dru should’ve just gone back in the club to warn the others esp since janus didn’t even notice she was there till she approached him. she’d seen him riding a faerie horse and that would’ve been a big help for the others to track him down knowing their connections to the fey. they have two girls kidnapped now instead of just one 🤦🏽♀️
i do ship dru w ash but i was stressing tf out reading the sample
i see life itself in your eyes
frightening those who come before
encapsulating shadows reflected upon
my soul engulfed in your forgiving lies
swallow me, swallow me
i ask you to swallow me!
dissipate, assimilate, infiltrate
fill me up, thrust to the core
appealing to your touch
—prickly on raw skin
my scars bleed gold
i am your treasured sin
this is my final say:
you are forgiving, wise, and just
i am naive, broken, and undone
with a limp carrying my dead body
—to ride the waves, lost in motion
the seven seas and ocean
—i desperately conquer
as i cried out, "amen!"
to my last devotion
describe your biggest flaw in the most descriptive way possible.
him. his chesnut hair. the way his face is always illuminated by his phone screen because his eyes can’t seem to brace the glares that the real world seems to always promise him. the way he does a halfway smile and exhales a breath of air in order to signify laughter. the way he curses every 2 seconds. the way i seem to hype him up considering i don’t know him at all.
chicago. not being able to tell the difference between gunshots and fireworks on july fourth. a bone-grabbing series of snowflakes that seem to painfully kiss your cheeks every winter time. a scalding hot sidewalk accompanied by neon signs displaying the words deep, dish, and pizza that aesthetically burn their luminance into your brain. the way a stunning skyline takes your breath and runs with it, every night. the way i seem to express my feeling of being at home in a city i’ve barely seen.
i fall in love with the idea of things way too easily. my brain is an endlessly playing cassette, except the footage wasn’t recorded by something tangible. while nothing is real, everything feels so ethereal. it destorys me. i’m never met with the same expectations whenever i brace my desires with open arms, but part of me never wants to stop imagining. i know it ruins me, but after all, everyone needs a light in their life, so why not set myself on fire
i tasted that of peace once
it came and went faster than
the lighting that strikes the barn
dread falls down your quick glance
as the stench of burnt yarn
travels through with concern
no worries, darling,
for i have fallen into trance
a place where
i have yet to yearn
nor mourn
for love ever since
death sat by the bedside
of romance
and i sang hallelujah
as i brushed another stroke
of bright colors paint
(may - july 2021)
I'm writing this at 5 in the morning because I had just remembered that the assignment was due today. Now, as I'm sitting here struggling to squeeze my brain out on what to write while listening to Tyler, The Creator on shuffle because my Spotify premium had just finished yesterday, I remembered a video on YouTube of him calling out TV Cartoons on the lack of main Black characters.
"How many fucking black cartoon characters is it on TV right now?" Tyler said. "Name five. I'll give you time."
Besides his musical genius, he had gotten some points on how pop culture and the media are not being quiet frank on their out-of-touch representation of people of color, especially African ones.
I'd have to say, it's almost like non-Black screenwriters and authors are too afraid to be writing anything African involved that are not in the sense of romanticizing or as a form of pity. Wait, no, that's not true. They are not exactly afraid, perhaps not as well-informed? Maybe just too lazy to actually do their research? Or is it just the reluctancy to actually show how Africa is real and diverse, not something to be saved, because, perhaps, their unconscious guilt on centuries of slavery that was done by their ancestors?
I'm not going to start rambling on some facts I had found on the internet and pretend I know a thing about Africa when I actually don't. I only know a thing or two about Africa from the repeated sequences of Blockbuster movies or the depiction of wild deserts I saw on National Geographic channel. I could only name two movies, on top of my head, that I would describe as the closest thing I would believe as to how Africa actually is. Queen of Katwe (2016) and Black Panther (2018). Hell, Black Panther is fiction but at least there are some shots set in Africa that don't show how a whole continent is full of deserts and gruesome inhabitants.
"How the fuck should we write about Africa, then?"
Some people would say Binyavanga Wainaina's How to Write About Africa, originally published in Granta 92, was full of pieces of advice on how not to write about Africa. To be frank, I don't think he was trying to advise anyone. Rather, it was more of a satire. A satire that was written out of anger, as stated by Wainaina himself in his sequel to the writing, How to Write About Africa II: The Revenge (https://www.bidoun.org/articles/how-to-write-about-africa-ii). "How to Write about Africa grew out of an email. In a fit of anger, maybe even low blood sugar — it runs in the family —"
For that alone, I have to give him credits. A piece of writing that was able to offend a lot of people and eye-awakening to the rest was originally written as an email. An angry email, at that. His anger was very prominent throughout the text as he repeatedly made assumptions that these authors "care" so much about Africa. He also stated the common misconceptions that were written about African people and the typical stereotypes that come along with it. Like how African people are depicted to be wild and emotionless as they starve and waiting for the White "savior" to rescue them. In most recent writings, African characters are described with an oversimplified character arc. Their storylines are so cliche that Wainaina was able to make honorable mentions to your typical African characters. Aside from that, animals would have more complex stories to them as the authors would glorify how nature should be saved and preserved because it is the end for us all unless a foreigner from a European country was there to help as if there is literally no inhabitants in the lands of Africa.
