Stranger Things
todays bird
One Nice Bug Per Day
祝日 / Permanent Vacation
dirt enthusiast
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"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"
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Andulka
Cosimo Galluzzi
Alisa U Zemlji Chuda
roma★
tannertan36
cherry valley forever
TVSTRANGERTHINGS
Origami Around
izzy's playlists!
★
NASA
YOU ARE THE REASON
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@mercythompson
Slowly, as though thinking it out for himself, Winter said, "That there's no such thing as a coward, or a brave man—not out there. There's no man's will stronger than the war. He might as well have called you an angel as call you a coward, the—distinction—is just as valuable. That is to say, not at all. And of course, the world ended. But it went on too."
The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden
I actually can't stop thinking about this dialogue. i am banging my head against a WALL!!!
“He shook his head pityingly. 'This, more than anything else, is what I have never understood about your people. You can roll dice, and understand that the whole game may hinge on one turn of a die. You deal out cards, and say that all a man's fortune for the night may turn upon one hand. But a man's whole life, you sniff at, and say, what, this naught of a human, this fisherman, this carpenter, this thief, this cook, why, what can they do in the great wide world? And so you putter and sputter your lives away, like candles burning in a draft.” “Not all men are destined for greatness,” I reminded him. “Are you sure, Fitz? Are you sure? What good is a life lived as if it made no difference at all to the great life of the world? A sadder thing I cannot imagine. Why should not a mother say to herself, if I raise this child aright, if I love and care for her, she shall live a life that brings joy to those about her, and thus I have changed the world? Why should not the farmer that plants a seed say to his neighbor, this seed I plant today will feed someone, and that is how I change the world today?” “This is philosophy, Fool. I have never had time to study such things.” “No, Fitz, this is life. And no one has time not to think of such things. Each creature in the world should consider this thing, every moment of the heart's beating. Otherwise, what is the point of arising each day?” ― Robin Hobb, Royal Assassin
Vin and Elend. And nothing bad ever happened.
Commissions Etsy Procreate brushes Patreon Inprnt
Currently re-reading Time of Contempt and this is such a Geralt pookie moment 🥹
As I quote:
'Oh heavens, oh heavens,' said Yennefer much later, slowly wiping a tear from her cheek. "..."
Geralt knew that, in moments like this, the enchantress's telepathic abilities were sharpened and very powerful, so he thought about beautiful matters and beautiful things. About things which would give her joy. About the exploding brightness of the sunrise. About fog suspended over a mountain lake at dawn. About crystal waterfalls, with salmon leaping up them, gleaming as though made of solid silver. About warm drops of rain hitting burdock leaves, heavy with dew. He thought for her and Yennefer smiled, listening to his thoughts.
Ilona Andrews COOKED when she said 'the hottest quality in a man is self control'.
And then stuck with it for all her main male love interests. They can be different levels of kind, of funny, of honest, but every single love interest is the type that hold themselves in complete control, and honestly, she's absolutely right.
Nothing more unattractive to me than a man that is ruled by his anger, a slave to his lust, and doesn't act with intention.
save earth save erid
books I’ve read in 2026 📖 no. 033
Burn For Me by Ilona Andrews
“What are your qualifications for this job?”
“I’m expendable.”
I was talking about a historical male author I dislike because I found his works misogynistic and the person said, "Oh, well I suppose you don't read Shakespeare either." and I was like, "Shakespeare? SHAKESPEARE?!?! Of course I read Shakespeare, that man loved women."
Shakespeare wrote a wide variety of fleshed out female characters. He wrote Damsels in Distress, Cross-dressing Girlbosses, and Complex Female Villains. He wrote a woman who refused to sell her virtue to save her family and then shamed her brother for suggesting it. He wrote Taming of the Shrew and it's opposite, All's Well that Ends Well, in which the wife hunts down and tames the husband. He wrote men who are good because they listen to, trust, and defend women. He wrote women of all kinds. He wrote women who drive the plot and women doomed by the narrative. He wrote women in love and women who pathetically follow a man who doesn't like them and women in hatred. He wrote sensible women and silly women and everything in between of all ages.
I wish modern authors could write women as well as he did.
project hail mary has it all. amnesia trope. petty academics. platonic soulmates. narratively justified retro-futurism. red string of fate. a bird may love a fish, but where will they live / then I shall have to make you wings. also a competent woman committing so many crimes in order to save the world and bringing the protagonist with her everywhere because he is her AND I QUOTE "little science lapdog". book of all time
Hellenic Witchcraft and Magic Reading List
Apollonius of Rhodes. Voyage of the Argo. Trans. Emile Victor Rieu. 2nd ed. N.p.: Penguin Classics, 1959. Print.
