#ask linden

random fb post

It lost a lot of detail in the photo, so I'm sorry about that. I love this story and this scene especially. I know this wasn't what you were going for, but that's what I pictured for some reason. I hope you have a wonderful day.

ohhhh my gosh this is. absolutely gorgeous. clicking for quality brings a lot of the detail back i think? and it is INCREDIBLE detail i am so honoured hhhhh

Fun Fact; The Wild Hunt is a derivative of the Faerie/Fairy Hunt! I forgot it was called that too. Shoutout to @serialreblogger  for responding to my ask and reminding me of that! This is for you <3 

During the three days (or full week, or single night) of the Autumnal Equinox (though sometimes the summer one as well) The Fairy Hunt peruses through the forest. (You’ll recall Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream for fairy shenanigans and mortal dealings. I will admit I really liked that one when we first read it in grade 10 but it was after Romeo and Juliet which I loathe with as much passion as the young lovers had, so perhaps my enthusiasm was skewed from multiple aspects) 

Mounted upon white, silver or even golden steeds, bells of the sweetest most beautiful music adorned upon their bridles and crafted of the finest of silks, the Faeries ride through the light of the full moon, seeming at once real and a mere illusion as the light shifts through the clouds and foliage alike. (I need to remember to copy this and add it to the pile of prompts to actually finish writing something because wow I’m actually impressed with myself) They hunt for mortals with “magical” abilities, anything from seers, to great healers, musicians, poets or other such craftisans or artisans, and often young maidens (with whom one faerie will cast a love spell upon and persuade her to leave the mortal realm to enter theirs and never be seen again). The myth is such that they are fascinated by mortals for they have the greatest appreciation of beauty but are so finite a being (because their lives fade so fast in comparison to a fae) Fae are selfish and also appreciate beauty (above all else), and so they steal away the mortals during The Hunt as it is the easiest time for them to roam (and let’s be honest there are more mortals about than during the Winter Equinox, and they are easier to persuade with music and dancing and frivolity during the autumn/summer), it’s also easier to grow flowers and things so mushroom and tree rings (a literal ring of toadstools, certain kinds of trees and even flowers which when a mortal steps into they cannot leave and thus become part of the entertainment at faerie balls; the musicians, dancers, singers).  AND NOW!! BONUS CONTENT!! Ollie’s Recommended Reads

Anything by Tamora Pierce; her books are geared towards the grade 4-7 level I believe, but an amazing writer! (bonus points; the books have maps!) *Female power characters AND excellent plot work and world building* I would Start with the beginning book; I belieeeve it’s The Page, but it could be another one. My best friend actually had part of the series as a kid and loves her even now, I only had two of them and not from the same series( Wild Magic , and coincidentally The Page). I only recently borrowed his volumes of what he has and have searched out the names of the rest of the titles, but even so, there books are incredible and every library should have a set. Ash by Malinda Lo; this one doesn’t have great reviews from what I remember, it does feel a bit juvenile in either the pacing or wording in some places but I still really enjoy it (though I could be quite influenced by having steeped myself so thoroughly in the above mentioned information that it blinds me a bit to the content). However I really like the thought process that went into having folklore within the retelling of a folktale; Cinderella ALSO ITS BI YAYYY! 

There are a few more but I’ll have to compile the list/see what I have saved from a project I started a few years ago before I dropped out of art school.

Hope this gets you started @serialreblogger and I’m sure I’ll have more to add to it as time goes on :3 

miss goop‼️

thank you that is all

ooh that is a BIG question. i’ll give you my opinion based on what i studied at uni - which is skewed in favour of colonial britain, so take it with a grain of salt - and then a link to what other people say (who actually know what they’re talking about, so you might prefer that over my opinion!)

the most important thing to know about reading english literature is that it’s all referential. to really grasp most Great Works of Literature, you need a solid basis in the things they’ll be referencing: in the case of 17th-19h century english lit, which is my area of expertise, the key sources you really need a solid basis in are the king james bible, catholic/christian mythology, and greco-roman mythology. you’ll be able to understand a lot more if you have a solid grasp of these two canons and the most famous works based on them (dante’s divine comedy, for instance, had a huge impact on catholic mythology, and john milton’s paradise lost was likewise impactful for christians more generally) – i don’t want to assign anyone the entire king james bible as a reading list, but being raised quoting bible verses will unfortunately give you a big leg up when it comes to english literary analysis (as i know from experience).

