#sometimes you just read fiction

[glitterghost]

Being ace can be pretty isolating at various times, for varying reasons that I don't feel like I have to explain because if you are ace, you probably get it.

#asexual #ace #pride #vague post but you know..*gestures to nothing* #i dont think i even need to expand on this #aromantic #could be thrown into this as well #things are just sometimes frustrating when people dont get it #if you read tags cook bc here we go a bit #there is always this talk of being left behind or being forgotten about or whatever #and yeah its true and when things happening almost in succession that makes it even more aware and apparent that yeah you kinda do get left #behind a bit* #so many ppl want marriage and or kids and its like #what about the people that want to hold on to things as they currently are? #to friends and books and cats and fictional feelings #and the way some ppl you know talk about how people gradual drift apart? #like thats a full on decision #thats not always a mutual thing #people leave at times and another person that might not be ready to end that connection with a person has to navigate their way through it #on their own #but like society is so weird to people that dont want the predictable life path #as you get older questions become are you married #do you have kids like its expected #where are the questions like whats the latest book youve read #whats your current favorite fandom #what makes you happy or brings you joy or whats a good thing about today? #not sure where im cycling down into with this bc theres too much to touch on #but not everyone wants sex or kids or marriage or crippling responsibilities of adulthood #sometimes we just want a hobbit hole to disappear into #a friend to text or pizza to eat or something funny to laugh at

[bluebobatea]

if sasuke was the main character then he probably would've been a LOT more sympathised with than he is now (which is to say rarely). like the narrative wouldn't even need to change to show his pains or 'his side of the story', bc it does that plenty. it's just that he is not the main character. and idk what it is about our human minds but we tend to sympathise with main characters automatically (unless ofc you go off the rockers insane and do something like obliterate almost everyone from the planet *cough* eren yeager *cough*)

an instance that comes to my mind where this does happen is with lelouch from code geass. while i don't agree with his character motivations, people generally do sympathise with him as he is the mc and as viewers we know he isn't inherently evil. sasuke's goal towards the end is slightly similar but ofc people love to hate him so they don't even try to understand where he is coming from.

my point is, most people while engaging with the naruto story don't read between the lines and so don't see how traumatised and in pain sasuke is and hence don't understand his character motivations. heck, they don't understand a single bit about him and so they automatically hate him, as he is supposedly going against the main character's goals.

which is really sad given all that he has been through.

#there are bajillion other reasons people hate him for #honestly i have lost track of the stupid reasons i have seen people give for hating him #and sometimes they just do without any reason *not even exaggerating* unfortunately #im like yeah go on hate him. you guys obv don't have enough brain cells to comprehend his character #they never understood him. and it's not like any kind of reasoning is gonna make them change their minds #and it's not like one needs to do a deep character analysis to understand him. it's literally right there. #all you have to do is stop worshipping konoha and its militaristic policies and the people who enact said policies. #and also the people who enforce those policies while subtly hating them but can't do anything bc it's dictatorship :) #but maybe that's too much to ask of them bc that would mean they would need to question their political views #and we can't have that right bc it's all just fiction in the end right? and fiction exists in a void :) (yes I'm being sarcastic jc) #like the amt of times i have heard people say “you don't need to take this so seriously it's just fiction” #umm you do know that fiction is inspired by real life events right??? #tldr: most people throw away their brains while engaging with nart media and have zero reading comprehension skills #this turned into yet another rant T T why am i like this AAAAAAAAAAA #sasuke #uchiha sasuke #sasuke uchiha #pro sasuke #pro uchiha #anti konoha

[aromacaque]

you want to analyze a cartoon that is something children can watch? ok here's the first and most important lesson ever.

have you ever heard of "suspension of disbelief?"

ok. next step. do you know what an unreliable narrator is and can you separate the character's perspective and opinions from the writers? because i promise you that the beliefs of the main character do not always reflect the writers and the point of analyzing media is to dissect that.

