¯\_(ツ)_/¯

20something. 🌈 ~*~profound quote here~*~ very long queue. i make actual posts rarely camp and cheesiness are virtues, being boring, predictable or narrow-minded are cardinal sins if you have one of those links filled with personal info you’re scamming yourself tumblr veteran grumbling playing bridge on the porch w/the others lol

[helenvaughans]

[squarebracket-trickster]

"How to get out of a reading slump" advice is normally like, pick up something light and easy, something fun, something similar to stuff you've enjoyed reading in the past.

But when that fails, I cannot recommend enough: going to the library/bookstore, to a section you don't normally read, and reading the blurbs of any and every book that catches your attention for whatever reason, until you find one that leaves you with a burning question that can only be answered by reading the whole book.

Never underestimate the power of Needing to Know The Answer.

Like, I'm an avid epic fantasy reader. I like big series, complicated plotlines with tons of characters and settings. I struggle to get through classics or anything non-fiction, and I never browse the mystery or thriller sections.

And yet, so far the list of books that have broke a reading slump for me include: Jane Eyre, Cymbeline (Shakespeare play), Pretty Little Liars, Piranessi (fantasy, yes, but not my normal variety), a mystery about a 13 year old girl who suspecrs she was kidnapped as a baby, a non-fiction book on the bureaucracy behind the gestapo, and a non-fiction memoir about the residential school that used to be near where I live.

Curiosity is a muscle that needs to be stretched, and it feels good! And brains crave novelty, variety! Just like how we need variety in our diets to get enough nutrients, I think brains need a variety of "nutrients" (experiences) too. I wonder how often my reading slumps are the result of my brain getting "bored" with the usual.

[shop5]

let’s be real the pressure to use AI as an adult is exactly what they said the pressure the do drugs as a teenager would be like but the people that told us that caved immediately for the AI and definitely did not just say no

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

[mylordshesacactus]

For all that the 1800s etiquette guides are--obviously--derangedly sexist from a modern perspective? They're also mindblowing in how casually they will assert things that MODERN DAY CONSERVATIVES would scream and cry and shit their pants about.

"People back then always married young it's natural!!!" Every single 1800s guide I've ever met casually mentions that, of course, you really shouldn't get married before you're at least 20, and waiting until 25 is usually better.

Or, like. Okay here's a long segment:

Just firmly going "it is crazy sexist to blame The Wife for overspending when thirty seconds of asking questions will immediately establish that her husband was outright lying to her about how much money they had. Talk to your wife like a normal person."

Or--okay, here. A section on being honest and not writing love letters in secret, because that's usually a good sign that there's something untoward going on....

....except that he then immediately acknowledges that sometimes, the reason you're hiding this from your parents is that your parents suck. That there are parents who frankly have not earned the right to approve or disapprove of your partner.

(I realize the phrasing there sounds a lot less strong than my summary, but--trust me on this. When you're familiar with the narrative voice of these kinds of books, this passage is downright radical. The mere acknowledgement that if you treat your kids badly, it's your own damn fault when they don't talk to you? I've genuinely never seen that before in this genre. Don't freak out over "properly trained", either. It's just a linguistic shift--at the time, "training" was used the way we would say "raising" a child today. )

[galleryofart]

The Lute Player

Artist: Orazio Gentileschi (Florentine, 1563 - 1639)

Date: c. 1612-1620

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, United States

[pnglove]

[azspot]

“Christian Nationalism is wimpy. For all its macho bluster, crusader fantasies, and tough talk about a masculine faith, Christian Nationalism is wimpy. By Christian Nationalism I mean a Christianity that not only seeks but needs the apparatus of the state to be its protector. Think of it as nanny state Christianity. The swagger that characterizes Christian Nationalism is compensation for its insecurities. Deep down the Christian nationalist is afraid that following Jesus might be, well, hard.”

— Brian Zahnd

[airedelalmena]

Yeah, pretty much. They don't want to follow their own trumpeted religion and never have.

[eartharchives]

Ancient Turkish cave reveals Neanderthals and Homo sapiens shared same way of life

A cave in Türkiye suggests the transition from Neanderthals to modern humans was far more culturally seamless than once believed. Image credit: Tyler B. Tretsven.

https://www.sci.news/archaeology/neanderthal-homo-sapiens-cultural-continuity-14904.html

[johnnyslittleanimalblog]

good morning world   :)    ♥

[elephantaday]

Day 1489 of posting videos of elephants.

You guessed it - Tula! sent to me by @aegor-bamfsteel

[spiritualseeker777]

[thethirdromana]

Putting the term "Catholic guilt" on a high shelf where fandom can't reach it until everyone learns how to identify characters who are very very clearly coded as Protestant.

[vampfuneralpyre]

[motsimages]

I'm adding an analysis based on watching US films and series and being Spanish who reads Spanish literature and watches Spanish films and series.

I'm culturally catholic and not religious (not even baptised) but like... a thing I don't see enough of in US media when they want to touch catholicism is the fact that you can sin and then you repent and it's all good. The guilt is what makes you repent.

I don't go to church and don't know all the details of it all but as far as I know, absolution is a big part of the catholic confession and it's the way to take your sins away. You can sin your whole life, repent when you are about to die and be absolved/saved. I know this mainly from jokes, because those of us who grow up in Spain not being Catholic still live in a world where this happens often since the Middle Ages.

In media and stories, there are ways to interpret this that could be very interesting but never are because usually we have protestants who don't bother looking into it. They just mock the Catholic guilt, I guess to feel better about their own ways. If they do something serious, make guilt just a permanent feeling that prevents people from moving on or do something other than praying, when it could actually be the main motor for a story, as it is in our stories.

It can be the way a character chooses to ignore all responsibility because he will always be forgiven (or so he thinks) when he says "I'm sorry". It can be the way a priest manipulates a believer into doing whatever he wants, because the believer is looking for absolution and the priest keeps on giving conditions for it (see: La Regenta, a classic of Spanish literature). It can speak of the frustration of not being able to change or not being able to help someone else.

Also, it goes against the infantilisation that we are seeing more and more. If you are born with the original sin, you are expected to sin and you must feel guilt to be absolved, you are allowed to grow and learn. And that's something both children do and adults do. You don't live in a permanent state of purity where seeing something unholy will taint you (like reading "fuck" instead of "f*ck").

[amandier-et-lavande]

My slow life in Provence by @amandier-et-lavande

[chippythedog]

[lizardho]

This morning I was looking at my wife with dreamy eyes and she was talking about something nerdy and cute and she saw me looking at her and stopped and reached down and pinched my cheek and said “now we’re crab married” and all day we’ve been pinching each other gently and saying “crab wife” and that’s what love is tbh

[nomorechoirs]

fr. “Everything Changed When I Forgave Myself” by Charlotte Eriksson⁣