Line Between Fiction & Reality

L. Late thirties (yikes, when did that happen?). She/her (they/them). Lover of language, literature and art history. Anxious bean.

[linebetween]

Summer break 2026, week 1/4

God, how is an entire week of my break gone already?

But it's been excellent so far. I seem to get better at this staycation thing every year. This time round I've realised that the secret is to plan one activity a day that isn't just sitting around and reading (which I'll do anyway).

Saturday: barbecue with my parents

Sunday: swimming at the local pool

Monday: met a friend for coffee and a long talk

Tuesday: made blackcurrant jelly

Wednesday: into town for some shopping, a library run and a solo lunch and coffee

Thursday: swimming again

Friday: swanned off to Brussels for an exhibition about the fuckery of beauty standards. Mixed bag, this had 60+ artists and I know I tend to prefer exhibitions that focus on one artist or movement. I did fall in love with Martha Roslers photo manipulations, so that's a win.

Saturday: cooked courgette curry for my parents

Sunday (today): back to the swimming pool

I've also finished three great books: Sula by Toni Morrison, Nachtgids by Marjolijn van Heemstra and Ada by Michael Olbrechts, and have just started Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver.

The swimming is doing me a world of good and the weather has been stellar, so I've been outside a lot watching the birds and the caterpillars and feeling the breeze.

[feignedremote]

In the other [1979] profile, in Vogue, [Toni] Morrison spoke of a white American reader who had "told her how difficult it was to understand black culture in her books—it was so removed from his experience." She had responded: "Boy, you must have had a hell of a time with Beowulf!" The Vogue interviewer, missing the wit in this retort, went on to comment: "Morrison has no patience with people who plead ignorance; but then, she does not pride herself on being a patient woman. 'I find myself being more and more difficult,' she says. 'It's something I really relish.'" Even Morrison's literary difficulty and the pleasure she took in it was translated here into personal difficulty, a moral failing: How dare she be impatient! Well, wouldn't you be?

Namwali Serpell, On Morrison

[linebetween]

Look I don't care one bit about any sports, but waking up to the news that Belgium - of all countries - has flattened the US in the world cup is actually kind of great.

[basingstokemercury]

Lucia Di Lammermoor, or "star-crossed lovers decide to deal with it by traumatising as many people as they can"

[animate-mush]

"We are going to make this everyone's problem"

[basingstokemercury]

First she goes mad, kills her husband (forced marriage) and wanders through the castle hallucinating covered in blood and freaking everyone out

Then she dies of Sad

Then the tenor finds out and kills himself in front of everyone over their horrified exclamations

A+ opera couple, really

[animate-mush]

Good for her 🧁

[lurking-latinist]

Did you know it's based on a Sir Walter Scott novel

[linebetween]

The management assistant

The management assistant She escaped the office Yes YES The management assistant is out

(Out of office until August 2)

[pollkien]

I actually do not dip into the LOTR side of the fandom that much so who is your favorite member of the fellowship

Frodo

Sam

Pippin

Merry

Aragorn

Gimli

Legolas

Gandalf

Boromir

Voting ended onJul 5

[dykecinema]

which one is better (no nuance)

Pride and Prejudice (1995)

Pride and Prejudice (2005)

Voting ended onJul 8

[linebetween]

Took a lil trip to the arts library of my alma mater during my lunch break and:

a) I forgot that building had such a distinctive smell. Catapulted straight back to my student years. My stress levels were up in the stratosphere all the time, but my god, I took to that faculty like a fish to water and I still miss it so much.

b) I got a copy of Kingsolver's Prodigal Summer (which the public library inexplicably does not have) and Monika Fludernik's Towards a 'Natural' Narratology because I'm a massive nerd and I want to at least try to read some literary theory during my month off work.

[linebetween]

I'm having a moment, here.

I'm mostly pretty happy with my decision not to start a family, but whoo boy sometimes... my life feels emptier than other people's, without kids and/or a partner to fill up a lot of my time outside of work.

