#essay on poetic theory

[whomturgled]

u know what i should actually make some sorta new years resolution or goals or predictions or smthn. rachel my therapist from 2017 if you're out there this ones for you girl<3

#i will inevitably forget all abt them<3 #2017 is the last time i had a consistant therapist i think lol YIKES #she'd be so proud of me probably<33 #i saw someone say theyre gonna make predictions and put it in an envelope w their taxes so next year they can see what they got right #and that sounds fun but i just know i will lose the envelope but maybe thats kinda poetic in itself #bc ONE DAY i'll find it idk how many yrs into the future and thatll be fun #in theory i MIGHT move this year (its complicated<3 i would have to go on a whole essay w diagrams explaining that) but i imagine like #if i dont lose it b4 itd get lost in my stuff while packing and maybe id find it while unpacking and then lose it again LOL?. #just like. knowing me #i also feel like i will end up not having accomplished a lot of the things i set out to do or having them have gone a very different #direction but yknow? thats just life! itll be interesting regardless #i dont actually have the attention span rn to do this silly lil goal setting but maybe later. which tbh is the adhd demons talking #i will forget later and this will all have been moot but teehee

[durruti23]

We have taken it into our heads that to write a poem simply for the poem's sake ... and to acknowledge such to have been our design, would be to confess ourselves radically wanting in the true poetic dignity and force:– but the simple fact is that would we but permit ourselves to look into our own souls we should immediately there discover that under the sun there neither exists nor can exist any work more thoroughly dignified, more supremely noble, than this very poem, this poem per se, this poem which is a poem and nothing more, this poem written solely for the poem's sake.

Edgar Allan Poe. "The Poetic Principle" (1850)

#edgar allan poe #the poetic principle #1850 #1800s #quotes #literature #poetry #art for art's sake #usa #essay #poem #literary criticism #literary theory #for a poem's sake #aesthetic

[erythristicbones]

i do think it's really funny that JDK as a project started out with Jonas as the main focus and everything else secondary, but then I put my repurposed old edgy OC i adored when I was 12 in it.......and now I'm just like "what if she gets to be super important too? What if she's just as integral to the story?" bc i have no self control

#my original stories #os: jonas doesnt know #oc: jonas dyre #and then #oc: nisha madison #if yall couldnt tell who this post was about #anyways in theory it totally does work if she's also a central point of the story #instead of just one of the cogs in the Villain Organization #cause(and this is a major story spoiler that im still gonna try to be vague about) they ARE related! #sometimes the found family you make is actually your blood family that was so estranged you didnt know who they were #but yeah JDK as a story about recovery and breaking the cycle and finding yourself makes me v emotional #and i think having both jonas and nisha go thru those things both separately and together #is just really poetic ya know? #also nisha/artemis as a couple has been 90% of my creative brain function for 2 weeks now #im obssessed with these two traumatized ppl that can be So Sapphic despite being like. woman adjacent at best #top ten OC ships ive ever created and i only thought of it like a few months ago #i could write essays on how hard they tried not to care about each other and still ended up so interwoven with one another anyways #ALSO also i need to think of a new title for JDK eventually bc that was never meant to be its actual title #and im over it man i want something deep and symbolic #something that absolutely tells u that jonas and nisha are the main characters w/o u even realizing it did #os: cardinal values

[marcogiovenale]

camden art centre, london / public knowledge: 'oei' / october 27

camden art centre, london / public knowledge: ‘oei’ / october 27

Camden Art Centre / Public Knowledge: OEI / October 27 / 19:00–21:00 Thursday October 27, 19:00-21:00 Camden Art Centre Arkwright Road London NW3 6DG United Kingdom This episode of Public Knowledge will comprise of a temporary display of publications and related ephemera by Jonas (J) Magnusson and Cecilia Grönberg. Jonas (J) Magnusson and Cecilia Grönberg are the founders of OEI, a…

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#aesthetic documents #art #bookworks #Camden Art Centre #Cecilia Grönberg #counter-historiographies #critical investigations #documents #ecologies #infrastructural poetics #investigative poetry #Jonas (J) Magnusson #localities #new epistemologies #OEI #Paul Finn #poetry #theoretical and poetological essays #theory #visual culture

[firstfullmoon]

hello, i am so sorry if this is the wrong person to ask, but i have been looking for a poem for a while now and it is driving me CRAZY! that i cannot find it. it's about how the poet's own writing is repetitive-- in his personal work, he writes a lot about gray stones (?) over and over again. i know the author is a man, and i know it wasn't that anne carson quote about "my personal poetry is a failure". i can't find anything close to it online. might anyone here remember something similar?

hi ! its from this essay on poetic theory - “If you are a private poet, then your vocabulary is limited by your obsessions. It doesn’t bother me that the word “stone” appears more than thirty times in my third book, or that “wind” and “gray” appear over and over in my poems to the disdain of some reviewers. If I didn’t use them that often I’d be lying about my feelings, and I consider that unforgivable. In fact, most poets write the same poem over and over.”

