#white people books are always like that

[acotarfrustrations]

Honestly we could REALLY get into the fact that a lot of the insanity in Acotar is an excellent exercise in why you can't really separate the art from the author.

Sjm's zionism is OBVIOUS in the text. The ic destabilize governments to the detriment of people they will never have to care for, steal artifacts from other countries, displace people, cause invasions, commit war crimes for 50 years "for the greater good" all while their own people are living under unchecked brutality and poverty.

They are rich megalomaniacs that care for no one but themselves and their own emotional and material satisfaction and they are PRAISED for it. In fact anyone who even remotely disagrees with the IC is almost always one of the villains in the story (Beron, Tamlin, etc) as if to condition the reader that asking questions that are critical of the IC puts you on the wrong side of the narrative morally.

All of that sounds REALLL familiar huh?

#and the funny thing is sjm brought this on herself #unlike most authors she creates a clear framework in the text of what the narrative considers morally right and morally wrong #and her characters are always in the side that is morally right in the books but is morally abhorrent in real life #you have NO CHOICE but to question the actual author atp #like if the ic were real they would be the gop #and i think its funny that a lot of the havoc they wreak is most centered on people that are poc or marginalized in the book #but im supposed to get behind it because its some white teenager having a girl boss colonial moment #i hate these novels #if sjm wanted to do this she should have straight up just made feyre and co villains #anti sjm #anti acotar #anti rhysand #anti feysand #anti ic #anti acomaf #anti sarah j maas #anti inner circle #anti acowar

[up-in-flames-writing]

In lieu of Stuff Your Kindle day, can we talk about the issue of how the m/m genre of books, romance or not, is almost entirely dominated by women? Can we talk about how the most recognisable gay couples in media are written by women? Can we talk about how queer men can't even write about ourselves, how we are only allowed to exist when it's from the point of view of a straight woman sexualising us?

Can we talk about that? Or am I going to get called misogynistic for pointing out the disparity between who gets the writing deals, & who gets their books turned into movies, & whose shit gets popular versus whose doesn't? Can we talk about how m/m fiction is only allowed when it appeals to a cishet gaze, or is that too much for tumblr to take?

Can we also talk about how trans queer men are even more hated by publishing? Can we talk about how we get shit from both sides? Can we talk about how books about the experiences of being a queer man, written by queer men, never get the same recognition as books written by women on this subject (barring academia which has its own problems)?

Can we talk about that? Can we?

#booker speaks #no bloody clue how to tag this #this is for the tags only but #people would get up in arms if the f/f book scene was dominated by cismen only #why are we not extending this same energy to ciswomen writers of m/m? #why did we forget about the original meaning of own voices? #why are queer men pushed out of publishing in the way that we are? #& im not just talking about romance here #like there are fantasy & scifi & contemporary novels about men loving men that are written by ciswomen who have a very narrow view of what #m/m relationships are like. & this extends towards stuff like manga too but im not gonna get into that cause i dont read mangs/comics #can we talk about how hard it is to find queer masc authors nowadays? #saying this both as a reader & as a writer #can we also talk about how lists of queer & especially trans novels almost always forget to include anything by transmascs & gay transmascs #or if they do include us its 1 transmasc book to 1 enby book to 8 transfem books or books about the 'trans experience' in nebulous terms #can we stop reccing detransition baby & start reccing the spirit bares its teeth? #can we look at works written by queer masc people that arent just red white royal blue & stone butch blues? #go read cemetary boys #read alexis hall & max turner #read bloom if you like comics. or nimona #read my shit too! #im gonna be focusing on my writing blog way more this year #& im working on some projects that may or may not end up being published in physical form #read more queer masc stories by queer masc authors!

[shewhoeatssand]

This is what perfect looks like

#his little coat with its own physics and everything #it’s stiff fabric! so it sticks out and folds differently! #all according to His particular frame. it folds uniquely just for him #and he has his little leather book bag with the bright blue sash #I think he likes blue a bit it seems to suit him #and he’s got his own tight jeans that fit him just right #Kaneki’s jeans 🥰 #and his little old man shoes! because Kaneki must always have one article of clothing that’s for old people! #so sharp and fashionable #and underneath he seems to have a white collar shirt and maybe a sweater over it? #and he has such a pretty colourful book with him today!! he seems very jolly! #all dressed up and ready to face the world! #such a cute boy! what a gem! ❤️❤️❤️ #kaneki ken #tokyo ghoul #ken kaneki

