Ok Well This Blew My Mind

ok well this blew my mind

Poetry Foundation

Mirror Life by Kamran Javadizadeh | Poetry Foundation

In Pilgrim Bell, Kaveh Akbar reaches across languages to write "documents of barbarism."

This is also true with filmmakers. Western filmmakers pan their cameras mostly left to right and Iranian filmmakers do right to left.

Can you recommend good horror books? The kind that is very scary.

Scariest of the scary books that I've read, wahoo

Beloved / Toni Morrison

Horrorstor / Grady Hendrix

Twelve Nights at Rotter House / J. W. Ocker

Shiver: Short Story Collection / Junji Ito

Uzumaki / Junji Ito

Tender is The Flesh / Agustina Bazterrica

Mexican Gothic / Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Lakewood / Megan Giddings

The Only Good Indians / Stephen Graham Jones

The Between / Tananarive Due

Experimental Film / Gemma Files

We Have Always Lived in the Castle / Shirley Jackson

The Haunting of Hill House / Shirley Jackson

Lost Boy: The True Story of Captain Hook / Christina Henry

btw… important PSA: cutting off the mold on the surface of food does nothing. you can only see the spores on the surface, but mold itself has spread and grown roots into the food. by the time you can actually *see* the spores, that piece of food is completely full of it. youre still eating mold. 

many of which are poisonous and have been shown to cause cancer. youre not even supposed to sniff it, because that can get spores into your lungs. like if you look up the health and safety guidelines for mold they barely stop short of telling you to put on a hazmat suit. 

like produce is okay as long as you cut around it at least an inch, but cooked foods? you gonna die. stop eating mold people 

i’ve been asked for book recs a few times, so i thought i’d make a “best books i read in 2021″ list! i’m focusing on novels because i figure that’s what people are more interested in, but i can do poetry and nonfiction at a later date, maybe. if you’re interested in a given novel, please click the title for content warnings, reviews, and plot summaries provided by thestorygraph. so here we go, in no particular order:

linden hills by gloria naylor: this book explores life in an affluent late-20th century black neighborhood with a narrative loosely modeled after dante’s inferno, exploring race, class, sexuality, and gender. it’s really such a rich text. i wrote about it for a class this semester and found it hard to stay within the required page count because there is just so much depth here. i found the bond between the protagonists, willie (a working-class dante figure) and lester (who actually lives in the titular neighborhood, and is the virgil to willie’s dante) really touching and fascinating. thestorygraph lists content warnings for suicide and child death, which is accurate, but i’d add a warning for domestic violence, too.

tehanu by ursula k le guin: if you’ve followed me for a while it’s probably clear that ursula k le guin is one of my favorite writers. this book really solidified that for me. it’s book 4 in the earthsea cycle, so you will have to read the others before it, but…damn. i don’t have words for how powerful this book is. it deals with misogyny and child abuse in earthsea’s society, introduces my favorite character in the series (the titular character), has the most devastatingly good title drop i’ve ever seen, and expands on the characters of ged and tenar in a really beautiful way. the subsequent book is fantastic, too, as are all the other books in the series, but this one is special to me.

freshwater by akwaeke emezi: definitely take a look at the content warnings on this one; this book was deeply triggering for me but it is so goddamn well-written i could not put it down. emezi is an incredible prose stylist, probably the best on this list and the best i’ve read all year. check out their book pet too, it’s incredibly imaginative and also deals with heavy subject matter but without being graphic, so if freshwater’s too heavy i recommend that.

invisible cities by italo calvino: short and beautiful, great prose that’s easy to get lost in. if you’re looking for plot you won’t find it here, but if you want to read pretty words that leave your imagination running wild, this is that. 

a memory called empire and a desolation called peace by arkady martine: a space opera with fantastic world building. i really wasn’t feeling the romantic subplot in this, but everything else about it was so good it didn’t matter. the real internal struggle at the center of this is the protagonist’s love for the literature and language of an imperialist culture that can’t even acknowledge her humanity. i don’t see a lot of SFF try to tackle that kind of thing, so it’s really interesting. mostly i love a good space opera and this is that.

