.

[summer-dreams-ripped]

God comes to me and tells me to ask him one question

One question for myself, for him

He reaches out, thumb and forefinger cradling my earlobe

my question crawls from the throat of my ancestors with all the intensity of a caterpillar

I Ask him why I’m so miserable

And he stops short

His face crumples a little, eyes crinkling in their reflection of me

There is a worm inside of you

He says

It is wriggling, desperate

The warm earth it was made for does not cover its soft flesh with its embrace

And so it gnaws a tunnel to make you its home

I falter, answer unexpected

Oh, I say quietly, Oh.

[summer-dreams-ripped]

i think about you when im doing math sometimes. two slow dancers is playing and im really nervous about this test. i dont think its about you, really. the version i miss, sure. the ghost that still lives. the ghost that has a shape of you in my heart, scabbed over, not gone just yet.

[fuchsiamae]

an incomplete list of unsettling short stories I read in textbooks

the scarlet ibis

marigolds

the diamond necklace

the monkey’s paw

the open boat

the lady and the tiger

the minister’s black veil

an occurrence at owl creek bridge

a rose for emily

(I found that one by googling “short story corpse in the house,” first result)

the cask of amontillado

the yellow wallpaper

the most dangerous game

a good man is hard to find

some are well-known, some obscure, some I enjoy as an adult, all made me uncomfortable between the ages of 11-15

add your own weird shit, I wanna be literary and disturbed

[repulsion-gel]

The Tell-Tale Heart, The Gift of the Magi, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calavaras County, Thank You Ma'am

[allyitis]

the box social by james reaney. i remember we all had to silently read it in class, and you would hear the moment everyone reached the Part because some people would audibly go “what”

[fuchsiamae]

wHat did I just put my eyes on

[schrodingers-rufus]

“The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury

Not quite a short story, but read in class: “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street” from The Twilight Zone

[w3rewolf-th3rewolf]

Harrison Bergeron, Cat and the Coffee Drinkers

[rebel-against-reality]

“Where are you going and where have you been” by Joyce carol oates

[actuallyapathy]

“The Pedestrian” by Ray Bradbury

[asexualzoro]

the lottery by shirley jackson

[eccentwrit]

i can’t believe Roald Dahl’s “The Landlady” wasn’t already mentioned and also it’s not so much unsettling as more absurdist but “The Leader” by Eugene Ionesco definitely made me go wtf

[idlewildly]

Ett halvt ark papper. I cried so much.

[bravinto]

Ночь у мазара, А. Шалимов

[siderealsandman]

A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury

[insanitysbloomings]

I Have no Mouth, and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison

[felderwin]

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury 

[was-once-somewhere-else]

Some of Us Had Been Threatening Our Friend Colby, by Donald Barthelme

[jeaniefranklins]

I read Ray Bradbury’s “All Summer In A Day” in seventh grade (it wasn’t assigned, I was just going through my textbook for new stuff to read) and as a bullied kid with SAD, it Fucked Me Up.

[sanguinarysanguinity]

An Ordinary Day with Peanuts, by Shirley Jackson

[real-faker]

Eh, this was more like community college, but The Star by Arthur C. Clarke

[scarlettaagni]

Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl

and this story that I can’t remember the name of and can’t find, though it might be by O. Henry? it’s about a bunch of demons who want to stop Santa Claus from going through with Christmas, and he must travel through the mountains they inhabit to escape their vices? (good christ I can’t remember the name for the life of me)

[ghostloner]

Ok but the laughing man and a good day for bananafish but j.d. Salinger

[nitrosplicer]

The City (195) Ray Bradbury. An intense commentary on colonialism and space exploration. I read it for a sci fi survey class.

Another short story I read in that sci fi class was Vaster than Empires and More Slow (1971) by Ursula K. Le Guin. A commentary on humanity and how human we believe ourselves to be. Also, an interesting commentary on mental health.

In the Woods Beneath the Cherry Blossoms in Full Bloom, written in 1947 by Ango Sakaguchi. It made my skin crawl the first time I read it.

Also going to recommend For A Breath I Tarry by Roger Zelazny, a commentary on whether AI can become human in a future without humans: http://www.kulichki.com/moshkow/ZELQZNY/forbreat.txt

[cryingalonewithfrankenstein]

whoever posted “The Laughing Man” and “A Good Day For Bananafish” is Correct

[fluffmugger]

the scarlet ibis

marigolds

the diamond necklace

the monkey’s paw

the open boat

the lady and the tiger (I assume you meant Stockton’s The lady or the  tiger?)

the minister’s black veil

an occurrence at owl creek bridge

a rose for emily

the cask of amontillado

the yellow wallpaper

the most dangerous game

a good man is hard to find

The Tell-Tale Heart

 The Gift of the Magi

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calavaras County

 Thank You Ma'am

The box social 

The Veldt

The Monsters are Due on Maple Street

Harrison Bergeron

Cat and the Coffee Drinkers

Where are you going and where have you been

The Pedestrian” by Ray Bradbury

The lottery by shirley jackson

The Landlady

The Leader

Ett halvt ark papper.