And most days that actually feels like a luxury. I'm free to explore books and art and museums. To hang with friends and experiment in the kitchen and play weird computer games. But on days like today, it just feels... lonely.

Not the best mood to be in a day before my four week summer staycation starts.

[linebetween]

GOD FUCKING DAMN IT TO HELL.

Been feeling awful all day, made myself go for a lunchtime walk to the library, spotted Nice Man I Know And Rarely Get To See but panicked and didn't say hi and I've been beating myself up about it for four hours straight now.

Don't think he saw me. Or if he did, I hope he either didn't want to talk to me or assumes I didn't notice him.

[thethirdromana]

The worst types of cookbook:

The Ottolenghi - it is vital that you use 1g of this very expensive ingredient. It comes from a 500g bag with a one-week shelf life.

The time machine - 15-minute recipe! First, leave to marinate overnight...

The dishwasher - one-pot recipe! Now decant your ingredients and wipe out your pot. And again. And again. And again.

The optimist - cook the onions until caramelised (2 minutes).

The kindergarten teacher - get one nommable little tree of broccoli and bosh that into boiling water. Delish!

The brand names only - ingredients: Ritz crackers, Philadelphia cheese, Cool Whip, orange Jell-o...

The 1950s palate - use one (1) clove of garlic and a small pinch of chili flakes (omit if preferred).

The why bother with a cookbook - to make beans on toast, gently heat a tin of beans and put on top of freshly buttered toast.

[thethirdromana]

#the overachiever: make this very time consuming ingredient from scratch even though it'll end up tasting worse than store bought

Amen to this @akasanata. "Now make your puff pastry from scratch". How about no❤️

[bluecatwriter]

• The aesthetic cookbook: Lush full-color photographs of every dish plus dreamy photos of everyone enjoying said dishes in a lush spread on a picnic table underneath redwood trees. The book is 100 pages and there are four actual recipes in it

[linebetween]

Oh fuck me. Office is hot as balls already. And I can't leave until I've met my deadline. For which I need original documents. Which are still with other people, who will arrive god knows at what time.

Please. I just want to go home.

[linebetween]

Fuck global warming.

My bike ride home yesterday? Felt like cycling straight towards a hairdryer running on the hottest setting. I've never, ever, felt anything like this in Belgium.

By the time I went to bed, venturing outside still felt like wading through warm soup.

I live in a house with no air con. There are no spots to swim: we don't have an outdoor pool in this city anymore (there's a renovation going on that will take YEARS) and the indoor ones are fully booked. Forget about rivers or canals: you're not allowed in.

The office does not have air con and gets hot as balls. All we got is an email saying "you can work from home if your work permits it", but it's crunch week, so many of us have no choice.

I am, in fact, hella lucky I at least managed to arrange my workload in such a manner that I got to work from my parents' house on Tuesday, and again today. It's more bearable here because my mother is a boss at climate control without air con. I'm lucky that I have access to my parents' garden whenever I want. I'm lucky that my office is within a short distance of air conditioned shops. I'm lucky I won't have to take a train in this weather, or work outside, or take meds that make me less heat resistant.

And it won't be over until after the weekend.

And this will be the coolest summer for the rest of my life.

[fence-time]

I think the worst part about being on the aro-ace spectrum is knowing you’ll probably never be anyone’s first choice. Like. I love my friends and I’d like to think they still love me, but compared to their partners (current or hypothetical future ones) I’ll always be at least second. And it’s fine, I don’t expect to be above someone who they love so much they want to spend the rest of their life with, but just knowing every allo person is a first choice to someone else and I never will be? ,,, kinda sucks,, :/

[linebetween]

Survived the day in our office without air con. Let's hope I can also survive the bike ride home...

[vixvigil]

it’s never a normal temperature anymore it’s always some fucking bullshit

[liberalsarecool]

Cosign.