there's a post on here that's like "the worst thing a piece of fiction can be is mean", and while I agree with that, I think it being insincere is just as bad. nothing more obnoxious than a story that's constantly sneering and rolling its eyes at its own genre in a bid to seem clever and above it all.

"isn't it so ridiculous how we're singing in this musical?" "isn't the world building in our monster collector so ridiculous?" "aren't the leads in our fairy tale romance such idiots?" "isn't the setup in this horror film so cliched?" okay now say something true and real.

*wrinkles nose* shouldnt you be repressing that

toger we can achieve anything

The Farmer's Bride

by Charlotte Mew

Three Summers since I chose a maid, Too young maybe -- but more's to do At harvest-time than bide and woo. When us was wed she turned afraid Of love and me and all things human; Like the shut of a winter's day Her smile went out, and 'twasn't a woman -- More like a little frightened fay. One night, in the Fall, she runned away.

'Out 'mong the sheep, her be,' they said, Should properly have been abed; But sure enough she wasn't there Lying awake with her wide brown stare. So over seven-acre field and up-along across the down We chased her, flying like a hare Before our lanterns. To Church-Town All in a shiver and a scare We caught her, fetched her home at last And turned the key upon her, fast.

She does the work about the house As well as most, but like the mouse: Happy enough to chat and play With birds and rabbits as such as they, So long as men-folk keep away. 'Not near, not near!' her eyes beseech When one of us comes within reach. The women say that beasts in stall Look round like children at her call I've hardly heard her speak at all

Shy as a leveret, swift as he, Straight and slight as a young larch tree, Sweet as the first wild violets, she, To her wild self. But what to me?

The short days shorten and the oaks are brown, The blue smoke rises to the low grey sky, One leaf in the still air falls slowly down, A magpie's spotted feathers lie On the black earth spread white with rime, The berries redden up to Christmas-time. What's Christmas-time without there be Some other in the house than we!

She sleeps up in the attic there Alone, poor maid. 'Tis but a stair Betwixt us. Oh! my God! the down, The soft young down of her; the brown, The brown of her -- her eyes, her hair, her hair!

hello fellow non-Black tumblr users. welcome to my saw trap. if you'd like to leave, please name one (1) Black woman author who is not Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, bell hooks, Octavia Butler, or N.K. Jemisin. bonus points if she's published a book in the last five years.

posted this four hours ago and the notes are. genuinely dire.

special shoutout also to the people who mention Ta-Nehesi Coates and Tochi Onyebuchi who are both men

everyone is formally invited to stop misgendering Black nonbinary people any time btw. Janelle Monáe and Rivers Solomon and Akwaeke Emezi are not women.

Oh my god, I can't watch this.

Here, everyone, since you're having fun with list challenges recently, I made you something:

I've read most of these and can vouch for them being good. Go forth and read! You'll feel better for it.

I love tying in a topical meme to this lmao, but I do just want to point out real quick that Danielle L. McGuire, the author of At the Dark End of the Street, is white!

There's this interesting phenomenon where when you're a child, or some other vulnerable minority dependent on a job for shelter, you are actually under duress almost constantly. You can't say "I don't want to work today," you cannot say "I don't want to do the dishes, actually," you cannot choose not to participate. In a lot of cases, the punishment is explicit. Your parents might yell at you. Your boss might fire you. But in other cases, it's implicit. The mood will sour. You lose leeway. People get mad at you. And that creates a really shitty environment where you're constantly being coerced to do things!

