vaguelyaperson

[vaguelyaperson]

I’m getting really tired of the wise serene pacifist trope in fiction. Every committed pacifist, prison abolitionist, antiwar activist, etc I’ve ever met in real life has been vibrating with compressed rage at all times. Do you know what it’s like to believe deeply in your heart that doing harm to others is wrong and the goal of society should be to alleviate suffering for all people and live in the United States of America? IT’S NOT FUN. Show Us The Pissed-Off Pacifists. 

#holy shit i am finally seen

[vaguelyaperson]

heroism is temporary. fanboyism is forever

#bnha

[vaguelyaperson]

Murasaki Shikibu's classic novel "don't create the torment nexus," specifically, 'men stop forcing women into your ideals of romance, you're literally killing them' challenge, misunderstood. Centuries of Japanese women now expected to adhere to the feminine standards of the torment nexus.

#the tale of genji #murasaki shikibu #sorry lmao i'm not done #i can't get over this novel and its reception #a literal groomed child is upheld as the standard for a perfect wife #jesus christ y'all #the literary scholarship by Japanese women on this classic is INSANE #absolute tell all

[vaguelyaperson]

reading literary scholarship on the Tale of Genji; here's my impression lmao

[Image ID: discussing something with philosophers vs discussing something with a toddler meme; philosophers' side is dubbed "Japanese women scholars" and quotes 'Written by and for women, the Tale of Genji is about the culture and expectations held to Japanese women; owned by fathers and husbands, these women are trapped in what the male characters perceive as great romances - their only means of agency is to be so perfect a wife that they continue to receive support from their husband.' The toddler side is dubbed "Western male scholars" and quotes 'Yes, the Tale of Genji IS a novel with very pretty aesthetic!' End ID.]

#sorry for quality #made this on my phone #can i get 200 for posts that only appeal to me #the tale of genji #murasaki shikibu

[vaguelyaperson]

JANELLE MONAE Rolling Stone Magazine.

[vaguelyaperson]

No in between. Reblog if you vote pleas

#it's warm #especially in the sunshine #it's a very pleasant warmth

[vaguelyaperson]

harvard has fallen

[vaguelyaperson]

the worst part of being a voracious reader is reading all these amazing series that deserve a vibrant fandom and movie/show deals yesterday, but there are only a few passionate fans doing their best and like five fanarts. mother I crave more attention for my book blorbos

#thinking about this again #as I uselessly ramble my thoughts #on a feminist reading of the Tale of Genji #to my supportive but unknowing friends #..... or any book I start rambling about

[vaguelyaperson]

via @sasukeless

when I was fourteen I would regularly cry at night because I thought sasuke would never make it home to naruto

#peer reviewed tag #lmfao

[vaguelyaperson]

So we all know that Tumblr is US-centric. But to what degree? (and can we skew the results of this poll by posting it at a time where they should be asleep?)

Reblog to increase sample size!

[vaguelyaperson]

the choice between Edward & Jacob is not a question of which relationship is healthier or which partner is best suitable for Bella. neither is correct. neither is best. neither produces a happy ending for Bella. at the end of the day this is still a vampire novel. any choice Bella could make would yield, at best, a bittersweet happily ever after.

if she chooses Edward, she gets the terrifying Breaking Dawn ending: a girl who rejected her call to grow up has hung her love & her eternity on an emotionally stunted partner who hates himself marginally less than he loves her. she's a teen mom with a kid she never wanted who perpetuates the generational trauma passed down from her parents. by keeping this child, the Cullens have set the stage for an uprising/cold war against the Volturi who are likely to take revenge in order to maintain power. Bella is living in a tenuous "dream come true" wrapped in a nightmare & doesn't realize it.

choosing Jacob is the true coming-of-age ending that rips the stitches out of a wound that never fully healed. even if we ignore the fact that she ends up with a man who sexually assaulted her (we must bear in mind Jacob's character is influenced by smeyer's racism, but it did happen), they can't have a secure romantic relationship. based on the high imprinting rate of the pack, Jacob will likely find his imprint in his lifetime & will lose himself to the imprintee. he will no longer be her Jacob. he will inevitably abandon her (whether he wants to or not), & she must reconcile with the reality that she will always be inadequate to Jacob's imprint. & say he never manages to escape the vampires? he will presumably not age for a long time, meaning the relationship Bella always feared with Edward (her being an old grandmother while he stays forever young) remains a possibility. this is the story of a girl who slaps a Band Aid on an open wound & calls herself healed while flinching every time she sees the shadow of the knife that cut her.