[agentrouka-blog]

Dany fan here: I think other Dany fans think Jonsas are over the top with Dany hate because of pol!Jon. I follow many Jonsas because I’m perfectly fine with Jonsa. It’s not for me but I see the vision. That said I’m a bit of an unusual Dany fan in the sense that I’m a big fan of the Meereenese Knot essays and think the interpretation of Dany presented there is pretty spot on. I personally think Dany has a good heart but that circumstance and experience and terrible coping mechanisms have led her to act in villainous ways and whether or not a character is a villain is determined by their actions regardless of whatever goodness is in their heart. But anyway I do not like the pol!Jon theory. I think it’s out of character for Jon and needlessly cruel to Dany. I think it’s possible that he ultimately kills her and that could be fine and I don’t reject that theory, but I think the idea of Jon deceiving and sexually abusing Dany and then killing her for the sake of Sansa is what Dany fans think of when they think of over the top hate because they assume every Jonsa shipper also believes in pol!Jon.

I do understand why people thought Jon was deceiving Dany in the show though because their relationship was just so poorly executed and Kit and Emilia had no chemistry on screen. Imagine fucking up your show’s romance so badly that people think the script confirming that the love was mutual must have been tampered with.

Hi there!

(I think Dany is a compelling tragic villain, and it's lovely seeing someone loving her for it!)

I do think that pol!Jon (under duress, esentially) is a not unreasonable theory that grew out of the way the show presented their relationship. If there was sexual abuse I think it's fair to say it was in the hands of the more powerful party, though.

That said, I don't see it happening that way in the books at all and I think all characters will be better off for it. I agree it wouldn't feel right.

Certainly not in a punitive "you thought he would love you but he really loves Sansa, now die!!!" way. That cheapens jonsa as much as it cheapens the complexity of the conflict between Dany and Jon.

It's just a deeply uninteresting way to explore their existing conflict or their respective strengths. Not to be a hater but it's not exactly riveting literature watching Dany be manipulated by Daario and it's unlikely to be more so in a repeat performance with Jon who isn't even her type. Same as watching Jon go through a repeat of the abusive Ygritte plotline would be less than compelling.

We'll have instances of romantic manipulation. Littlefinger is practically begging Sansa to use his own obsession against him, and Arya gives us a preview when she lures Raff to his death wearing "Mercy's" face. That's been set up since the first book, and it works as a satisfying response to the way everyone has been telling Sansa how weak and simple she is. It's very personal, very steeped in their respective histories, very poetic.

But for Jon and Dany I think we can expect something more universal and even-handed than that. They are both at varying points manipulative and earnest, highly clever or unexpectly outmaneuvered. And neither will be in this conflict all alone and without advice. Not to mention, we have both of their POVs and watching one just miss all the clues of the other manipulating them would be flat. This only ever works with one POV withheld. The show tried that with Jon Snow live on the screen, to disastrous results. No way is that GRRM's plan.

I'd rather watch two clever adversaries play a big game of chess. And given GRRM's love for that game, I am certain it's also what he would prefer to write.

#anti jonerys #jon snow #anti daenerys targaryen #<- for filtering #jonsa #rouka ask

[somerabbitholes]

greetings. do you know any books that talk about the history of books/novels? 🌸

I think these should be good —

A History of Reading by Alberto Manguel: essays on what reading is, what it has been historically and philosophically

The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester: a history of the Oxford dictionary and how that came about/was put together

Bookshops by Jorge Carrion: less a history of books, more about reading and bookstores and the cultural value of the space. It's one of the most beautiful books I've ever read; the prose is so silky and poetic

The Library, a Fragile History by Andrew Pettegree: basically what it sounds like; about the institution, its personal and public life, and finally its cultural and political value

The Case for Books by Robert Darnton: looks at how writing and books and have been approached by societies, and through it, looks at how and if a case can be made for the material form of it to be preserved

The Book, a Global History by Michael Suarez and Henry Woudhuysen: an edited collection of essays about book-making, writing, and reading from all over the world

The Novel Before the Novel by Arthur Ray Heiserman: a history of the novelistic form; tries to position it in the development of modern intellectual history and modern pursuits of truth

If you want something very serious, there's The Novel: A Biography by Michael Schmidt and The Theory of the Novel by George Lukacs, although I wouldn't recommend Lukacs to start your reading with.

happy reading!

