#literary works

[novlr]

On July 1st, 1973, the British Library was established. It is now home to over 200 million items, and counting!

We love the British Library; it's where we source all of the beautiful illustrations we use. Let's show them some love as they celebrate 50 glorious years ❤️

#writing community #did you know #fun fact #british library #books and libraries #fun facts about books #books and reading #fifty years of the british library #library love #jane austen #museum #james joyce #virginia woolf #oscar wilde #literature #literary works #english literature #alice in wonderland #lewis carroll

[theaskew]

The Box Man, a novel by Kobo Abe, translated by E. Dale Saunders. (First Vintage International Edition, 2001. Originally published in Japanese in 1973.)

#novel #fiction #literature #literary works #Japanese novel #Japanese fiction #Japanese literature #Japanese writer #Japanese novelist #The Box Man #Kobo Abe #psychological fiction #post modernism #avant garde #satiric #homelessness #contemporary society #book cover #book excerpt

[tap-dancing-noses]

Reading works in their original language is like, such a vastly different experience. And even if you're not reading the original version or just reading two translations of a text into two different languages, the text changes so much. And how you experience and interpret that work is so vastly different that you just read that same literary work in two different ways.

I always knew this to a certain extent, but I didn't realise how different languages were when it comes to conveying information until I started reading poetry in both English and Spanish. Neruda is an entirely different poet in English than in Spanish, just as how Whitman is telling me something in English and something else in Spanish.

And I think that's honestly pretty awesome and beautiful. If you're bilingual, trilingual or just a straight up polyglot, I 100% recomend trying this.

#literary classics #literature #classic literature #english literature #poetry #Writing #bilingual #trilingual #polyglot #Languages #writing #Literary works #writingblr #reading

[inabooknook]

Martyr by Kaveh Akbar

Such a rich and beautifully written book. This book tells the tale of Cyrus, a young man who, from a young age, faced tragedy. Born in Iran, his father moved him to the United States very early. I will not be able to do the story itself a service as it should be done, because everything I will say will not make it sound as amazing and moving as it is. The descriptions were touching, and the story itself was so all encompassing. It is a literary work of art, and I have no doubts it will touch the minds and hearts of so many because of its appeal. The story weaves in all different walks of life and such an interesting premise as well. Cyrus wants to write a book of martyrs, but in doing so, finds much out about himself and his background. I highly recommend this book to someone wanting something different and touching, because it will do just that.

This ebook was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

#martyr #reading #books #kaveh akbar #book review #netgalley #book recommendations #fiction #literature #literary works

[konvoluted]

Interview with Diana Wynne Jones

#Miyazaki will a work of literary fiction and ask ‘is anyone gonna make this gentler??’ #diana wynne jones #howl’s moving castle #hayao miyazaki

[fairydrowning]

"But there is a clarity about September. On clear days, the sun seems brighter, the sky more blue, the white clouds take on marvelous shapes; the moon is a wonderful apparition, rising gold, cooling to silver; and the stars are so big."

– Faith Baldwin, Evening Star

#finally it's September #last few days of August didn't go so quickly for me but rest the August literally give me so many happy thingss and memorieshaha #i hope you achieve what you want in this month and everything works out for youu #light academia #excerpts #fragments #poetry #books & libraries #romanticism #spilled thoughts #words #September #new month #september month #literary quotes #quotations

[yeyinde]

It's not enough to just follow or subscribe to my favourite writers. I need to crawl around their thoughts like a curious little bug.

#u ever just find an writer in the wild and fall in literary love w them???? #like its not even a “tell me ur secrets” thing but a “wow i need to see how ur brain works” #ill never like reach out n be like hi i love u but ill admire from afar until they notice my impeccable vibes n come closer to check it out #writers on ao3 #writers on tumblr

[nekropsii]

Let this be a living example that knowing the beliefs of any individual who wrote any piece of text- be it literature, articles, or posts- can and should drastically alter your perception on what the text is actually communicating, even if that knowledge has, on its face, changed none of the actual printed words. This is how application of real-world context works, and this is how it applies to any recorded medium.

