Rain

so, ways to get around this:

turn off AI results. they're literally nonsense to us

don't use pinterest because the sources/provenance is often hard to trace

a standard internet search can be okay, but museum collections are the top tier (list of collections below this list)

instead of broad terms like victorian, regency, tudor, renaissance etc. try using the decade you're looking for. if you're not sure of what decade it is but have a vague image in your head, look on the fashion history timeline and just jump around until you find it. but even changing to e.g. 19th century will give better results than victorian

including terms like womenswear/menswear, daywear, formal wear, evening wear, court dress should increase the value of your search too

including "fashion plates" in your search can give you a nice impression of the intended silhouettes of the era. some of these might be a little stylised but will show you what was considered in vogue

for pre-fashion plate eras or things like makeup and styling, you'll have to look at portraiture or manuscripts. these are harder to actually find what you're looking for, but searching museum collections and limiting results to specific date ranges will be your friend

when looking at art, do bear in mind sometimes artists would paint fabric extra flow-y to show off their skills. it might not have been exactly like that in terms of fabric weight or drape. so, a pinch of salt required!

if you find something on image search where the provenance is dubious, reverse image search and you might find a source! i've been able to trace random pinterest images to real sources, but this does take a lot of time and effort and is often not worth the headache

some online resources and museum collections:

fashion history timeline is an invaluable resource if you're trying to get a feel for everything and should be your first port of call. it'll also link to good examples

the met has a vast number of extant examples of clothing, as well as fashion plates

costume institute fashion plates is a subcollection of the met for fashion plates (1800s-1922)

v&a also has many extant garments, fashion plates, and incredible articles on clothing and aesthetics. read the details of the objects because they'll often reveal a lot about the piece

lacma is good for C19th-20th pieces

nypl digital collection for photographs

national portrait gallery or similar for portraiture, or literally any museum in your country that has historical art

national museums scotland can be useful situationally but might be oddly specific

stout style history is a great collection for finding image references for fat people wearing historical clothes. survival bias of a lot of museum pieces tends towards smaller clothing that couldn't be repurposed, but this aims to counter that. it's not sortable, but is still a really nice resource

wikimedia commons is surprisingly handy! and the images, if you should need to link/repost them, are public domain

auction websites sound like a funny one to recommend. some won't have mannequins and some will. just look up historical garment auctions and you'll find some!

Firstly, a reminder: This is not tiktok and we just say the words incest and pedophilia here.

Secondly, I don't know if I would call them 'interests' so much as fixations or even concerns. There are monstrous things that people think about, and I think writing is a place to engage with those monstrous things. It doesn't bother me that people engage with those things. I exist somewhere within the whump scale, and I would hope no one would think less of me just because sooner or later I like to rough a good character up a bit, you know? It's fun to torture characters, as a treat!

But, anyway, assuming this question isn't, "Do writers know they're gross when I think they are gross" which I'm going to take the kind road and assume it isn't, but is instead, "Do you think authors are aware of the things they constantly come back to?"

Sometimes. It can be jarring to read your own writing and realize that there are things you CLEARLY are preoccupied with. (mm, I like that word more than concerns). There are things you think about over and over, your run your mind over them and they keep working their way back in. I think this is true of most authors, when you read enough of them. Where you almost want to ask, "So...what's up with that?" or sometimes I read enough of someone's work that I have a PRETTY good idea what's up with that.

I've never read Robert Jordan and I don't intend to start (I think it would bore me this is not a moral stance) and I've really never read Rice's erotica. In erotica especially I think you have all the right in the world to get fucking weird about it! But so, when I was young I read the whole Vampire Chronicles series. I don't remember it perfectly, but there's plenty in it to reveal VERY plainly that Anne Rice has issues with God but deeply believes in God, and Anne Rice has a preoccupation with the idea of what should stay dead, and what it means to become. So, when i found out her daughter died at the age of six, before Rice wrote all of this, and she grew up very very Catholic' I said, 'yeah, that fucking checks out'.

Was Rice herself aware of how those things formed her writing? I think at a certain point probably yes. The character of Claudia is in every way too on the nose for her not to have SOME idea unless she was REAL REAL dense about her own inner workings. But, sometimes I know where something I write about comes from, that doesn't mean I'm interested in sharing it with the class. I would never ever fucking say, 'The reasons I seem to write so much of x as y is that z happened to me years ago' ahaha FUCK THAT NOISE. NYET. RIDE ON, COWBOY.

