hi!! it's wis. i was going to share the link to the post i made over DMs, but i made a reading rec list over on my tumblr that you can check out if you'd like. i was hoping it would be less pressure if i opened it up to everyone, but we could still chat one-on-one over DMs or emails or whatever is comfortable for you, if you're still open to that :)
i know you mentioned feeling a little intimidated by some of my advice, so i wanted to apologize for that as well! :,) oops!!!! i think i got a little carried away and i can understand that it probably wasn't what you needed to hear at that moment, but-! hopefully you can get something out of what i shared and that's what matters, right?
okkk, take care :)
hi !! hmm no i don't think i meant to say any of your advice was intimidating per say, most of it was more like, necessary and unavoidable facts, regardless i really appreciate your informing me + i will reach out personally through dms if need be!! i think i'd rather try verbalizing my thoughts by making my own posts about what i read, if that makes sense? maybe i will dm you if i have questions unanswerable elsewhere though :D anyways thank you once again, and you take care as well β€οΈ
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Let's hope I don't get too ahead of myself here, but I wanted to open up whatever rec lists I create to my followers. While I don't think it's a great use of my time to open up my DMs to everyone who wants to discuss what we read one-on-one, maybe a discussion board could be in order...?
I think one thing that gets people anxious from time to time about regularly reading is that they always imagine diving headfirst into 200-400 page novels, but that doesn't have to be the case!! For this book club, I'm going to be on the lookout for shorter fiction so it's more easy to digest. From there (if you're up to the challenge) it's best if you read whatever catches your eye at least twice: Once to experience the plot ("what is written"), and then once to pick up on any literary techniques you think you notice ("how it's written"). This doesn't need to be sophisticated at allβIf a specific word the author uses stands out to you, or you like the rhythm of a sentence/line of poetry, that counts!!!
---
Magical Realism
(One of my favorite genres!)
The Aleph, by Jorge Luis Borges - ~11 pages
https://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/borgesaleph.pdf
The Library of Babel, by Jorge Luis Borges - ~7 pages
https://sites.evergreen.edu/Borges-The-Library-of-Babel.pdf
And of Clay Are We Created, by Isabel Allende - ~10 pages
https://jerrywbrown.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/And-of-Clay-We-Are-Created-Allende-Isabel.pdf
Two Short Stories by Gabriel Garcia Marqeuz - ~10 pages
(The Handsomest Drowned Man In the World + A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings)
http://faculty.las.illinois.edu/rrushing/242/Marquez.pdf
Spooky Stuff
(Horror, Apocalyptic, and Gothic Fiction)
Sable Revery, by Robert Nelson - ~1 page (Poetry)
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Sable_Revery
There Will Come Soft Rains, by Ray Bradbury - ~5 pages
https://www.btboces.org/Downloads/7_Ray%20Bradbury.pdf
Cool Air, by H.P. Lovecraft - ~5 pages
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Cool_Air
Ligeia, by Edgar Allen Poe - ~8 pages
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Ligeia
---
I might re-use these genres again later on down the line, or I might not! Right now I have these eight pieces picked out, which I've all personally read; From here, I plan to be searching for free pdfs or wikisource links so it's all accessible online.Β Sometimes it might be a handful of 10-page short stories like this, or all poetry, or even public domain nonfiction so we can see the differences between fiction and nonfiction.
I'm hoping to get all of them read maybe by next week in the event that people do want to have a public discussion (which already sounds soooo fun), but if we're all way too busy to bother I'm going to put it up to a vote as to what one discussion I'll have no matter what. It'll be in a reblog, don't worry.
in the contemporary world, the most fundamental human right - and, it often seems, the least protected one - is "being both Allowed and Able to go Somewhere Else." the rest is commentary.
the torments of prison are predicated on Not Letting You Leave. the most terrifying and degrading aspects of childhood are predicated on Not Letting You Leave. misogynists wail and moan and fearmonger about divorce and equal opportunity employment because they Allow Wife To Leave. borders and immigration restrictions exist, in no small part, to Prevent People From Leaving countries where they will be exploited and/or oppressed. fuck you for trying to leave. fuck you for exerting any control over your life whatsoever. that makes you the one at fault, actually.
hi, how do u write stories? sorry i sent u the exact same req on ur strawpage earlier but like. im an adult in the grand era of my 20s and i havent watched a lot of movies and havent read a lot of books etc. so like. everytime i think of starting i am like, nah idk anything. basically feeling out of my depth so, yeah. like depicting human interactions feels like a cliff to climb, or realistic depictions of mental illnesses, etc.
