cold solace by annabelle kaufman

lula // she/her :)

[jaspicosmer]

Listening to the audiobook for Ancillary Justice is all fun and games until you see how these names are meant to be spelled. What do you mean it isn't Lieutenant Orn. What do you mean it isn't Mercy of Calor. I've been in the Ancillary Justice tag for five minutes and each post feels like a shot from the Presca gun.

[oneeyedmagi]

Nathaniel opened his mouth to scream. I hijacked it for a better purpose. “Hello, Faquarl.” The hand started; its baleful energies remained unreleased. Behind Hopkins’s eyes, twin points of bright blue light flared in wonder and confusion. “Bartimaeus … ?” “Little me.”

— "Ptolemy's Gate", ch. 35

[emily-e-draws]

always thinking about the Home short story 🥲

(sneak peek from a recent batch of sketches on patreon)

[dogpuppy]

[thereforealiar]

[groundivy]

podcast season one: this is found audio! everything you hear is recorded by the characters themselves!

podcast season two: okay technically it wouldn't make sense for them to record that part, but maybe it was on accident? or the tape turned itself on?

podcast season three: this entire episode is inside the character's head

[holespoles]

"Shimmering night" by Inaslind.

[clawmarks]

The grammar of ornament - Owen Jones - 1856 - via Internet Archive

[salmon-n-hazel]

Forget me not

My print shop: INPRNT

[apoemaday]

The Waking

by Theodore Roethke

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow. I feel my fate in what I cannot fear. I learn by going where I have to go.

We think by feeling. What is there to know? I hear my being dance from ear to ear. I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Of those so close beside me, which are you? God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there, And learn by going where I have to go.

Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how? The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair; I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Great Nature has another thing to do To you and me; so take the lively air, And, lovely, learn by going where to go.

This shaking keeps me steady. I should know. What falls away is always. And is near. I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow. I learn by going where I have to go.

[riverlarking]

the "biblically accurate angel" trend is such a perfect encapsulation of a pet peeve i have which is everybody wants to criticize the bible but nobody wants to read the bible. like when people were drawing crazy amalgamations of eyes and wheels talking to mary and saying "be not afraid" and everybody was like omfggg OF COURSE she was scared. like no actually the angel looked like a guy can you read 3 lines of text... they were saying be not afraid because it's scary when a random man suddenly shows up in your house and starts talking to you

[apoemaday]

The Sleeper in the Valley

by Arthur Rimbaud tr. A.S. Kline

It’s a green hollow where a river sings Madly catching white tatters in the grass. Where the sun on the proud mountain rings: It’s a little valley, foaming like light in a glass.

A conscript, open-mouthed, his bare head And bare neck bathed in the cool blue cress, Sleeps: stretched out, under the sky, on grass, Pale where the light rains down on his green bed.

Feet in the yellow flags, he sleeps. Smiling As a sick child might smile, he’s dozing. Nature, rock him warmly: he is cold.

The scents no longer make his nostrils twitch: He sleeps in the sunlight, one hand on his chest, Tranquil. In his right side, there are two red holes.

[wifegideonnav]

“grief visits me in the form of my mother.

grief visits me mother.

visit me mother.

is it me or my mother.

grief or my mother.

grieve me mother.

im sorry mother.”

- sheetal pokhriyal

[2manypdfs]

happy There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury day

[lilacsandlavenders57]

the silt of her wedding bed the pebbles where you lay your head love, come in! the water is fine

[heatherwitch]

Ray Bradbury’s short story “There Will Come Soft Rains” that was written in 1950 is set on the day of August 4th, 2026 (tomorrow)!! Now’s your chance to read it around the time it’s based in!

Audio: A recording of Leonard Nimoy reading it on Internet Archive.

Text: A PDF version.

Graphic Novel: On Internet Archive.

[warrioreowynofrohan]

Reading LM Montgomery has got me thinking that in some ways we’ve gotten more restrictive about what a “normal” family structure is. It’s not at all uncommon in her books to have households and families made up of groups rather than a couple and/or children. Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert are brother and sister. Rosemary and Ellen West are sisters. Marilla Cuthbert and Rachel Lynde are friends who move in together. Aunt Elizabeth, Aunt Laura, and Emily all live together at New Moon well into Emily’s adulthood and career as an author.

Now, a lot of this is related to the restrictions that women did face in terms of career options and social respectability. Living alone and being self-supporting is a much more common option for women now than it was in the late 1800s/early 1900s, and that’s a very good thing. I think singleness and living alone has become more normalized than it was then for both men and women (modern appliances probably helped with that shift!).

But the flip side is that living with adults other than your spouse – siblings, or other relatives, or friends – on a long-term basis was treated as much more normal then than it is now! Now it’s taken for granted that if you’re single and without kids, you’ll live alone if economically capable of doing do. And I feel like that could he contributing to increases in loneliness. For most of human history, in most societies, I have the impression that it wasn’t typical for single people to live alone. Having the freedom to do so is great! But having it feel atypical to not do so could be guiding people who are genuinely unhappy alone to think that loneliness or finding a romantic partner are their only options.