[yuridovewing]

ngl i know it happened cause like, “lol im gonna fuck your mom” jokes are common and funney (and im not on a pedestal i make those jokes a lot LOL) and on a surface level if you havent read the books (which by the amount of love for how deep and nuanced dotc is, i can tell a lot of people havent actually read it) its a weird and bizarre thing and people likely just ran with that and made a joke out of it, but i really never liked the jokes about star flower and clear sky because like… the way star flower is treated is really gross and unsettling and its not a spiteful or petty thing shes doing, he likes her bc shes his sons age and will obey his every whim because “shes bad and needs to earn decent treatment” and she wants to atone or whatever and shes literally treated like a prize he gets for being suuuch a good boy now (now he ONLY abuses women, instead of abusing AND murdering them)

#truly i feel insane bc i read those books when they came out and they do not match fanon perception at all #‘’oh you just cant comprehend that clear sky is a complex character and you hate redemption arcs-‘’ #no…. no hes just a wifebeater. thats all he is. hes a character who abuses and kills the people around him and then he sees god #and hes like ‘’im a good person cause i believe in god and my dead wife said i was ok’’ #and then he proceeds to allow known abusers in his ranks and still control and abuse his cats #all while the female characters suffer or die for his development #the erins quite literally want you to think he was never really bad bc they have a black and white view of good and evil #see clear skys not evil cause hes not a filthy foreigner >:( hes a good christian man #like i get it we watched the always gold map and it was fantastic and it was so good it made us think dotc was an underrated gem #but like…. its not real none of this is real. clear sky as a character is just abuse apologia man pain whining for the authors

[thenineofus]

I'm sorry but I just have to say it.... I think we've had enough media about rich people. They are not that interesting, I don't think there needs to be even one more movie about them

#it's always just a movie satirizing rich people or a tv show criticizing rich people #or even worse a book romancticizing a lofe of wealth #we have had it all folks i think we dont need any other ones #like im watching white lotus and everyone loved it so much #but im just bored its not as clever as it thinks it is

[positively--speculative]

White people crying, 'You all are just dumb and don't know how to read a complex character,' while not being able to appreciate the intersections of racism and homophobia (and not being able to appreciate how that adds to the complexity of existing as a vampire) is really something.

#This is why the myth of Black people not liking this stuff exists #You all are always putting in great effort to keep us put lol #Can't wait for you all to use the “make your own stories” tactic #Fandom racism #Anyway #White book fans apparently suck at critical analysis since they lack the ability to criticize their favorite books #And favorite white authors

[charlieslowartsies]

i freakin binge read a book all evening and forgot to eat. hey ADHD WHEN I SAID I WANTED TO READ MORE I DIDNT MEAN GIVE UP A LIFE FUNCTION CMON MAN

#it was one of those “read me and give me a piece of yourself to keep if you want to finish me” books #it was the Past is Never by Tiffany Tyson #it was good and had parts i liked a lot and resonated strongly with #it wasnt graphic but it did have heavy subject matters for sure #middle sort of slogged #and it was first pov which im always stupidly picky about idky #so i kinda rec it but you need to be in the right mood to approach this book i think #its southern gothic #im mixed race but mexican and much as people like to remind me im half white i certainly didnt pass where i went to college #and a few people reminded me of that in the Bad Way #not me reading 275 pages in 5 hours with one break im fine

[idkwhatimdoingbutpersonal]

Booktok is a little too obsessed with their favourite copy and paste couple being their own extremely conventionally attractive, white and cishet fantasy

#don’t even mention poc to them they might combust #sorry if this feels like an attack but idk when I see an edit of what people think characters look like #they are ALWAYS white and skinny and sharp jaw lines #not necessarily just about booktok but the boom industry in general #****book #anti booktok #shlayed fr #nothing wrong with being attractive or white or cishet #it’s just the fact that that’s all you ever see and that’s all they wanna see

[literalfuckingfreak]

stop saying neurodivergent when you mean autistic holy fuck. just say autistic. or just say people with sensory issues. not everyone whos "neurodivergent" acts like that just say autism or sensory issues. like. that word doesnt mean shit. stop.