#like guys sometimes the silly jokes in the cartoon are JUST silly jokes you gotta let them be silly jokes #sometimes the shenanigans are super outlandish because it's a FICTIONAL CARTOON where sentient AIs and magic exist #i promise you. I PROMISE YOU that rottmnt's mind meld was not some elaborate problematic take on eugenics of all things #<- an actual thing i read with my own eyes #like i promise you that is literally not what the episode was doing #'they kept saying they made his brothers smarter which is incredibly ableist because it implies they weren't smart before' #ahem. it was donnie's idea of smarter #you know donnie. the one who constantly puts his intelligence on a pedestal to boost his ego #it was HIS definition of smarter and that is not the narratives definition #i think the series makes that abundantly clear with how much they make fun of donnie for whatever superiority complex he's got going on #and (in the nicest way possible) if you watch the episode it's not actually that they're getting 'smarter' what is actually happening #is that they are beginning to act more and more like donnie personality wise #and that the conflict starts with donnie feeling like they don't fully understand him. #and since donnie is a flawed character his way of coping with that is by being like 'well clearly they're inferior to my intelligence!' #(which .. if you really dissect his character is not actually what he means he just doesn't know how to constructively word his feelings)

[existencebringsonlypain]

I may have posted about this before, but I don't understand the whole proshipper/anti debate. As far as I understand, I'm on the side of proshippers (i think fiction is fiction and doesn't have to reflect reality. because it's fiction.), but what I don't get is why there's such a clear defined binary, and why there's such animosity between the two. It's just a difference in opinion, like any other, isn't it? I understand that either group can "take it too far" (though i dont really get how proshippers could be TOO okay with problematic ships). but i really think either viewpoint is fine to a degree, they both have logic behind them, and it's just a matter of preference, isn't it?

#what i think i'm getting about why proshippers dislike antis so much is the restrictiveness? #but i dont. i doubt antis really want. like. any problematic relationship to either be eradicated or punished. #i'm willing to guess it's closer to “i don't want relationships that have issues + the narrative doesn't provide anything to challenge them #for me i think that's just kinda uninteresting storytelling but it shouldn't be BANNED. yk. #the idea of fiction is getting to see the world from another perspective. #and some perspectives are fucked up. that's just a fact. in fact it's often more fun to read fiction from someone who's “morally wrong” #because you get to see how they tie themself into knots to justify their actions. #but i completely get why someone might not like that. sometimes it's difficult to read a story where the pov is an asshole. #so just don't read it! it doesn't have to be a big deal! i dont get it #existenceunrelateds #antis #proship #proshipper #antiship #antishipper #proshippers please interact #antis please interact #i want group discussion!

[hauntedpearl]

thinking thoughts about things and such but I do wonder if cas had, say, an amnesia moment or whatever and dean did dean things which would include kidnapping him and keeping him in an underground bunker etc etc you understand. like if and when cas does come back to himself. i do wonder. if his freaky ass would be so into it that he'd jump dean's bones about this violation of human rights. i do wonder.

#like. I'm just saying. the OH HE WANTS ME of it all. like. OMG YOU. YOU KEPT ME NEAR YOU???? #like brother he was. he had you like straight up in the dungeon brother get out #but he won't listen you know #doe is talking again #spn posting #destiel is toxic? to the world probably. but they are making it work and they're happy about it so you know. it's. whatever #btw. btw. I'm sleeping deprived again. well not exactly. I'm just sleepy. it's bc I'm sleeping all weird these days :( #I will go have lunch now. ans then I will sleep. #i am also reading this book about cardiology and it's very interesting but it's also non-fiction so it's slow going yk #anyway ask me about things I can talk sometimes! #about destiel #Castiel you little freak you you!!! #ps: dean would also be into it if it were to happen the other way around. altho i do think non-godstiel cas would not do that to him. #okay byeeeee

[nostalgia-tblr]

The immense satisfaction that comes from saying "wait, how old is this book?" when Amazon tries to sell me a very old-fashioned-looking work for 'just £1.99' and then finding it on Project Gutenberg for free instead.