I think people massively overestimate how much you need to engage with other types of media before youβre βallowedβ to write. I read and watch a lot because I enjoy it, but I learn just as much from talking to people, observing them, and researching specific topics when I need them.
To answer what you brought up on the strawpage ask, If I have to write about anxiety, grief, a profession, or a place Iβve never been, Iβll read articles, watch interviews, look up first-hand accounts, ask people about their experiences, etc. It can also really help to have someone you trust read your work and give feedback, especially if they have experience with what youβre depicting. Sometimes another person can immediately spot what feels confusing, or underdeveloped when youβre too close to the story to see it.
Also donβt wait until you feel βqualifiedβ to begin writing. Your first stories are supposed to be imperfect. You get better by writing them, and every story you write teaches you something the next one wonβt.
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i spent the last couple of (idk how many) hours scrolling through your blog reading your analysis posts and AUs and all and holy shit can i just say, you are everything i've ever wanted to be, and we're the same age too, woahhh, how do you know so much and how are you so well articulate? rhetorical, i know the answer, studying π i saw your post recommending various books in response to an ask (anti-oedipus, foucalt, fanon, and the like) and i already have like most of them downloaded, i've never started on any of them, i just have so much trouble getting through books that aren't junk food romance and ik having that relationship with media consumption is bad but yeah?
anyways this is all just to say that --- i've wanted to write something/anything since forever. i have written a story and it was so long ago i may as well just say that i've never written something fiction in my life ever. i see fanfiction as a safe low-stakes outlet to explore writing if i were to hypothetically start. the lower the stakes, the better, and thereby easier -- i had an idea for a MLB fanfic idea because - kids show, how much lower can the stakes get? what better way to test out writing for the first time? anyways now that i've read so much of your thoughts i feel like -- dang i'm so out of my depth i don't know anything ever π literary criticism, ability to analyze - films, books, esp books that aren't YA or tween fantasy or romance - nor knowing how people even talk irl ...!
i read ur posts on how to practice writing etc and i have them saved, they are useful! still, how do you even, start writing? theoretically, since you are seasoned and putting yourself in the shoes of a newbie may require some imagination but yes. like getting over this feeling of like "i don't even know how to depict this girl having a breakdown i should just throw in the towel"
I don't think it's uncommon for people to have trouble over starting stuff! I'm often that way myself. If I can preface my advice with anything, it'd be that regret is a massive time suck. Disparaging yourself for not starting or not yet knowing X or Y is the first thing that gets in the way of you actually starting/reading/learning, so if you want to read more... well... I say this with love, but we have to get over ourselves a little!!! lololol
Not that any of you guys have read any of the essays I've personally wrote for university/etc, but a belief of mine I was able to crystallize in one of them (bear with me here) is that the most important tool any creative has, be it artist, writer, etc, is the ability to synthesize. Part of what helps people in general get so good is that they've exposed themselves to (and continue to expose themselves to) lots of different works and are able to take a little bit of what they like from everything to make into something new. Not only is reading nonfiction, philosophy etc important because that influences how you think and thus the philosophy or politics of what you write, but often the meat of your work comes from reading fiction to see how people write and how you can imitate them.
For example: I spent a few days trucking through American Psycho last week. It was for entirely selfish reasons: I knew American Psycho had a reputation for lengthy descriptions of clothing and I wanted to see what that actually looked like so I could try and replicate it myself later. Arguably, I got a lot more than that when I really started to get hooked on the plot, but still! I was motivated because I wanted to see how Bret Easton Ellis accomplished what he did and I wanted it for myself.
My last bit on reading is that there's nothing wrong with taking breaks. Reading one page a day is better than reading no pages a day, and if you're immediately jumping into the work of tough cookies like Faulkner or Joyce, sometimes that's all you can handle for the moment!! (But while I'm here, take a pdf of my favorite short story of Faulkner's, it's 7 pages you can use it as a starter if you ever feel up to it hehe)
On to building the actual habit of writing... To try and walk you through my own process as best I can, you'd benefit from thinking of writing as a means of self-expression first. You would be using the characters of Miraculous Ladybug as an avenue for expressing your own thoughts, feelings, and politics, the same way I use the characters of Miraculous Ladybug as an avenue for expressing my thoughts, feelings, and politics. What makes fanfic low-stakes is that you already have a foundation of worldbuilding and characterization to work off of (or, in some cases, subvert), but the thing that makes writing powerful is the way it carries messaging through the aforementioned synthesis, and that's something you absolutely neeeeeeeeed for original fiction so you better start working on it now. What do you feel strongly about? What would you want someone to understand better after reading your work? What's something about your experiences that's really stuck with you that you think you can use to fuel your writing? etc. etc. etc.
