the gods need me to entertain them

the gods need me to entertain them. "these words force you to a new madness. you have been blessed, you have been pushed into a blinding area of light. " - Charles Bukowski. "I’m restless. Things are calling me away. My hair is being pulled by the stars again."- Anaïs Nin

[buried-in-stardust]

OP: "Do you know how test papers used to be printed?"

This is a mimeograph, a method of printing brought to China around 1900 and widely used thoughout during the 20th century due to its simplicity and cost-effectiveness. Due to technological advancements, it fell out of use near the end of the century. Characters are carved onto a sheet of wax lithographing paper with a stylus. Where the pen presses down on the paper, the wax is scratched off, so when printing, the oil-based ink will seep through onto the white paper.

OP also demonstrates fixing mistakes with a specialty correction fluid.

[xishimonz]

But the next morning, he is the one waking up alone... is this foreshadowing something or am I over-thinking?

[copperbadge]

On Saturday I said to my partner, as I have said for months, "A ten thousand dollar a year raise would solve so many of my problems."

As of this morning I was reluctantly looking for jobs because I love my job and don't want to leave it, but see: $10k raise problem solver.

As of noon today this was no longer an issue, because my boss called me with the news that I was getting a $10K merit raise.

I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. This is roughly $200 extra per paycheck. Enough to pay off debt faster, rebuild my savings, and spend a weekend a month in Milwaukee getting obscenely laid. The sex I'm going to have on $200 extra per paycheck. You can't even.

May all of you get the $10K raise your soul has yearned for. And whatever level of sex you can be satisfied with for $200.

[vergess]

hey bestie i think ur post might be charmed 'cause you aren't gonna fuckin believe what happened today

[derangedrhythms]

My holy place is [him]. And it is an abomination.

Iris Murdoch, The Philosopher's Pupil

[dingyuxi]

BLOSSOMS OF POWER 百花杀 (2026) — All the princes have their merits and are vying for my hand in marriage. What gives you the advantage, Your Crown Highness?

[samlickereightyone]

being 13 was crazy cuz it's like no one is coming to save you. there's only one option and it's to read about band guys having gay sex

[romanceyourdemons]

watching game of thrones and this was considered a historically accurate portrayal of steppe nomads??? the faux leather strapless crops and faux leather yoga pants?????

[romanceyourdemons]

one thing this show clearly doesn’t get, which a lot of modern portrayals of premodern times don’t seem to get, is that in a preindustrial society where literally everything is handmade, people preferred (and prefer!) to take a little longer to make things beautiful. if you’re personally spinning and weaving and stitching every inch your new coat, you might as well take an extra afternoon to dye the fibers a really lovely yellow with some onion scraps, and spend a little longer to embroider on a nice pattern. if you’re personally carving every angle of every chair in your house, you may as well slow down and carve them with a beautiful and culturally significant design, especially if you know your great-grandchildren will be sitting in them. in a hyperconsumerist industrial society it’s expected that you just buy what you can afford and settle for however beautiful or ugly the thing happens to be, but it wasn’t always that way. the vast majority of people in the premodern world—men and women, rich and poor—were hobbyist artists, and they dressed in and sat on and slept under and smoked with and ate out of their and their ancestors’ canvases every day

[its-not-a-pen]

NO THIS LEGIT MADE ME SO MAD.

DO YOU KNOW WHAT REAL STEPPE NOMADS FUCKING WORE???

HERE'S THE FUCKING REFERENCES I CREATED FOR A XIONGNU-INSPIRED DND CHARACTER COMMISSION. AND THAT WAS SOMEHOW MORE RESEARCH THAN GRR MARTIN AND HBO COULD BE PISSED DOING.

vs

LOOK AT THE FUCKING ARTESTY. THE CRAFTSMANSHIP. THE EMBROIDERY.

One thing I don't see discussed enough about game of thrones is the blatant orientialism. hey quick question, why are the real cultures you were "inspired by" portrayed as basically human-orcs? 1) why are nomadic societies automatically portrayed as being incapable of valuing or producing sophisticated clothes, and why is that costuming directly linked to their "bloodthirsty" and "warlike" natures? did you know their IRL counterparts the xiongnu/jurchens/mongols/hu people LOVED the fancy silks produced by the han chinese. not only was this a key part of diplomacy between the two nations. (surprise! they were not constantly at war, because steppe nomads were not bloodthristy monsters who loved death, but real people engaged in resource competition and territory control). it was also part of the internal politics of steppe culture, e.g., who was favoured by the leader and how valuable gifts were distributed among the nobility. but noooo that would mean thinking of them as real people motivated by complicated things like politics, status and culture within their tribes! and who would watch a show about people doing that? -_- 2) why do their societies revolve around killing and conquest, and have no love for intellectual or artistic pursuits? historically, genghis khan, kublai khan, ect, valued scholars and did everything they could to patronise/kidnap/poach huge numbers of them, and this was key to their tactical success! han chinese engineers were captured, and used to build siege engines to take down the great wall! that portrait of kublai khan you see up there was drawn by the nepalese artist araniko, a child prodigy who was part of the khan's court. does khal drogo have a flock of artists following him around, propagandising his greatness to the world, so everyone knows that he is a man of culture and his rule has legitimacy? no, he burns down villages for fun? cool. cool cool.