#books on books #book recs #answered #anonymous #booklr #reading

[shakesqueers13]

What on earth is going on with Richard III & what does it have to do with Shakespeare? A somewhat chaotic explanation by me:

So basically okay Richard III aka Richard Plantagenet aka Richard of the house of York was a king of England in the immediate line of succession prior to Shakesepare’s birth, and is part of the War of the Roses tetralogy which is a series of historical plays by Shakespeare depicting English history and culminating in Richard III’s short reign which did not go well because he was killed in battle almost immediately.

Side note, Richard III is one of Shakesepare’s earlier plays and is generally thought of as kind of an early draft of Macbeth - many of the ideas expressed in Macbeth are also in Richard III, namely the killing of innocent children & the idea of killing everyone to become king. (But I personally prefer it to Macbeth because it’s the first Shakespeare play where the character speaks directly to the audience and explains his thoughts! So Shakespeare’s Richard P is very cunty and constantly describing his evil schemes to the audience. He is one of the only Shakespeare characters who speaks the first line of his own play which I think is pretty cool.)

But back to politics, Shakespeare had to portray Richard III as a villain because the current English dynasty, the Tudors had defeated the house of York (of which Richard is famously a son of), so he had to be maligned in the play otherwise they wouldn’t have been able to put it on before Queen Elizabeth. Plus Shax also just loves a good anti-hero I think.

So if you haven’t read it, one of the things that happens in Richard III the play is that Richard has both of his nephews locked in the tower of London and subsequently murdered in a very evil way. It’s a super fucked up murder plot, and since this is an early play by Shakespeare, the style is much more sensationalized violence & less poetic than his later plays. Richard III is an objectively hilarious play as are many of Shax’s early tragedies because they’re just soooo messed up and evil, but anyway.

So, flash forward to 1998. Richard III had been killed in the Battle of Bosworth Field (we think) but no one had actually been able to locate his body. There was a popular theory that it had been tossed into a lake, but no actual proof. So somewhere in England… a lady named Philippa Langley who is… quite a character, read a biography of Richard III, and became incredibly incensed about the portrayal of Richard as an objectively evil character in Shakespeare’s play and in history due to the pressures of the Tudor dynasty, and she set out on this lifelong quest to exonerate Richard III. Due to her field of study, she is now a ‘Richardian’ aka someone dedicated to proving that Richard was really not so bad after all. I have mixed feelings about her and a lot of the shit she says is abjectly ridiculous. All her quotes about Richard iii imply that she’s in love with him and she always kind of talks about having a spiritual connection with him. But that’s not relevant because she kind of never misses & I have no choice but to stan.

Basically, her spiritual connection apparently successfully led her to Richard III’s body! Which was buried underneath a parking garage in Leicestershire. And she gave the direct quote, "I knew in my innermost being that Richard's body lay there" which is an odd thing to say. But she successfully identified the body through mitochondrial DNA and it actually was him! (The part of me that works in criminal defense is obliged to tell you that mitochondrial DNA is pretty spotty and not definitive evidence but for the sake of this essay we’ll say it is). Anyway, that discovery gave a lot of insight into the War of the Roses and Richard’s defeat and was huge news. So after she found his body, she decided to try to find the bodies of his nephews to attempt to prove that Richard didn’t kill them.

If you don’t know, there is a lot of history here… uh… so basically there were two skeletons found beneath the tower of London that people thought were the princes that Richard killed & basically it’s been agreed upon that that was them, it was just a question of whether Richard actually had them killed or if they just died of sickness or being too cold. But this lady now says that those skeletons are not the princes and may be too old!

She claims that after Richard III died at the battle of bosworth, two children emerged who fit the descriptions of the missing princes & made claims to the throne in 1487 and 1493 respectively, but they were thought to be imposters for a long time. However, Langley just uncovered a document which supposedly evidences the princes’ survival and eventual return to England. It seems that they were separated at the tower of london where they were thought to have died, but eventually made their way back to England. So, she hasn’t found their bodies yet but she’s currently trying to, and if she could that would be HUGE because she has the technology to do mitochondrial DNA identification and she might be able to prove that Richard didn’t kill his nephews which would be big historically because what happened to the princes is a huge question mark in history!

