#the not reallt a sequel but def related book to HOTE

[soldier-poet-king]

I was writing some thoughts down about a book I'm halfway through (I am trying not to let things stew in my brain as much. Writing incoherent thoughts is good for my nerves) and it's a fantasy 'let's get the gang back together' fetch quest featuring a 60 smthn yr old protag but also I wrote, imo, the best thoughts I've ever had about coming of age stories and my unconventional love of them . An excerpt bc you don't need all my thoughts about the book specifically:

Life is a constant state of becoming, a coming of age novel is supposed to be about growth and self discovery and inching your way towards some sort of peace (loosely defined). If we're a different self everyday, if we are constantly changing and growing, I think all good stories are, in a way, coming of age novels. We're all just, coming of a certain undefined age. We often speak of selves as discrete phases "the former self" as if they're completely disconnected to who we are now, as if our current selves are not just a blend and growth of everyone we have been and are becoming. I hate the common equation of coming of age with "grim or edgy novel about teens and the loss of innocence" because it can be so much more than that! It should be so much more! There no clear loss of innocence, no clear delineation between childhood and maturity, there's no automatic flipped switch in real life. We're never "done" while we're still living, there's no Telos or permanent state of self in life, so how can coming of age be limited to teens? We're ALWAYS in a state of becoming and that is the most wonderful thing I've ever believed

Sometimes "that's just the (innate) human condition" is a source of immeasurable Joy and Hope

#franposting #bear in mind its not actuallt THAT COHERENT #i just managed to put it into words! #which for me is a lot th #tbh #coming of age #bildungsroman #take that english prof who i loathed and totally misunderstood human life #anyway yes i am reading the return of Fitzroy anguersell #the not reallt a sequel but def related book to HOTE #bc the HOTE sequel is out but i havenr read it yet #but i gotta read TROFA and i think the pali avrumpal bk first #and ill probs reread hotebc i rlly did love it that much #THERES NOT ENOUGH HRS IN THE DAY ;-; #anyway. consider. I'm incoherent #im tired. it's late. ive been so sad for weeks. my bodys falling apart. im not wearing my glasses bc i said i was goinf to sleep #but now im squinting ar mt phone half an inch frok mt face like a bad person #ILL GO SLEEP NOW #but pls come talk to me abt books ans stories ans rhe human condition ans states of becoming and life ans possibility #storytelling as a mirror through which we understand ourselves and the world and each other etc et c e tc #ALSO eden if u see this it was partially inspired by u #i cant remember the context but you said smthn abt coming of age and growth and its been banging around my brain since #and it articulated this thing ive tho8ght and felt but never had the words for