so i’ll give you a list of all the Classics that could be useful if you want to understand english literature, but a hack already exists to bypass all that background reading, and it’s just. investing in annotated copies of whatever book u want to read. for instance, my copy of dracula is the norton critical edition (norton my beloved), which has cut my work on analyzing it in half :P

what i studied in uni included homer, hesiod, and ovid’s metamorphoses for greek mythology, and virgil’s aeneid; beowulf and a glimpse into the arthurian canon (on my bookshelf it’s gawain and the green knight and thomas mallory’s le morte d’arthur, but arthuriana isn’t exactly my area of expertise); and a whole lot of shakespeare. romeo and juliet, obviously, and king lear, macbeth, hamlet, julius caesar, othello, comedies like twelfth night, much ado about nothing and as you like it – most of shakespeare qualifies as a potential Reference, and i read a Lot of it. (i kind of glossed past them, so here’s a link to another tumblr post that gives you a more detailed reading list for the ancient greeks: x)

so that’s what i’d consider the foundation of my personal experience studying english lit; where you go from there depends entirely on what you’re interested in. for example, i took a very interesting course on 17th century women writers – “the tragedy of mariam” is a fascinating glimpse into misogyny from an upper-class woman’s perspective. mary wollstonecraft is also a good writer for learning about proto-feminism. if you’re interested in historical CRT, W.E.B. Du Bois is a good starting point; for anti-colonial theory, Frantz Fanon is essential. slightly more modern (by my antiquated standards) are bell hooks and of course kimberlé crenshaw, if you want an introduction to intersectionality, but we’re getting away from English Literature and into Theory so i’ll leave off there.

the romantic poets were a favourite of mine to study: wordsworth, keats, percy bysshe shelley, byron, and samuel taylor coleridge are the ones i focused on. and if you like poetry i can’t not plug gerard manley hopkins, who was Very Catholic but also created an entirely new type of rhythm (“sprung rhythm”) which i personally love. “as kingfishers catch fire” is still one of my favourite poems ever written. shakespeare, again, wrote a lot of sonnets (which are also good to be familiar with, as they too get referenced a lot) – some of them were also Very Gay so that’s always fun (i’ve cited sonnets 20, 63 and 68 before and i will again). langston hughes wrote some gorgeous stuff as well (“let america be america again” strikes me as very relevant today); audrey lorde, ocean vuong, and eileen myles are all also post-19th century poets that i love with my whole heart.

beyond poetry, major works of literature i recommend reading… i mean, again, it depends on what interests you. christopher marlowe was a contemporary of shakespeare who wrote some classic plays; dickens, obviously, is worth checking out, though i personally find him dead boring. frankenstein by mary wollstonecraft shelley is a must-read, and (not to plug my personal special interest but) dracula by bram stoker is a pretty ok read too :)

classics by women writers include jane austen’s canon – pride and prejudice most prominently, but also emma, sense and sensibility, etc. and the brontë sisters (charlotte and emily specifically) wrote their share of works – jane eyre and wuthering heights are must-reads for students of english lit.

if we’re talking about works that have an outsized impact on modern fiction, we can’t not talk about tolkien’s lord of the rings series (and “the hobbit” is loosely structured and based on beowulf, so that’s a fun lil easter egg).

like – sylvia plath, virginia woolf, f. scott fitzgerald, hemingway, margaret atwood, maya angelou, h.g. wells, (regrettably) lovecraft… there are so many classic writers to pick from, i don’t really know where to start. really what i recommend is just trying things out and reading what appeals to you!

(alsooo if you want to read any of the more academic stuff i cited, or older works, or uhh any works but shh don't tell the government: anna's archive is a gold mine. i love them so much)

yes this is my point. william "sex jokes" "historical RPF" shakespeare is broadly upheld as the pinnacle of english literature, and zero percent of his works conform to any standardized spelling/grammar system

"shakespeare couldn't spell his own name" is shorthand for "the snobbery of ~english literature & canon~ is both self-contradictory and arbitrary in the extreme." & to me this means that anyone can create whatever they want and be just as good as any shakespearean sonnet. bc the only real qualifier for "good writing" is that somebody cared about the story they were telling, and the only real qualifier for "good reading material" is that someone, somewhere, wants to read it