The best part of this all is that in the article she wrote about this for National Geographic (which unfortunately is not free to read but I can send screenshots if anyone wants) there’s a part where she says someone asked her what she was hoping to uncover with her investigation and she said “well hopefully a signed document in the princes’ hands describing what happened to them and where they went” and everyone laughed. And then there was just a photo of exactly that kind of document pasted in the article.

A Richardian mic drop if I ever read one.

#shakespeare #william shakespeare #dark academia #academia #Richard iii #Phillipa Langley #history #research

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

hi! i’m curious, what does “not being self-taught” mean? if i took English classes and extra creative writing classes does that mean i’m not 100% self thought? i was just wondering :0

No, I just meant that I have a Bachelor's in Creative Writing. Which is a weird degree, and not one you see much in the U.S.

But most people who go to school in the modern U.S. get at least ~10 years' education in writing and reading English. Obviously it's going to vary in quality and focus, but modern literacy is off the charts compared to 100 years ago. Which is everybody's win.

I've also been lucky with regard to high school English teachers, to be clear — I used to straight-up turn in fan fiction as homework and get passing grades for it. (I guess from Ms. S's point of view, my 15-page AU of Great Expectations about Magwitch and Mrs. Havisham conspiring to burn her house down, collect the insurance money, throw a lavish wedding, and run off to Australia under fake names.... at least proved I'd read Great Expectations? Which is more than most of my class could say?)

Most valuable of all: from 1st to 4th grade, I had teachers who'd assign the class to "write a page a day." What about? Didn't matter. Some people wrote diary entries, some people wrote lists of things they could see, some people (me) wrote about scientists saving the Titanic passengers through trying to turn them into fish but accidentally creating horrible mer-mutants instead. We weren't graded on grammar, or content, or handwriting, or whether trout-people could survive the North Atlantic; we were just graded on having written. That exercise (no offense to my professors) was better for my literacy than any college class on Poetics Theory or Advanced Essay could ever be.

#writing #literacy #education #fan fiction #english class #me age 12: estella would totally conspire to help her dad and stepmom commit insurance fraud together #me 20+ years later: you know what? estella WOULD conspire to help her dad and stepmom commit insurance fraud together I DESERVED THAT B+

[kvothes]

Can you recommend some poetic theory essays?

Also idk who Julien Baker is but wowwowowow hot.

she’s everything to me. i got into her music alone and then flipped my shit when the boygenius group got going. highly recommend :)

there are some books that i think are really solid for introductory stuff—mary oliver’s a poetry handbook and gregory orr’s a primer for poets and readers of poetry, for example. lately i’ve also been reading ben lerner’s the hatred of poetry.

if you’re further along than that and want to get into some denser theory, i rlly like mary ruefle’s essays in the book madness, rack, and honey.

finally, these are the essays in tabs i currently have open:

adam phillips, a poem is a walk

lyn hejinian, the rejection of closure

janice lee, on the limits and possibilities of the sentence

denise levertov, some notes on organic form

charles olson, projective verse

#poetry recs #ask #mine

[kneelingshadowsalome]

okay, so i’ve just finished your Just Friends fic, and now i’ve just been analyzing every aspect of this story because it’s that fucking good. and so personally, after all the psychoanalysis and interpretative symbolize i feel were very subtly connected with each other, i think that könig and engel… AND BARE WITH ME… are perfect for each other, i would even go as far as to say that they were probably meant for each other, and i mean, like, probably soulmates.

and before i get into this, i just want to say, as a disclaimer, i’m not romanticizing anything of this and i don’t condone any of this. this my own analysis on i what interpreted in your fic and why i feel this way.

anyway, their relationship is a great example of a twisted, dark, semi-toxic relationship, and i say semi-toxic because although these two are absolutely insane separately, könig’s sociopathic and personality tendencies and engels morbid curiosity and possible anti social tendencies of her own, together they compliment each other to the T. it’s no wonder why engel keeps going back to him, it’s not a matter of her not knowing any better or being naive, in fact it’s the complete opposite, she knows what she’s getting into, she loves it and she thrives off of it. engel revels in the forbidden realm of her fantasies that she tends to escape from, and now with könig, who so openly offers it to her, she is clearly driven by desire and lust of her own and will engage with it as much as possible so instinctively. at this point, she’s aware of everything könig can do for her, to her, and more, and i feel, after our conclusion of what we know, engel will definitely use that to her advantage, not necessarily to use him but to explore for herself and what he can continue for her. sure, it‘a possibly, definitely self-indulgent, and probably selfish of her, but she’s happy, and when she’s happy könig’s happy, and as long as she doesn’t cross a line that i’m pretty she’s knows könig have repeatedly emphasized, they will continue there escapades happily. and i would continue on to explain my own little theories about könig’s psyche and his future with her but this is getting too long.