All of which I realized after reading Wainaina's writing that was actually an email written impromptu, out of anger, and as a backup plan because he was supposed to write another one regarding Africa but he said (and I quoted from How to Write About Africa II: The Revenge)
"I was blocked and more blocked. I drank a Tusker. Finally, I wrote something about Bob Geldof. It was shit, said the editor — not his words, but he meant to say that, and he was right. So I went back to work. The deadline came. The deadline went. I was busy working on a short story, busy working on my novel."
A fucking genius. He used sarcasm and indirect offense to write his writing with no structure, just imperatives, and a repeated sentence that would jab the hearts of many— "because you care."
Or did I try to spare your feelings, tell you a white lie...
Cus you never felt the same
I only have myself to blame
You were never my mistake, you taught me a lesson
To never believe what’s on TV, the fake perfection
All our moments I shall treasure forever
So that when I look back at it, I’ll feel better
You were a stargirl, so bright and so rare
You lit up the night sky, you sparked my flare
But I knew it wouldn’t last, and you felt the same
You were a shooting star, you left as soon as you came.
-mar(celine)
10/5/20 during a thunderstorm
For stargirl. I’m grateful for the moments we shared and I’m thankful to have you in my life. As short as our time together was, we tried to make the best out of it. I wish you the best of luck in life because you deserve to be happy.
Sexy White Men in The Wilderness— What Could Go Wrong?
If I had a dollar for every time I’ve seen an attractive buff white male roaming around a jungle, I could hire experts to write my English essays. Joking. Well, not really. But, you got my point. Hollywood seems to cannot get enough of churning out this fever dream of paternalistic imperialism and colonialism. They all have the same motive: a white guy, remote areas of a forest or an island and a group of indigenous people. Whether they have been familiar with this area or not, these white men seem to always find a way to be superior or get their way through problems.
Okay, but what are these movies mentioned? First off, let's talk about our beloved wild man in the loincloth, Tarzan. He started off as a character written by Edgar Rice Burroughs in 1912, titled "Tarzan of the Apes" which ended up being a series of twenty-four books revolving a story of an aristocrat's son, who is abandoned in Africa when he was just a baby and was raised by a group of apes in the jungle.
In Burroughs' racist-stereotype-filled story, the ape had given Tarzan his name which means "white skin" in Burroughs' made-up ape language. Implying that the apes were aware that Tarzan had been different than them. Yet, supposedly being raised by a group of apes, Tarzan had a human-like behavior and granted his superior Anglo-Saxon genes, he was stronger and smarter than any African man he encountered. Besides being able to speak with animals, he is capable of climbing up trees, swinging through them, and learning new languages within a short period. On the contrary, all the Africans were portrayed as savages and racially inferior.
This idea in itself is racist and supports the mindset of colonial superiority. It promotes the "ooga-booga" stereotype around African people, which can be seen in films like "King Kong," 1931's "Trader Horn" (which features a white blonde jungle queen fighting a hostile tribe), and 1965's "The Naked Prey" (in which a white man who offends a native tribe is first tortured, then hunted for sport.)
Oddly enough, Burroughs' character has based off 50 on-screen films, not to mention stage plays, documentaries, and video games. The latest version of it was a 2016 movie distributed by Warner Bros., titled "The Legend of Tarzan." The plot involves a Tarzan (played by Alexander Skarsgård) based in Victorian London who is ready to shed his clothes and fight greedy explorers in the Congo. Though I have to say, the newest adaptation film should receive some credits for at least showing a sophisticated African society and casting African actors. Nevertheless, we can't escape the fact that it is still a story with the paternalistic idea that it takes a white man to save Africa. But I mean, hey, they did include Samuel L. Jackson—the go-to actor for films to claim inclusivity— right?
This "white man in the jungle" narrative could be seen played out in movies over and over again, from Kurtz in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness to Sam Worthington in Avatar. They all are spreading the implicit message "put a white man in the wilderness and he will rise to the top." Another form of literature with this message would be the tale of Robinson Crusoe. It is hard for me to understand why some countries have the 1st of February as the day to celebrate this Daniel Defoe's character from the 18th century when really? Crusoe's tale is a handbook for colonialism.
There was a part where Crusoe was captured and enslaved by the island's local residents. He managed to escape with the help of another slave of color only to sell his helper off to a Portuguese man that conveyed him to Brazil. In Brazil, he got involved in the slave trade where they would capture slaves from Africa. On the journey, his ship got wrecked and left him stranded on an island. He lived there for 28 years only to find out that there are "cannibals." He then "rescued" one of them and named him Friday and have him subordinated himself to Crusoe and voluntarily became his servant out of "gratitude." Crusoe's tale blatantly shows off racial supremacy and defends the idea of slavery.
Even though these are all characters in books or movies, they perfectly illustrated the beliefs of society at that time. Society then viewed whiteness as equals to civilization. This is not a justification, rather an understanding towards their point of view and a reason not to condemn these works. We can't sanitize history and pretend it didn't happen. Though, it is such a pity to see Hollywood tried to retell and do the Tarzan story just with their 2016 movie. It only emphasizes the fact that it is quite hard to move on from the belief of white supremacy and the familiarity of reigning over a no-man island. The movie did nothing to rectify the issues surrounding the original plot, and instead, they were glorified. We, as a society, could only learn from the past and change for the better.
A way to cover these issues on a screenplay or a novel without seemingly being racist or imperialist would be by giving the right representation of the indigenous people and tribes. They are often depicted along with their exotic set-dressing, as savages and inhumane. They glorify the idea that a clever white man can bring order to the “dark continent." When really, it's not them that should be feared. It's those "saviors." However, there's no right way of representing a culture that is not yours.
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