#that history book from 1900 is going to be very out of date but sometimes there's some appealing element in there #and obvs many primary sources themselves are already old anyway #and old fiction too! mary shelley wrote a novel about perkin warbeck! (i need to get round to reading that one) #70000 free books you are bound to want at least one of them right? #has the author been dead for long enough that you think of them as a historical figure? their work is probably free by now! #tumblr faves Moby Dick and Dracula are there you know. Sherlock Holmes! Oscar Wilde and Jane Austen. Mary Shelley AND her mum! #protip: rename the files as you download them otherwise you'll never guess which is which as the filenames are just numbers #*slaps the roof of project gutenberg* you can fit so much out-of-copyright material in this thing.

[quorras]

every time i see someone call tron 'cyberpunk', i lose ten years off my lifespan

#note to self literally never read letterboxd reviews of movies i like i cant do it anymore kdjfgkdssd #say you saw the movie and the plot and visuals went right over your head without saying it #like. in what world is tron dystopic?? cyberpunk in itself is an offshoot of dystopian fiction. tron is not about an imagined future #tron is about an imagined PRESENT. thinking about our PRESENT relationship with technology in relation to the times each film was released #tron is in equal measures hopeful and critical about technology. that is NOT cyberpunk #the only CyberPunk that matters in tron is the Tron2.0 character of the same name #i will admit that tron's plot is cyberpunk derived but its. idk man its not the same thing #thematically its different. visually i think tron shares developmental artists with blade runner where the cyberpunk visual stereotype was #- established #but blade runner is more pure cyberpunk thematically than tron is. does that make any sense #and. and. listen to me. i am number one retrofuture fan. i love syd mead. i love moebius. but listen. just because they worked on tron - #- does NOT mean tron is thematically OR visually retrofuturistic either!! the visuals match the time it was made!! thats not retrofuturism! #thats normal scifi based on the every day!!! #tron is a sandbox and at the end of the day anyone can do whatever they want its all just for fun #at the same time. the entire story of tron is being severely misrepresented when labelled as cyberpunk. and it makes me sad #these are very shallow thoughts i just miss literary thematic analysis sometimes. my film studies classes cannot come soon enough #rex speaks

[fitzrove]

[shaking and biting] but what does it MEAN. what does it SAY what is the THEME

#akkdlflf i watched this long lecture video abt austrian national identity and the researcher said 'the austrians are quite adept at #selling the austro hungarian monarchy back to tourists incl ones from former parts of the empire... but even in the imperial nostalgia they #don't want back multilingualism or multiculturalism or any of what it actually was' #(it was a lot abt the way in which austria deals with orban's hungary in and after the 2015 refugee crisis) #ajskgldo and that just made me think about... how pointless some things feel. both in fiction and in academic research #you CAN say meaningful things about almost any topic and with almost any argument! but in some strands of history trying to 'uncover events' #with no exploration of the context and what it all MEANS and what the things we think about it mean #is the most prevalent and popular type of research :/ like there's a reason i overrely on hamann's bio of rudolf because her central thesis #is that he wasnt a crazy murderer but someone with a forward-thinking political vision that went as far as suggesting a sort of 'proto-EU' #among other things #so like. she is looking at what it all MEANS!!! #and like. my favourite todolf fanfics are also like that 😂😭 perhaps not abt politics but about suffering and power dynamics and guilt #same for original fiction. i'm never happy if a book i'm reading isnt saying something #or then again - this is more personal pickiness but. they should also be saying something NEW AND INTERESTING #a lot of the time. sometimes if you have a fave trope you can just enjoy it over and over #but idk even tropey stuff can say things #ajlsldkfkf i'm just so tired of kitsch in all its forms and also of bad science

[lieutenant-amuel]

People always justify “awkward quirky teenage girls” by saying what teenage girl would not be awkward and quirky as if all teenage girls are the same.

#Personal #But you know even if you’re right not all teenage girls would be awkward the same way #I have nothing against ‘quirky girls’ man I do LOVE this type #but just stop saying that they’re like that only because they’re teenage girls #this is freaking annoying #You know adults also can be awkward #And sometimes people are awkward without any reason this is just their personality trait #It depends on a person people don’t have the same personalities simply because they fit into the same demographic category lol #(yeah this is after I read some takes about Asha) #I don’t mind her being quirky but I beg you don’t say she’s quirky because she’s seventeen #There is no universal experience of being a teenage girl #And please she’s a fictional character I want her to be entertaining not fit into age developmental characteristics

[ejunkiet]

Am I the dummie who has been wondering why she has been fighting a migraine all week while simultaneously devouring books on a tiny old phone with a speed she hasn't reached since she was 12?

