#you exist too much

[fairycosmos]

you exist too much by zaina arafat

#you exist too much #zaina arafat #books

[queerliblib]

Queer reads for Ramadan? We’ve got you covered!

#queer liberation library #qll #queer books #ramadan #hijab butch blues #guapa #radiant fugitives #hani and ishu's guide to fake dating #blood orange #life as a unicorn #god in pink #love is an ex-country #you exist too much #only this beautiful moment #if they come for us #Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor

[smokefalls]

You’ll find that having someone who has a claim on you, and who you can claim, it’s one of the greater things in life.

Zaina Arafat, You Exist Too Much

#Zaina Arafat #You Exist Too Much #quote #fiction #queerlit #2024 reads

[clamjams]

You Exist Too Much - Zaina Arafat

#you exist too much #zaina arafat #book recs #queer books #palestinian art #palestinian author #user: clamjams #alt text

[houseofpurplestars]

"...only a white man would feel comfortable taking up so much space."

- from "You Exist Too Much" by Zaina Arafat

#you exist too much #zaina arafat #palestinian literature

[aroaessidhe]

2023 reads / storygraph

You Exist Too Much

literary fiction

follows a bisexual Palestinian-American woman with self-destructive tendencies who struggles with becoming obsessively in love with people

she goes to a treatment centre claiming to be able to fix her ‘love addiction’, making her reflect on her life and why she is the way she is, through flashbacks of her childhood, past relationships, and relationship with her mother

#you exist too much #aroaessidhe 2023 reads #this is. obviously not really my genre. it was interesting but maybe a little too much (heh) for me #i just dont love reading litfic about self destructive adults i guess if it's in a normal way (not a fully fun and unhinged way) #tho funny to see people be like ‘theres 12 love interests and none are developed properly’ as if that’s not like. the point of the book. #calling them ‘love interests’ is your first problem lmao

[pesbianlanic]

december 2023 reading

books in bold are especially recommended!

i didn’t read very much this month. lol. i finished the year with 79 books read.

You Exist Too Much by Zaina Arafat - 4.5/5. beautifully written exploration of a desire, love, and family trauma. both the main character and author are queer and Palestinian American.

#jules tries to read books again #books #you exist too much

[qbdatabase]

On a hot day in Bethlehem, a 12-year-old Palestinian-American girl is yelled at by a group of men outside the Church of the Nativity. She has exposed her legs in a biblical city, an act they deem forbidden, and their judgement will echo on through her adolescence. When our narrator finally admits to her mother that she is queer, her mother’s response only intensifies a sense of shame: “You exist too much,” she tells her daughter.

Told in vignettes that flash between the U.S. and the Middle East–from New York to Jordan, Lebanon, and Palestine–Zaina Arafat’s debut novel traces her protagonist’s progress from blushing teen to sought-after DJ and aspiring writer. In Brooklyn, she moves into an apartment with her first serious girlfriend and tries to content herself with their comfortable relationship. But soon her longings, so closely hidden during her teenage years, explode out into reckless romantic encounters and obsessions with other people. Her desire to thwart her own destructive impulses will eventually lead her to The Ledge, an unconventional treatment center that identifies her affliction as “love addiction.” In this strange, enclosed society she will start to consider the unnerving similarities between her own internal traumas and divisions and those of the places that have formed her.

#You Exist Too Much #Zaina Arafat #adult books #literary fiction #Palestinian rep #bisexual #bi rep #middle eastern rep #poc rep #daily book #fiction #lgbt fiction #lgbtqia #bookblr

[podcastwizard]

because here's the thing here's the thing the question was not "would you be more surprised to run into a fairy or a walrus" the question was "would you be more surprised to find a fairy or a walrus AT YOUR DOOR" and while no, i do not believe in fairies and would be surprised to know they EXIST i would NOT be surprised to find one at my door. HOWEVER, if a WALRUS shows up at my door i have to contend with the fact that a walrus somehow made it to my apartment specifically and knocked on my door for god knows what reason. i would be more surprised to know that a fairy EXISTS, of course, but NOT that they're at my door, do you get me?

#am i reading too much into the question YES #but like someone else said there is narrative precedence for a fairy at your door #SHOULD a fairy exist #like if a fairy shows up at my door i've got bigger problems you know

[inkskinned]

he says i hate everyone except you and that is addictive and that is kind of romantic and beautiful because you're young and you're kind of a sarcastic asshole too and you don't like bad boys, per say, but you don't really like good ones either. and you like that you were the exception, it felt like winning.

except life is not a romance book, and he was kind of being honest. he doesn't learn to be nice to your friends. he only tolerates your family. you have to beg him to come with you to birthday parties, he complains the whole time. you want to go on a date but - people are often there, wherever you're going. he's just so angry. about everything, is the thing. in the romance book, doesn't he eventually soften? can't you teach him, through your own sense of whimsy and comfort?

at first - you know introverts often need smaller friend groups, and honestly, you're fine staying at home too. you like the small, tidy life you occupy. you're not going to punish him for his personality type.

except: he really does hate everyone but you. which means he doesn't get along with his therapist. which means he has no one to talk to except for you. which means you take care of him constantly, since he otherwise has no one. which means you sometimes have to apologize for him. which means he keeps you home from seeing your friends because he hates them. you're the single exception.

about a decade from this experience, you'll type into google: how to know if a relationship is codependent.

he wraps an arm around you. i hate everyone except you. these days, you're learning what he's actually confessing is i have very little practice being kind.