#blanket statements about neurodivergent people are so weird. #like? do you people need to attribute everything to the fact that theres something wrong with your brain lol #keep seeing this weird post that says “neurotypical people dont know anything” or something like that. #what does my ocd have to do with me having a special interest in comic books. what the fuck are you talking about #the obsession with neurodivergency is crazy you can just be different for no reason you dont need a diagnosis #(its also always white people obsessing over the fact that theyre “neurodivergent” but thats a conversation for later LOL)

[alisaint]

i feel like sometimes (many times) people get realism / "if this were to happen to a real person in the real world context, then this character would experience and grapple with x, y, z" mixed up with text / what that character is actually going through in the story which is always going to be constrained by time, space, and the creator's biases and experiences

#thinking abt lucas bc if he were not written by a team of white people then yes his character would be different and have so #much more depth and he would be experiencing and going through things that the others don't #but as it stands.... he's chilling. lol. #the only time he got depth was in his book that was written by a black male author. #and tbh i don't really think it's right or fair to dog on people for saying that he's chilling bc he just.... is? like the duffers have not #touched any of the topics they could have as it pertains to being a black boy in a majority white racist small midwestern town #and the one time they did they still didn't even really touch on it fr? like somehow it wasn't abt him... even though #he was the one being attacked for being black..... and then we just never touched on that again lol #he went through all that scary ass supernatural AND real life racism shit and we don't see him struggle after #not like we see some white characters struggle #so no i don't think someone is being racist by just pointing out what's on screen. in real life shit would be mad different #but it's not real life. and what is written is so limited because this is a black character written by white people. #and tbh it applies to so much other stuff but tht jus popped into my mind like there's nothing wrong with adding to the text #but that shouldn't be confused with actually being textual..... u feel me? #and at the end he's not really chilling bc he literally almost died n had a gun pulled on him but other than that he's usually #the one chilling bc he's every other (white) character's fixer-upper. he's always the support character to help them #and advance their plots and development :/

[reachthezeneth]

No one to cry to so I'll just rant on here, when I first read Red, White, and Royal Blue, it was by someone sending me a PDF of it because I wasn't working and didn't have a way to buy it without my parents knowing. I read and reread and highlighted parts and it was so important to me. The part where Henry sees all the support for him even though he didn't think he'd have it took me out for weeks. It always hit me hard. I was never going to come out, but if I did, I'd hope to feel what Henry felt. Some years later, I came out to only my sister and 2 of my closest friends. Now, most people I meet know I'm bi, I own 2 copies of the book (soon, 3), as well as other queer books, I've not been "in the closet" even though I haven't specifically publicly come out, I'm still not deeply hiding like I used to be. After watching the movie, I reread the scene where the public accepts Henry and it's emotional, sure, but it doesn't give me the same urge to cry because I'm not yearning, I'm not wondering what if. I'm looking at it from the other side and recognizing the journey here.

#red white and royal blue #rwrb #aneth's self text #i was looking forward to the movie for that scene and it didn't hit the same so i was like let me read it #i couldn't understand why it wasn't making me sob until i realized i always read it in awe of the possibilities #it's insane how much this book meant to me. even if it's not my favorite now it helped me get here #i think people who grow up in a loving and accepting environment forget people need books like these #idk im too emo rn and i could write an essay about this but i should shut up

[oedipushansen]

as im reading crime and punishment, i just remembered this one tiktoker who made this one post of her posing with a copy of crime and punishment & the caption that was like "how are there seriously still women my age who still unironically read ya... pick up a copy of crime and punishment and read something meaningful..."

& the weird thing was like. if you went on her account you saw she was posting about the show euphoria so its not like she was above enjoying teen dramas or coming of age stories. what was going on there

#i saw them arguing in the comment section saying how ya wasnt ''real books'' which is just confusing #what do you mean not real books?? if its a bunch of paper stuck together with a cover thats a book why does it have to have special #qualifications?? why is it always white people who say things arent ''real art'' or ''real literature'' . is it like hardwired in their dna #to dismiss anything they dont like as just Not Real #im so glad i stopped using tiktok man no one on there was normal about reading #txt

[white-weasel]

Do…. Do people actually have an issue with stuff being written in present tense?

#I’ve heard of POV preference but seeing all these posts about how much people dislike present tense #maybe I’m just not an observant reader but I can count the number of times I’ve actively noted a book/fic’s tense on one hand #and almost always it was because I liked how it worked with the author’s writing style #you’re telling me people will consider dropping something JUST because it’s in present tense?? #genuinely can someone explain this to me? #I know some people don’t like first person pov because it feels too close and ‘I’ didn’t do anything. the character did #(I don’t really see it that way and don’t mind first person though I prefer third person) #and second person pov is rare and people don’t like it for the same reasons (being told what they as a reader ‘did’) #(I personally like second person pov a LOT but also prefer it to be a little treat actually suited to the story) #but verb tense?? as long as it all works grammatically I don’t see an issue #a lot of the examples I see of how present tense doesn’t work is showing two paragraphs side by side in the past and present #and I will agree that the present reads worse comparatively #but also it’s because the sentences were obviously (at least imo) written and structured for past tense first #and then ‘translated’ to present tense if that makes sense #I personally like how present tense lets me play with my sentences #but also I know that when I play with time and have a character recount past events within their own internal musings I switch tense #which I would think is allowed?? but maybe that’s bad form and I’m proving the point why past tense is ‘superior’ #(I don’t really care for fic writing purposes as long as it flows and isn’t distracting but who’s to say) #anyways this was long but yeah. genuinely curious about this one #white weasel talks #tbd probs

[ayrennaranaaldmeri]

GO BACK TO THE SHADOW AND TAKE THIS GARBAGE SHOW WITH YOU.