i truly think that what they feel for each other is genuine, it may not be love, it may be obsession, but whatever it is, it’s there and they both aware of it. no matter how toxic it may be to the normal eye, no one can’t deny that when they’re together they’ve truly become one. i’m sure after everything they been through, they will be inseparable, they will become each other in their own right. i think they depend on each other more than ever, and in a way, that is poetically beautiful in the most fucked up of ways. i love it, i love you, i love what you created. thank you for reading my essay~

i would love to offer up some headcanons of my own in the future, but im not sure. o.o

Okay. Okay. Okay.

I'm fine! Everything's fine ❤️

First of all. I had to take the longest moment to cry sit and stare at a wall after reading your message. I will try and not make a fool of myself when I answer this, but... (I know I'm about to sound as crazy as König & Engel)

You don't even know how much this means to me 💕 because this is IT. This is exactly what this story is about. Your analysis is better, more profound and more nuanced than anything I could ever have written myself. *cries*

Reader explores her suppressed fantasies, the dark side of her soul through and with König, yes.

Just like we do here on tumblr when we're indulging ourselves in these silly little imagines...? I'm sorry if this makes people uncomfortable but that's just how I see it and as I've said before it's only healthy to have an outlet (and not forget humor while we're at it 🤍)

And so does König explore his light, angelic side with Engel! She represents everything he has cast outside of himself and wants to reclaim: innocence, kindness, softness, vulnerability, life, normality, even safety.

Sure, he also projects his mother wound (or whatever you wish to call it) onto her and seeks in her the nurturer he never had, the comfort and appreciation he never had. Engel on the other hand seeks a powerful protector and wants to let go of the stifling need to be sane and kind and conventional. She has agency: in the end, everything in this story happens as a result of her actions and decisions.

It's not healthy, it's not safe or sane, but it's genuine and it's a true attempt to live more honestly. They're both crazy, but I still believe that under the obsession and madness blooms a strange but strong love. They belong together!

And this is also the reason why she is special and König absolutely adores her – I haven't been succesful, perhaps, in trying to convince people of it because toxic König sorta has a life of its own nowadays but your analysis proved it all so beautifully that I can only say THANK YOU and also would you marry me please you're awesome I love you 🩷💖💋

And I'd LOVE to hear more of your headcanons! Feel free to ramble in my inbox anytime or if you feel comfortable enough I wish to remind (everyone) that my dms are always open too 💕

Thank you anon for your essay, it was the most delightful read and I think I'm going to go and cry a bit more now...!

#answered #yandere könig #just friends fic #i'm emotional #I loved this essay #this is like a writers wet dream #someone analyzing my fic like this i'm not okay #i'm coming apart at the seams in the most lovely way #good day bye bye #*flops*

[herohimbowhore]

Currently working on a special helmets analysis and the difference in how drivers present their helmets is hilarious and annoying.

Like Max Verstappen’s Vegas helmet announcement heavily focused on Vegas being the Neon Capital of the World. Which tbh as someone who’s lived in the US her whole life, I don’t think I’ve heard it before this helmet reveal. Entertainment capital yes, but never neon. Then there’s Charles Leclerc forgetting his 100th race with Ferrari and designing a helmet based on a football field… and of course later on saying he got inspiration from an Italian singer as well and how the green is for the green meadows where hope is born. All very poetic and definitely sounds like something I would’ve said on a discussion board for my classes on political theory or art history when I had no idea what was going on.

There’s also the Haas drivers in Abu Dhabi. As far as I can tell, at least for Kevin Magnussen, there was no post, article, anything to tell us why his helmet had a chrome/silver design to some parts. Just randomly saw him on the screen and thought well that looks different, then I had to go through a hundred different pictures to confirm that it was indeed not his normal helmet. With Nico Hulkenberg, JMD on Twitter confirmed that he had chrome/silver parts, but so far I have no explanation.

Meanwhile George had a whole ad video to announce that his Vegas helmet would have glitter/sparkle. And Max regularly makes short 1 minute videos explaining that he does indeed have a special helmet and what’s changed on it and sometimes he says why.