if she chooses neither (team therapy), her healing requires her to lose or be at least partially disconnected from everyone she cares about. Bella must spend the rest of her life shut out from one world while never fully existing in her human world ever again. she must always keep secrets. she can never go back home. even in the unlikely event that she manages to escape the Volturi, the threat of being hunted by vampires will never leave her. in addition, she must face her worst fears (aging, losing Edward) while always keeping in mind the immortal life that could have been hers, if only.

even the "healthiest" option produces scars that will never quite heal.

Twilight is a horror. Twilight is a vampire novel. Twilight is gothic. Twilight is fiction. neither Edward nor Jacob is a "bad" choice because neither will give Bella her happily ever after. the choice between Edward & Jacob is simply a matter of which horror story you prefer to read.

#yes yes yes yes!!! #the horror romance that is e/b fascinates me #and I'm 'team edward' despite having always been horrified by twilight vampires #i would never want to be one #when overall i have no problem with concept of vampirism #but the whole 'frozen beautiful in time #unable to eat or sleep #thirsts a herculean strength to control #forever cut off from existing easily among humans' thing? #yeah no thanks and i'm on edward's side re: turning bella #while at the same time understanding his selfish impulsive villiany #for damning her with his fascination in the first place #and then thinking he has the right #to control her few means of agency #it's so...!!!!!!

[vaguelyaperson]

im ill about them. for the record.

#narusasu #i love the little shits they were to each other #as genin

[vaguelyaperson]

twilight au where smeyer is inserted into the world of her self-insert: or, who killed bella swan?

that fateful day at forks high began like all days at forks high did: by being described in excruciating, slow-paced detail.

today was no exception. after having a nightmare, bella got up, greeted the vampire in the corner (she was very observant), had a human moment, ate pop-tarts, slipped on a patch of ice, & scrabbled to her truck.

but today didn’t feel like a normal day. not bc the classrooms were empty or bc posters had been pasted up around school announcing a new student. instead, bella’s observant, effervescent mind made her feel this narrative setup in her bones. it was almost as if bella had the qualities of a third-person omnipresent narrator instead of a regular teenage girl.

sure enough, as soon as she stepped into the buzzing cafeteria, mike clasped a hand around her shoulder. “hey, bella!”

as you could probably guess by now, mike was in love with bella. she was an arizona girl that liked the rain. since girls from dry places didn’t like wet places, bella was not like the other girls.

“you’re just in time,” he continued. “the new girl’s about to arrive.”

bella chewed her lip. “oh. new girl?” she just had a nightmare about a girl, so it was weird that there was a new girl, just like in the nightmare she had. it was almost like bella was narratively  set up to have the power of premonition. almost.  

after rejecting several of mike’s sexual advances w/ patience & deference (as a good woman should), her eyes caught her statuesque white vampire bf from across the cafeteria.

today, edward’s eyes were a dandelion lemon starburst honeydew mangalope yellow, her favorite color. he wore a sleeveless white button-up that complimented his white undead face.   in one hand he held a red apple which he kept with him at all times in case an allusion to christianity or greek mythology popped up.

bella bit her lip, yearning to raw dog this edwardian gentleman.

“hey edward,” she said, going for a kiss & getting rejected, “did you catch the thoughts of the new girl yet? everyone’s talking about her. i think something’s up.”

but on the other end of the table, alice flailed around with a permanent marker, scribbling on a lunch tray.

edward gazed at the apple as if it were a symbol symbolizing his crisp, sweet desire for forced symbolism. “you’ve nothing to worry about,” he murmured, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“wait a sec. alice is having a vision,” bella said, eyes narrowing. “something’s up.”

“you’re too stubborn & observant for your own good,” edward murmured, looking angrily down at the apple. “like eve observing the serpent in the garden of eden.”

���she has incredible power; i can see it,” said alice, still flailing & seeing. emmett leaned over to glimpse her work. “& her name is stephenie…meyer?”

emmett said, “anyone else feel like alice’s drawing looks like joseph smith?”

