Laughing Goddess Magickal Apothecary

I am a proudly fat, black, and queer rootwoman specializing in unapologetically fat and LGBTQIA+ empowering hoodoo, obeah, and witchcraft. (She/her) http://laughinggoddessapothecary.com/

[theroyalgardens]

Great Chalfield Manor, Wiltshire, England

[akindplace]

hi! I made a new post on my other blog (where I make longer posts). These are my midnight musings on surviving a chronic illness and trying to find a way to remember that there is more to life than chronic pain even on nights when it makes it hard to fall asleep.

If you want to read it, here is the link

[starlitsequins]

i dont mean to victim blame but why do these vampires keep talking to daniel molloy when they know he's daniel molloy

[my-platonic-chemical-romance]

They think they can outsmart him just because he’s a baby

[teawitch]

Them: okay, so how do you know that story was written by AI?

Me: well, I just think Miss Marple should have mentioned that the Medium at the seance had three hands.

Them: ???

Me: look, it's an AI problem. It doesn't do continuity. So the seance starts with everyone joining hands. For a proper seance, this includes the Medium.

But then Miss Marple describes the Medium holding one hand over the Ouija board as the planchette moves around. Now ignoring the fact that's not how ouija boards work, this means the Medium is holding hands with the person on her left, the person on her right, and her third hand is controlling the ouija board. I'm just saying Miss Marple would have noticed she has three hands.

So STOP telling me I could use AI to help with my writing.

[herpsandbirds]

Blue-banded Pitta (Erythropitta arquata), family Pittidae, order Passeriformes, endemic to Borneo

photographs by Supasil Kalayanakoul 

[whilereadingandwalking]

On Morrison was a deeply annoying read: because now I want to read every single Toni Morrison novel, and I simply do not have the time. Infuriating! Namwali Serpell argues that Morrison's texts are difficult, that they often don't get the respect that they deserve, and that much of what are too-often reduced to representative and historical stories are intricately modernist novels working on levels that require multiple rereads to truly comprehend.

Serpell's analysis of Morrison's career, literary goals and methods, and techniques is deep and complex. I learned many literary terms I didn't know. From the use of negation in The Bluest Eye (defining things by what they aren't, what they don't do, can't be) to "signifying" (reading, as in reading someone down, insulting them from a viewpoint within the community, signifying on them in a way that has an inner kernel of love) in Song of Solomon to decontextualization (where are we, what is real, requiring the reader to constantly ask questions, rather than providing clear answers) and possession (what is displaced in ourselves when we love something too much) in Beloved, the analysis is fascinating. It's definitely academic at times—the essay on Tar Baby felt at times opaque, and there was a lot of pausing between chapters to try and process—but fans of Morrison and those interested in literary close-reading will get a lot out of this.

One very small critique is that seemingly to help support her expertise, Serpell sometimes dives into an example from one of her own books. I have nothing against the use of the "I" in criticism. But because she only does it rarely, it comes off as jarring and like a digression, and risks feeling self-centering. Still, the book is rich, educational, and a deep dive into an author who gets so much love, and yet somehow also not enough. I want to read all the Morrison, right this minute! What a love letter to this author and her work, and also a fascinating analysis of how Morrison has been treated, studied, and analyzed throughout her career.

[tiedanklestotheocean]

Season 4!

[rianphin]

[withnailrules]

Eartha Kitt performing in Las Vegas, Nevada, in 1955

[oggeminivenus]

[stuckinapril]

I think part of getting better is complete ego death. Like you’re not above setting a timer for 5 minutes and focusing on a task. You’re not above doing a very simple 3 minute workout to start. You’re not above reading for 10 minutes a day when you first get out of your reading slump, even if you used to read for hours. You’re not above starting slow and then building up to where you want to be/where you once were. What you are above is total inertia. Doing something really is better than doing nothing. Radically accept where you are, radically accept your limits, and go from there. Don’t let your ego get in the way.