Bracke, Evelien. “Of Metis and Magic: The Conceptual Transformations of Circe and Medea in Ancient Greek Poetry.” Doctoral thesis. Maynooth, 2009. Print.
Clark, Brian. “The Witches of Thessaly.” N.d. MS.
Collins, Derek. Magic in the Ancient Greek World. N.p.: Wiley-Blackwell, 2008. Print.
D'Este, Sorita. Hekate: Liminal Rites. N.p.: Avalonia, 2009. Print.
Euripides. Medea. Trans. Rex Warner. Rep Una ed. N.p.: Dover, 1993. Print. Dover Thrift Editions.
Faraone, Christopher A. Ancient Greek Love Magic. N.p.: Harvard University, 2001. Print.
Flint, Valerie, et al. Ancient Greece and Rome. Ed. Bengt Ankarloo and Stuart Clark. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania, 1999. Print. Vol. 2 of Witchcraft and Magic in Europe. 6 vols.
Gager, John G. Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World. N.p.: Oxford University, 1999. Print.
Griffiths, Emma. Medea. N.p.: Routledge, 2006. Print. Gods and Heroes of the Ancient World.
Johnston, Sarah Iles. Ancient Greek Divination. N.p.: Wiley-Blackwell, 2008. Print.
- - -. Hekate Soteira: A Study of Hekate’s Roles in the Chaldean Oracles and Related Literature. N.p.: Oxford University, 1990. Print.
- - -. Restless Dead: Encounters between the Living and the Dead in Ancient Greece. Reprint ed. N.p.: U of California, 2013. Print.
Lucan. Civil War. Trans. Matthew Fox. N.p.: Penguin Classics, 2012. Print.
Luck, Georg. Arcana Mundi. N.p.: John Hopkins University, 2006. Print.
Ogden, Daniel. Greek and Roman Necromancy. N.p.: Princeton University, 2004. Print.
- - -. Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds. 2nd ed. N.p.: Oxford University, 2009. Print.
- - -. Night’s Black Agents: Witches, Wizards, and the Dead in the Ancient World. N.p.: Bloomsbury Academic, 2008. Print.
Ovid. Metamorphoses. Trans. David Raeburn. Reprint ed. N.p.: Penguin Classics, 2004. Print.
Penman, Elicia Ann. “Toil and Trouble: Changes of Imagery to Hekate and Medea in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.” Doctoral thesis. Queensland, 2014. Print.
Rabinowitz, Jacob. The Rotting Goddess: The Origin of the Witch in Classical Antiquity. N.p.: Autonomedia, 1998. Print.
Seneca. Medea. Trans. Frederick Ahl. N.p.: Cornell University, 1986. Print. Masters of Latin Literature.
Spaeth, Barbette Stanley. “From Goddess to Hag: The Greek and Roman Witch in Classical Literature.” 2014. Daughters of Hecate: Women and Magic in the Ancient World. Ed. Dayna Kalleres and Kimberly Stratton. N.p.: Oxford University, 2014. 41-70. Print.
Turkilsen, Debbie. “Magic in the Ancient World.” N.d. MS.
Dropping the latest Sketch-a-Wish, voted on by my lovely Patreon members for October! This time featuring Ione and Elm from Two Twisted Crowns by Rachel Gillig! Rachel created a really compelling theme between the two female leads in the second book, I noticed. One trapped in her mind, the other trapped in her body, both clawing to escape.
The girl, the King... and the monster they became.
Elspeth Spindle from One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig 🖤
✨ 𝓔𝓼𝓬𝓪𝓹𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓝𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽𝓶𝓪𝓻𝓮 ✨
Art by: @pinkpiggy93
Commissioned by: @miseryreads
IG post can be found here.
GOD the ending of the martian (the movie) makes me so fucking mad compared to the ending of the martian (the book)
the martian the movie: i am the professor of badassery. you yourself can be badass too if only you learn to be completely self-reliant and say fuck you to everything
the martian the book: i am on a ship home. i am on a ship home because the entire world cared about me when by all rights i should have been a lost cause. long-standing borders were ERASED so teams of people who had never met could do EVERYTHING possible to save one solitary member of their species instead of leaving me to die where i should have been unreachable. it wasnt even anybody’s fault that i got stuck. they had every excuse to abandon me. instead, BECAUSE WE ARE A COMMUNITY…. maybe we do really deserve to be here among the stars
Hey, so we don't talk enough about A Christmas Carol as being at least a little bit about not continuing a cycle of abuse and neglect, both against others and yourself.