3) why are the dothraki portrayed as lawless brigands who are incapable of governing their captured territory, when the mongol-led yuan dynasty managed to conquer and rule over china, and genghis khan was responsible for expanding the silk road, and enforcing such effective law and order over it that it resulted in the pax mongolica, and increased trade between the east and west? is it because they "don't wanna?"' why? are they a monolith? why would they throw away the advantages of all that trade control? are they just "intrinsically incapable of it?" would you care to expand on that?

picture references:

clothing of a Xiongnu chief, 2nd century BCE-1st century CE. Reconstruction by archaeologist A.N. Podushkin, in the Central State Museum of Kazakhstan.[77][78]

Noin-Ula carpet, animal style. 1st century CE.[236]

Xiongnu Leather Robe, Han period, Henan Provincial Museum, Zhengzhou

Belt buckle with animal combat scene, 2nd-1st century BCE, made in North China for the Xiongnu.[267][157]

portrait of Kublai Khan by artist Araniko, drawn shortly after Kublai's death in 1294

[unusual]

Japanese is an incredibly fun and rewarding language (if you’ve ever wanted to learn it for ANY reason, most importantly including the “silly” reasons) but the fearmongering and capitalist intervention involved in the language learning process have given it a reputation as an “impossible task” for English speakers, leading to confusion and dkn learners and weird pessimist attitudes about the whole thing. In this thread I will explain how to effectively learn and retain Japanese. This is a tried, tested and true method; probably 99% of all people who try to learn Japanese give up, but everyone I’ve met who has tried and stuck with this has been at or above N3-N4 after 6 months or less including me

[unusual]

You can teach yourself Japanese for free if you have a little free time every day and a computer

1. Drill yourself on hiragana and katakana. These are the phonetic building blocks of Japanese, think of them as equivalent to english letters. This site is a good resource in general. Once you have a solid grasp on this, DO NOT LINGER HERE; move to step 2. You will master kana later.

2. Download Anki. This is a flashcard service. They have a paid app if you’re willing to invest for it, but if not, they have a mobile website (create an account and sync it with your computer).

This is the deck you’re going to download. Import it to Anki and do this every day. I have learned the hard way (twice) that skipping this is bad. If you become overwhelmed, you can change the number of new cards and reviews by clicking the cog next to the name of the deck!

3. Cure Dolly (Youtube, grammar) + transcript. She has kind of a posh accent, you might want to turn subtitles on. Watch a few videos when you feel like it but most importantly set up 4 and 5 as soon as possible

4. Yomitan (must have) is a browser extension that functions as a pop-up dictionary. you need to install dictionaries for it to work. here are some dictionaries you can use with yomitan and explanations of what they do

5. READ. DO NOT LET YOURSELF GET STUCK BEFORE THIS STEP. JUST READ!!!! Most people who fail to learn Japanese do so because they are afraid of not being ready to move on, which is counterproductive. Just read. When you were a child did you spend years on vocab and grammar before reading? No I bet you did not. Pick something to read and learn what you don’t already know by reading in Japanese.

Jiten.moe has a list of novels and visual novels that you can read on your computer sorted by difficulty. So does jpdb. There’s also this document. There’s also this document. Hey look this website is cool too

For visual novels: download LunaHook. It “hooks” to your VN and allows you to use Yomitan on words you don’t know. Turn off the translation feature, it does nothing to help you learn

For literary texts: ttsu e-reader supports epub and htmlz files.

You can also learn Japanese by watching anime, but it’s a little more convoluted and requires a lot more patience.

For manga, utilize Mangatan, but I don’t recommend this right out the gate because when you’re first learning sentence structure you’ll want something with complete sentences.

Set your computer up for mining vocab before you start reading. Once you finish your kaishi deck, you can drill your mining cards (I didn’t do mine until after finishing kaishi because it was too much).

Most importantly: reading is going to be hard at first. It is going to piss you off. You need to muscle through with this because this is where the bulk of your learning will happen. After a while you will just feel like reading because you love reading! Try not to pick something too hard for your first read, but if you’re interested in the story you might be able to muscle through something a little tougher.

