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Hello traveler, would you like a directory?
-I talk about photography here and reblog it extensively!
Reblogged pinkmisspiggy
me writing posts about media no one cares about: and another thing,
Reblogged mossmittens
I put off watching the anime but this strange elf girl has bewitched me
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"arent you hungry" in reaction to unthinking self-deprevation response to trauma is going to haunt me forever actually.
something about suppressing your needs to feel safe and in control. something about someone not admiring the endurance or self-control but instead asking "aren't you hungry," a question which you are entirely unequipped to answer. "Aren't you hungry?" Aren't you impressed I can tune it out? I worked hard for that, for everyone else's sake, don't you get it? "Aren't you hungry?" I don't know, stop asking me questions I can't answer, why is answering so easy for you? "Aren't you hungry?" All I'm any good at figuring out is how much longer I can go without eating, and I thought that was the same, but it's not, is it?
Oh, tumblr recommending me this post was serendipitous. I'm glad other people are feeling this way because I seriously haven't stopped thinking about that moment and Kabru's shocked reaction since I first read it. He really is unequipped.
I only alluded to this idea in my original post (frankly I was self conscious about how long it was feeling), but what I see as one of the core themes about food in Dungeon Meshi is the idea that eating is a declaration to the world that you deserve to be in it. When we kill and consume another living thing to survive, we are making an active choice to take up space. We're saying I want to be here. This is important for Laios, who has spent most of his life running from the world or being rejected by it in small ways. It's through his journey as an active participant in the dungeon's food chain that he comes into his own and asserts his right to belong in the world, with all its mundane heartaches and joys, enough that he can step up to become king by the end.
So when Laios asked Kabru Aren't you hungry? It felt like the narrative speaking to Kabru directly. Kabru, aren't you hungry? Aren't you a creature with needs? Don't you want to be here too? Don't you deserve to live?
And the answer to all of these is No. Yes. It's complicated.
To me, this is even more of a turning point for Kabru than his cooking efforts in the dungeon. He was willing to deal with monster food in order to help another person who couldn't help themselves, and to stay alive for his ultimate goal, but it still made him miserable.
This is the second time Laios offers to feed him, and the first time in the story that anyone offers to feed Kabru in a way that won't end up hurting him. Laios wanting to share a real meal with him but willing to compromise to respect Kabru's desires clearly means a lot to him. It's Laios saying Come eat with me and Kabru saying Yes.
I have a beloved friend who is terminally offline, and recently she grabbed up Fourth Wing from a super sale at B&N because she loves books with dragons (theoretically) and it was like, six bucks. She doesn't know what booktok is or what the current trends in publishing are. She just wanted an entertaining fantasy read to breeze through late at night.
She is also an English major and former lawyer whose favorite things to read are The Divine Comedy and journals on semiotics, so Fourth Wing is the worst thing she could have picked up on a whim. She was shocked and appalled at the extremely low tier prose that seemed like it had been barely edited. She ended up reading the whole thing, leaving annotations in the margins and mailing the book to me so I could do the same.
It was ridiculous, but also a slogfest that took me months to get through, because every five pages or so I'd have to put it down and go look at something better. Nearly 500 pages and so many words that felt like so few. My friend and I talked and laughed over it a lot and kept coming back to the central question: how is it so popular and successful? Why?
I think the answer I'm going with is: it's fan fiction. Not that Fourth Wing is fic with the numbers filed off (I really don't believe it is, but who knows-), but it mimics fan fiction for it's lack of formal standards and the feeling of pure id driving it. It wants an indulgent romance, and more importantly it wants smut (something that sets it apart from more traditional steamy-but-rarely-graphic romance books), and everything else is set dressing. It is, in the most polite but derogatory way possible, accessible in the way fan fic is accessible. The writing reminded me strongly of fic written by teenagers, specifically. Even stuff I read as a teen myself, by other teens, in the 2000s. I actually kept a running tally in the back of the book of exact names and concepts I came up with as a teenager in my forum RP days.
All this to say, I think I've realized that the primary audience for books like Fourth Wing are people who read fan fic as a hobby, not just as a corollary to being in a fandom, and also people who would read fic if they knew about it but have never been introduced to fannish spaces.
And I am not anti-fan fiction, but it's starting to feel like publishing has entered the fast fashion era- at least in the fantasy genre, which is a fucking bummer for me- and fan fic culture is to blame.
Reblogged diasdelfuego
unfortunately this comment a TERF made on one of my posts is genuinely hysterical
Reblogged silkwurm
Magdalene Grieving (1605) by Caravaggio.
Reblogged diasdelfuego
@animangacreators ♡ Challenge 32 Hotel Challenge - Make An Edit About An Anime With 12+ Episodes
Reblogged pinkmisspiggy
when your friend says love you at the end of the call
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Here are all three pieces I made last year for Untamed, a FFXIV creature zine. It was the first time I’d been involved with a FFXIV zine and I had a fantastic time, it’s just amazing how much work everyone put into it and the beautiful result that came of it. The online store is open with physical and digital copies, please take a look if you’re interested! ff14untamedzine.bigcartel.com