But I've known some people in fandom works who clearly have something going on and don't seem to realize it. Or they're very good at hiding it. Based on the people I'm talking about I would say it's more a lack of self-knowledge, and I don't even mean that unkindly. I have, in many ways, taken myself down to the studs and rebuilt it all, so I unfortunately am very aware of why I do and write the things I do most of the time. It's extremely annoying not to be able to blame something. I imagine it must be very freeing. But it ain't me, babe.

Anyway, a lot of words to say: Maybe! But that might not stop them from writing it, it might be a useful thing for them to engage with, and you can always just not read it.

Anon ostensibly wants to know: "Do authors realize that they're writing about things that some people might find disturbing, horrific, upsetting, repulsive, or simply just TMI?" (Yes, obviously they know. Authors are not stupid; that's usually a requirement of the job (not always. But usually).)

But what Anon is actually asking is, "Why don't authors stop themselves from doing a Bad Thing? Why doesn't anyone else stop them?" The assumption underlying that question is: "Surely if they realized that they were doing something disgusting, they would stop immediately." Even more covertly implied: "I think writing about certain things automatically taints you with moral degeneracy--that is, it marks you as a possible or potential criminal."

To that I say: My friend, writing is just thoughts copied onto paper, and thinking is not a crime. Only actual actions can be crimes. What does it matter what other people think about? Literally so what? Why do you want people to be stopped from thinking about those things ("did their editors ever gently ask them...")? Why do you care? Do you feel that an author should provide a list of justifications and excuses before it's permissible for them to write about something? Why? And who do you think should be in charge of that? The government???? YOU???????

To any person reading this post: If the above questions are personally upsetting to you, if you find yourself huffily thinking something like, "Well, I care because it could normalize--", NOPE, STOP RIGHT THERE. 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩 This is a big red flag: You (much like the Anon) are exhibiting some early warning signs of Fascism, and that is not something to take lightly in the current political climate. There are some drugs you shouldn't experiment with even once, and fascism is one of them. Repeat as often as needed: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS THOUGHTCRIME. WE DO NOT LIVE IN GEORGE ORWELL'S 1984.

But we already talk about thoughtcrimes now and then, don't we? I can't remember seeing someone talking about crimestop (also from Orwell's 1984):

In the Newspeak vocabulary, the word crimestop denotes the citizen's instinctive desire to rid himself of unwanted, incorrect thoughts (personal and political), the discovery of which, by the Thinkpol [Thought Police], would lead to detection and arrest, transport to and interrogation at Miniluv (Ministry of Love). The protagonist, Winston Smith, describes crimestop as a conscious process of self-imposed cognitive dissonance: The mind should develop a blind spot whenever a dangerous thought presented itself. The process should be automatic, instinctive. Crimestop, they called it in Newspeak. . . . He set to work to exercise himself in crimestop. He presented himself with propositions—'the Party says the Earth is flat', 'the Party says that ice is heavier than water'—and trained himself in not seeing or not understanding the arguments that contradicted them. Moreover, from the perspective of Oceania's principal enemy of the state, in the history book The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism, Emmanuel Goldstein said that: Crimestop means the faculty of stopping short, as though by instinct, at the threshold of any dangerous thought. It includes the power of not grasping analogies, of failing to perceive logical errors, of misunderstanding the simplest arguments if they are inimical to Ingsoc, and of being bored or repelled by any train of thought which is capable of leading in a heretical direction. Crimestop, in short, means protective stupidity.

Read that twice, and then reread the Anon's question. Translate it through that lens: "Why," says the Anon, delicately disgusted, "are these authors not practicing better crimestop? I practice it all the time. Why aren't they?"

