bougaiinvilleaa @bougaiinvilleaa - Tumblr Blog

I think fanfic as your primary writing and reading background really sets you up to fail because there’s so many inherent crutches to fanfic. You don’t have to make characters enjoyable because the work’s already been done, you don’t have to describe appearances or locations or motivations because the work’s already been done, conflicts come pre-established and relationship dynamics have already been laid out. And none of this is a knock on fanfic, I am not saying fanfic is bad. But if that’s all you’ve written and largely all you’ve read then I think it’s gonna be a rough transition to original fiction, and I think you need to take some time first to familiarize yourself original works again.

astranemus

Ecosystems flourish because they are teeming with diversity. This can teach us a lot about human relationships, as we often reject those ‘not like us’ in favour of those who seem outwardly familiar. Living connections depend on two basic things: allowing the self to exist while at the same time helping other(s) come alive. We lack this idea of reciprocity in our relationships. If you look at philosophical books about love, you find that you allegedly love someone or something because you gain what you don’t already possess as an individual. In this view, love is a resource. It is something we can ‘extract’, just as we extract from the living land. We have colonised love in the West. As we all know from the partnership war zone, such relationships often fail because they inhibit the freedom of others. They fail because they are not faithful to ecological reality. Healthy relating means growing through the other’s growth. For me, this is a working definition of love: a practice that makes others alive and, through this, enlivens yourself. Our bodies still function according to this ecological love, a harbinger of our animal nature.

The Poetics of Ecology: A conversation with Andreas Weber