Theodora Dove

it really is indicative of how fucked in the head dorothy dunnett was that she described lymond getting a good night's sleep and the discussion this caused in the group chat was on whether it meant that lymond was secretly drunk, secretly high, secretly ill, or on death's door

every social interaction i initiate feels like i’ve violated like 15 untold rules

Renée Vivien was a British poet who wrote in the French language. A high-profile lesbian writer in Paris during the Belle Époque era, she is widely considered to be one of the first noteworthy lesbian poets of the twentieth century.

Actually the worst thing in the world is alphabetical lists that put titles begining with "The" under the "T" section

PREACH

I need my weird alone time or I will explode

I've always loved that descriptor "exquisite" for Philippa Somerville". Not beautiful, or even lovely, but exquisite, a word that connotes craftsmanship. She looks the way she does because she was made (forcefully) aware that it was possible, and she could have very justifiably rejected everything she learned in Topkapi, but she chose to keep it, and build on it, and USE it. And Dunnett doesn't make a huge deal out of it, but there's just enough detail ("Philippa rose, and cleaned and tinted her face") to remind me that Philippa puts work into this every day. Exquisite.

may all your mistakes be learning experiences

i hope you say something stupid and can laugh it off. i hope you get corrected on ignorance and become a better ally for it. i hope you learn that you're wrong about something and it changes your world view. i hope you get in a sticky situation and have to ask for help. i hope you lose an argument and it fosters better understanding. i hope you say something irrational and cruel and then apologize later for it. i hope something is your fault and you help to fix it.

From Hondo and Fabian, illustrated by Peter McCarty, first published 2002

the rainbow is a well-known symbol of gay pride that originated in the late 1970s in san francisco, when the gay community promised to never again destroy the earth by flood

Never again shall it rain men