Ночь у мазара, А. Шалимов

A Sound of Thunder 

I Have no Mouth, and I Must Scream 

All Summer in a Day 

Some of Us Had Been Threatening Our Friend Colby

An Ordinary Day with Peanuts

The Star 

Lamb to the Slaughter

The laughing man 

A perfect day for bananafish

The City (link goes to compendium of short stories)

Vaster than Empires and More Slow (1971) by Ursula K. Le Guin.

In the Woods Beneath the Cherry Blossoms in Full Bloom 

For A Breath I Tarry 

[the-prince-of-tides]

All of Flannery O'Connor’s shorts.

[thecaffeinebookwarrior-deactiva]

I didn’t read it in a text book, but “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream” haunted me for life.

[halbereth]

Adding to the list of Bradbury: “There Will Come Soft Rains”

[destinaf]

The Nine Billion Names of God by Arthur C. Clarke. (I never re-read it and suspect if I did, I’d find it had issues, but I still think about the ending.)

[thegertie]

“W.S.” by L.P. Hartley

“Lost Hearts” by M.R. James

“The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar” by Edgar Allan Poe

[jaywings]

The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin

[babycharmander]

My Father’s Hands by Calvin R. Worthington

[pengychan]

In the Vault, by  H. P. Lovecraft.

[achamocha]

The Feather Pillow, by Horacio Quiroga

[tzikeh]

What a Thought! by Shirley Jackson

[thewholeguacamole]

There Will Come Soft Rains - Ray Bradbury

[krankittoeleven]

It’s been mentioned multiple times but have to say it again: I Have No Mouth But I Must Scream (also there is a video game go play it).

My additions:

The Damned Thing by Ambrose Beirce

Boule de Suif by Guy de Maupassant

The Repairer of Reputations by Robert W Chambers

[the-haiku-bot]

The Repairer of

Reputations by Robert

W Chambers

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

[summer-dreams-ripped]

the future you, who has gotten through all this, is waiting with open arms, and a smile

[summer-dreams-ripped]

the dream of my life is to lie down by a slow river and to stare at the light in the trees- to learn something by being nothing

[summer-dreams-ripped]

i am aziraphale in the way i would choose heaven, and yet i am crowley in the way i am begging for someone to choose me.

[stay-close]

“I am a different person to different people. Annoying to one. Talented to another. Quiet to a few. Unknown to a lot. But who am I, to me?”

— Unknown

[summer-dreams-ripped]

im just a kid. i shouldn't be figuring out the meaning to life right now. i should be having fun. i should be living without regret. i should be on a bike, screaming (laughing) with my friends. i should be in the trees yelling a song, very, very off key.

i should be happy.

[secondlina]

Crow Time - Statue 1

Please like, comment, follow!

It brings me joy! It validates my bird obsession!

[Holy crap there's a Part 2??]

[Read Crow Time] [Patreon]

[summer-dreams-ripped]

its fading rn but i want to be a boy, a boy in America in the 80s so fucking bad it hurts to think about it. it feels childish but GOD its everything i ever wanted. boys are allowed to be problematic and grow and if they are like a girl its a MIRACLE and THANK GOD HE’S NOT LIKE THE OTHERS but the second a girl makes a dirty joke, is vulgar, or does something SLIGHTLY problematic she’s done. i hate it. i hate it so fucking much. please let me make mistakes. please don't let me be the ‘exception’.

[summer-dreams-ripped]

when you want to be an 80s boy on a bike so bad you could barf

[vernadskova-deactivated20230803]

The year is 2045. A young man stumbles out to the smoking canopy to take a 15-minute break from a long shift assembling Garten of Banban 9 plushies at the Amazoshein Industrial Concern plant, Guadalajara.

He takes out his phone, swipes up from the lockscreen of a greatly-breasted Makima and opens Bloober (chat client that superseded discord in the 2030s). Dozens of notifications from one friend flash on screen. They're all gifs of monkey vaping. He laughs.

In two hours, a faulty pipe on the factory floor will burst, severely injuring the man. Amazoshein will not be gracious to offer him protracted leave from work. He will be fired and this will set off a spiral leading to his eviction and suicide. But for a moment, everything is fine.

[summer-dreams-ripped]

gotta stop postponing and not doing things. and i genuinely mean this when I say people lives do not wait for you. make the move. do the thing, because they might not. me & this girl had been planning to hangout for three weeks. she left for another country before i knew it, and those plans ceased to exist. if i had asked to hangout earlier, we probably could have done things, either been awkward together or had the damnest time of our lives. i don't know, now, because i never reached out, never asked 'hey, you free this Saturday?' so. reach out. do the thing. live your fucking life, because nobodies going to put theirs to a stop for you.

[summer-dreams-ripped]

feelings are shut down at the moment but not in like a bad way but not in a good way either. I would like to feel! I'm vibing nonetheless, though I would like to have some emotion implemented into it, You Know?

[summer-dreams-ripped]

im sitting and thinking about writing a poem. maybe writing about thinking about it is the act itself.

[summer-dreams-ripped]

squinting at myself a bit for finding the meaning of life and then immediately going online again. get yourself together you internet-addicted-dingus.

[cosmonautroger]

[umberisme]

Girls just being girls!

[mispelled]

Every time I see this I watch the whole thing and I just love it a lot so I’m finally reblogging

[between-stars-and-waves]

😄