#i used to think it was romantic too and then i was like. now i see it as a HUGE red flag #writeblr #it is also almost EXCLUSIVELY said by immature ppl who think this is normal #fyi even if u think it's funny and ur like 'im an introvert it's just TRUE' like. you need therapy (ily tho) #healed introversion is just ''i would prefer to be by myself'' not ''i hate every person'' ... hate is not normal. that is not healthy #im sorry. i know it feels accurate. but if you're walking around with that kind of rage.... #1. you're making a LOT of assumptions about every single person u have ever met. which is often unfair and unkind #and also usually involves judging people based on their worst moments or little mistakes #2. you are being unfair to the person who is ur ''exception'' #3. there is a VAST difference between ''ur my favorite person'' and ''the ONLY person i like.'' #idk i think this is just a personal bias thing tbh #im sure there are people who have this experience normally #but i have YET to find a man who thinks like this and ISNT absolute DOGSHIT. although tbh.... like. im sure he exists #when u hit like 30 some of the things that were once kind of hot now just sound fucking exhausting. like ''im in a band'' #edit in the tags: i used to kind of be like this too. but the thing is that like. my life became so much more peaceful #once i started believing that people are generally good. like yes i am mad at the world at large #but it's just.... a very hard way to live. you're not a bad person or wrong for the ways other people hurt you and taught you to be angry. #but that anger will continue to hurt YOU. it will punish YOU. it will prevent YOU from making new deep connections. it will protect you yes #but it will also cause MASSIVE blowback. bc if you lose the One Person... your life will fall apart. i know this personally. #i really recommend just trying to be... cautiously optimistic instead. like. yes #people can be horrible and cruel and there are some communities (incels for example) that aren't worth that optimism #but i think like... most people will hold a door for you . most people want to help you find your wallet . #i hope one day you are able to find peace. i hope that rage eventually smooths over. i know how hard it is PERSONALLY #and i know what must have happened to you. and im deeply deeply sorry we share the same wound. #but i promise - sometimes we all need someone else to help us carry the weight. eventually the rage has to die so that we can let help in #i had to spend years biting at outstretched hands. i still often do. im still very wary . and my heart breaks that you flinch too. #here's the thing: i don't blame you. but we were both acting out of fear and pain. .... not out of healthy behavior. and ... change #was needed. i needed change too. rage was useful for a while. then it just left me isolated and bitter. i had to (with effort) #choose to let that rage go. and let people in . VERY SLOWLY THO LOL

[frogs-in3-hills]

no but seriously. “unnecessary feelings” is so iconic and i love it dearly, but let’s be real i feel like “unease and uncertainty” are, like, COMPLETELY reasonable things to be feeling in edgeworth’s situation regardless of whether he is being plagued with gay visions or not. how soon we forget “i’ve never felt this way with a man before” and “when i fall under your intense gaze i feel rather bashful” and “we were intellectually attracted”. more unabashed homosexual sluttery in my fandom please

#is it too much to ask for #bonus addition ‘she taught me how to use a whip’ #thank you fradrian for existing <3 #sully is typing #dgs #klapollo #susahao #lanamia #edit: #i don’t like this post but i have heroically decided not to turn off reblogs #aa

[fairycosmos]

you exist too much by zaina arafat

#you exist too much #zaina arafat #books #mmhm

[alexassanart]

favourite scenes from pacific rim 3 💙

#please don't look at me i spent WAY too much time on these...... #also really hoping i don't accidentally give anyone false hope since tragically pacrim 3 only exists in my head #you can definitely tell which scenes were drawn first lmao #because it started as just a fun exercise before spiraling out of control #anyway. enjoy i guess. don't look too closely #maybe you'll even be able to extract my post-uprising-fic-tropes-greatest-hits plot from these #pacific rim #newton geiszler #hermann gottlieb #newmann #my art #fanart

[smokefalls]

“Your worries are like water,” she often said. “The moment one flows out, another floods in to fill the space.”

Zaina Arafat, You Exist Too Much

#Zaina Arafat #You Exist Too Much #quote #fiction #queerlit #2024 reads

[metanarrates]

it's always funny when you see stuff that is so obviously preemptively written to ward off Posting. the most overt manifestation is marvelesque lampshading of cliches ("hey isn't it stupid that we were saved at the last minute?") but there's other types of it. there's writing that addresses criticism in-text (Marvel Lady #24 owning a hater who says that Marvel Lady #24 is antifeminist) or fan responses like shipping (that one plotline in bbc sherlock that shows moriarty/sherlock shippers as weirdos nobody likes) or even stuff like worrying the reader won't understand the characters (EVERY instance of characters using therapyspeak in a story.)

to the insecure artist, the shadow of the Poster looms large over them. they can never mentally escape the fear that someone, somewhere, may be making memes about how their art sucks. and you know what? that's just beautiful

#narrates #it's REALLY funny. like it sucks because it makes a work flat and self-obsessed #but it's also just hysterical to see how much mental rent space the mere concept of critique takes up in a writer's mind #embrace the cringe! live with the existence of Posting! #you will never create a truly sincere piece of art if you're too afraid of people getting mad online

[houseofpurplestars]

"She's demanding and particular and forthright, and I love her for these things but I can't always live up to them."

- from "You Exist Too Much" by Zaina Arafat

#zaina arafat #you exist too much #palestinian literature #palestinian writers #books #quotes