#misc lit

eva’s favourite quotes: pride and prejudice - jane austen

8 + 14?

8. Game of the year? 

Seeing as I haven’t played any computer games since uni, and my RPG group is still playing the same game we did back in school (and a plotline we started circa 2012, since we meet three times a year at most nowadays), that’s actually not an easy question. Dutch Boy was a fan of collaborative board games and introduced me to Epidemic, which was enjoyable, but in hindsight has become somewhat tainted by association.

So I guess I’ll have to go with a real-life game for a change: Flesh Wound, one of my martial arts group’s warm-up games. Basically, everyone gets roughly a metre’s worth of pipe insulation (the stiff, but very light foam kind) and pretends to be that knight from Monty Python’s Holy Grail. If someone hits your arm or leg, you are no longer allowed to use it, but you still have to try and attack others with one arm/both arms behind your back, and hopping on one leg/sliding on your butt while loudly quoting the film. Last person with any extremities left is declared the winner.

14. Favourite book you read this year?

LISTEN TO ME RIGHT NOW. PETER KAVINSKY IS BETTER THAN ALL OF US. 

Acts like he could kill you; is actually a cinnamon roll. 

But also he’s both a cinnamon roll and a sinamon roll. 

Bakes cookies with fake girlfriend just to spend time with her

Pretends to not like fake girlfriend as much as he does because he’s afraid of getting hurt again.

Cocky but vulnerable. Praise. 

I n s e c u r e as fuck. Pretends not to be. 

Cares about his image even though he knows he shouldn’t because it’s ingrained into him that he should it’s okay munchkin baby I’ll save you

BUYS LARA JEAN A NECKLACE SHE WAS EYING UP IN BOOK ONE EVEN THOUGH IT’S REALLY EXPENSIVE AND IT’S JUST BECAUSE HE LIKES HER SO MUCH. 

Super open with communication– the only time they really hugely get into trouble with that is when it’s not Peter’s secret to tell and Lara Jean can’t accept that. 

Gets v. v. defensive of Lara Jean after the whole hot-tub scandal (but also handles it in a super teenaged boy way… shout out to Jenny Han for writing real characters.) 

EVEN WHEN HE AND LARA JEAN BREAK UP HE ZOOMS OVER TO HER HOUSE IN HIS NICE CAR AND PICKS UP HER 10-YEAR-OLD SISTER TO DRIVE HER TO SCHOOL BECAUSE HE, LIKE THE REST OF THE WORLD, ADORES KITTY SONG COVEY. 

Buys Lara Jean’s pie even though they’re not together anymore and then gets hella embarrassed when she finds out. Peter my tiny smol angry son, why you gotta be like that?

GO ON AND KIIIIIIISS THE GIRL

Sneaks over to his girlfriend’s house at night to talk and then spoon, what a gem. 

Probably would watch any tv show Lara Jean or Kitty wanted to watch and would only pretend to complain but really he’s into it like the nerd he is. 

Lara Jean is the one who keeps talking about sex and bringing up sex, Peter’s like “yo, I’m not pressuring you, I’m not bringing it up, I can’t change the fact that I’m not a virgin but you don’t have to be nervous or freak out about it, will you please just hold my hand and feed me my peanut butter sandwich with the crust cut off that my mom made me thank you.” 

Hey, one of my good friends who works for a library is doing a March Madness: YA Author edition. It would be awesome if you guys would go vote for your faves :) Have fun! 

17. Would you say your tumblr is a fair representation of the “real you”?

Hm, hard to say. (What is “the real me” anyway?) It probably is somewhat representational, since this odd mixture of real world political mindfulness and mindless escapism is something that I feel strongly characterises me. On the other hand, tumblr seems such a very limited medium for self-expression. For one thing, it’s very derivative, more reblogging than creating content, and I’m not normally that kind of magpie. Additionally, only posts with a broad mass appeal ever make it far enough to the top of the heap to even see them (and then 20 times in a row), which makes my inner individualist’s hackles rise. Not to mention that there is a lot of celebrity culture going around, and I’m an iconoclast at heart. (Despite my marked weakness for pretty things.)

13. Inside or outdoors?

Another tough one. I spend more time indoors than outdoors these days, but I need at least an hour of fresh air a day or I /will/ go crazy. And hm, maybe that’s weird, but it’s vital for me to live in the countryside, partly because walking around city streets doesn’t really qualify as “outdoors” to me. I need people-free outdoors with trees and meadows and long-distance views to make me happy.

6. Are you religious/spiritual?

I could write an essay about that one. Or maybe several…

The short version: Religious, no; spiritual, yes.

I tried Christianity on for size during my unhappy late childhood/early teenage years, but found it gave me all the wrong answers to my questions. The more I learned about natural science, history, philosophy and psychology, the less authentic and desirable religion seemed to me. (This process is ongoing to this day, btw.)

At twelve, I read (among many other things, but those most stuck with me) Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Mists of Avalon and Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. And that sounds somewhat silly in hindsight, but at that age both books were a revelation to me. Bradley showed me that religion and history a) have a female side and that side is no less valid, b) have no clearly delineated right or wrong side, only different perspectives on the same things, so you should screw dogma and find a personal way to view the world that makes sense to you and lets you live with it. From Tolkien, I took validation for my long-held feeling that nature is a living, breathing thing and that this, not man-made gods, warrants adoration.

If I were to describe my spiritual leanings as of today, I would say, I’m an agnostic – for what can anyone ever truly know? Blind faith has never led to anything good, critical thinking always does.

At least, that is what my rational side says. My emotional side will forever insist on a pantheistic worldview: nothing is just dead matter, all that exists holds a spark of the divine. – I’ve heard that view called “atheism light”, because in its effect on your daily life it’s the same: no scripture, no ritual worship, no fixed rules, no church tax and no hierarchies, no commands to follow and no clear meaning to life. But it doesn’t feel like the same thing to me at all. What appeals to me isn’t atheism light, it’s atheism with a soul. God may be dead, but the very universe is alive and starkly beautiful. :)