soft thoughts

i think people’s tolerance for ambiguity in relationships needs to be higher

in fiction, that ambiguous space can hold meaning and possibility in itself, rather than being a stepping stone towards eventual resolution (typically a happy ending). ambiguity doesn’t mean ambivalence so much as the risks desire/love/connection bears out on our selves and in the world. often ambiguous spaces in a narrative are generative and ripe for multiple and alternative readings

I hate that the "x reader" or "x Y/N" style of fanfic has become sooooo popular, partially because it's just not for me and partially because they clog general non-fic related tags and those authors seem allergic to the "read more" function on this website, but ALSO because I believe that you should have to go through the trouble of creating an absolutely batshit self-insert character, with a backstory that makes no sense and a name that doesn't really gel with the aesthetics of the universe. Legolas and Aragorn should be in a love triangle with Kylie, the angsty sixteen year old half-human half-elf and inexplicable tenth member of the Fellowship. Do the WORK. If everyone was doing "Y/N" nonsense back in the day, there would be no Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way, or probably Bella Swan. These are important women. They deserve to be named, confusingly and with no regard for the fictional world they inhabit.

stop. analyse that text through the lens of its author's intentions and original historical context. okay now take the author out back and kill them dead and analyse that text as though it were published by your mutual yesterday and is in direct conversation with the contemporary discourse that's most relevant to your life. okay now pick your favorite angle of interpretation and come up with the strongest possible argument against it. now imagine that the text is your best friend and that it means you well and that you naturally give it every benefit of the doubt because you're on its side and you want the best for it. now imagine that the text wants you dead and it'll eat you if you don't eat it first. now pretend that you found this text locked away in a cave with no evidence of when or where it came from and you have to divine its meaning solely through its internal coherence and nothing else. okay now address the elephant in the room aspect of the text you've been ignoring because you find it boring or confusing or uncomfortable and become the number one expert on it. now spend forty minutes assigning all the characters dnd classes with at least three sentences of reasoning each. okay now do the cha cha slide.

as much as i adore corvids if i was a bird i’d be a mourning dove easy

check this out

hrooo. hrooo. hrooo.

btw if you are friends with someone and you have the kind of dynamic where you can tease each other you also need to be nice. just so we're all aware. you also have to be nice with your words on top of it. like with your words. use your words. you should tell them with your words when you like something about them. if you are scared of being too sincere or vulnerable that is not an excuse to not be nice to someone. also you should work on that. ok are we all on the same page