That may all seem really heavy, especially for something like fanfic!! I just personally think that a lot more fic writers should be trying to get the most out of the low-stakes practice than they are. This is a self-guided journey and people get out what they're willing to put in; Ultimately, I'm not your literature or creative writing teacher so I can't force you to stick to a growth timeline or a set of goals. I can't force anyone on the internet to do anything.
And, y'know... good luck, believe in yourself! It's better to put a few words on a blank Google doc rather than sit there paralyzed by every possible outcome of you writing. Every other motivation beyond "doing it to make yourself happy" or "doing it to have something to talk to with a friend" is all lies and fakery, so don't put extra pressure on yourself by thinking you need to be a breakout fanfiction rockstar and appeal to a supposed audience. Just take the plunge.
Aggh! Okay, apparently I'm not done yet. Just throwing things at the wall down here to see what sticks.
You'd be surprised how many of the sources I draw from for these things that are, comparatively, pretty silly! Some of my first introductions to media analysis were youtube series criticizing trash anime and reviews of shitty books. Hearing someone explain what makes a bad thing bad can be a great kickstart, imo.
When it comes to synthesizing things, I'm not going to sit here and act like I'm not also material for others to take inspo from. Read my work, take what you like, go absolutely nuts. (Almost all of it is on Ao3 right here, but the best quality works are from 2024 and after)
My good friend and collaborator @myladynoire just got an ask of her own on a very similar topic, so while I'm here I think I might add to my own advice by quoting a bit of what she said:
"I think people massively overestimate how much you need to engage with other types of media before youβre 'allowed' to write. I read and watch a lot because I enjoy it, but I learn just as much from talking to people, observing them, and researching specific topics when I need them. ...Also donβt wait until you feel 'qualified' to begin writing. Your first stories are supposed to be imperfect. You get better by writing them, and every story you write teaches you something the next one wonβt."
this doesn't contradict what i said it's dialectical I completely agree with this!! I made some huge points about synthesis and stealing what you like, but it's not the kind of process where you first steal what you like and then write. You're taking in things from other sources all the time! Just as you're improving your craft all the time just by doing it! You're synthesizing a ton of stuff without even knowing it just through how you're processing the world around you!!!!!
You can try and prepare yourself all you want, and I can try and prepare yourself all you want, but Leah is right when she says you shouldn't wait. There's a lot of stuff that her or I or anyone can't directly teach you, because you're going to learn it and it's going to stick once you finally encounter that problem or that piece of inspiration yourself.
like this sentence from the introduction alone is fucking crazy. βapproximately half of adults in the united states think that torture can be acceptable in counterterrorism.β what!
so there's a natural order to this world and we need atleast four million mans in boots with armor, vehicles, and firearms to enforce it, otherwise something unnatural might happen
Most people I know had that one movie as a kid; that one movie that they would watch over and over and over to the resigned acceptance of their parents. Iβve always thought that movie says something about a person. What was your movie?
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no worries if not but would you like. mind if I settled into your very bones for a little? just to know what it's like haha. no pressure of course I know it's a weird thing to ask lol
the usa is absolutely on its way to a fully fascist state & whenever anyone says that, there's always a comment that says "america has always been fascist." imo you're willfully downplaying an authoritarian takeover in order to sound edgy. all it does is derail the conversation & diminish the significance of what's been happening over the last 8 months. nothing will distract from a useful conversation about resistance more than changing it to be about the last 250 years instead. it's insidious and honestly straight out of a handbook on how to disrupt organizing
The reason people push back on this isn't because they're being silly little edgelords, it's because they aren't stupid liberals who think that fascism is something that a state decides to do every now and again for no reason but a cyclical part in the life cycle of an organism like USA. If USA is not dismembered, it will continue to cycle between Global War of Terror fascism, Jim Crow fascism, Cold War fascism, etc, with different levels of visibility to people who think "authoritarianism" is a meaningful unit of analysis, until it does eventually and deservedly eat shit.
"Donald Trump is a threat to American democracy" and "USA is and always has been a rogue fascist state" are two incompatible worldviews, and one is right and one is wrong.