Great question, Anon. Why AREN'T they? Turn off your crimestop and give it some real thought.

i kinda assumed he just had an annoying voice or smth

but like??? he's fine??????

he's cute and polite and helpful??

i mean seriously just look at him

I just had to collect all of these responses together in one place

Edit: And one from my friend, who doesn't have a tumblr (yet)

consistent practice opens up whole worlds of skill that you couldn't imagine

making mistakes in the process of learning is not only natural, it is also essential

activities that you enjoy can give you more energy back than you spent on them

It has recipes for everything I ever wanted. Strawberry fizz, Blackberry and Apple Cake, classic Redwall scones. And as if that’s not enough, a note from the author himself:

With all the love in my heart,

🦋 wilwarintrouble 🌿 yavannas-gf Follow

just watched lord finrod snap and tell celegorm that he’s gonna die and die badly lollll. go off king 👑

🌿 yavannas-gf Follow

KINSLAYERS AND APOLOGISTS DNI

#i know op is a sinda and making a joke #but as a longtime follower of the arafinwean host #i’m pretty sure this is just. factually correct #tw current events

(2.4k notes)

🪷 gigglingwillow

who up shipping they wright

🪷 gigglingwillow

BLOCKED. BLOCKED. BLOCKED. YOU ARE ALL BLOCKED. NONE OF YOU ARE FREE OF SIN

#c'mon guys that's my boss. I didn't need to know about the rpf 😫 #also he's not the only shipwright in the world???

(30 notes)

🪻 beeches-of-neldoreth

btw I arrived in the havens today if any of the mutuals want to meet up

(0 notes)

🪶 sparrowflight

🌄 secreteighthgate Follow

stop badmouthing the people who married into the line of finwe!

Míriel was CREATIVE

Indis is LOVING

Nerdanel is WISE

Anairë has INTEGRITY

Ëarwen is CURIOUS

Elenwë was BRAVE

Eldalótë was CONFIDENT

Celeborn is DEPENDABLE

Eöl

Tuor is COURAGEOUS

#gondolinposting

(30.6k notes)

🐚stars-n-sea

View from the western side of the Isle of Balar yesterday evening

#ocean #sea #beleager #isle of balar #havensblr #aesthetic #sunset #seascape #nature #falascore #naturecore #outdoors #mine

(126 notes)

🦾 silversmithin

anyone know if we got forge tomorrow

#queuezdul

(7 notes)

🦋 wilwarintrouble

🌟 cevienuin Follow

🌟 cevienuin Follow

we appear to have entered a cow tools situation

#ahsdfjkadskla #no the deer is fingolfin OBVIOUSLY

(76.9k notes)

💎 sapphirefire

😎 professionalhalethimpersonator-deactivated4550312

question for elvish friends: why do you sometimes just stare into corners or at trees for five solid minutes like cats. what's up with that. should I be concerned

😎 lakemithrimoffical-deactivated4550314

listening

😎 professionalhalethimpersonator-deactivated4550312

elaborate?????

😎 lakemithrimoffical-deactivated4550314

no

#i do be listening

(9.5k notes)

🪻 beeches-of-neldoreth

Endless roll the waters past! To this my love hath come at last, enchanted waters pitiless, a heartache and a loneliness.

Lúthien Tinúviel // The Lay of Leithian, Canto V

#q #quotes #poetry #lay of leithian #lúthien tinúviel

(203 notes)

🦆 ducksofarda

🍄 daeronsleftearlobe Follow

so was anyone gonna tell me that three of the sons of fëanor are dead or was i just supposed to find that out from a mandos's dodgeball meme myself

#could be worse op #i found out via turleg meme #text #not a duck fact

(32.5k notes)

🦔 viewer-of-caves

🌲 mountainlovr777 Follow

STARS i miss finrod felagund. untouchable diplomatic lynchpin and used it to do Whatever. could not have cared less what anyone thought of him. wandered off in the middle of a hunting trip and came back with an entire new society. the infamous pet snakes. the outfits. going on a whole tangent about wine recommendations during a public address ... i'm mithrimdrim but i would've ridden to war for him tbh. i understand bëor the old on a spiritual level

#you joke but that winery was overrun for years afterwards #we all knew he had TASTE #unfortunately we did forget that he was kinda integral for the behind the scenes stuff also

(126 notes)

🍃 treetime

feeling emotional about ents again

#augggh #the inherent tragedy of spending your life caring for things that will never be able to return it #no matter how much they might love you #things that cannot run away when you are not there to protect them... #tree tag

(5 notes)

💎 sapphirefire

🏞 ard-gaylen Follow

i know sea longing is supposed to be tragic and romantic and all that but it gets annoying pretty fast tbh. like shut UPPPPPP i have stuff to do

(107.4k notes)

"Absolutely no one comes to save us but us."