Yeah. Eyestrain is real folks. I've swapped over to my paper white, which I've had the whole time, just didn't think to use for some reason sksksks

#in my defence the books I'm reading are very bingeable #i actually paid for a month of KU past the trial (shock horror) while i ride this trashy book phase out 😂 #sometimes you just want to read a book where you don't need to think much #or three #I've gotten through 600 words this weekend #and i uh don't really skim #i'm an immersive reader - I'm slower because I'm watching the whole thing play out #so this is FAST for me #and the eyestrain is real 😂 #such a dummy!! this wasn't rocket science! #but I stare at screens all day anyway #the tiny phone screen wasn't working for me #the last time i had a migraine was because of bg3......... where i played it the same amount of hours as my fulltime job..... #but honestly I'll happily take this over the insane migraines i got at my last job where my vision fucked up because of stress #and burn out ahahahaha #this is why i switched to audio books for a while but i'm so picky about narrators and the pacing #plus this is. trashy fiction. 😂 #i'll return from this rabbit hole soon.... #tbd

[saviourkingslut]

not to be about opera again but to be about opera again. as an art form it has the reputation of being super stuffy and something for snobs who don't know how to have fun only but honestly this was one of, perhaps even THE main theatrical entertainment for centuries. i wish people knew how hard these things can go and how engaging they can be. like characters kill and die and fight wars and (almost) commit human sacrifice left and right. characters fall in love they mourn they're ecstatic they cry they're furious it's an extremely dramatic and emotional art form! and i understand that opera does not appear approachable bc of the general conventions of the art form but i promise old works can be fun and engaging if you go watch them with some preparation beforehand (reading the libretto helps) - not to mention not all operas are old bc there are so many modern operas which engage with topical events! also the music slaps.

#le triomphe de trajan (1807) out here calling for a man's execution with this banger: #point de grace pour ce perfide; que tout sons sang coule sur un autel #(no grace for this treacherous man; let all his blood flow on an altar) #this is also annoying to me when people write historical fic and the characters treat the opera as this elitist thing #that they don't know anything about. #you know when they go to the opera reluctantly and then they have no idea what's going on on stage or who the composer is. #which is. very unlikely for anyone with the money to attend an opera in certain opera houses in the 19th c. tbqh #like im more of an expert on paris and vienna idk what it was like in london #but if you were decently (upper) middle class or nobility (esp in paris) you went regularly. this was like a whole social space too #i recently read a fanfic and one of the characters was like 'oh it's in italian. i don't know that' and the other character went like #'it's by a man called donizetti what did you expect' #(this was situated in 19th century london) #like first of all. donizetti was NOT a librettist he was a composer he did not write the text #and second of all. he worked on french operas ?? so did rossini. and spontini. #opera was an incredibly international art form. also bc productions would be performed in different countries all the time #(sometimes changed and/or translated but not necessarily) #and again like i said. this was one of THE main forms of entertainment. people were familiar with its conventions! it was well-liked! #ofc bc of the seating prices it was not very accessible to lower classes most of the time #but lbr most characters that get written into an opera scene in fiction are at the very least decently bourgeois lol #i wish people knew how to properly historicise forms of entertainment whose reputation has changed in the modern era #from what it was a century or more ago #very adjacent to people 'cancelling' old lit bc of 'bad takes' like idk how to tell you this but people thought different back then #completely different world view from what we have today. that does not make lit from that era irredeemable it is just from a diff. time #acknowledging that and reading the text critically but also still enjoying it are things that go tgt here #ok rant over (it is never over) #curry rambles

[ottiliere]

I love crawling out of the depths, opening up tumblr, and seeing your art. I love it.

it is quite interesting how social media can fall to the wayside, and people on the internet can just disappear forever if they really wanted to! I admit I struggle to keep up with "public accounts", they are uniquely stressful and I solute your hibernating tenacity. always lovely to see you resurface regardless, thank you very much for the lovely compliment...

