i’m just a ghost who likes to read

reader of literature, fantasy, sci-fi, horror, and non-fiction. | poster of big thoughts, character analyses, and memes. | reblogger of fan art and good points. | occasional non-book posts and reblogs.

[gvalesdraws]

Melkor from Silmarillion that I did for the amazing Lucifer zine! (@the_cursed_zine on instagram)

[lorillee]

big tshirt that says YOUR INTERPRETATIONS MUST HAVE A STRONG BASIS IN THE SOURCE MATERIAL on the front and I HATE FUN on the back

[lierdumoa]

Every time an author reassures readers that the smut is skippable I sigh a disappointed sigh. This is not a reassurance. Why would anybody who likes smut want to read smut that was only included as an afterthought and has no impact on the narrative? Insulting. Just don't write it at all if you're not going to make it matter.

[lierdumoa]

#on the one hand I understand that some people don’t want to read smut

Like 85% of tumblr users hate and loathe embarrassment based comedy with every fiber of their beings, but never in my life have I ever seen an author reassure their audience that the embarrassing scenes are skippable.

Lots of people dislike tragedy but never in my life have I ever seen an author reassure the audience that the death and grieving scenes are skippable.

Stop trying to pass off self-censorship as “accommodation.” Stop trying to pass off pandering as “inclusivity.”

Your audience can smell your fear, and it smells rancid.

[goldensunset]

when the characters never really make peace with it

[cyberpunknoire]

I don't even care. Movie samfro was so peak. Imagine you're in love with a strange beautiful boy and to save the world you both have to journey to hell explicitly to die, with no hope of going home again, all while the devil is basically mind fucking him the entire time. And you love him so much you'd kill and die for him but the whole time you know how it's supposed to end and that you're complicit in his slaughter

[cryptotheism]

It's hard to post intentionally bad writing without commenters proclaiming "oh but I feel bad! I love this!" Perfectly bad art is as rare a feat as perfectly good art. Even the most anonymous mediocrity definitionally will have its fans.

Enjoying bad art is neither virtuous nor unvirtuous because enjoyment is passive. It is barely a choice. I do, however, think that incuriosity is shameful. Taste, as in the ability to understand, diagnose, and articulate, the artistic choices that make up a work, is the vehicle for understanding and producing art. Taste can only be cultivated by reflecting upon a broad field of art, peak to dogshit. Because of this, the cultivation of Taste is one of my favorite parts of being alive.

If you've only ever watched marvel movies, of course they are your favorite movies. Your love of marvel movies means little. However, if you have sampled everything the world of cinema has to offer, have watched every single movie dogshit to peak, and marvel movies are still your favorite, that is meaningful. You probably have some very interesting things to say about movies. Even though I will probably disagree with them.

Enjoy dogshit to your heart's content. But reflect articulate that enjoyment; because this cultivates Taste.

[the-depressed-comedic-relief]

you think Frodo ever had a talk with Bilbo after the destruction of the ring, about how his adventure was so much different than Bilbo’s, and how he wishes he had a quest like Bilbo’s, one fun and full of wonder. And Bilbo just smiles and says that Frodo is confusing Bilbo’s adventure with Bilbo’s stories. Frodo sort of laughs awkwardly, thinking Bilbo’s joking. But Frodo slowly realizes how real the separation between the quest and the way he tells it is over time. When people ask him about it, he only ever wants to tell the good parts, the ones where the good guys win and there’s beauty and wonder. He doesn’t want to tell how struggled under the burden of the ring, he doesn’t want to tell about how he failed, he even feels somewhat ashamed when he writes it in his book. And maybe then he rethinks Bilbo’s stories, and wonders if they were maybe not quite as fun as he made them out to be when he told them. And if his uncle had been silently struggling all these years, just as Frodo was doing now.

[chechula]

Tolkien (Bilbo) Inktober challenge ( @gnometheartist is to blame!) First three I drew with just regular ink, but I got bored and stopped drawing for a few days...and then I did the last picture, an experiment that combines ink drawing + scratching (in the background) ! I want to try this technique more in the next drawings ♥

[spaceshiprocket]

The Hobbit by Matías Bergara

[chechula]

More Bilbo adventures for this Inktober ♥

[eliotheman]

”This portrayal of a marginalized group was wrong then and is wrong now” and “This portrayal of a marginalized group was very progressive for the time period and paved the way for more representation while likely limited by factors outside of the creator’s control” are two statements that can and should ABSOLUTELY coexist and be kept in mind when interacting with older media

[lemonylemus]

Great example

[anyataylorjoys]

The Watermelon Woman (1996) dir. Cheryl Dunye

[seeveekat]

Hey this movie is really important in queer history! It was the first feature length film directed by a black lesbian! You can watch it here for free!

I really recommend you do because while it is a rom-com (and a drama), it also looks at how the stories of black queers are over looked in history.

[crunch-barr]

good fucking lord imagine you are a child prophet being tormented by visions and you find the guy YOUR guy who will be the impetus for all of your prophetic visions and dreams and you are aware of all the ways he could die in the process of you ensuring time wheels on the way it should and then you grow up with him and you FALL IN LOVE WITH HIM and he feels something for you too but because of the ways in which the world has treated him, some of which you are directly responsible for, he is unable to fully understand or act on his love and his feelings and one of his major fatal flaws is that he is unable to let himself be known and loved entirely so you are caught in this push pull of love and desire and reticence and yearning and life and death with him for EVER. and this happened to my good friend the fool.

[rowanisawriter]

imo the pov character should be lying to themselves and concealing shit from themselves constantly

[unyieldingsilence]

‎ ‎

[rowanisawriter]

exactly, bestie. Exactly

[neverniko101]

How would you show affection to your mutuals if you were a cat?

[gothiccoherence]

Ursula le Guin

[pizzazium-infinionite]

fitz is so deeply a cowed and coerced wolf among prey -- among bucks. the animal symbolism so perfectly conveys the farseers' fear of his potential and desire to control him -- shrewd, through cunning, attempts to befriend the wolf like in a fairytale; verity draws his power and makes it his own; regal attempts to constrain and destroy him. fitz, the wolf in buck's clothing, can pose nothing but danger for the farseer line as long as he remains unchecked, simply because of who and what he is. catalyst, changer, wolf. and wolves have no kings. robin hobb your brilliant animal symbolism --!