And here's the kicker; you're not allowed to acknowledge that. You cannot acknowledge that you are being coerced, you cannot acknowledge that your free will is not being respected, because that's punished too. Your boss insists that you act excited. Your parents punish you for acting surly. You are forced to fake enthusiastic consent, constantly. It's a fucking nightmare. Your hand is being forced, you do not have the option to say "no," and if you ever, for a second, try to acknowledge that, everyone acts like you're the aggressor.

overall i find the lingering vestiges of sexual conservatism even in very left-leaning spaces very interesting bc you'd think most of them'd have internalized by now that being labeled a sex freak is kind of an "any minute now" thing if you're anything other than openly cishet. and yet it's not easy to bring up the fact that it's a soft extension of the same porn addiction/anti sex work rhetoric that right wingers use to paint everyone left of center as moral degenerates without being accused of wanting to defend "gooners" or being a shameful sort of porn addict yourself, even without getting into the territory of more non grata kinks, bc so much of the discussion is weirdly coy about even the more run-of-the-mill ones like bdsm. people have been pointing out that nbc hannibal is like the dirtiest erotica self-professed Freaks on here can handle before they start getting scared and like. yeah. bc being any hornier than that makes you automatically the butt of the joke

i keep returning to this one phrase i saw on twitter ages back that was something like "people are usually a lot less progressive than they believe themselves to be, especially if their politics are progressive", which is a tendency i've noticed in myself as well and also rather neatly explains why the kneejerk reaction of your average leftie to being asked to examine their relationship with porn is akin to asking them to look closely at their own turd in the toilet. honestly, like your turds, this kind of stuff does merit close inspection every once in a while bc you would want to know if you're having serious problems, but bc the act itself and the act of asking are both seen as so embarrassing and childishly gross that it's often a discussion-ender even when it's pertinent. can you tell ive been having health anxiety lately

all jokes aside though it's maybe easy for lefties to nod along to this when presented in a low stakes theorypost but how do you respond to that energy in a group setting making fun of a public figure for being a gooner or whatever when there are other more legit reasons to shit on them. do you act like you've been called out on an internal bias or do you feel like they're spoiling the fun by acting like a little wokescold who can't take a joke, why are you riding so hard for a gooner anyway, we can call them a porn addict or a fatty or make fun of their looks because they're a bad person okay i can use the r slur a little bit if i want

overall i find the lingering vestiges of sexual conservatism even in very left-leaning spaces very interesting bc you'd think most of them'd have internalized by now that being labeled a sex freak is kind of an "any minute now" thing if you're anything other than openly cishet. and yet it's not easy to bring up the fact that it's a soft extension of the same porn addiction/anti sex work rhetoric that right wingers use to paint everyone left of center as moral degenerates without being accused of wanting to defend "gooners" or being a shameful sort of porn addict yourself, even without getting into the territory of more non grata kinks, bc so much of the discussion is weirdly coy about even the more run-of-the-mill ones like bdsm. people have been pointing out that nbc hannibal is like the dirtiest erotica self-professed Freaks on here can handle before they start getting scared and like. yeah. bc being any hornier than that makes you automatically the butt of the joke

i keep returning to this one phrase i saw on twitter ages back that was something like "people are usually a lot less progressive than they believe themselves to be, especially if their politics are progressive", which is a tendency i've noticed in myself as well and also rather neatly explains why the kneejerk reaction of your average leftie to being asked to examine their relationship with porn is akin to asking them to look closely at their own turd in the toilet. honestly, like your turds, this kind of stuff does merit close inspection every once in a while bc you would want to know if you're having serious problems, but bc the act itself and the act of asking are both seen as so embarrassing and childishly gross that it's often a discussion-ender even when it's pertinent. can you tell ive been having health anxiety lately

Rainbow diner

uooooogh the christian God is actually deer skull and raccoon salmon in pickup truck ooooooooooooooo and She (god) (usually refererd to as Male but im Queering it) talked to me in parking lot and said uh h Life Is Decay Anr Rotting and Sunlight is actually the souls of deer skull and i was like woah but im just little old me from somewhere in the contiguous USA and She (god) (Queering it) said being Yourself is th e most important thing and that i should Vote

They regret getting office jobs

Tags from mothcrumbs

"what a nerd lol" i said with barely controlled lust

a good third of tumblr is basically palliative care for people who have doctor's notes to say they're excused from changing, growing or acknowledging anybody else's life experiences. 4chan doomerism but the slurs are reclaimed.