Kat Likes To Read

“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.” ― Jorge Luis Borges Hey, there! I'm Kat, and I like to read. Languages and the written word are my prized possessions. This is a side blog.

[1980sbisexualdad]

Hm. Fat ppl deserve better positivity than just being called attractive.

[gae-bolg-alternative-dot-exe]

[soloikismos]

i have to tell my mom that putin isn't a communist like every other week

[soloikismos]

she's like sorry i still think of russia as communist i grew up during the cold war and i was like so you just FORGOT the most significant political event of your lifetime, the dissolution of the soviet union?

[charlesoberonn]

Sorry I keep forgetting that France is a Republic. You see I grew up during the reign of Loius XIV the Sun King.

[werewolfseth]

Did you know that they had a man holding rob so they wouldn’t fall over cause neither did I

[thebluetint]

this is my favorite comment on this post

[clown-strife-deactivated2021041]

Robert Pattinson POV:

[marauders4evr]

So imagine you’re a gay top, right, and you’re out on a date with your partner, just having a fun time, and you’re about to head home, when you spot this kid passed out on the streets, your partner wants to help him, but you’re obviously a little worried that you could face severe repercussions if you help this random kid, then you realize that he could be a potential ally, so the two of you drag him out of the streets and into a safe space, and when he wakes up, he confesses that he’s homeless, so you and your partner go through the process of adopting him, you two take him home, you two give him a good meal, you two start to teach him some philosophies in life, he slowly grows up, you two help him through his bad dreams, you two help him through his bad memories, you two play games with him, he completely roasts you at an eating contest, he’s extremely active, you’re always on the move, you’re walking everywhere, like literally walking all the time, like so much walking, and you’re there for him and then all of a sudden, his childhood friend shows up on your doorstep and is like, “Your adopted son is really the king.” and then he falls in love with a woman in like 2.55 minutes which is definitely not something you two taught him how to do, so you’re confused, and the weather gets really weird, and you’re even more confused and in the end, all you really want to know is WHO’S THE MONKEY and by the time you’re dressing in drag and doing the hula, you’ve realized that maybe it’s better if you just don’t worry about it…

[newtgeiszler]

i love the aggressively unnecessary decision op made in announcing the fact that timon is a top in this post

[sprotteslaettberg]

Special thanks to the comment above for adding the name and making me realize that this is, in fact, about the Lion King, and not some medieval gay knights AU

[afronerdism]

We need to dismantle the systems in place that allow white people to get away with offering black people sub-par services based on the excuse that our bodies are more difficult to work with. Black hair is not more difficult than white hair, it simply requires a different skill set. Tattooing vibrant tattoos on black skin isn’t more difficult than tattooing white skin, it simply requires a different skill set. Photographing black people isn’t more difficult than photographing white people, it simply requires an understanding of photography. Doing makeup on black skin isn’t more difficult than doing makeup on white skin, it simply requires different products. Working with black people is not more difficult than working with white people you’ve all just been taught that it’s not valuable and therefore not worth learning how.

[kelila-rivka]

This is extremely similar to the dilemma faced by disabled people. It is no more expensive to design a building with ramps instead of stairs, it’s only when you create the building first and have to tear down the stairs and replace them that you incur costs. If we teach the skills of inclusion from the beginning, there should be no additional costs for services and accessiblity for anybody.

[afronerdism]

Initially I wasn’t sure I wanted to diverge from the axis of race over to disability, but I actually think that the analogy of that building and how it’s only after we’ve institutionalized inequality that costs are incurred trying to fix it, is a valuable one so thanks for the contribution.

[valtsv]

the lotr films love to present gimli as the ugly, dirty, ignorantly rude comic relief when the reality is that aragorn is a sweaty, grimy, greasy-haired ranger who sleeps rough on the road and maybe bathes once a month, and legolas is a feral cat who eats dirt and sleeps in trees and threatens anyone who tries to start shit with his friends with a notched arrow to the skull regardless of the potential consequences, while gimli is a dwarf prince who actually acts the part, is well-educated and mannered, has a strong sense of honor and duty, appreciates song, poetry and other fine arts and crafts as well as food and drink, and is actually probably the cleanest member of the three hunters. anti-dwarf propaganda never sleeps.

