Beautifully-observed & Realistic Figure Of A Sleeping Antelope Incised On Rock Up To 10,000 Years Ago

the way ivan aivazovsky looks at the sea…i think…i think that’s what love looks like.

harrowhark’s little raccoon hands……….

so as a third world transfem there's a bit of a parallel that ive noticed and it goes kinda like this:

if you live in the Imperial Core (or maybe even first world countries in general tbh), you never have to consider the third world in your worldview. what i mean is, you can be born, have a long, rich, fulfilling life and then die of old age, never having thought of any of us beyond the 5 minutes after you get shown some sort of news piece. there's vast, vast swathes of people that think of mexico, or nicaragua, or argentina, or or or or - as basically just names on a map, if that much. we're not people to them, not really. and when we stand up and say "no actually, we are human beings, people worth just as much as any citizen of the Imperial Core", they get upset! because we are shaking the fundamentals of their worldview.

and there's not necessarily any malice involved! like, obviously some people that feel like this are malicious, but their personal feelings are irrelevant. the point is that their position insulates them both from knowing us and from any consequences of not knowing us, while we most assuredly are not protected from either of those things in response.

if you are not transfem, even if you are also queer in some way, a similar concept applies. you can have a full, rich, fulfilling queer existence while never having to take us into account! you can go to queer and inclusive events, watch queer and inclusive creators and shows, read queer and inclusive books, and so on and so forth, where we don't feature at all, or if we do, we are a throwaway! and so, when we stand up and say "hey actually we deserve as much space and respect as anyone else", they get upset! because we are shaking the fundamentals of their worldview.

im not saying they're related but ultimately both of these worldviews stem from a position of privilege, and can only be eliminated by destroying that privilege. i dont really know how we do that but this is mostly meant as an observation rather than a solutions post.

You know, it was a very interesting perspective change to see Gideon from the outside. This was literally the first time we’ve ever had scenes with Gideon where we’re not hearing her internal thoughts, and it really changes her character.

Like, I know Muir consistently described Gideon as a “dirt bag” in tumblr posts and interviews when the first book came out.

And this is someone who kicked Harrow when she fainted rather than catching her; this is someone who, when carrying an unconscious Harrow intentionally bumped her into walls and doorways in the hopes that she’d wake up with mysterious bruises on her head or maybe even a concussion. But, you know, we heard her internal narrative at that time, we heard about how she was holding back from doing worse, but also about how she’d been so consistently abused that maybe this was all justice anyway.

But we saw her grow and change, we saw her be kind to Harrow at the end (…and then not), we saw her stop hating on the teens and actually care when they died. Corona liked her (Corona pretty much never heard her speak), Magnus liked her (Magnus literally never heard her speak), Jeannemary liked her (Jeannemary was a teen looking for a role model and would have latched on to her no matter what her personality). So when she came back and never had a good thing to say to anyone at the end of the second book, we were all rooting for her anyway–she was awesome and they all deserved her wrath and her snark, because we’d been in her head for two books.

And now we have… she’s rude to Nona, because Nona is possessing Harrow’s body, and because Nona kissed her based on her body-language reaction to thinking she was seeing Harrow. If it were Gideon’s narrative still, we’d be told how well and truly justified she is, how sketchy and even villainous Nona is; but it’s Nona’s narrative so instead we hear about how rude Gideon is in her body language, not even her conscious choice of words.

We have, she’s about to give Paul her jacket but gets awkward and doesn’t. Nona sees her fail to help; in Gideon’s narrative her instinct was to help but she just felt too awkward.

We have, she says the same rude jokes to everyone that she did in the first two books, but even though Pal and Cam are still putting up with that, even though Ianthe still thinks she’s funny, we’re getting it from Nona’s perspective and Nona doesn’t like her and so doesn’t like her rude jokes.

Ianthe actually does like her, and it’s not clear whether that’s a point in her favor or not.

It’s the same Gideon through and through, she even gets mad at Alecto usurping her place in service to Harrow. But what a difference an uncharitable reading makes.

Tor sent out the full Nona the Ninth Poem today!

rereading GtN is so funny. harrow goes missing and gideon flies into full panic mode, spends her whole morning desperately searching, says "ugh I give up, she can just die", eats lunch and then immediately recommits to searching again, dissociates out of stress when she learns Harrow's blood is everywhere, breaks her vow of silence to try and get help for Harrow, nearly breaks her wrists trying to open the door in panic, sprints her way down to Harrow, finds that she's okay and is immediately like

haha. as if i even cared. whatever

English added by me :)

you’ll wish she didn’t!

For science, I collected what each of the Houses hears when Gideon speaks to them for the first time.

Seventh: “Yo. Step off.” (when Cytherea faints)

Sixth: “Then get off your ass and help me.”

Fifth: never got to hear her talk :(

Fourth: thee line of all time, which is to say, “Did you know that if you put the first three letters of your last name with the first three letters of your first name, you get ‘Sex Pal’?”

Eighth: “They had names, you lily-livered, tooth-coloured asshole, and if you want to make a thing about it, I warn you that I’m in the kind of mood that can only be alleviated by walloping you.”

Corona: “No. I thought their arms would all flop around.” (in response to Corona asking if she’s seen a necro hold a sword before)

Ianthe/Babs, probably also the Second: “Why?” (after they gather to confront Cyth about Pro’s head)

hello soup bone and lady enthusiasts my data has shown that you find this very funny. purchase for less than the cost of tumblr plus probably and please don’t choke or explode your torso I’m not culpable for that