book_lover_85

i love books | she/they | minor

[book-lover85]

introduction post

name: lena (or any nickname ig)

pronouns: she/they

interests: keeper of the lost cities [sokeefe <3], stranger things [byler <3], the folk of the air, the legend of zelda, pokémon, the magisterium, naruto, captive prince, dark rise, etc

sexuality and gender: aroace, transmasc, demigirl, agender

i am a minor fyi

｡*✧*｡

[romanceyourdemons]

anyways interesting that while the metanarrative of the princess bride (1987) is one of all-american nostalgia, the metanarrative of the novel is specifically of an immigrant story. the story itself has a meandering half-folktale, half-memory sense of time and place (set before europe but after stew, shortly after the invention of america but long after the invention of fortunes). florin, geographically located in roughly the area of poland, is framed as the homeland of both s. morgenstern and the goldman family, and the “original novel,” s. morgenstern’s paean to the history and culture of his left-behind home, is pared down to bare bones by two generations of goldmans as the florinese-american fathers try to adjust it to appeal to their increasingly americanized sons. hell, the inciting incident of the narrative is when westley “gambled on america and lost,” returning home changed beyond recognition—but he is able to return and to parlay that loss into victory, the way william goldman-the-character’s father is never able to. super interesting stuff

[bobbob-56]

happy pride month. have some kotlc art and hcs

[book-lover85]

FYI I love your sokeefe takes if love some more 😋

tysm!!! I haven't been as fixated on kotlc recently because of the drought in content 😭 but trust it will come back as soon as a sliver of book 10 content comes out. I love them sm!

[thesamsungsmartrefrigerator]

(I Hope) Shannon is (Just) a Moron

Okay, so the title sounds harsh. It isn't. I'm not saying this because "she's a bad writer!" but because there are MASSIVE dogwhistles in her books that I seem people ignoring, romanticizing, or just "UWU"ing away.

I've recently (thank fuck) seen more posts calling out the weird undertones to her world building that raise concerns about her poltical veiws/opinions. Normally I'm not one to speculate, and I still will not eb, just I do need to point out how genuinely fucked up the Lost Cities and the books actually are. I have a few other posts with more details about a few of these (will be linked below) but here's the whole overview.

(TW for distressing topics around eugenics)

First of all: Anti-Vaxx messaging. Throughout the first book (mainly) and then the rest of the series, it's constantly talked about how it was a good thing Sophie's parents didn't "pump her full of all those disgusting human chemicals that they use as medicine". Throughout the books, elves then treat all human medicine as barbaric and like it all does more harm then good.

Next up is counting by Inception Date. Meaning they consider life to start at conception, which is the core principle of 90% of anti-abortion rhetoric.

Every elf in the lost cities wears a government issued tracking collar (and as confirmed by Unlocked) contains a microphone. Cameras are either included or placed around every building in the lost cities, to be able to capture the information seen in everyone's registry files.

Elves believe in "genetic purity" being the most important thing in a "match." The Matchmaking system is a glorified government breeding program which excludes "lesser" and "non perfect" elves to uphold this. Oh, yeah and their prefect race happens to include everyone having blue eyes.

Their prison system is either deportation to work camps or being sentenced to "Exile"- which is indefinite solitary confinement broken up by visits by guards that hate you in ridiculously inhumane conditions (hot, no windows, dark, as far as we know inadequate food and water).

Traitors are treated with more cruelty then terrorists. Prentice was not shattered (government imposed torture to the point of a physcotic break if we're using human terms) due to being a terrorist, he was shattered because it was believed that he could be planning to go against the council. At this point, the only "crime" he committed was thought crimes and messing with his tracking collar. Fintan's mind break was delayed not because they weren't 90% he did it, but because he was the councilors friends. Alvar was not shattered or even imprisoned for literally commiting murder, kidnapping, and terrorism because the Vackers- "Elvin Royalty"- asked them not to.

All elves have slaves. They are slave traders.

All education is done through Foxfire to prep children for nobility. There are no other schools. If you do not get into the school to train government workers you will not be educated. Even if you do, its canon that the Council chooses to ignore and suppress important events in history.

The council has no problem torturing children for information or for punishment, and holds no care if they die (Fitz in Neverseen) as long as they are "the enemy".

The Blackswan has had 0 issues blowing up cities in other nations (Orge capital), sending children to die, and doesn't have any actual plans for changing things.

The Neverseen are made up of Eugenicists (Vespera, Gisela), victims (Glimmer, Trix, Umber, Ruy), or people who felt slighted by society (Genthen, Alvar, Fintan). They have 0 plans that make any sense beyond kill people.

The Lost cities are horrifically racist, viewing every other species as genetically, mentally and physically lesser. Either meek and incapable, stupid ugly beasts, or strange creatures who are shifty and can't be trusted. Their lives are seen as lesser compared to that of elves.

Nationalist ideology ("We are the greatest, and we must not change for we were even greater in the past and must stirve to get there. Do not let our "pure blood" be tainted by others") is so prevalent in this series it makes my heart drop.

