reese’s pieces

bex | 25 | she/her | uk | multifandom; tennis; rugby; gbbo | tagging system under construction, i think

[dieschwartzman]

‘my child is fine’ your child’s favourite musical is hadestown

[cloudabserk]

i want to abuse my government expense account to buy grace candy

[blans]

Jannik Sinner, Roland Garros 2026 — photographed by Loïc Wacziak

[romanceyourdemons]

when the blackberry bushes have thorns to discourage mammals from monopolizing the consumption of their fruits and encourage birds to spread their seeds but they don’t know that the mammal in question is ME #notdiscouraged

[romanceyourdemons]

#ow

[romanceyourdemons]

#stuck

[alkemylabz]

when the setting/location in a story is also a character in itself

[findchaos]

We visited an old glass factory that was converted into a park and the photos can get very surreal.

[sourcreammachine]

[blans]

Coco Gauff, 2026 Roland Garros © Antoine Couvercelle

[thestuffedalligator]

Shout out to the clover, the dandelion and the daisy. The triumvirate of springtime childish whimsy. WHO is doing it like them

[thestuffedalligator]

This plant, we tell children, has a one in ten-thousand chance to have four leaves. You can search through a clover patch all day and never find one. But if you do, and you pluck it and keep it, it will bring you luck.

And this flower, we tell children, if you let it bud and bloom and age from sun-yellow flower to moon-white seed, you can then pluck it and blow its seeds away to make a wish.

And this flower, we tell children, can be woven into a hat

[ryebreadgf]

yayyyy

[jomiddlemarch]

[briannyssey]

some people read an awful lot, but don't read very well. deep reading is itself a skill. being able to untangle the threads of theme, subtext, characterization, narrative style, and more are all things that it takes time and intentional engagement to learn.

if you've ever watched a movie with your film buff friend and chatted about it afterwards, that friend might have pulled hours more of conversation out of the same 90 minutes of screentime, and wondered how the fuck they did that - it's not raw intelligence, it's a skill that's been honed. And I learned a lot about film from talking to friends who knew about film, and reading critique by film scholars

literature works exactly the same. so if you want to get more out of your reading, there are things you can do to train that. Find a book or short story you think you've got a pretty good grasp on, preferably from a widely read & respected author like Ursula K Le Guin or Ray Bradbury (if you're new at this don't swing for the Toni Morrison or the Samuel Beckett yet unless you feel very comfortable with the complexity of the text - the point is to develop a complicated new skill on good foundations). Then go to JSTOR, create a free account, and look up criticism on the story you've chosen. Find something that looks readable to you and at least somewhat interesting. Read that article, and look at what that writer got out of the same story you've read that you didn't get. Do you see the critic's points? Did they teach you something about the text? Go reread that story and see if the criticism has changed how you read it. Are you seeing more? Are you thinking about the implications of a line that you hadn't noticed before? Does the story feel richer now?

there are other more involved ways of finding criticism. Learning to use academic databases, going to your local library to do interlibrary loans, finding critical voices you appreciate; these are all useful subskills. Literacy isn't just being able to read words, it's being able to read words in context and think about what they tell you about the text, the author, or the time and culture in which the text was produced. Literacy is the skill of being able to look at the world with open eyes and think clearly about how its parts are connected. It'll change your life

[briannyssey]

this keeps getting shared around and ive seen some different tags responding differently so i just want to make some important clarifications and distillations

you don't have to read more deeply if you don't want to (but i'd recommend it, i genuinely think it makes you a better person)

if you want to learn to read more deeply, the resources are out there. try to find critical literature (that is, academic writing that analyzes the text) on works your familiar with so you can get a sense for how to do that analysis too

learning to deep read literature can help you deep read many areas of your life

writers tend to put a lot of work into their stories. if you learn to read that work you'll (probably) appreciate the stories you love even more. And if not, then you'll have developed your taste. This too is worth doing

[professorcalculusstanaccount]

looks like reform hogs are scraping the bottom of the bin for the tiniest bit of dirt. it takes a bin to clean up clacton!

context under the cut. british politics are very silly

nigel farage was a member of parliament "representing" clacton (he goes to the US to schmooze with trump more than he spends time in his own constituency). he's leader of reform, a far right party and is a fascist piece of shit. he also looks like a sea devil from doctor who

he's responsible for brexit, which has tanked the uk economy and is also in the epstein files.

it was discovered that he accepted five million pounds from a cryptocurrency billionnaire in thailand and failed to declare it, which, if found guilty, would cost him his seat in parliament. so to worm his way out of the investigation he quit

this triggered a by-election in his constituency. he immediately announced he would be running for his seat he resigned from. an obvious farce to flex the support he supposedly has.

thing is every other political party could tell what he was doing so boycotted the election.

enter Count Binface, intergalactic dictator of the Recyclons from Sigma IX:

He's been a joke candidate for some time. In the UK anyone can run in elections, you just need ten signatures from residents and £500. This time, he genuinely has a chance of winning. Without the other major parties to split the vote, he could potentially unite the anti Reform vote in Clacton and win Nigel's seat

so Nigel will either win and the investigation into him will continue, which will lead to him being fired, OR he loses his seat to a man with a bin on his head.

it is BINEVITABLE

[narcissene]

affirmations:

- it’s fun to be awake & in an upright position

- consciousness is a gift

- i CAN do this anymore

[dieschwartzman]

my sister watched nolan’s odyssey yesterday so now we’re having a debate over messages

[vitoriabas]

Some wacky illustrations for a short dissertation I wrote for my Masters, exploring the relationship between medieval illuminations, marginalia, and online ads.

Markers on cartridge paper.

[dieschwartzman]

wdym my parents are watching oppenheimer without subtitles???

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

always some new bullshit in the ocean

[local-demon-in-your-area]

Why is it always orcas or dolphins

Why can't a salmon do some bullshit for once

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

worry not ☝️ they're doing coke

[gvalesdraws]

All that is gold does not glitter,

Not all those who wander are lost;

The old that is strong does not wither,

Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,

A light from the shadows shall spring;

Renewed shall be blade that was broken,

The crownless again shall be king.”