Remember to consult yomitan and cure dolly where needed, that’s what it’s there for. As you can see I am quite normal about the Japanese language, so if you have any other questions or need help with anything else feel free to shoot me an ask and I will get back to you promptly. Japanese is not your enemy and it is not impossible. It is your friend

[vyvilha]

it is true that in modern media very often the nakedness of the hag is used as a disgust factor but i have to say that in folklore the reason for the hag's nudity is because nudity is a liminal marker. clothes are a sign of civilization, they signify your place & your status in society. the naked hag is beyond those borders, she is a woman that is kind of a beast, a woman that is kind of a dead (or un-born) person

[vyvilha]

tbh the fact that we find nudity abject at all is kind of connected to this concept as well. when you see another person nude it's like a violent intrusion into your symbolic structures that you've built in your head. you are used to seeing people as how they present themselves in society and suddenly you see a person as they Just Are. but that's also what's erotic about it (abjection and desire have interesting relationships with each other...)

[sapphicenstein]

the fact that athena threw a flute away because she didn’t like how puffy her face looked while blowing it is actually both hilarious and oddly adorable, to me.

[echo-loves-flowerboy]

I want to add my favourite reasoning for her throwing the flute away from Artistotle's Politcs onto this!!

The tale goes that Athena found a flute and threw it away. Now it is not a bad point in the story that the goddess did this out of annoyance because of the ugly distortion of her features; but as a matter of fact it is more likely that it was because education in flute-playing has no effect on the intelligence, whereas we attribute science and art to Athena.

Athena didn't want to play the flute because playing music doesn't futher her inteligence statmaxxing speedrun which not only implies that all her other hobbies DO do that but also that she thinks Apollo is a fucking moron and i love that for her

[echo-loves-flowerboy]

I FOUND THE OTHER ONE!!! I found the Athena being bullied source!!!

Minerva is said to have been the first to make pipes from deer bones and to have come to the banquet of the gods to play. Juno and Venus made fun of her because she was grey-eyed and puffed out her cheeks, so when mocked in her playing and called ugly she came to the forest of Ida to a spring, as she played she viewed herself in the water, and saw that she was rightly mocked. Because of this she threw away the pipes and vowed that whoever picked them up would be punished severely.

It was Hyginus Fabule. Minerva goddess of wisdom not immune to peer pressure

[clawmarks]

La Guirlande : album mensuel d'art et de littérature - enluminé par M. Jean Saudé - 1920 - via Gallica

[echo-loves-flowerboy]

Apollo begging for Hector's life in the Iliad - translation compilation

Do what Apollo may as he lies grovelling before his father, aegis-bearing Jove, Hector cannot escape us longer.

Samuel Butler 

For now is it no more possible for him to escape us, nay, not though Apollo, that worketh afar, should travail sore, grovelling before Father Zeus, that beareth the aegis. 

Augustus T. Murray 

There is no escape for him from us now, however much humiliation the Archer-god Apollo endures, grovelling abjectly at the feet of his father that drives the storm cloud.

E. V. Rieu 

Warlike he may be, but he’ll not escape us, even if Apollo, the Far-Striker, grovels before aegis-bearing Father Zeus. 

A. S. Kline

No way for him to escape us now, no longer - not even if Phoebus the distant deadly Archer goes through torments, pleading fer Hector's life, groveling over and over before our storming Father Zeus.

Robert Fagles

No fear of his deliverance now remains, not even should the King of radiant shafts, Apollo, toil in supplication, roll’d and roll’d again before the Thunderer’s feet. 

William Cowper

[yourfavebooklrsfavebooklr]

books with little/no romance OR sapphic romance, that are also fantasy/historical fiction/sci fi/horror with awesome women main characters.

aka: book recs for my friend but if you like one of these you might like some of the others! theyre sorted into rows based on matching vibes. i dont think any of these have major f/m or m/m romances, but if i forgot abt one, lmk and ill fix it!

also, titles and authors are in alt text <3

[duckprintspress]

Top Five Reads: Fantasy Books with M/M Romance Subplots

a guest rec list by JD Rivers!

The list is for all who’ve always wanted to know what happens beyond the romance or have been missing that bit of romance in their fantasy reading. By no means is this list exhausting or exclusive; these are books I’ve read and which have stayed with me for straddling the line between the two genres.

The Crack at the Heart of Everything (The Cursed Mage #1) by Fiona Finn

Synopsis: A dark wizard, Orpheus, feared and known for helping his childhood friend to the throne by raising an army of hell beasts, finds himself suddenly betrayed and banished. Only the handsome ex-general is there to catch him, when Orpheus starts to fall into accidental heroism.

Recommendation: One for the ambiguous morality crowd, with a very beautiful romance unfolding alongside the journey. The general takes no shit but knows what he has gotten himself into, and he is there for Orpheus like no one else. All this is encompassed by intriguing world building, with a few surprises in store.