Its also pretty telling that its almost always white people who complain about people saying the us has always been facists. Its almost like things are only starting to get bad for you (general you) and know you notice and when people for whom the us is already an oppressive fascist state tell you you are wrong anf it was always bad. Suddenly you need to come up with reasons as to why those people are just being edgy or insincere
Also, if you want to mark the beginning of the current wave of reactionary politics in America as a distinct thing, you'd best start in the early 2000s, not 2016. Trump was a symptom of a wider political movement, not its cause.
you can absolutely make the argument that the US slide into fascism began in the early 2000s, or even 1980s with reagan. but commenting "america has always been fascist" is not helpful when people are discussing real harm. that's literally all the post says. I'm tired of seeing that comment used in order to dismiss the very real rapid slide into authoritarianism that is happening. that's literally it
now do we think there might be specific demographics of people living in the US for whom said "real harm" has existed for its entire existence as a country? like idk maybe particular races or ethnic groups that have always faced severe state sanctioned violence, genocide, and slavery? or...
the usa is absolutely on its way to a fully fascist state & whenever anyone says that, there's always a comment that says "america has always been fascist." imo you're willfully downplaying an authoritarian takeover in order to sound edgy. all it does is derail the conversation & diminish the significance of what's been happening over the last 8 months. nothing will distract from a useful conversation about resistance more than changing it to be about the last 250 years instead. it's insidious and honestly straight out of a handbook on how to disrupt organizing
I see people in the notes trying to argue the "always fascist" point by saying that any person of color (in the U.S.) would say that, and that's not true! Every immigrant I know, almost every person of color I know, is having conversations about the rapid worsening of conditions and what to do about them. There is no smug truthbomb dropping, just an incredible escalation in fear and anxiety and uncertainty. It is insane to me that people feel comfortable saying that marginalized populations don't perceive a difference when that is explicitly not the case. OP is not talking about posts that are intended to educate and historically contextualize the current situation, they are talking about posts that are obviously intended to guilt and shame people into dropping any discussion that acknowledges the abrupt worsening of the situation. While I don't think most of it is meant to be malicious, I do think a lot of it comes from people who are deeply uncomfortable with examining how they misread the situation in the past, and who are attempting to suggest things are stable to alleviate their own feelings of guilt and powerlessness. It's very obvious that most of them do not have more than superficial interaction with the communities they claim to be speaking on behalf of!
Honestly it's an excuse to not do anything, and to encourage others not to be concerned either. It's demobilizing propaganda and it mostly serves the enemy.
it is NONE OF THESE THINGS. People are not trying to derail the conversation, people are trying to tell you troglodytes that amerikkka has ALWAYS been a genocidal bloodthirsty empire SINCE ITS INCEPTION, BUILT on slavery and indigenous massacres. the POINT of saying it is forcing you people to confront how NONE OF YOU CARED about amerikkka's victims from Latam to Asia to Africa UNTIL YOU YOURSELF WERE AFFECTED!
From funding the genocide in Palestine to the US Backed dictatorships, Amerikkka is a military state, has always been, AND YOU ALL ARE ONLY POINTING IT NOW BC YOU TOO ARE IN THE WAY OF THE POINTED PART OF ITS BLOODSTAINED SWORD. For all the spectacle being made of the ICE deportations, REMEMBER THAT TRUMP HAS YET TO SURPASS THE AMOUNT OF DEPORTATIONS UNDER THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION
They were WHIPPING HAITIAN MIGRANTS AT THE BORDER! AND THAT WAS IN 2021!
I don't care if I sound manic or hysterical. You amerikkkans are so incredibly ignorant of just how much blood is spilled for your citizenship, for your existence as you are in your empire. Not even Ancient Rome or Britain came close to having as many claws in the world around as USA does. Not one president has their hands free of blood. Obama bombed Yemen just shortly after taking office, he had a list of targets made of "males eligible of joining the military" . Jimmy Carter was a loud and proud endorser of the genocide and massacre of Koreans. Kkkopmala LOVES Israel, endorsed them to hell and back, didn't back down ONCE, AND PROMISED TO CRACK DOWN HARDER ON IMMIGRATION - this is for all you fools who think what's happening with ICE under trump wouldn't have happened under Kkkopmala. She was throwing trans women in men's jails.
AMERICA HAS BEEN A FASCIST STATE, IT'S ONLY NOW THAT YOU'RE ALL BEING AFFECTED BY WHAT IT DOES TO THE GLOBAL SOUTH, AND WHAT IT HAS ALWAYS DONE TO BLACK AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLE INSIDE! DENIAL OF THIS IS A DENIAL OF GENOCIDE.
The US military is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world. the existence of your precious nation state has actively destroyed the world, sucking it like a parasite it is since it's inception, in every way possible. america has no conscience, never had, never will, and the fact that you all think this is a recent development is just sooo fucking laughable!
