LaChica50

some of my folk girls <3

edit 18072023 - added new one!

edit 01112023 added new one! 

edit 02112023 REUPLOAD of the last one!

“The late Süleyman Nazif, in one of his writings, compares Leyla and Majnun to Romeo and Juliet. Although this comparison seems quite surprising and exaggerated at first glance, there is a truth to it. Shakespeare's represents the beginning of a renaissance, while Nizami's Leyla and Majnun represents a half-finished renaissance, a dream of love and youth in the Muslim Middle Ages. And like all dreams of love and youth, they encompass the way of life, upbringing, and ideals of a particular social system. A dream is something that must remain unchanged, absolutely as it is. That is why death is accepted as so natural in both. However, Fuzuli's Leyla and Majnun perhaps surpasses Nizami's, and even Ali Shir Navai's, in one respect. His Leyla is more of a young girl than the others. Like Juliet, like Ophelia, or if you prefer, like Homer's Nausica – because in literature, this dream, starts with Homer – the young girl, not only ensures that Majnun experiences his astonishing adventure, but also makes her presence felt at every moment, even if it is like a closed garden in the moonlight. We always sense how distressed she is in her own struggles.

It is evident that Fuzuli, while shifting from one style to another, finds a psychological treasure here – even if it is through the necessary concentration that arises from the fact that the same subject has been addressed by various poets.

Let us not forget that the young girl is the thing that literature has least been able to capture. European poetry—and I insist on the word poetry here—only after Shakespeare, in Stendhal (Chartreuse de Parme's Clelia), in Dostoevsky (the young girl in White Nights and the secondary characters in some novels), and in Tolstoy (Natacha in War and Peace), can we find her existence in this simple state of waiting, her resilience gathered within herself, knowing that she will be shattered by the slightest external interference, that pure white innocence, and her submission that often rejects any action except death. In every work she enters, she is a light of happiness that beautifies even suffering and death.

This is the first image that comes to mind when we finish reading Fuzuli's Layla and Majnun and close our eyes, despite the Arabic story and Nizami's truly brilliant creative design.”

The Amazing Transgenderism Circus [featuring Jaxxine's internalized transphobia & cringe-phobia.] A post-episode 8 "Caine gets a redemption arc & joins the humans as Just One of the Guys" AU that I'm sharing before episode 9 drops.

“An eternal night, without a thought or a dream, awaited her: she had no soul, and now she could never win one."

Born to draw Ford Pines Gravity Falls posing pretentiously in strange situations

I work at a library. We do this thing where, every so often, we weed the collection. It hurts to see books go, but it's necessary to make sure there's room in the library for new materials.

I have seen so much support for the library in text, and I've seen folks pass around those beautiful "queer your library" flyers. Keep doing that. That's great. Nothing wrong with that. But you HAVE to turn your words into action. We MUST remember to actually go to our local organizations and libraries and actually, with our own fucking hands, interact with these materials we want to see more of.

My branch is medium-sized for a library, maybe a little small. We don't have as many materials as I'd like, but we have fundamentals. Tell me why, even with all the verbal support I've gotten from my local community for the library as a resource for our LGBT+ community, every single trans biography and a good chunk of our vaguely queer theory books were on the list. This isn't a scheme to take the books off the shelves, it isn't another bigoted American governmental push. The only thing we look at when we weed is how long it's been since the last time the item was checked out.

Three years.

No one in my community interacted in any meaningful way with the few books on trans life and history we physically had on the shelves for three fucking years.

I promise you the materials you want and need are there, but this isn't a horde. This isn't a static safety net. You have to use them. You MUST use them or, in the future, maybe in three years, they *won't* be there anymore.

I'm also a librarian and queer books are almost always cut first when we have to weed for space or prioritize new releases over old items because no one reads them

I will say, when I worked at a large downtown location, we had a "browsing card" that we would check out items we found taken off the shelf and left on a table, as an example of a book that had clearly been read, just not checked out by anyone

it's possible queer books do actually get a bit of unfair treatment in this regard because people may be nervous or outright scared to check them out onto an account with their name on it. so they get browsed at a much higher rate, but if a library doesn't have a specific system in place (or need for it) to count browsed items, then it looks like they aren't being used and they get weeded

for other librarians, a browsing card is a great idea if you have enough staff for the extra work / enough items left out to justify it

for patrons, check out queer books even if you don't read them! you're not lying or committing any type of fraud. you're keeping books on the shelf long enough for pride season when people are interested in checking them out again and for people scared to use their own accounts or who don't have library cards

for anyone nervous about using their library card, libraries do not keep search histories of what you check out!! this means even if the government does come back with a warrant, *wet farting noise* too bad! it doesn't exist!

It feels like such a small thing, but all movements are made up of small things! We have this mindset that in order to get everything done, everyone must be doing their (or *the*) absolute best at all times. But not everyone can do the same things, to the same degree, with the same amount of productivity or success. Not everyone can; sometimes, they're the ones that need help. Sometimes people just need help.

This post is very much so intended for the people who can. I've seen a lot of replies from folks who say they don't have to (or don't think about) checking out or requesting queer books from the library specifically because they *can* buy them, can pirate them, or already have them in their house or on their computers or phones. But in instances like that, keeping these books in circulation is less for you and more for the people who can't. The folks who come to the library, who don't have access to internet--or even electricity--at home and would never--have never--been able to interact with this "ubiquitous queer community" we have here online who has made so many of these. materials so avaliable to the rest of us.

And... if I can be a little frank. Sometimes the hyperaccessibility of these materials online (through pirating, cheap e-book copies, etc) gives people a false sense of security. It implies that these things are an infinate resource, good for "When I get around to it".

And often, you won't. There's so much to read and so much to do. So much to download and so much to sit down and stare at for hours. That kind of mental scope puts books in people's hands (or phones), but never in their heads.

I live in a province that is currently trying to ban queer books from libraries, and as a library patron, this is terrifying. 95% of the books I read are from the library and a lot of them are way out of my budget to buy personally.

Making Queer History would not exist without the school library I skipped class in to write articles. It would not exist without my friends with library cards for their universities sharing them and getting me access to rare texts. I would not be able to read as much as I do without Libby and Hoopla. If I have ever given you a book recommendation, know that I likely got it from the library first.

I cannot overstate the importance of protecting libraries and checking out queer books. And I want to say thank you to everyone above for being as passionate as I am about queer books in libraries.

A Letter from one of our Main Mods, @nwfairy!

⭐️SHARE GOALS⭐️

We are excited to announce that we have two amazing share goals for this project!

If any one of our posts reaches……

🌟120 likes: All fics will have podfics recorded and released as part of the digital merch for the zine!

💫75 reposts/ reblogs: Original music recordings will be released as part of the digital merch for the zine!