The Master of Samar by Melissa Scott

Synopsis: Having made to return home, curse-breaker Gil Irichels and his lover, a feral mage, find themselves thrust into a mystery affecting not only his family, but the whole city.

Recommendation: This book has the only established relationship in it, and it’s beautifully supportive, while the mystery plot unfolds around the protagonist in a rich world filled with intrigue and politics and magic.

The Perfect Assassin (Chronicles of Ghadid #1) by K.A. Doore

Synopsis: When Amastan, scholar and newly minted assassin, stumbled across a dead body, he didn’t know the web of secrets, betrayals, and mystery he’d find himself in. But when he is tasked with solving not only this murder, but others, the past that binds the assassins of Ghadid will come back to swallow him whole if he doesn’t find the truth in time.

Recommendation: Ace people? Ambiguous morality? A mystery? Sinister forces? Count me in. Amastan’s blooming feelings and relationship unfolding alongside the main plot is so tender and heart-wrenching, it’s hard to bear at times. He is an assassin in a family of assassin and it’s pretty clear what that means—deceit and blood.

Luck in the Shadows (The Nightrunner Series #1) by Lynn Flewelling

Synopsis: When Alec is saved by a noble (and thief, rogue, spy) named Seregil, he doesn’t expect what comes next: magic, sinister forces, a war, allies, and enemies, and a life beyond his wildest dreams.

Recommendation: I admit this one has the weakest romantic subplot, it’s slow and buried the deepest, but this was my first foray into the intersection between queer, fantasy, and romance, and admittedly the combination never let me go. Released in 1996, it’s also the oldest entry and has the hallmarks of a classical epic fantasy with a clear divide between good and evil (Or has it?).

The Last Sun (The Tarot Sequence #1) by K. D. Edwards

Synopsis: Rune Saint John, the last scion of the fallen Sun Court, is keeping himself afloat with odd jobs. Together with Brand (bodyguard, companion, and long-suffering friend), they are tasked to find the missing son of Lady Judgement. In doing so, he probes his own festering wound of the night his court fell—one shrouded in dark memories, secrets, and betrayals.

Recommendation: The Tarot Sequence is a delicious modern-world fantasy in which Atlantis is real and people have powers based on the Arcana. A fascinating world with all sorts of rules and ambiguous and not-so-ambiguous morality; a decadent world, where everyone pounces on you the moment they smell a weakness. In the middle is Rune, who is out for revenge and finds…a family of his own making. It’s beautiful and hopeful despite the dark place Rune is in. Mind the content warnings.

+1: The Edge of a World (Otar’s Universe #1) by JD Rivers

Synopsis: Otar, a scholar, just wants to know why he is like he is. Burdened with a monster that, if let be, sucks people dry of life energy. But to survive, they both need each other, because the hunger inside him can’t be stilled by food alone. There is a connection to the ruins of the Ancients, a mysterious ancestor who left nothing behind but crumbling stone, and a ghost—one only Otar can see and hear.

When his mentor calls him to a newly discovered Ancients dwelling to lend his scholarly expertise, he’d never guessed what he walks into: a world beyond his imagination, and danger just as perilous.

Recommendation: It’s a great book, take my word! While trying to find answers and running into danger, Otar reunites with an ex-lover, one whom he was never able to forget. But feelings are complicated and Otar’s situation even more, so at the same time as he unravels his past, he also untangles his own emotions. Just beautiful to watch.

So, these are my entries. Which did I miss? What are your favorite queer fantasy books with a strong romance subplot?

find these and many other m/m books we recommend on our Goodreads list and in our Bookshop.org affiliate shop!

Join us on Discord to chat books with JD Rivers and many other members of the Duck Prints Press publishing community!

[chateauofmymind]

1 thing incest does is make clear that the social construction of family enforces a permanence you don’t really get with most other relationships. friendships and romances can be broken, students outgrow teachers, bosses lose workers, teammates leave, etc. but your brother is always your brother, even when he’s also other things to you (friend, enemy, teacher, boss, accomplice, lover, etc) and if/when he stops being any of those things he’s still your brother. it can be very romantic, which is why a lot of romance tropes play on the language and dynamics of family, and it’s also claustrophobic, because there’s rarely a way out of family

[chateauofmymind]

also why institutions looking to impress their continuity and perpetuity use the same language of family. you can move on from your boss or teacher but if he’s ‘like a father’ and the institution is ‘like a family’ then they can continue to feel some ownership over you and can encourage your sense of obligation to them

[valtsv]

i would make the worst kind of vampire because i would always be like "hey check out how long i can go without blood lol" as a form of guilty self-harm poorly disguised as discipline and then black out and binge-slaughter a bunch of people, only reinforcing my conviction that i need to develop better self control by starving myself as often as possible

[girlfictions]

— Fiona Apple