[valtsv]

headcanon that during their time in the wild together chasing merry and pippin aragorn and legolas started behaving more and more oddly and gimli wasn’t sure whether it was because they were becoming friends so they felt they could be more like themselves around each other or if they were just fucking with him, but either way he was too afraid to ask

[valtsv]

aragorn: *crouches down* *picks up a fistful of soil and starts chewing it thoughtfully* the uruk-hai are heading east

gimli: you can tell that just from the dirt?

aragorn: what? oh no, i figured that out from these tracks here. this is just a snack.

gimli:

[valtsv]

legolas: *tears a strip of moss from one of the trees in fangorn forest and starts munching on it as they walk*

gimli, sniffling: i hate this fucking family

[mondaynightmami]

bob woke up and chose violence on this day

[jentlemahae]

crying

[jentlemahae]

user markshotaros going shooters for karl marx

[sagicidal]

u forgot the best part

[lastoneout]

This came across my feed a little bit ago so I'm glad I finally have context for it

[tendochocolat]

@ukaizawa

[athenasdragon]

God, that explains this:

[indigenousfawn]

How to: Cottagecore Respectfully*

1. Learn whose land you are on, and actually educate yourself on their history AND their present.

2. If you purchase or own land, return it to the tribe in which is belongs (this does not mean you can’t use or live on your land, click link)

3. Before planting anything or altering the landscape in any way, PAY knowledge keepers of said tribe to give you an assessment of your land: they will explain to you what you should and shouldn’t do to the land, what you should plant there (if you are in the US, these are probably going to be plants you are not familiar with, as many plants you think of as crops are not from here but from Europe) , and how.

4. Actually follow the recommendations given to you. Just because you want to grow carrots doesn’t mean the land you are on is for growing carrots. Just because you want pet cows doesn’t mean you should have them. Accept that.

5. Support indigenous food sovereignty by gifting some of what you produce (because, if done right, you will have extra) to your local indigenous groups.

* this is a write up by me. Members of other indigenous communities may have differing opinions.

[howverychaotic]

Does this apply outside of the americas?

[indigenousfawn]

Obviously yes, as there are indigenous people outside of the americas. If you’re asking this question, you need to research and learn about the indigenous people where you live.

[neopoint]

i don’t get angry easily but this photoset made me realize that some people definitely deserve to be violently killed by a mob

[neopoint]

oh my GOD

[queenbeldaran-deactivated202102]

No. I tried to scroll past, but no. You do not ever call for violence against someone like this. Those people may be obnoxious, they may not live in our real world and they may have a “let them eat cake”-mentality and make a living ruining lives and so many more things. That does not mean that they deserve anything like what is written above. It does not matter if it is not serious. These are real people. PEOPLE! Fucking hell, in this context it doesn’t matter that they make wall street their playground, it doesn’t matter if they are little mini Jeff Bezos. Thought that people were idiots for inciting violence against capitol hill? What about you now? Work to change the law, work for a world where people don’t take joy in inciting violence against others, no matter who they are. 

[thissitewasamistake-deactivated]

Funny? I think everyone was pretty serious about it.

[queenbeldaran-deactivated202102]

That just makes it even worse. 

[thissitewasamistake-deactivated]

Actually it's pretty cool

[thissitewasamistake-deactivated]

That about tracks

[thissitewasamistake-deactivated]

Bowflexed

[mmmm-books]

Can’t believe Jane Austen wrote Pride and Prejudice in the 2000s

And in 2015 Emily Brontë released literary clsssic Wuthering Heights

Thank God someone paved the way for them…

[nitrosplicer]

if you think jk was the first woman author, you don’t actually care about women authors.

[syrupie]

Mary Shelley didnt fuck on her parents graves for this level of disrespect

[adrianainthesnow]

Murasaki Shikibu didn’t invent the novel for this.

[steakplissken]

Christine de Pizan did not sit down at her desk and write The Book of the City of Ladies, advocating for women’s education and finding value in women of all social classes and backgrounds, in 1405 for this.

[ailorian]

🎶SHAHARIZADE HAD A THOUSAND TALES🎶

[captainlordauditor]

This……….isn’t even true in 20th century fantasy or childrens books? Pierce, Lackey, Applegate, McCaffrey, Bradley, Butler, whomst?