I will say in case any of my dear followers were wondering where i've gone for the past month and a half, for weeks i've been pondering how to even broach the enormity of the topic that is: I made the mistake of thinking about my most favorite character for more than 2 minutes in one sitting. I intentionally go out of my way to avoid this and have many strategies to evade this occurring because every time I do enter a sort of hermetically sealed mental chamber where it's just me and him and his life and I begin to ignore all points of previously established social contact and also my health indefinitely. It's difficult to convey the emotional experience of this or its psychic magnitude. and it's hard to say "guys i really love this character!" because that's just words. you can't see it. the 10 years of obsessively thinking about some guy so intensely on&off cyclically until you've made 20 different worlds he's living in... how does one convey the depth of these without artistically depicting them as you see them to be...? i am trying to figure it out. currently planning a longform comic for my favorite and several smaller comics for others, but logically an individual can understand this takes a while... he and I have had multiple rendezvous over the past decade and I wish I had more "historical" art to show but for many of these years I have been a bit too physically disabled to draw, the past several weeks have been spent attempting to recreate his ideal form as he exists in my head. he is starting to come around!

I typed up three separate disquisitions last month to try and explain my feelings on him and none of them felt like the proper vessel to communicate this concept. which is likely for the best. the obvious answer is "just draw him". fine with this being the case, difficult when I have so many drawing ideas I'm now sitting on 100+ works in progress and they just keep accumulating since my brain generates these like an old laptop you leave in the corner of your room to mine bitcoin. in a way I'm content with this being a very "personal" experience thus far, shared with me and those in my inner social circle (really cannot emphasize to my readers enough how fandom can poison your constitution without self-checked moderation). however... I yearn to meet others who are as passionately involved with him as I am, because I think we could coalesce our ideas, and passion, into something beautiful...

^dio brando

#lucy art #might seem humorous to you that I get so emotional over dio brando every day that I get nauseated and sometimes cry. but tis my atlas #i could not tell you if jojo is actually good by the way outside of sbr which is the best part objectively #dio relapses occur ~once every 2 years and whenever they do i reread dio the invader thirty times and nothing else in the series #hes the only character ive ever bought merchandise for..I hated history until I met him now i can't read any kind of fiction but historical #sorry by the way to use your innocuous compliment as an excuse to talk about dio. wish it was not contrarian to my nature to just make #''posts'' publicly unprompted. i prefer to journal... i don't know how active I will be after this post even. will likely just go back to #sitting with him in a dark room until I finish any/all of the projects I've started #which is mildly unfortunate since I love to collaborate in the marketplace of ideas... my compatriots are out there somewhere #jojo is more popular than it was ''back in my day'' i don't know maybe some of you guys like it. asks always welcome lord knows #I've already pestered my friends with thousands of words about him already over this past month #sidenote: sasha askblog is not abandoned + never will be... it is a fun side project. like many things in life. much planned for him too

[hexjulia]

trained to write historical fiction through hard labour in the canonically accurate silmarillion fanfiction mines

#JOKING i wrote historical fiction before my brief pandemic encounter with silm fic #but it is pretty funny. to write decent silm fic you need a reference document. several maps. to keep track of the dates #sometimes i read actual published (AEUGH) historical fiction where the author was very clearly not doing even just the level of #silm fanfic research. BUDDY WHAT THE FUCK are you doing. classicists are almost as bad as your average silm person #they WILL get pissy

[the-busy-ghost]

"Oh it would have been more satisfying if the humans had invented a technology which defeated the Martians rather than have them killed off by accident just when humanity's impotence in the face of disaster seems to be confirmed". I

To me that's just a fancy way of saying "Yeah but humans could totally handle the Martians and the writer has a duty to reassure the audience of that!"

