Digital Vanilla

♡Heather♡welcome to my personal blog♡late 20’s♡I like spooky, kitschy, and cute things♡occasional fandom ramblings♡ NO TERFS NO NAZIS♡Occasional NSFW media♡18+ please

[angel-teeth]

🦇Books of 2026🦇

I’ve read more in the last six months than in the last six years combined so I thought for 2026 id make a little list of what I’m reading/have read

Currently Reading:

The Butcher Boy by Patrick McGabe

I’m only a chapter in and holy hell this book is good

Walden by Henry David Thoreau

Bruh… chapter 1 is like. Basically thematically the book of Matthew. I can tell this guy went to Harvard divinity school

Finished:

We have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

My god. This book had my in a stranglehold from start to finish. I can’t believe it took me until 2026 to read it.

[tothechaos]

aw what the hell change my leitmotif to a minor key im not driving

[draizetrain]

i think when u clean your house it should stay clean forever. what do u mean i have to do it again

[fforsythiaaa]

Once when I was in undergrad, someone described something as “problematic” in class and our professor was like, “That’s cool, but ‘problematic’ doesn’t really mean anything. It means that the thing you’re describing has a problem, and in and of itself that’s not bad. Art, especially, should always have problems, or else it’s not interesting and not art, either. It sounds like you’re trying to say that this is bad, but you don’t want to say ‘bad.’ Is that right?”

So from then on whenever one of us called something problematic, he would make us talk it out until we could name the “bad” thing we were hinting at. In this particular class, 7/10 it was some type of oppression, and the remainder was like, “I’m uncomfortable because this is very new/confusing/pushing boundaries that made me feel safe.”

Once we stopped calling things “problematic” and stopping at that, class got way more interesting and... we all had to say, like, “that’s racist” or “that’s misogynistic” or “ew capitalism gross” out loud, which a lot of us had never done in a classroom before. Or we had to be like, “Uhhh... I’m not sure what’s so bad?” and confront our own beliefs and that was maybe even more useful.

Anyway. Whenever I see the word problematic, I can’t help but think of this professor being like, “Good starting point, now let’s get specific.” I think when we have to commit to saying “that’s ___” it requires a lot more careful thought about the truth and impact and complexities of whatever we’re claiming. Sometimes there really is some bullshit afoot, and also sometimes it’s art, and it should be full of problems, because that’s what art is.

[beggars-opera]

I once saw an article put it this way: often "this is problematic" is used to shut down discussion of a thing, by casting a sweeping but vague judgement. But really if used at all it should start a discussion about what the problem is.

[rosieandthemoon]

Gwrych Castle in Wales

[dame-de-pique]

Margareta von Österreich-Toskana

Blühender Baum in Rijeka, 04.1912

Parkanlage von Erzherzog Joseph Karl Ludwig von Österreich in Rijeka, 04.1912

[michaelnordeman]

The old church of Liden in Medelpad, Sweden (30 may 2024). The church was built between 1483 and 1510.

[pmamtraveller]

Cats by Shou Xin

[kaylmao]

[valla-chan]

I fed your talkfruit to my messagepig sorry

[th0rns]

Great Malvern Cemetery

[sentient-tent]

This is Tie, she is going to eat all of the notes

[sentient-tent]

reblog to feed her notes

[elodieunderglass]

How is she doing this

[girlrust]

happy pride to my favorite gif in the world

[artthatgivesmefeelings]

Antoni Parera (Spanish, 1868-1946) Charity, 1906 Museo Nacional d'art de Catalunya

[polari]

grounding tips for the stressed aspiring tyrant: acknowledge 5 people you can sway to your cause, 4 methods you can use to persuade them (2 violent, 2 nonviolent), 3 people in positions of moderate power you can manipulate and usurp in order to gain access to 2 powerful institutions to destroy, and 1 foundational lie

[polari]

people are starting to character tag so i’d like to state upfront that this is part of a new branch of pop feminism i’m pioneering called despotette and as such is specifically advice for women trying to break into the world of tyranny, so if you must character tag it’s really only appropriate to do so if the character is a woman, thank you

[segamascott]

[mudwerks]

(via BARA HER EMOTIONS - Pulp International)

[alixattack-blog1]

Cindy Lauper and Elvira Misstres of the dark