All of this is to say I would like some consistency in special helmet announcements. Like I really want to hear why they chose the design, why that GP deserved a special helmet, etc. I will sit through those videos or read essays on that.

Anyways, there’s 115 instances in which the drivers did not use their “normal” helmets (at least from what I have been able to determine after looking through pictures, articles, and social media). So far I’ve found explanations and clear pictures of 32 - including the GPs in which a special helmet design was repeated.

My original plan of having this done before new years is probably a long shot considering I still have 83 helmets to research and then do meaningful analysis.

But if anyone knows why the haas drivers had chrome/silver detailing for Abu Dhabi, why Daniel was wearing the Vegas helmet for Abu Dhabi, or why Esteban changed the white lines to black lines for his normal helmet that would be super helpful.

#formula 1 #hhw thoughts #max verstappen #charles leclerc #daniel ricciardo #f1 #special helmets #helmet analysis

[severepink]

Hey just wanted to say I loved your Adam essay and am hoping he’s brought back as a sinner because it would be so perfect for multiple reasons but the one I love the most is if the theory that the Roo character viziepop has been hinting at is actually Eve it would be appropriate and poetic if Lucifer, Lilith and Adam faced her together as they all likely contributed to Eve’s fall from grace and they got of pretty lightly: Adam went to heaven while Lucifer and Lilith got a kingdom (granted it was hell but they were still alive and Lilith seemed to love it). So yeah Roo would be the ultimate chicken coming home to roost for all three of them if she is indeed Eve

I heard about that from a friend in real life! I've really been enjoying the theories people are making about the potential between Eve and Lilith and this Roo character! I think it'll certainly be interesting to see where this will all end up going. Lots of plot pieces to pick at! Thank you so much for reading, I really hope we get more closure with Adam too. <3

#response

[ohmeadows]

Do you have any author/book recs for literary fiction? Or recs for beautiful writing (i.e. poetic, thought-provoking, interestingly structured sentences, haunting vibes, etc) in general?

tons, but i had to think on this so sorry it took me a while. i'm not including trigger warnings because honestly i'd forget half of the stuff others might find triggering, but you know. stay safe and research.

maddalena and the dark by julia fine had extremely poetic and beautiful writing, as well as a haunting vibe echoing through the pages.

the lonely city by olivia laing is a series of essays on art and artists and loneliness. probably one of the most thought-provoking books i've read on loneliness and the lengths we go to over it, as well as having an artistic practice rooted in it. highly recommend.

mourning diary and a lover's discourse by roland barthes. master of short fragment form, of turning just a few words into something you digest for days afterward. his theory books are rather heavy for me, but these are precious.

greek lessons by han kang. i love han kang's writing and this one delves into language in a very gentle, soulful way. painful and beautiful. probably a top 10 read of this year for me.

y/n by esther yi. i'm of two minds on this one. i wish it had been braver and weirder, but it is also really weird. it's about a woman who gets obsessed with a kpop band and it's very trippy, in the most positive way. i rated it a 3.5 because i felt it didn't carry itself to the finish line in a satisfying way, but it left me thinking.

love me tender by constance debré. on the limits of love in a corrupt system; debré came out as a lesbian and lost custody of her son because of it after her ex-husband made false accusations about "degenerate actions". she processes the slow, systematically enforced loss of time with her son and realizing he's a stranger to her now.

anything by maggie nelson, annie ernaux, édouard louis, sarah manguso, vivian gornick, anne carson. they all have very prolific releases to their names, i prefer their creative non-fiction/autofiction. i'd suggest looking through what's available and seeing if something grabs your interest here.

on earth we're briefly gorgeous by ocean vuong. masterpiece. i admire vuong's style and way of storytelling so much, i think he said "tell it true but tell it a slant". either way. love it.

natalia ginzburg is going through a revival as of late. i love her writing for the atmosphere, but think i prefer little virtues the most.

and for a tenth and final recommendation (for this round) the undying by anne boyer. nonfiction memoir/essay at its finest imo, she's unpicking illness and particularly her own cancer while exploring the cultural and historical aspects of illness, connecting it to other bodies of works. (can you tell i read a lot about illness and disability specifically?)

#ask meadows anything

[devourcss]

i might be talking out of my ass rn, but HEAR ME OUT ok??? So, i have this theory that when Hozier said "let me put my lips to something, let me wrap my teeth around the world", we all can infere that there's a sexual innuendo there, right? As he loves talking fancy instead of just saying that he's horny, like a normal person lol. But i think there might be a more concrete reference to that particular lyrics. Because what if, the world in question, was a reference to this painting: l'origine du monde???? That bastard is all for artistic innuendo, isn't he, so i wouldn't put it past him. Besides, how poetic would that be?

