time yet for a hundred indecisions

And no reason to talk about the books I read but still I do. Book hoarder, stray-thought collector, page sniffer, tsundoku expert, lover of the arts.

[deadpoetsmusings]

Durga Chew-Bose, Too Much and Not the Mood

[postarcadian]

truly the idea of "this scene is (un-)necessary to the story" is such a fundamentally uncurious and anti-art way of engaging with fiction. the story itself is unnecessary, in the sense that all art is unnecessary, because art is not a fucking optimization problem. that's the beauty of it

[some-stars]

i've been thinking a lot the last few days about how so many people, even when they think they're defending art, automatically adopt the position of the STORY being the most important part of all fiction. the plot, the character arc, the worldbuilding, but it's always about moving something forward and building a narrative idea. and like....yes, fine, but sometimes i read books because i like the way the author puts words together! sometimes i watch movies because the images and sounds give me an ineffable human experience! not all art can be experienced via synopsis!!!!!!!!!!!

[some-stars]

--to elaborate on the first part of that first sentence as i originally intended to but forgot, a lot of people say things like "of course sex scenes contribute to the story! you learn so much about a character and their relationships by how they approach sex!" and giving examples of things like pretty woman. which is so wildly missing the point that sex scenes, like all scenes, do not have to earn their place by proving their practical value. you're not supposed to watch a film or read a book with a ledger in hand making sure every minute can be justified for a suspicious jury.

i don't care if the sex scene (or fight scene or dinner scene or lengthy silent establishing shot) Contributes to the Story. does it make me feel something? does it make me think? do i remember it years later and have to stop and catch my breath without fully understanding why? did i experience it and become in some small way different afterward? did it remind me that there's more to art and to life than advancing the plot?

[sargassostories]

To elaborate on that: there is a suspicious jury that decides if that moment or scene or word belongs in the work: the author or authors! It’s over now! You’re not editing it, you’re observing it! It does, in fact, belong, because it is in it right now! As the audience, you aren’t the person who decides what should or shouldn’t be in the work. You just get to decide if you want to see it and observe how it makes you feel.

[justinneue]

George Nakashima House

[librarycards]

i am just moved by everything now. i'm porous and everything gets inside me

[urgetocreate]

Jennifer Diehl, Everything and the Kitchen Sink, 2019, Oil

[detectivehole]

unless its egregious, i'm not embarrassed to be fooled by ai. "oh i got lied to via something made by the Lying Machine the machine we made to Lie really well" like it's gonna happen it's no egg on your face. just be chill about it

[detectivehole]

don't get me wrong. it's always devastating always humbling. no one wants to fall for the lying machine it just sounds bad. but you can't dwell

[loveyazy]

Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen, First of her name, Queen of the Andals, the Rhoynar and the First Men, Lady of the Seven Kingdoms, protector of the realm.

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON (2022-?) 3.02 | Queen’s Landing

[copepods]

leitmotifs never get old to me like holy shit dude there’s this melody that corresponds to this one guy and if you hear the melody it means the guy is there. holy shit. and sometimes it refers to ideas too not just guys. has anyone heard about this

[galina]

Must be spring again, the clocks slip forward under us whilst we drink the wine saved for a special occasion, made from grapes that grew in the soil around vesuvius, and I marvel at how easily things travel to be in our hands

[despazito]

I don't have time for tumblr discourse they're calling the very hungry caterpillar degenerate art over on twitter

[despazito]

good art is when something looks like real life, the more real it looks the more better the art. abstracted figures give my trad children nightmares, one time they were exposed to cubism and couldn't go outside for a week

[ryebreadgf]

summer rain

[discourseoflove]

“The role of the artist is exactly the same role, I think, as the role of the lover. If you love somebody, you honor at least two necessities at once. One of them is to recognize something very dangerous, or very difficult. Many people cannot recognize it at all, that you may also be loved; love is like a mirror. In any case, if you do love somebody, you honor the necessity endlessly, and being at the mercy of that love, you try to correct the person whom you love. Now, that’s a two-way street. You’ve also got to be corrected. As I said, the people produce the artist, and it’s true. The artist also produces the people. And that’s a very violent and terrifying act of love. The role of the artist and the role of the lover. If I love you, I have to make you conscious of the things you don’t see. Insofar as that is true, in that effort, I become conscious of the things that I don’t see. And I will not see without you, and vice versa, you will not see without me. No one wants to see more than he sees. You have to be driven to see what you see. The only way you can get through it is to accept that two-way street which I call love. You can call it a poem, you can call it whatever you like. That’s how people grow up. An artist is here not to give you answers but to ask you questions.”

— James Baldwin, “The Black Scholar Interviews James Baldwin,” Conversations with James Baldwin (edited by Fred L. Standley and Louis H. Pratt)

[do-you-have-a-flag]

[fishpondfish]

it is impossible to watch a movie. every night i think i want to watch a movie. no movie gets watched. because it's not possible

[mousidy]

and yet they keep making movies with the hopes that one day humanity will discover a way to watch them. it's so inspiring

[the-forest-library]

Little Tree Books & Coffee - Athens, Greece

[gayhoediaz]

“it sounds like you’re justifying their actions-“ i am. they’re a fictional character. i’m okay with anything they do all the time. hope this helps.

[deadpoetsmusings]

Reading all the books that have been on my to read list for years and realising my taste has changed, funny how that works