[amuseoffyre]

Casual reminder that

a woman was the first known author/poet in 2300BC - Enheduanna

the first novel in recorded history was written by a woman in 1010AD - Murasaki Shikibu

the earliest example of science fiction was written by a woman in 1666 - Margaret Cavendish

horror science fiction was popularised by a teenage girl in 1818 - Mary Shelley

a Scotswoman expanded childrens’ stories from moralising tales into anarchic adventures in the mid 1800s, well before it became popular in the early 20th century - Catherine Sinclair

the masked/costumed hero archetype that inspired Batman and Zorro was created by a woman in 1905 - Baroness Emma Orczy

And while she is problematic as all get out, we all know who is to blame for popularising Boarding School fiction (which is a huge inspiration of She Who Must Not Be Named) from the 1930s onwards - Enid Blyton

[khadij-al-kubra]

And do I even need to mention what a badass pioneer Ursula Le Guin was for women author in the fantasy/sci-fi genre?

[impatentpending]

Not to mention Agatha Christie is literally second only to Shakespeare in terms of works sold – 4 billion compared to JKR’s paltry 500 million 

[beatrice-otter]

It’s all about forgetting.

It doesn’t matter how many women were, or how many queer people there were, or how many people of color there were, if we don’t remember they existed.

If history only remembers the great white men, if the Great White Men are the only ones listed in textbooks and best-of lists and whatnot, then each generation of women and queers and people of color have to struggle forward alone.

Lois McMaster Bujold has been one of the big-name SF/F authors since the early 80s. She has constantly gotten asked through her career about what it’s like to be one of only a few women, or if she’s glad now that more women are writing SF/F. Which she finds frustrating because, as someone who’s been doing this for forty years, there have always been women doing it, she is not a pioneer in any way, why do people keep acting like she is?

It’s all about forgetting.

When Game of Thrones came out, I saw a list of fantasy novels, one of those “If you like this, then you’ll love that!” lists. It had a special name for the subgenre that Game of Thrones is a part of, but I forget what that name is. Anyway, we’re talking about secondary-world (i.e. not Earth) pseudo-European-medieval stories in which magic exists but the focus is on politics, not magic or grand quests or epic whatever. GRRM is far from the only person to have written stories like that; lots of authors have.

This list of twenty authors was exclusively male. Not one female author was included. And lest anyone think “well, maybe this is a subgenre that appeals to men more than women, so more men write it,” that subgenre was created by a woman. Her name was Katherine Kurtz, and she started writing the Deryni books in 1970. Secondary world pseudo-European-medieval fantasies that focus on politics? The King’s Deryni was the first in the world. She has had a very successful career, and her most recent book was published in 2016. Lots of women have written in that subgenre … but not one of them was on that list. I don’t believe it was some grand conspiracy; but the effect was the same.

It’s all about forgetting.

Don’t let that happen.

[tiktoksthataregood-ish]

[bedpsyching]

Things I hate: fan made pokemon gender differences

[butterbeanchu]

YO THESE ARE FUCKING HALARIOUS

Like fan made stuff goes all out but in reality Pokemon gender differences are the most mundane shit

Only goes gen 1-4 tho

[aberrantemotion]

Yea thats how animals work

[remnantglow]

cant stop thinking abt ursula k. le guin’s essay abt the carrier bag theory….. she’s like, maybe the first human tool was not a weapon, but rather something that holds, a bag, a pouch, a vessel, something for gathering and storing and sharing. let’s shift the narrative of humanity from that of violence to that of safekeeping. and i’m like

[remnantglow]

and THEN she’s like, a novel is also a carrier bag. there’s the Hero’s story, sure, but there’s room enough in fiction for every experience, for every little thing, and it’s that other story, the life story, that she seeks……. o|-<

[remnantglow]

turns out the entire essay is online (thanks, Anarchist Library) and i really can’t recommend it enough

[rem-ir]

[napeedgesandhighcheekbonez1]

[westafricanbaby]

Awwwww😂😂😂

[blackwomenunited]

"Then how do you say aisle?" 😂😂🤣

[eco-socialism]

[angiethewitch]

hey a local town actually did this!

they planted berries, root vegetables, leafy greens, herbs, all sorts. they label each plant and the sign said "free to take, leave some for others to enjoy!"

and people did. they took a bit, but left some for others.

it also fed the homeless people living around there.

bearing in mind this is a tourist town, so i half expected to see the plants gone. but nope, there's always some left.

people aren't naturally selfish, and they will share. the initiative works

[explorerrowan]

And honestly? Most people who don't need it won't bother to stop and pick fruit. It's only people who actually need it who will devote the time. People with money still have grocery stores.

[dramaticowl]

[Image description: tweet by Black Botanist @CreativeTiana: transcript follows]

I was talking to someone about planting food and fruit trees in public spaces and they were like “Why so everyone can steal the food?”

And I was like “See, that’s the problem right there. Why should taking food off a public tree be stealing?”