Books and Ghosts @booksandghosts - Tumblr Blog

MONDAY.

SPITE AS FUEL.

•18+ Adults Only

Watch Anya Live on Cam

Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.

✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions

Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming

andyboops

"The best thing we can do with power is give it away" - On the leftist critique of superhero narratives as authoritarian power fantasies:

The ongoing "Jason Todd is a cop" debate has reminded me of a brilliant brief image essay by Joey deVilla. So here it is, images first and the full essay text below:

"A common leftist critique of superhero comics is that they are inherently anti-collectivist, being about small groups of individuals who hold all the power, and the wisdom to wield that power. I don’t disagree with this reading. I don’t think it’s inaccurate. Superheroes are their own ruling class, the concept of the übermensch writ large. But it’s a sterile reading. It examines superhero comics as a cold text, and ignores something that I believe in fundamental, especially to superhero storytelling: the way people engage with text. Not what it says, but how it is read. The average comic reader doesn’t fantasize about being a civilian in a world of superheroes, they fantasize about being a superhero. One could charitably chalk this up to a lust for power, except for one fact… The fantasy is almost always the act of helping people. Helping the vulnerable, with no reward promised in return. Being a century into the genre, we’ve seen countless subversions and deconstructions of the story. But at its core, the superhero myth is about using the gifts you’ve been given to enrich the people around you, never asking for payment, never advancing an ulterior motive. We should (and do) spend time nitpicking these fantasies, examining their unintended consequences, their hypocrisies. But it’s worth acknowledging that the most eduring childhood fantasy of the last hundred years hasn’t been to become rich. Superheroes come from every class (don’t let the MCU fool you). The most enduring fantasy is to become powerful enough to take the weak under your own wing. To give, without needing to take. So yes, the superhero myth, as a text, isn’t collectivist. But that’s not why we keep coming back to it. That’s not why children read it. We keep coming back to it to learn one simple lesson… The best thing we can do with power IS GIVE IT AWAY." - Joey deVilla, 2021 https://www.joeydevilla.com/2021/07/04/happy-independence-day-superhero-style/

generallemarc

Kids don't want to be Batman because he's rich, they want to be him because he's got tons of cool gadgets he invented himself, is a badass martial artist, is a genius on par with Lex Luthor, and uses all this to be on the same level as Superman despite having zero actual superpowers. They see the little boy who lost both his parents, decided nobody else should ever have to live through that, and want to be like that.

Kids don't want to be Superman because he's superior to humans(he isn't, that's always been a core part of his character that he rejects that outlook and it's always just Lex projecting his view of Superman onto Superman himself), they wanna be able to deflect bullets and shoot lasers from their eyes because Superman uses all that to show the best side of humanity, to show how humanity isn't even tied to actually being human but to how you act towards other people.

haridraws

tiny 2cm drawings in my sketchbook

extremelyrottenflesh

Touching grass is not enough; I need to travel far over the misty mountains cold.

abby-howard

A couple scenes from a little gay vampire story I was kicking around a couple years ago! I sometimes do little pencils-only scenes for things and never post them. But I was looking back at these and was like why not? They're cute!

I have a whole story for these two, but just for funsies, something to do every now and then when I need to let loose.

abby-howard

(she will eat them though)

•18+ Adults Only

Watch Anya Live on Cam

Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.

✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions

Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming

mariakureads

evenmoreuserboxesmoved-blog

weftist

Took a Sulawesi tablet weaving class and learned a ton about pattern drafting!

We wove a band/day, focusing on a different technique each day.

books-coffee-and-the-woods

Mid Year Book Freakout Tag 2026

Tagged by @thiswaitingheart :) thanks!!

Number of books you’ve read so far:

66! 23 manga, 5 nonfiction, and 38 fiction!

Best book you’ve read so far in 2026:

There isn't one that really punched me in the brain yet, here's a few contenders... The Language of Liars by S. L. Huang, Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield, The Incandescent by Emily Tesh, Slow Days, Fast Company by Eve Babitz, The Bards of Bone Plain by Patricia McKillip, and Chalice by Robin McKinley

Best sequel you’ve read so far in 2026:

We Love You, Bunny by Mona Awad, On the Calculation of Volume IV by Solvej Balle, and Exit Strategy by Martha Wells (I'm loving the whole Murderbot series but this is my favourite so far).

New release you haven’t read yet but want to:

I have a few, but my next "new" read is a toss-up between Dead but Dreaming of Electric Sheep by Paul Tremblay and The Ending Writes Itself by Evelyn Clarke. Electric Sheep looks WILD but I also don't want to let another V. E. Schwab (co)authored book rot on my shelf for ages

Most anticipated release for the second half of the year:

Victorious by V. E. Schwab and Dead Beat by Leigh Bardugo. Finally the conclusions to some long-running series! (there was so much time between Hell Bent and Dead Beat that I actually was surprised to learn there would be a third book). Also As You Wake, Break the Shell by Becky Chambers, which I just found out about recently.