#anti trop #anti-rings-of-power #keep the elijah wood slander out of your rancid fucking mouth. #also lmfao the fucking elrond actor #who is elrond where is he from #it's not like they went to his house in both the hobbit and lotr or anything #you've been alive for 2 decades you could've picked up a book if you were that curious #tired of the dickriders for this show and their constant need to dunk on better things #the BEST case scenario for this fucking garbage is that after its over it will still die forgotten in the fucking sludge #PJ's LOTR movies and Elijah Wood's name will outlive this garbage. #you see how quickly people forgot got?? you see how it just vanished? and that show tried. #didn't have your 1 billion dollar budget but no one was wearing a long sleeved t-shirt with a chainmail print. #(also if you're going to whine about white knighting while you too are white knighting save us both the trouble just block me) #this is in the anti tag use /tagged instead of the search function. #go yell at the staff it isn't my fault search is always broken

[pa-pa-plasma]

redditors are so fucking weird, sometimes they don't even know what hill they're dying on all they know is that they're gonna die on it for sure

#told a dude on reddit who was asking how much violence is allowed in YA books that you can put as much as you'd like #& he was like ''books sure have changed since i was an adolescent'' & i was like. no. they've always been that way. read them & see #(literally gave Watership Down as an example. it was published in the 70's) #& he started ranting & raving about how actually i'm wrong because liberals & kids these days don't understand #what it's like to be an adolescent (kept using that word) in a time where all books were banned for even the most minor of implied violence #& i was like ''what the fuck are you talking about'' & he was like ''where do you live & how old are you'' about a hundred times #i wish i was exaggerating. it really escalated that fast #oh also they were assuming i'm a guy & using he/him pronouns which is like. fuck off lol yeah you're obviously an old white guy from Americ #literally i should just leave reddit forever but i can't stand by watching people say ''quit forever'' when newbies ask simple questions #like redditors are insane. batshit #i want to be the ''do whatever you want forever'' person in a sea of ''you're 12 & only have a 12yo's reading level? die'' #also the blocking on there is bullshit. you can't reply to comments if one of the people in the convo is blocked #& you can't block someone twice in 24 hours #& if you want to report someone for. say. harassment. like asking for your location repeatedly. you have to report the specific comment. #which you now can't see because you blocked them #more & more i become astonished that people use every other social media EXCEPT tumblr #couldn't imagine living like that. it must be horrible

[backlogbooks]

on a personal level, no, reading “problematic” media wont like, change your moral compass

but i do feel like maybe! we could discuss uhhhh the history of racist fiction in america and the way it’s added to the overall self mythology of america and the way white people think about and interact with Black people to this day

rather than making 500 “haha people who think fiction affects reality are so stupid” posts

#i am getting so tired of ‘oh you think fiction affects reality?? i guess you kill people if you ever read about a murderer #no bitch i just have studied american history #i’ve studied gone with the wind and fucking birth of a nation #and yes there were other areas where those narrative of the civil war were being pushed (textbooks & confederate statues & etc.) #BUT LIKE. THERE ARE OTHER AREAS WHERE WHITE SUPREMACY IS BEING ADVANCED RIGHT NOW. AND ALSO FUCKING ALWAYS. #it drives me crazy because i feel like at first ‘problematic’ was used to refer to like #racist or homophobic or sexist depictions #and now it’s been reduced to ‘oh poor baby doesnt know not to murder people unless the author says it’s bad’ like bro shut up #even aside from the historical examples #think about all the cop shows that have completely altered most people’s idea of the police away from what the actual job is #making them into action heroes (and demonizing the internal review people like. what) #increasing the perception of danger and decreasing the respect for ‘going by the book’ aka obeying rhe fucking law and respecting people’s #constitutional rights #i know i should know better than to hope for nuance on this app #but i swear the next self righteous ‘people who think fiction affects reality are so stupid’ post is getting blocked #it’s not about your personal media consumption it’s about the stories we as a society tell ourselves and each other repeatedly! #and even if you personally aren’t susceptible to those messages you should be aware of when you’re supporting them #mary emma talks