Think about it. L'origine Du Monde. The Origin of The World. And it's a coochie. That painting, by Gustave Coubert, was both revolutionary AND controversial back in 1866 and still is, today, for how it unabashedly praised and depicted female sexuality as the backbone of all godly creation. Sounds familiar, right? We see a lot of dicks in classical paintings, and male nudity in general, but... a vagina this up close? With no censor??? That was BALLSY (pun intended). But like, if you don't know the history behind it, basically, the guy who painted this was such a simp for his lover that he did a whole nude painting of her just straight up praising her coochie (like dayum she must have been a stone cold fox, right????). She's presumed to have been a rich, influential married woman, which he had an affair with. That would explain why he had to crop and hide the part of the painting that had her face in it not to expose her or cause scandal (had it been a prostitute, it probably wouldn't be necessary). It stayed a mystery for years and years but historians recently discovered the missing piece, which is arguably the actual face of his lover (and you can easily find it if you google it btw, do it!!! My Art History teacher had us discuss this painting and the gossip around it in class, last year, it was so fun.) ANYWAYS! Think about it. "Let me wrap my teeth around the world", and the world in question is a blatant reference to female sexuality made godly, the divine maker and destroyer of worlds. That is such a Hozier thing to say. Ughhh. I can't!!!

Even if it's just a theory, that is still the first thing my mind wanders to, when I hear these lyrics. I could write a whole essay about it, but I think a tumblr post will have to suffice.

#unreal unearth #hozier #eat your young #in conclusion: it's just another fancy way of asking his lover to eat her out

[bardinthezone]

Night Vale and the Power of Stories

So I’ve been losing my mind about this latest arc. Full hyperfixation. Studying for finals? Calling my parents? Enjoying other hobbies? Eating?? Who’s she, never heard of her. There is only the “#wtnv spoilers” tag.

Anyways, inspired primarily by this post, this post, and this post, I have been thinking about Night Vale as a place of stories.

Night Vale is a deeply weird place. It is a place where all the crazy conspiracies and contradictions and creepy crawlies can coexist (try saying that 5 times fast), and it is built on stories.

We know from “109: A Story About Huntokar” that Huntokar singlehandedly saved the town from nuclear destruction in 1983. This in and of itself is beautiful, tragic, terrifying and wonderful (I could write a whole essay on the lasting effects of the Cold War on the American psyche and how that’s impacted our media, but that’s not what this post is about). But what Huntokar says in describing this moment is fascinating: “ The people of Night Vale huddled, waiting for the end to their story.” The use of the word “story” here is so poignant and poetic. This was her town, a narrative she had lovingly followed since its inception, with an ever rotating cast of characters, finally seeming as though it would come to an end. And yet she managed to continue their story. The people of Night Vale, of every alternate universe Night Vale, are kept alive because Huntokar wanted to keep the narrative going. It is a town kept alive-- inverted and shattered and bizarre, but alive-- because someone saw the tale coming to an end and wasn’t satisfied with that. Night Vale is a place of stories.

And Cecil. Cecil Gershwin-Palmer is such a wonderful enigma. He’s a deeply troubled man, he’s the town’s beloved radio host, he is the voice of Night Vale. As the town’s only (?) regular source of news, he carries incredible weight in shaping the public’s perception of reality. It is his radio show that keeps the people informed through all of these earth-shattering events-- it is Cecil who, for as goofy and cringefail (thank you @bigcommunist for that phrase) as he can be, has been responsible for keeping his citizens safe. In “227: A Word With Dr. Jones,” Dr. Janet Lubelle notes that one of his traits is “town leadership.” When Cecil speaks, things happen. He rallies the people, against Strexcorp or the Beagle Puppy or Steve Carlsberg and his dry, dry scones. Hell, he says “weather” and everyone stops, or sometimes (Like in “204: Audition”) it literally saves his life. @lostboywriting raises a fascinating theory about Cecil having inadvertently brought the Faceless Old Woman into existence through his repression of his complicated relationship with his mother-- and while this contradicts with the backstory presented in "The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives Inside Your Home," who’s to say that both origins can’t be true, with how splintered and fractured Night Vale’s existence (and especially relation to time) is? Perhaps Cecil, as the Voice Of Night Vale, is capable of changing the world more than he knows.

