You’ll Wish She Didn’t!

just learned that magnolias are so old that they’re pollinated by beetles because they existed before bees

I'm going to say something that will make sense to the Fandom Olds and will probably be slightly controversial to the younger crowds, but I'm going to say it anyways

TPTB becoming increasingly aware of fandom and fanfiction over the past two-ish decades and thus, the spawning of the expectation of your ship going canon has ruined fandom a little bit

I mean, fandom does a great job of ruining itself a lot of the time, but this idea that a ship isn't "real" or "valid" if it isn't canon

or the idea that one ship is superior to the other because one is canon and the other isn't?

it's absolutely bananas

I grew up in an era of fandom where characters didn't even have to be from the same media source to ship them. I mean, do you know how many BtVS/HP crossover fics I read back in the early 2000s???

That shit was never gonna be canon, but we had fun with it, anyways

Like. Yeah, a lot of fanon speculation is bullshit, but it always has been and always will be. You have hundreds and/or thousands of people riffing off each other, the observations and the meta will always be deeper than what TPTB intended, and that's okay! That's what makes it fun!

I just think more people would be a lot happier in their fandom experiences if they realized that fandom is supposed to be an escape instead of a crusade

Harrow the Ninth, chapters 48 and 49:

If Gideon had been there—no, if Gideon had been there, Harrow still couldn’t have hoped for a running commentary. Griddle didn’t know how to do running commentary. She would suck her breath through her teeth, or mutter in ecstasy words that meant nothing to anyone who wasn’t her, things like, “right foot,” in tones that suggested that if she died on the spot, that right foot would have somehow been the apex of her existence. Nor could she ever explain a fight after the fact in terms that Harrow could understand. But if her cavalier had been there, Harrow was fairly sure that she would have sucked her molars out of their sockets from sheer intensity of feeling.

~

It was your curt, aggravated handwriting, curter and more aggravated than ever, like you’d written it in a hurry. I’d gotten so many letters in that handwriting, calling me names or bossing me around. You’d touched that letter, and I—you know it was killing me twice that you weren’t there, right? You must know it was destroying me to be there in your body, trying to keep your thumbs on, and I couldn’t even hear your damn voice?

tonight’s breakdown theme: soft mutual yearning for small things about each other that no one else could appreciate

How come pro-nuclear leftists never actually address the documented environmental damage and poisoning of indigenous communities of nuclear waste?

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.

all things are temporary

hunting down this post to find that OP turned of reblogs has me heartbroken.

it's time.

i think it was a very interesting choice by muir that, out of all our protagonists and characters, the only two people who tried to stop the lyctor trials in gtn were:

1. silas octikiseron

2. judith deuteros

the two most devout characters! and both characters’ opposition to the trials that were explicitly sanctioned by god and designed by the lyctors stemmed from their devotion to the laws and practices that developed from their empire and god.

silas wanted to stop the trials on the grounds he believed it was unholy and judith wanted to stop the trials right after the fifth died on the grounds that people were getting killed over this and it’s her duty to prevent that.

and like. silas is the one who attacks ianthe, a now SAINT, and brands her a heretic for becoming exactly what god wanted them all to become. and it’s judith who attacks teacher to flag down the emperor’s ship for help, which is what cytherea wanted because it endangers god. and silas, and later judith, both refuse to become lyctors on the basis of their moral belief systems.

and anyways where im going with this is that all throughout gtn muir paints them in an unquestionably negative light from the lens of our protagonist but ultimately both end up being right? in the most ironic possible way. i think it was a really neat choice for muir with her book that plays heavily on the theme of religion and dogma and what it looks like in different people.

Join me in Chicago where the pigeons have their own mini fire pit.

And if it is a prayer, it might as well be a confession.