Grooming warning signs in Alvar are ignored and brushed off as "brotherly".

Demonizing every single male character for expressing emotions while excusing toxic behaviors in women. (Because no, feminism is not this. It's holding both women and men accountable and leaving them both space to be vulnerable and human)

All of this to say that most of this is actively treated as right by this series. Yes, I know this is a kids series, but if you are going to include facism in a book you also need to include why its fucking wrong.

Because no, its not okay to kill civilians of a different race just because they are not of your species and listed to terrorists- while not at all punishing the actual terrorists because they are the same race as you.

Shannon is an idiot. genuinely. Because she GENUINELY as has stated multiple times her world is a flawed utopia.

So I hope she's a moron. Because the only 3 groups of people who can write a world which contains the same rhetoric, practices, and ideology of Nazi Germany are politically inept morons or white supremacists.

Which is really fucking relevant, because the US is turning into the lost cities. Just with less glitter, more guns and blood, and without the glittery unicorn shit.

[fintan-pyren]

My thoughts:

The inception date thing and the negative way they discuss human medicine *are* things that I dislike. They do, however, seem like things she simply didn't think through when she first started writing, and not necessarily representative of her views. In later books, it's stated that although the elves look down on human medicine, some of it is the basis for some elvin medicine, which seems like an attempt to backtrack somewhat.

When it comes to registry pendants, matchmaking, Exile/imprisonment, the Council suppressing information, the Council being cruel, and the belief in elvin superiority, these are all things which Sophie or other characters express discomfort with or explicitly identify as issues with the elvin world. They're not at all portrayed in a positive light or presented as good things.

The claim about them having slaves is also not accurate. It's explicitly stated that the gnomes choose to work for them and enjoy doing so. You could argue that their need for the protection of the elves forces them to live with them, but it's never stated that working for them is a condition of their protection, there are colonies of gnomes outside the elvin cities, and the gnomes in the lost cities choose to remain there even after the threat of the ogres is gone.

I think you're overlooked the "flawed" portion of "flawed utopia". Calling it a flawed utopia does not imply that there aren't problems with the elvin world. It's the opposite—it describes how the elvin world seems perfect (prosperous, advanced, etc.), but has underlying issues that become apparent at a closer glance.

[gertritude-art]

nightly spiral

[cami11e4450]

A little something to think about…

What if the Neverseen found out about Sophie being an enhancer…?

Or, Sophie’s deepest fears…. Trigger warning : blood (not gore)

A little game to play…

How many neverseen members can you recognise from their hands only? ( no doubles!)

@bookishandartsy

@solreefbrina

@the-lemonaide

@keefetheshimmerbooty

@crescentpaws

@fintan-pyren

@autistic-arsonist

@akiosilverbangs

@hydrokineticpineapples

@spacenuggets

@aveilliam

[coolerhope]

The optics look bad for you here Drifloon

[angeltiddies]

reverse gaslighting where i pretend to know exactly what you are talking about

[oneheadtoanother]

[mugentakeda]

sleepover at fine shyts house

[book-lover85]

Mike and Will stay friends after the epilogue. they're dorm mates in college and Will is becoming more open about his sexuality. he's going to the local gay bar and flirting with people. he's even met this new guy who's super into him.

Mike is the incredibly supportive friend going with and backing him up, encouraging him to get with the guy (even going so far as encouraging the guy.)

the twist is Mike is in love with Will and he knows it.

he realized late in high school after him and El broke up (she's not dead because no fucking way) but he never told Will or came out because he felt like he'd never deserve him.

he's encouraging Will because he cares about him but he's also self sabotaging by not even allowing Will the opportunity to choose him.

Max and Lucas chastise Mike for this incessantly.

(also Will is still incredibly in love with Mike and is even holding out hope because he thinks Mike may like him back but him encouraging Will to date people is giving him crazy mixed signals)

[dukeofdelirium]

Now hold up let me cook and add onto this post

The concept of Will being in the memory of his body being pulled out of the quarry water and somehow Mike is in the memory of him jumping off the quarry cliff, and now he has to jump off it again to GET into the memory Will is hiding in from the mindflayer, thus textualizing the queer subtext of the jump itself and giving Mike character depth via byler, because now he isn’t jumping driven by fear or the feeling he can’t save Will but to be brave so he can save Will.

Let me in the writers room bruh. This is so going in my fic idgaf lmao it eats

[karust]

Stranger Things epilogue tweak - Mike the Wise

bonus below

[buckleybeat]

Claim your “Kali and Erica as women of color deserved better writers” ticket here!

These divas will always be famous to me

[book-lover85]

it's so sad to see so many people hate Mike after the finale

if anything the finale made me want to give him a big hug

[mikeslawyer]

Mike’s whole arc revolving around his dead gf when he could’ve been the deepest, most well written queerbait character in filmography is a loss I’ll always mourn

[peanutbyler]

mike liking the butthole surfers was the best part of vol 2