Keep saying this exposing just how ignorant and willing you were to dismiss all the shit facist amerikkka had inflicted on the world, has always been inflicting, until now, now that you can't ignore it anymore as the knife is pointed at YOUR throat and not some poor Black or Brown child from an overexploited country. Yes amerikkka has always been facist. there is not a single year amerikkka hasn't spilt blood. you are all genocide deniars.
the usa is absolutely on its way to a fully fascist state & whenever anyone says that, there's always a comment that says "america has always been fascist." imo you're willfully downplaying an authoritarian takeover in order to sound edgy. all it does is derail the conversation & diminish the significance of what's been happening over the last 8 months. nothing will distract from a useful conversation about resistance more than changing it to be about the last 250 years instead. it's insidious and honestly straight out of a handbook on how to disrupt organizing
No, it's an attempt to have an intersectional conversation about the reality that black and indigenous people have been living in through this country's entire history and while yes, I agree, this past nine months has been especially concerning and evil, I assure you this country has done worse in the past which is what we need people to be aware of so they fight hard now to fix the whole broken system, not just attempt to put things back to how they were nine months ago. This is, as people have already pointed out more eloquently in the notes of this post, a short-sighted white person take.
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Bechdel's whole POV is "i used to think you trannies were disgusting intruders but now i think that yall just uphold gender stereotypes and should be allowed tentatively as Conditional Members Of Women, and also im Really Happy That I Wasn't Transed, and That My Disgusting Cross-Dresser Father Is Not In My Life"
and to be clear! no she is not particularly remarkable on her views on trans women or being buddy buddy with TERF freaks.
that's also the fucking problem. its really fucking exhausting that, for most cis lesbians (and all cis queers generally), the acceptable degree of separation from transphobes is like, two? before theyre held up as icons of The Community and Authorities Of The Lesbian Experience.
like, bechdel literally is friends with michfest freaks and whinged about how much of a loss the lesbians suffered with the end of michfest, like give me a fucking break!
also editors note, her father may have committed suicide after she confronted him about his sexuality and gender non-conformity.
@open-source-anarch3y i hope its ok if i expand on the tags you put
#yeah reading dykes to watch out for was a lot ofβ watch out for the trannies you dykes aren't safeβ ending with βbut maybe trannys should #hold their placeβ
yeah absolutely and its really REALLY apparent when you learn what youre looking out for. i mean with how many times the first assumption of any given 'trans situation' presented is the cis's assuming something transphobic then having to be proven wrong (kinda??), or how many times the above character, Janis, a literal child, gets in arguments with other characters who throw her transness in her face?? just very very rent-free living space.
#so while it does a good job of showing a certain lense of lesbian culture it also shows how TERF entwined it is #cause i hate that aspect of it but her works aren't a false view just a revealingly unpleasant one for trans people
i think, my biggest (or, at least, first and most consistently-irritating) problem with the whole thing is that beKKKhdel really just...totally uncritically reproduces literally every anxiety that a non-ideological-transphobic-cisbian had about trans women at that time, and further, the framing of those concerns is consistently, unilaterally, and unwaveringly presented as Completely Reasonable To Hold.
if the basis she always starts from is "This Is A Correct Initial Feeling And You Are Correct For Feeling It" she absolutely cannot actually feel anything positive, progressive or inclusive about trans women.
it would be different if there was a comic being done about these things from the perspective of a trans woman and how fraught cisbian-interaction (cis queer generally) can be, or offering actual criticism of those false, regressive assumptions and fears, but thats simply not what is happening.
None of her pet characters ever receive anything resembling criticism of their bad, fearful, anxious, exclusionary, resentment-politics-based behavior.
they are only every given immediate, unconditioned forgiveness and don't-worry-about-it's, with no self-examination, no self-reflection, no self-criticism as to "why-oh-why might a trans woman want to smooth over relations with people she needs to be around?"
at best, the characters learn "hey maybe don't act on assumptions, but also your assumptions are valid and you shouldn't stop assuming"
#we can't keep trying to no true scottsman our way into thinking the lesbian community is trans friendly
this. the lesbian communities biggest splits have been over trans women. it was only recently accepted by some not all cisbians that trans women could even be lesbians, and there are constant, incessant splits over the mythical not-transphobic-but-trans-excluding-AFAB-lesbian-space, and and grinding, grating, tooth-pulling, neuralgic whining and whinging about trans women's existence in majority-cisbian spaces
and as someone whos rapidly coming into an understanding of herself as more lesbian aligned than bisexual, im really uncomfortable with this shit! its fucking annoying!