& as if on cue, she entered.

bella’s mouth dropped open. a rush of estrogen washed over her. “holy crow,” she whispered.

with her brown hair & brown eyes & brown lashes & plain-but-beautiful face, only their fashion choices separated bella from the new girl. while bella wore a t-shirt & khaki skirt, stephenie dressed less like a feminist whore with her floor-length white maxi skirt, ivory turtleneck & beige cardigan. she also didn’t wear makeup. she was not like the other girls.

“persephone,” murmured edward, golden molten butterscotch honey topaz eyes glittering.  

she was gorgeous in a heterosexual way, like how bella felt about rosalie. like, so attractive bella could cry. but only because bella was insecure about her looks, not bc bella was gay or bi or whatever haha

bella touched his white forearm. “i told you to stop calling me that.”

“not you,” murmured edward. “stephenie meyer. the angel, come to hell. she’s as beautiful as you, my love.” bella’s heart melted. he lovingly rejected her kiss.

“she’s a god,” said alice, eyes shifting. “i can see it. she controls the universe. she’s rich, mormon, & fulfills her domestic duties just as a good woman should. i’m 100% straight but stephenie meyer would be my dream girl, hands-down.”

bella’s blood froze. wasn’t bella supposed to be alice’s vaguely homoerotic girl friend??

emmett’s eyes narrowed. “anyone else think she looks weirdly like bella?” but rosalie was too busy admiring her reflection in the face of her pearlmaster 39 diamond rolex watch w/ 18ct white-gold index dial & diamond-set oyster band, edward was ruminating over his soul, alice was still flailing, & jasper was daydreaming about licking daddy jefferson davis’ boots like the spineless confederate he was, yee haw

so only bella heard. panic bubbled in her chest. “what? stephenie meyer looks nothing like me.”  

at the sound her name, stephenie’s eyes locked on the cullens’ table.

edward’s sexy pale white hard marble triple-double-diamond vampire bod crumpled to the floor.

“edward, what’s wrong?” asked alice. she was concerned about edward because he apparently had redeemable traits that made the cullens care deeply for him, it’s just not relevant to bella’s story

“oh, god,” edward moaned in a murmur. “she’s reciting the word of god.”

the ripe, juicy, succulent, voluptuous red apple had smashed to bits in his clenched fist. this symbolized edward willing to do anything & everything to destroy his temptations so long as it fell within the confines of a PG-13 storyline.

“i’ve got to marry her,” he murmured possessively.

“if i wasn’t a product of stephenie’s festering insecurities, i would say she’s as pretty as me,” snarked rosalie. “but i’m too vain & catty for that.”

bella’s knees wobbled at rosalie’s voice. visions of rosalie stepping on her neck blipped through bella’s mind, which was def a real thing that could happen bc rosalie was an absolute goddess of a vampire with heels higher than the empire state building & thighs thicker than the brooklyn bridge, heterosexually speaking

“right?? if you put bella & stephenie next to each other, the only difference would—” emmett couldn’t finish his sentence bc all the cullens sans edward had a medical condition that prevented them from saying more than 25 words per 400 pages of text; it’s very common, you can google it

“we are not the same,” said bella, her voice rising. “edward, please! we don’t dress the same, act the same—you know we aren’t the same, don’t you?!”

edward turned broodingly to bella. “do you believe in god, my love?”

“i don’t know.” all bella knew of religion was her mother’s fad diets. “i’m either a keto or a lutheran. do lutherans have gods?”

“all my life i thought i was a soulless monster,” murmured edward. “& we could get into a thematically relevant debate about what it means to have a soul, but the detailed account of your morning has made it impossible for me to make a compelling case without sacrificing important exposition, so let’s forget i brought it up after this conversation. the point is, i’ve discovered i do have a soul. & she has given it to me.”

“wh-what are you trying to say??” said bella. “what does she have that i don’t?!”

“thoughts,” murmured edward. “not her own thoughts, but—”

“all she does is recite scripture!”

“she doesn’t just recite scripture,” murmured edward. “she is scripture. my scripture.”

he cried a single tear. bella’s tear—yes!, the same one he had eaten that fateful day in the meadow. it tumbled from his chiseled white cheekbone, crashing onto the bits of smashed apple below.