Biggest surprise favourite new author (debut or new to you):

Was surprised how much I liked There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm! Also, an oldie, but I love Eve Babitz's chatty, diary-style short stories.

Newest fictional crush:

Laura from The Incandescent

Book that made you cry:

Our Wives Under the Sea was ROUGH

Most beautiful book you’ve bought so far this year (or received):

My clothbound, embossed edition of The Silmarillion

Book that made you happy:

Delicious in Dungeon was a delight.

What books do you need to read by the end of the year?

I don't remember my exact 2026 goals, but here's a vague list of hopes and dreams:

Read the new releases I insisted on buying brand-new and expensive (Dead but Dreaming of Electric Sheep by Paul Tremblay, Sublimation by Isabel J Kim, The Ending Writes Itself by Evelyn Clarke)

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil and The Fragile Threads of Power by V. E. Schwab, which have sat on my tbr for far too long (also, I want to reread Shades of Magic before I read Threads of Power)

Prairie Fairies by Valerie J Korinek (hoping to finish this by the end of summer. reading for 15 mins/about 10 pages per day has been surprisingly successful)

5 more nonfiction books

at least 1 more Charles de Lint (I'm thinking Memory and Dream, which has been on my tbr the longest)

finish Murderbot (only the 3 novels left!)

catch up on Frieren (currently on book 8/15)

reread Protector of the Small by Tamora Pierce and maaaaybe the Beka Cooper series, or else starting the Circle of Magic series (I was planning to reread all of Tortall and then start Emelan but now I miss my Emelan fwiends...)

I'll tag @bigcats-birds-and-books @bibliophilecats @carys-the-ninth and anyone else who wants to do this, as I'm not sure who's been tagged yet!

vulcartist

I translated the Ea-Nasir complaint into vulcan and engraved it in on a cooper plate

tournevis-real

The tumblrest sentence I have ever seen

•18+ Adults Only

Watch Anya Live on Cam

Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.

✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions

Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming

fluentisonus

do you ever remember the note the scribe left at the end of catullus manuscript G and want to burst into tears

fluentisonus

colophon from manuscript G (36 recto), trans. oakley

handlinepic

carfuckerlynch

hey does anyone have that poem. about the author seeing two boys cuddling on a hotel lobby couch, where he refers to it as something like an island of safe anonymity or smth. its been 5000 years my college boyfriend had it written out and pinned to his wall

carfuckerlynch

THANK YOU @witchoflight it is indeed "on traveling together" by Kayleb Rae Candrilli

specialagentartemis

Intelligent alien species based on bugs but specifically those moths that don’t have mouths and only live for a week after they pupate. This species’ whole conscious life is actually in the larval phase; larvae are the ones considered people, larvae are the ones with conscious and complex brains who build society, and each instar of the larva is treated as a different phase of life. Larvae become emotionally and socially and cognitively mature without ever becoming sexually mature. When they pupate, they metamorphose into something different and strange and close to mindless, with no mouth and no digestive system, whose only instincts are to mate and then quickly die. Metamorphosis is treated, functionally, like a person’s death, and the imago phase is a kind of proto-afterlife of majestic flight and the continuation of the species. Birth and death inextricably intertwined. Sex is not something people do during their lives, it’s a thing that is done as an imago after you’ve passed on from your life but before you return to the soil in death. Resultant eggs are collected by family members to raise. I think this would be fun.

doctorgrantthinksthatsabadidea

You may be interested in a short story in the Predator anthology Eyes of the Demon:

The Distance in their Eyes by Stephen Graham Jones (AND it’s the second story so if you just look at the sample on Kindle the whole story’s included in the first 10%)

specialagentartemis

This is the first recommendation on this post that's actually got me interested. Yeah I want to see what SGJ is doing with this concept!

pangur-and-grim

COVER REVEAL! our talented designer, Miss Nat Mack, had to fit in a lot of discordant imagery such as: spider centaurs, medieval times, beetle aliens, goddesses, spaceships, tentacled brain slugs, and of course, m/m erotiscism.

the book's not out until next March, so pre-order links are still going live, but I'll list the early ones under the readmore:

pangur-and-grim

WE FINALLY HAVE AUSTRALIA! I can stop blue-balling you guys over there. right now it's only on Readings, but pretty soon it'll be on Booktopia, Mighty Ape, The NILE, QBD Books and Dymocks

•18+ Adults Only

Watch Anya Live on Cam

Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.

✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions

Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming

oneheadtoanother

joshsundquist

“The Perfect Heist Hack”

Fun Fact: I modified a pair of pants for this sketch so I could hold 30 feet of rope and a full-sized grappling hook in the pant leg. Useful!

featuring Jordan Hare

mikkeneko

#this is what we’re losing by not putting disabled characters in action/fantasy/sf stories#hitherto unavailable shenanigans!

Trending Blogs

Last Seen Blogs

Books and Ghosts