[natureaestheticdreams]

[letpeoplecritiquethings]

Also, re Claudia saying she lied about Lestat’s rape comments — if we take that to be true, what are the writers saying actually happened? Claudia got on the train, tried to leave, and….? What? Like genuinely, why did she come back?

Did Lestat show up and threaten her DIFFERENTLY? Or did he not show up on the train at all? Are they saying her Evil Scheming Black Girl Mastermind plan was in action from way back when she was asking Louis to leave with her, and her whole departure and return was just a series of manipulative theatrics to poison Louis against Lestat? And this was her goal not because she hated Lestat but because she actually (checks notes) apparently preferred him, but found Louis easier to manipulate…??

Like… even if all this retconning wasn’t rooted in antiblackness and misogynoir (which it is), it’s also just terrible/absurd writing like where’s the logic ???? 🫠

[decomposingfungi]

tvl episode simulation

lestat: *awful french(?) accent* fam they are low-key trying to cancel me for serving too much cunt all because i'm too camp and too whimsical and now the woke mobe is coming for me but they'll have to take the L because I HAVE THE BLOOD OF AKASHA IN ME iykyk i'm just living rent-free in your minds because i'm looking snatched periodt

*five minutes musical video with the worst song you have ever heard*

gabriella: *count dracula accent* uuuuh lestat fuck me !! fuck mamma again and again and again !! i want sex i want to be FUCKED i want to suck a cock i love cock i only think of cock and murder uuuuuh lestat let's kill all humanity

daniel: did you stutter as a child? did you stutter as a child? did you stutter as a child? did you stutter as a child? oh and also: *seven different slurs*

louis: oh i'm sorry i'm a selfish bastard i'm a bad person i should be humbled *random slurs are said his way*

armand: *opens his eyes two seconds before the episode ends*

[antigonickpdf]

the thought i keep coming back to with the finale, and this season in general, is a sense of… infestation, i guess is the best way to describe it. because for the first two seasons, iwtv was a work that— even with all its gothic/horror themes— seemed deeply compassionate at its core, and it remained devoted to beauty and love in a way that felt like a reprieve from (even a small rebellion against) the rising fascism of the culture surrounding it. and now it feels like the hatefulness it was pushing back against has infested it somehow, like a swarm of fuckin termites, which has not only ruined this season but also calls into question the structural soundness of what came before it. like, how did we even get here? was this sort of mean-spirited derision always just lying in wait? idk. i don’t want to make a bad season of tv deeper than it is, but it does feel like witnessing another loss in the cultural battle when a careful, compassionate work that ostensibly cared about the marginalised experiences it depicted becomes just another conduit for hatred toward vulnerable groups. what a fucking bummer, man

[pulsingvoid]

💖 these are the four artists who, in light of the most recent season, appear to have carried iwtv on their backs while the white showrunner got all the credit. very impressed with their work not just writing/directing/editing-wise but because their presence clearly set a certain tone in that writers' room. and i imagine it took quite a bit of effort to maintain it, considering what that writers' room turned into once they were no longer in the picture. i'm really excited to keep an eye on their careers and i hope they move on to do great things with more creative control

[sumquiasum]

There are some points of tvl criticism I'm willing to debate and where I can very much see both sides (or even think the #haters are stretching it a little) but like. You cannot really deny that this season has shown a pattern of prioritizing white characters and their emotional journey over characters of color. On top of that, so many of the jokes are "punching down", starting with the pronoun joke in ep 1 followed by a continuous barrage of throw-away comments. And then, six episodes into a season with a non-Black writers room, we have Claudia say "there's something etched in your ribs that says you're a slave". There's no reckoning with how horrifically racist this statement is, neither in the text nor the paratext. It's just sitting there, poisoning what otherwise could have been an incredible scene. Poisoning a season that felt like it was actually slowly finding its footing. It's white privilege to watch that scene and not feel, on some level, attacked by those racist words put in a Black actor's mouth by the writers. To not be haunted by the racist implications of "my bleak, black life." Before, a lot of the writing choices registered as thoughtless; at this point, it's hard to see them as anything but malicious.