the imperial radch trilogy by ann leckie: okay, technically i read book one last year, but i read the other two this year so it still counts. another space opera that deals with empire, this time through the POV of a ship’s AI. detailed world building, space, and nonhuman characters is a combination i can’t really resist.

giovanni’s room by james baldwin: i read a fair amount of baldwin this year, as i wrote about him for class too, though it was mostly nonfiction and short stories. this is the one baldwin novel i got around to. he was a genius and if you haven’t read anything by him…you should change that. this book is a whirlwind of repression and toxicity and masculinity, it’s delicious. i want to throw it against the wall, but like, in a good way. 

beloved by toni morrison: this one’s a reread, but i can’t not include it; i did my final paper for my first grad school class on this book, so i spent a lot of time with it. a very heavy and beautiful novel. morrison digs into the characters’ inner selves with simultaneous tenderness and brutality, and the result is unforgettable. even in the midst of such intense and real trauma, the book is hopeful in its own way; the words “know it, and go on out” really stick with me. pay attention to the shifting identities of the titular character–she is a ghost who is more than a ghost. 

the murderbot diaries by martha wells: remember when i said i like detailed world building, nonhuman characters, and space? this is that. it’s very different from the other books on this list–a much simpler prose style, for example–but it’s perfect “light reading” for me. just great entertainment, exactly what i want from a pulpy sci-fi series. there are some things about the narration that bug me a little (too many snarky parentheticals, for example), but i love this funky little robot and its adventures. there are six books in this series so far and i’ve read five of them in the past two weeks, if that tells you anything about how easy and fun it is to devour these. 

u know what makes me cry..... that one van gogh quote about life changing for the better..... “many people seem to think it foolish, even superstitious, to believe that the world could still change for the better. and it is true that in winter it is sometimes so bitingly cold that one is tempted to say, ‘what do i care if there is a summer; its warmth is no help to me now.’ yes, evil often seems to surpass good. but then, in spite of us, and without our permission, there comes at last an end to the bitter frosts. one morning the wind turns, and there is a thaw. and so i must still have hope.” yeah..... Crying....

Damn, I only now saw this. Thanks for tagging me!!

Favourite musical: hmmm I might have to go with sweeney todd? Or maybe mamma Mia

Favourite character: Mrs Lovett for sure (Toby is a close second tho)

Favourite song: ‘not while I’m around’ hurts, but it’s great

Favourite ship: uhh sweeney Todd doesn’t truly let you think about couplings, unless it’s followed up with tragedy, so I’ll go with Donna and Sam from mamma Mia (lol).

Favourite cast recording: for sweeney Todd I would say the obc, but truly I like the version filmed for the entertainment channel and pbs and stuff with Angela Lansbury and George Hearn. And for mamma Mia - the film version lol

Dream role: Mrs. Lovett, but honestly if I had the voice for it Sweeney himself def would be fun to play.

Ok so I don’t really do these things so if anyone from the ppl who I’m gonna tag don’t want to do this, it’s fine!! (I just truly don’t know who I should tag lol):

@thedemonicdreaminator @considerablecolors @courtneymack @caliform-i-a @spiderverse3

Favorite Musical Tag Game!

I'll start!

Favorite musical: Heathers: the Musical

Favorite character: Veronica Sawyer (I went as her for Halloween this year!)

Favorite song: Meant to Be Yours

Favorite ship: McNamayer (Heather McNamara x Veronica)

Favorite cast recording (if applicable): Original Off-Broadway cast

Dream role: Veronica Sawyer (also my biggest dream role in general)

Tagging @riding-with-the-wild-hunt @trashcan-dwelling-theatre-nerd @maybeimamuppet @heyguysitsjeremyheere @aesthetically-t @zoeeatsukuleles @broadwayismybestfriend @parkitaco @peanut-butter-and-theatre @lobotomy-jpeg @dumped-ur-ass and anyone else who wants to!!!