We burn in blood

☆★ Aquatic Assassin

if you've ever watched a movie with your film buff friend and chatted about it afterwards, that friend might have pulled hours more of conversation out of the same 90 minutes of screentime, and wondered how the fuck they did that - it's not raw intelligence, it's a skill that's been honed. And I learned a lot about film from talking to friends who knew about film, and reading critique by film scholars

literature works exactly the same. so if you want to get more out of your reading, there are things you can do to train that. Find a book or short story you think you've got a pretty good grasp on, preferably from a widely read & respected author like Ursula K Le Guin or Ray Bradbury (if you're new at this don't swing for the Toni Morrison or the Samuel Beckett yet unless you feel very comfortable with the complexity of the text - the point is to develop a complicated new skill on good foundations). Then go to JSTOR, create a free account, and look up criticism on the story you've chosen. Find something that looks readable to you and at least somewhat interesting. Read that article, and look at what that writer got out of the same story you've read that you didn't get. Do you see the critic's points? Did they teach you something about the text? Go reread that story and see if the criticism has changed how you read it. Are you seeing more? Are you thinking about the implications of a line that you hadn't noticed before? Does the story feel richer now?

you don't have to read more deeply if you don't want to (but i'd recommend it, i genuinely think it makes you a better person)

if you want to learn to read more deeply, the resources are out there. try to find critical literature (that is, academic writing that analyzes the text) on works your familiar with so you can get a sense for how to do that analysis too

learning to deep read literature can help you deep read many areas of your life

Imagine describing a dog to someone who's never seen one before and then asking them to draw it. It will look similar but the devil is in the details.

Dear Emma, I wanted to write this to you, I wanted to say this to you while I still have as much of me as I do. […] So I wanted to come out here while it’s still quiet so that I could look you in the eye in case— before I’m all gone and tell you that you are the love of my life because you make me laugh every day and you make my life worth living and you make me feel like I’m not alone. And if things were normal, then you’d be the person that’d make it okay that I gotta grow old and die someday because at least I got to spend some of that time with you. But things aren’t normal and so I guess instead, or as well, I love you because you stayed. Because when things got scary you knuckled down and you stayed. And you got me through each day. And I hope I did the same for you, or I hope that I can still do the same for you somehow.

John unironically says “y’all” and “bless your heart.” Yelenas the only one who takes it as a compliment

Bob has exactly one pair of cowboy boots and they’re the light of his life. He wears them when he wants to be fancy

John and Bob get into arguments abt if Florida counts as the South. Geographically it is but it’s got a very different culture

Alexei can answer every single question about Ohio ever. He can list the terms of minor politicians from the 80s to the present and the official names of minuscule dirt backroads in the middle of nowhere. He knows the state bird and flower and— and all of it

To contrast this, the team once asked him what state a picture was of (it was California) and he said Tatooine

Ava talks in her sleep. John likes to talk back like they’re having a coherent conversation

John goes all out for the Super Bowl. The others humor him bc it’s fun enough

Bucky introduces the team to Hydra-licious. It’s a line of hair care products that Hydra used on him while he was brainwashed (bc even villains have to look good). He claims it was the only good thing to come out of Hydra. And as much as the group hates to admit it, it’s the reason why their hair is so fabulous

Ava is a serial leftovers stealer. This causes constant fights