“no!” the true nightmare had just begun. edward didn’t love bella!

she passed out.

october

november

december

january

these were the only months bella learned in primary school, but she listed them all to make sure she didn’t have a concussion

meanwhile, the cullens & the student body of forks orbited stephenie, praising her & quoting the bible & reassuring her that, yes, despite her hoarding an absurd amount of wealth (& giving nothing back to the indigenous ppl she wronged), she would definitely be getting into the kingdom of heaven

what if stephenie had come to replace bella? what if stephenie was bella? or what if none of this was real? what if bella had passed out in the woods again & was being carried back home by a bare-chested sam? (no doubt the rosiest scenario, but hey, a girl can dream)

&, as if on cue, the cafeteria doors burst open.

“i heard there’s a new girl in town.”    

“jake!” bella said for no other reason other than to identify jake.

jake loomed in the doorway, a hulking eight feet & fourteen inches. instead of sporting his bare rippling abs & tight jorts, he wore a rippling xxxxxl t-shirt with Mormon Boys Are My Favorite Toys printed in rainbow lettering. over that he wore a turtleneck sweater. over that he wore a pinstripe suit w/ a monogrammed lapel; in fact, it seemed that every inch of jake’s typically objectified, UNDER-EIGHTEEN body was clothed.

behind him stood the quileute teens, all scowls.

“quick!” said jacob, throwing bella a shopping bag. “put this on & follow us!”

bella dropped the bag because she was clumsy, then she tripped over the bag because she was clumsy. bella was so clumsy. then she pulled out a bowling shirt, cuffed jeans, & doc martens. meanwhile, the crowd of students grew louder, larger.

“if you want to get out of here alive, you’re going to have to dress like the disaster bisexual you are,” said jake over the growing cheers of the student body. “now!!”

“jake, i can’t, you know i’m too het for these clothes!”

“het?? ok, strong disagree,” said leah, poking her head out from behind jake’s nine-foot-five frame.

at the sound of leah’s voice, stephenie shot her a glare. she & leah were natural enemies. for reasons.

from the back of the pack sam shouted, “we can have a healthy nuanced discourse on sexual orientation after we escape smeyer—hurry!”

“steph-en-ie! steph-en-ie!” cheers & howls drowned out the wolfpack. bella slipped into her new attire & bolted out of the cafeteria.

“wait, solike, what just happened?” bella asked. she could run alongside the pack even though she lived a completely sedentary lifestyle & was just described as clumsy. “who’s the new girl & why am i pretending to be bisexual?”

“‘pretending’?” leah smirked

jake said, “it’s smeyer. she’s writing a new book.”

“smeyer?”

“if you say her full name, you summon her.” jacob’s voice dropped to a murmur. “she’s trying to destroy her world.”

“her world? you mean ours?”

“not yet.” jake shook his head. “it’s her world. we are her world. & the more she adds to it, the worse it becomes.” they burst through the side door into the gloomy afternoon. “we’ve got to take back smeyer’s canon before it’s too late.”

“wha—holy crow, she has a cannon?    what?”

“jake, c’mon,” said sam, car keys jangling in his hand, “we can talk meta later. smeyer’s going to follow us if we stick around.”

bella’s head spun. “w-well if she knows where we are, who we are—how the hell are we gonna stop her?”

whipping out a pair of shades from the folds of his monogrammed lapel, jake said, “well honey, lemme tell ya.” he slid the shades over his steely eyes. “first things first: we reclaim her characters.”

Keep reading

#twilight

[vaguelyaperson]

That’s one for the fridge for sure.

Thinking about that one scene where Denki draws Aizawa in his notebook. He’s a little artist.

#omg!! #i also like the hc that Denki is good at english #so i bet Present Mic and Denki get along #mostly through english slang #bnha #denki kaminari #present mic

[vaguelyaperson]

The Kei Truck Garden Contest (2018)

The Japan Federation of Landscape Contractors organizes an annual landscaping contest, where landscaping contractors from around Japan arrive on site with their mini pickup trucks and then spending several hours transforming the cargo bed into a small garden.

[vaguelyaperson]

How is started

How its going

#bnha spoilers #bnha 421

[vaguelyaperson]