It reminds me heavily of a quote from video essayist Jacob Geller, regarding the 1938 film Olympia- "It's different when Nazis do it". Olympia is a film that, on its face, simply depicts an artistic documentation of the 1936 Berlin Olympics. But within the context of its production taking place during the Nazi regime, with its director being a well known Nazi propagandist... The way the movie fixates on the power and elegance of the human form and Ancient Greek statues quickly shifts from being completely innocuous appreciation to the worship of what is perceived as the ideal forms of the "Aryan race". Suddenly, you understand the movie not to be a pretty inoffensive documentation of a historical event, but a propaganda piece.

Understanding the time period in which something was made, as well as the setting it was produced in/for, and whatever ideologies an artist may hold and experiences they've had is absolutely critical to getting a full understanding of anyone's work. There are some things that are near completely anodyne on their face, but the revelation of what the author thinks and feels about other people and the world around them totally redefines every word on the page.

This image is such a prime example of why context matters. This opinion, laid bare, stripped of context, is both inoffensive and nonsensical. No one's ever thought it to be lame to create your own nickname... But on its own, that's a harmless kind of wrong. ... But with the addition of them being marked as Anti-Trans (red) on Shinigami Eyes, a browser extension dedicated to crowdsourcing keeping track of Trans Friendly and Transphobic creators... Suddenly, "Nicknames" doesn't mean "Nicknames" anymore. Suddenly, you realize that "Nicknames" is code for "Chosen Names of Trans People". Suddenly this isn't about thinking choosing your own nickname is lame, this is about thinking that trans people shouldn't have the right to name themselves. Suddenly it's about invalidating identities, thinking they're worth mocking. Thinking that people who identify as trans are "just trying to be cool", and that they're not actually what they say they are, because you don't get to choose your gender nickname, that's something already decided for you.

Suddenly, you realize, it's not about "being lame".

It's about Transphobic Violence.

This is why you cannot ignore when an artist, author, essayist, developer, musician- so on and so forth- is bigoted. This is why you can't ignore the context behind their upbringing. This is why you can't ignore the context behind their lived experience, their ideals, their goals, their message. Yes, it may appear innocent on its face. Yes, it may look fine stripped from the context of it being written by an inevitably flawed human being. But what's really being said here? What do those words mean... To the one who wrote them?

Context redefines Text.

Even if the words didn't change.

#this post is a bit random. not apologizing. it was just such a perfect encapsulation #i am still tagging this as homestuck because this is ultimately EXACTLY how i feel about hussie + their works. you must understand this. #its so applicable to hussie + homestuck + analysis of homestuck that it is fucking painful. PLEASE understand this. PLEASEEEE #homestuck #homestuck meta #homestuck analysis #andrew hussie #context #literary analysis #essay writing #cw nazi #cw transphobia #nekro.pdf #nekro.txt

[cosmic-coleoptera]

what genre is homestuck Actually

is it science fiction? is it fantasy? is it film noir? is it a thriller? is it paranormal erotica? is it lovecraftian horror? is it coming-of-age? is it nonfiction? Who Knows

#homestuck #literary genres #my patron troll is karkat #judge how you wish #i first read homestuck to impress a boy #the sad part is #it worked?

[faustandfurious]

Actually yeah I am tired of «feminist retellings» of ancient classics because I’m tired of the feminism label being slapped on mediocre books as a marketing ploy to make them seem more important than they really are

#feanor speaks #pouring salt #it’s not feminist just because there are women in it #and it’s not a groundbreaking political work if you’re just capitalising on a literary trend #you’re not writing a ‘feminist retelling’ because you have anything interesting to say about women #you’re writing it because it was trending on booktok #i think we should uncouple activism from consumerism once and for all actually

[t1sunfortunate]

I truly do think one of the largest pitfalls among the "media consumption is my passion" crowd is the tendency to treat characters as human beings with agency rather than narrative tools manipulated by the author

#as soon as you start assigning agency to characters any criticism of the series comes under strawman fallacy arguments #about how humans make irrational choices not always understood by others etc etc etc #thus insulating the author and the work from any sort of meaningful criticism or analysis #i think current popular advice on character writing overemphasizes relatability and likability at the expense of narrative relevance #it certainly isn't hurtful to do exercises where you think about their coffee order or favourite animal or preferred toilet paper brand #but none of that matters in the end if you have no idea what purpose a character is supposed to serve in a literary sense

[requinum]

"In me, he saw a storm coming. In him, I saw my heart breaking from its hard shell and my dreams disintegrating and reforming into something new and beautiful in its selfishness".