Sir we cannot even handle climate change and I'm sorry to tell you that it's not entirely due to a lack of technological expertise

#In all fairness maybe we can handle climate change we don't know yet but it's going to take a lot more than a fancy new invention #As for war and genocide and all the other human ills that we can't seem to solve how do you think the atomic bomb worked out #And when I say technology or science I don't just mean in the normal STEM sense #As a history student you end up asking a lot whether your subject is actually beneficial to society or capable of solving anything #Or the political sciences- was the League f Nations or even today's UN a success? #Maybe if we just keep learning and studying we can solve it! Well maybe. But what will humanity look like when we're done? #Anyway I'm getting a bit far from the point of the War of the Worlds but maybe I'm just not enough of a science fiction nut for this convo #Maybe the image of societal collapse impressed itself on me more strongly than any delight over long-winded explanations of alien machines #Maybe it would be different if I'd read the book hoping for a good story about aliens #rather than to read one man's uncomfortable rather pessimistic views on what an alien invasion might tell us about human ity #I am simply asking certain fans to sometimes Dig a Little Deeper #Alright rant really over this time #...maybe #It's just that there are so many potential issues with that book but honestly I can't accept that the ending is one of them #Even the hint at the end that since the Martians proved it possible maybe some day humans might colonise other planets I just !!!!!

[lucy-ghoul]

................. not to rain down on anyone's parade but barely characterized 14 year old lucerys could never have the swag eleanor or henry had

#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #again you do you per carità i'm not here to judge anyone's taste because then i'd be a fucking hypocrite #but this still made me laugh #maybe because i never really understood the hype around luke/aemond. i mean i get it on a intellectual level #but there are so many juicier pairs in hotd that while i understand why people would ship it i'm not sure why it's so popular #no hate to the pairing or anything of course. you can ship whatever you want! #but this reeks of the usual inflated m/m ship with one (or two) fictional men with weak or barely acknowledged characterizations #while incredibly complex female characters (at least in comparison) are JUST THERE #again this is not a hate post about the ship or slash pairings (OBVIOUSLY!!) #but still. in any case the eleanor/henry dynamic fits better with rhaenicent or maybe daemyra tbh #like... even when i love a ship with all my heart i wouldn't assign *every* possible au to them but only those who fit their characters bes #if my otp is a etl ship i wouldn't want to read or write a childhood friends to lovers au because what i like about them #is that they fucking hate each other's guts and perpetually try to kill the other (before falling in love... and sometimes even after) #if a pairing is more p&p like i really couldn't get into a wuthering heights au even if i'd recognize it's magnificently written #because that's not what these characters and their dynamic are. it would be projection #at this point i would prefer to read/write about two ocs ngl #again in fandom you can do whatever you want i'm no one and i could never tell you what you can or can't like. that'd be ridiculous #and idw the op of that post to feel bad about it. it's just my personal preference/opinion on fanworks that's all #val speaks #val rambles in the tags #txt

[musical-chick-13]

"but there just AREN'T any well-written women in aNyTHiNg I interact with"

DO TEN MINUTES OF RESEARCH.

WATCH BETTER SHOWS. READ BETTER BOOKS.

THERE IS A VERY SIMPLE SOLUTION HERE.

#love when a post is a free blocklist #jesus fucking christ #mel screams about fictional ladies again #THERE ARE A BUNCH OF US WHO TALK ABOUT THIS SHIT ALL THE TIME ASK US ABOUT IT #ppl say this as if there aren't plenty of flatly-written boring male characters too. who still get popular. or like. expanded on by fandom #look I know I complain about this LITERALLY every day but if your response is just 'there are no good women in anything :(' then #a) you're an idiot and b) I don't want to talk to you because I cannot help you #like stfu and deal with your misogny like at some point you have to learn how to care about women #(YES obviously fiction isn't reality & this isn't the end all be all of activism but WE GOTTA FIX THE LITTLE STUFF TO CHANGE THE BIG STUFF) #(there's also something in here about how a lot of the male characters who tend to be hated more-in my experience-look or #act more in line with what society considers 'stereotypically feminine' which is. we don't have time to get into that right now) #ANYWAY. #MAYBE YOU COULD WATCH/READ THINGS THAT ARE /CREATED/ BY WOMEN SOMETIMES TOO!!!! (not that that will automatically #fix the problem. obviously women can be shitty writers too.) #consider these posts to be my rent-lowering gunshots #:)