In the book little Scrooge is left languishing over the holidays in a boarding school for some never-explained reason, but it is made very clear that this is miserable and unfair, and that his father is doing this on purpose. His sister specifically comes to tell him that "father is so much kinder now than he used to be, that home's like heaven." This also reflects a bit of Dickens's own childhood when his father went into debtor's prison and little Charlie was forced to support his family working full time in a shoe-blacking factory at the age of 12 (which is also why so many of his books seem to have a moral of "hey, kids are people too and maybe we shouldn't make them work in the mines.")
Whatever family reunion happened after didn't work out, because Scrooge continues believing that no one is coming to save him and pulling himself up by his bootstraps at the detriment of all other social relationships is the only way forward. And the more he lives by that philosophy, the more miserable he gets, because obviously he pushes away anyone who has that hope that he lost. They threaten to break down the walls he's built and teach him that a big pile of money doesn't have to be the only thing that he can rely on, if he'd just let himself be vulnerable and have a relationship with people who care about him, because they're out there even if he's ignoring them.
There is a certain type of person still very much out there who thinks this way. "I've never been happy in my life, so no one else has a right to be either. I was abused in my childhood so it's only fair that everyone else suffer as well." We see this in parents who still try to use corporal punishment, and in wealthy people who ignore the social factors keeping others down and scream that everyone else is just entitled, that only those who suffer and scrape deserve happiness. And they especially hate the people like Fred who represent the past that could have been, who have maintained hope for the future, and seem to be rubbing their optimism in your face, when in reality they're just maintaining hope because it's the only way you can survive.
It's so important for Scrooge to actually see the impact this thinking has on both himself and multiple generations. Rich people have this weird hangup about this story because they think Scrooge is bad because he's rich. He's not, he's bad because he's a horrible person and a miser - he doesn't use his money to better anything, including himself. Salting the earth, everyone suffers here, including him. And he learns that he's going to die old and alone without ever having spent or enjoyed his money, and that his family feels sorry for him, and that the nameless masses of poor people out there that he decries so much are in fact living, breathing people, including tiny disabled kids who don't deserve to suffer just because you decided life isn't fair.
In the end he takes responsibility for actually uplifting the people in the next generation who are trying to make the world a better place and no longer punching down, because it doesn't have to be this way. So many people out there just give up hope because things are hard and they think trying to improve things is a pointless exercise that makes them look dumb. How dare you grow a year older and not an hour richer! How dare you marry for love! That's the only thing more ridiculous than a Merry Christmas! When in reality, there are plenty of people who would love to see them happy if they just had a chance.
It's really sad that, while the language used to describe it has changed, these problems still persist. That people feel so wronged and isolated that they spend their days ensuring everyone else will be as well. That they fail to see their fellow humans as fellow humans who are just as deserving of love and kindness and a roof over their heads. I don't care what time of year it is, we should all be lifting each other up rather than tearing each other down.
I want to emphasize just how Scrooge makes himself suffer.
Scrooge has ZERO comforts. He’s so scared of poverty that he won’t even spend an extra penny to make his own life halfway livable. His house is in the warehouse district; he has no neighbors. He only lives there because he can’t rent it. He lives in the dark - just one or two candles - and eats gruel. Adaptations often show him bullying food and drink from his debtors but the book does not. The book also does not show that he heats his office while leaving Bob Cratchett cold - they both freeze.
Scrooge has long since lost the notion that he himself also deserves better. That he himself is included in “good will to all men.”
A Christmas Carol, like Dracula, has been adapted so often that people know the plot but they don’t know the story.
For this I recommend the same resolution as Dracula: Dickens Daily just kicked off A Christmas Carol at 1000 words a day, ending Christmas Day.
The works of Charles Dickens as they would have been originally experienced. Click to read Dickens Daily, a Substack publication with hundre
Also, the book points out that he does go out for dinner in the tavern but then sits sulking in the dark eating gruel because he has a cold - insinuating he's literally made himself sick by living the way he does without adequate heat.
If you need an audio, I cannot recommend Patrick Stewart's performance of this story enough. I had it on tapes as a little kid and the way he does the bells scene is haunting.