#WHEN I TELL U I DIDN'T KNOW THIS QUOTE WAS FROM THOSE..... #it's been lodged in my brain for years #literally 'when u think this profound quote is from [insert literary work here] but it's really from [insert fanfic here]' #i cannot look at this anymore so it's going in the void #those who stand for nothing fall for anything #death note #light yagami #l lawliet #lawlight #death note fanart

[theaskew]

Ask the Dust, a novel by John Fante. (Stackpole Sons, New York, 1939.)

#novel #fiction #literature #literary works #American novel #American fiction #American literature #Ask the Dust #John Fante #Los Angeles #search for home #search for belonging #book cover #book excerpt

[galina]

Uh oh, they’re reading/writing/thinking about love again

#studyblr #studygram #studyspo #study #books #bookblr #bookstagram #currently reading #philosophy #non fiction #love #literary theory #writing #desk #setup #workspace #inspiration #working #neutrals #neutral tones

[macrolit]

Only a literary work that reveals an unknown fragment of human existence has a reason for being.

#milan kundera #literary #work #human #existence #discovery #new york times #quote #quotes

[qwertyquarty]

sun also wants to murder you

sorry in advance if this is obvious to people who are not me, but i decided to reread solar lunacy and i noticed a couple of funky lil details that point to sun absolutely also having murdery-virus thoughts like moon towards y/n. he’s just better at hiding/controlling them ig.  anyway, this is the little set of lines (near the end of chapter 7) that got me thonkin.

‘restraint isn’t effortless’ oh really? mr. sun sir, are you implying that you, not just moon, also are a bit murdery? now, you could interpret this as ‘sun is speaking on moon’s behalf’, and ye that makes since, & that’s how i read this scene at first too. buuuuuuuuut, maybe sun is a bit murdery. so i decided to look around a bit and oh hey look at this (chapter 9 crumb)

‘Fingers curl in and out like a habit’ hmmmmmm, i’m sure that sun is thinking about stress balls or something, nothing to worry about

(from bamsara, the og post was reblogged, should be right before this one)

man’s really out here pretending to choke y/n huh. how rude. but also, another note here, it says he’s doing it ‘like a habit’, which probably means he’s done this multiple times.  now, those two are definitely the most concrete bits i found, but i had another (relatively baseless) thought. so, if flexing robot hands is definitely dangerous, maybe fidgeting robot hands is also alarming. It could be that any repetitive hand motion is the dca’s way of dealing with intrusive violent virus thoughts. And lemme tell you, sun’s hands do an awful lot of fidgeting when he angy. examples include, this middle of chapter 8 bit (Sticker scratching)

this chapter 6 bit (Fingers clacking against each other)

Also, wanna call out the ‘maybe it’s not just the requirement to be quiet that’s making him jitter’ line, which, i dunno about you, but to me seems to imply that maybe it’s the funky sneky murder virus causing the hand fidgets Anyway, another fidgety bit from chapter 6 (Spinning the pen)

this bit from chapter 5, where sun is definitely thinking violent thoughts, but towards monty (Tapping his mask)

conclusion: hand fidgets in general from dca are their way of dealing with murder virus. sun, while seeming like safer side of the dca, also has violent murder virus thoughts and is dangerous. we just haven’t seen him do the dangerous things yet

#solar lunacy #bamsara #sorry if this is obvious #i just think foreshadowing is neat okay #hey english teachers are you proud of me i analyzed a literary work for fun