Either way, this is why Dr. Lubelle’s Explaining of the town has so much of a tangible effect on it-- because she’s coming in and using something “empirical” to change the narrative. That is why she’s so threatening-- because how do you argue with the facts? How do you argue with science? She is using logic to insist that her reality is right, that these stories and poetics used to keep the town alive are meaningless. That it would be better for them to not exist than to exist outside her narrative. She said it herself-- she cannot imagine that anyone thinks differently to herself about anything, and she is all to happy to provide any who disagrees with an Explanation. No matter the cost.

In 227, Cecil remarks that “Science is not good or bad, as language is not good or bad, as religion is not good or bad, because humans are not inherently good or bad.” This sets up a fascinating play between science, language, and religion that I think is perfectly encapsulated by Dr. Lubelle, representing science, Cecil, representing language, and Huntokar, representing religion. Whether she knows it or not, Dr. Lubelle is directly undoing all of the hard work of Huntokar, and attempting to use Cecil as the most powerful tool at her disposal.

And this works in conjunction with my distinction of the What vs. the Why. We can take the incursion point of November 7th, 1983, and view it through both lenses. From Huntokar’s perspective, we get the Why: Night Vale was in danger, and it needed saving, so she saved it. But from Dr Lubelle’s perspective, we just get the What: Night Vale was the target of a nuclear missile. Nuclear missiles are unstoppable by any force known to science. This is a town that should have been empty for 40 years.

I posit a world in which Dr. Lubelle reduces Night Vale to what it “should be:” A town ruined by nuclear destruction. The empirical facts, the anchors that held Night Vale down to reality, the threads that Huntokar broke-- Dr. Lubelle is seeking to tie them back together. And with the Voice of Night Vale on her side, Explained and ready to share the Truth, of course she can make that happen. Perhaps Huntokar takes center stage again to show that science is not the end-all-be-all. Perhaps Carlos steps in to replace Dr. Lubelle as the Scientist in this equation, to provide a good alternative to her callous methods. 

Or I could be totally off-base with that prediction. I imagine the bodies being dug up in the sand wastes and the murals of flesh will play a major role in the finale. Maybe she’ll uncover the splintered realities of Night Vale and won’t know how to explain them away. Hell, people keep hyping up a Desert Bluffs return, what with the Sandstorm tapes and the talk of doubles-- Maybe Kevin and Lauren will be the “religion” in the triumvirate, and drive Dr. Lubelle mad with their unrelenting fervor. Who knows? I have my theories, but I’m just excited to see where this all goes.

.

Also from a meta perspective, this is 100% harkening back to all those early-days fan theories that “Night Vale is a normal town and Cecil is just off his rocker” (Thanks @maxgicalgirl for that one!). Welcome To Night Vale is a show that has never been about continuity and tight lore-- it’s about spinning a fun narrative, it’s about the poetry, the music, the aesthetics; it’s about everything that Dr. Lubelle HATES. From a meta perspective, Dr. Lubelle is every theorist who tries to ruin the magic of a story, who nitpicks it endlessly because it doesn’t adhere to how the “real world” functions. She doesn’t care about why story elements are included, she just needs what’s included to adhere to her worldview. And I can’t wait to see her get taken down, no matter how it happens.

Thanks again to @maxgicalgirl, @lostboywriting, @eclipse-song​, and everyone who’s been sharing their thoughts about the latest arc on tumblr. I would not be writing this without y’all!!

#im sorry to everyone who says shes hot but shes basically a colonizer #''im new to your community but your culture is backwards and wrong'' #''let me fix it with my superior science and reasoning'' #shes so evil i hate her /pos #finknor wrote her so well #and janet varney is an incredible VA #i cannot express how much I love this arc so far #i really hope we get more on the 1983 storyline because that is just positively fascinating #a town that should have died long ago #that should have been reduced to ashes #and yet here they are #lubelle would fucking hate that if she found out #also WHATS GONNA HAPPEN TO EVERYONE WHO GETS EXPLAINED??? #cause if cecil is getting explained i dont think itll be permanent #but #ough its just so GOOD #also carlos. my man. where are you. when are you gonna show yourself #when will we get to know your tragic backstory cause there is SOMETHING going on there #i swear she was just trying to get to carlos and the rest of the town was an added bonus #wtnv spoilers #wtnv 227 #wtnv #welcome to night vale #welcome to night vale spoilers #cecil gershwin palmer #dr janet lubelle #uowii #huntokar