Patrick Stewart - A Christmas Carol
Jane Austen Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition
Yeah Mr. Darcy’s proposal was a complete turd and a half but you gotta understand. You got your life together. A good career, stable income, retirement plan, all that shit together. And you meet this girl. And she’s everything. Clever, outspoken, funny, calls you on your bullshit. Grade A cutie, right? And she doesn’t go out of her way to spend time with you but she’s nice, and sometimes you catch her looking your way in a way that makes you think you might have a shot.
But her family. Holy shit.
First off, it’s p much ALL women, and mostly UNMARRIED women, which at this time means of something happens to her dad then you’re financially responsible for like. Four grown ass adults, potentially forever
Because mom in law is DEFINITELY gonna need someone to take care of her when dad in law kicks it, and they have like. NO money. So already you’re accepting that if all goes well, you’re gonna be one random old bag’s retirement home. That’s expensive and exhausting, yeah? Imagine asking someone on a first date knowing that if they say yes and things go good her high-strung chihuahua mother is gonna move in with you. IMAGINE.
And girly’s other sisters. Well, one is a sweetheart, yeah, so she probably won’t be an issue, but that still leaves three more, and two of those ones are INSUFFERABLE. Never went to school, dumb as rocks, spend cash like it’s toilet paper
And while one of the two is young still and might grow out of it the OTHER one is actively torpedo’ing her entire family’s reputation by wandering off with random dudes and chasing ass. She’s never gonna work, she can’t build connections, she’s a fucking sinkhole, and she’s being led on by the same goddamn con man ass leeching tit who’s been bleeding you dry while telling anyone who’ll listen that your family is full of ratty thieving bastards.
And if he dumps her after a week- WHICH YOU KNOW HIS BITCH ASS IS GONNA- you’ve got a SECOND UNMARRIABLE GROWN ASS ADULT TO PROVIDE FOR. And you KNOW she’s gonna be a tantrum-throwing little shit about it, and it’s not like you can lock her in the basement or something, you’re gonna have to bring her fucking. Everywhere. And give her an allowance and shit while she contributes zero, because again, she NEVER GOT EDUCATED AND HAS NO MARKETABLE SKILLS. She’s not even good to TALK to. FUCK
And you’re looking at this girl’s father like “please for the love of fuck get your spawn under control, marry them off, get them working on their résumé, learning to sew or be nursemaids or manage staff or SOMETHING, yall got no money and one foot in the grave” and that old man just laughs like “haha yeah, what can you do. lol”
So you’re looking to the mom and finally it’s making sense how she got that twitch in her eye and as MUCH as she is you’re starting to realize she’s the SMART one, desperately throwing her armloads of girls at random men like they’re a bunch of fucking lifeboats bobbing around a sinking ship, like yes Jesus Christ sweetly that life boat IS old and ugly and kind of boring but for FUCKS SAKE PICK ONE
And you look back at this girl who is ALSO REFUSING THE LIFE BOATS BY THE WAY and god damn it she’s still the most radiant thing you’ve ever seen so fine, fuck it, Christ alive, you’ll do it. You’ll shoot your shot. She’s everything you’ve ever wanted in anybody abut it’s not even just about that anymore, it’s about being her best fucking shot at a future, and even if she doesn’t like you all that much she’s still gonna say yes and that might break your heart a bit knowing it’s about the money but who knows, maybe it will at least be civil, or companionable, and even if she doesn’t LOVE you at least you’ll know she’s well and cared for
And so you’ll do it. You’ll take on the neurotic stress mess mother in law, the absent father, the broke ass wingnut no brain no money no future airhead sisters, the bad mannered relatives and the embarrassing behaviour and the impending future of sharing your entire shit with a clown parade of freeloaders, you’ll risk it all and accept the absolute certainty of financial ruin and emotional exhaustion for the rest of your whole ass life and you’ll make your own family deal with it too, you’ll do it, you’ll fucking DO IT, you stupid lovesick motherfucker
And so you go to this chick like “look. Your whole family’s a shitshow. You’ve got fucking nothing and you’re gonna die on the street. But for some reason- and I don’t get it either- I’ve fallen in love with you, and I wish I didn’t, but I did, so I’m telling you that whether you like me or not, I’ll give you everything. I’ll give you everything even if it’s the dumbest shit I ever done. Fuck my stupid Baka ass, I’ll marry you.”
And she looks at you- having heard or considered absolutely none of your months-long internal debate and monologue- and goes “The fuck did you just say about my family, you son of a bitch?”
And the shock of that is enough to jolt you back into a reality where you are able to actually hear and process what just came out of your damn mouth And yeah
Yeah, I think I kinda get it
