leaving kudos on ao3 isn’t enough I need to be able to eat the fic
I am so bored with the trope of the poor character constantly trying to emulate a rich character, negatively comparing themselves to the rich character, wishing they could be more like them.
Like, where's my poor girl who doesn't care how her secondhand cardigan measures up against the rich girl's Balenciaga sweater? Where's my poor girl who doesn't gush on and on about how graceful the rich girl is while disparaging herself for how she occupies the same space?
Why does the poor girl always have to hate herself and be embarrassed about her background? Why does she have to idolize her wealthy counterpart?
Why can't authors imagine someone coming from poverty who doesn't feel the need to put on the mask of class privilege? Who doesn't wish they could perfectly imitate and perform an extremely limited view of sophistication? Who doesn't automatically see those with more privilege as being automatically better than themselves?
I'm just so freaking bored with this stock Poor Kid Character. I know there are people born in poverty who desperately wish to be accepted by a higher socioeconomic class, but there are plenty of us poor people who don't care about their acceptance of us. And I wish more authors knew that.
Guess who's fucking sick again.
It's me. My immune system fucking hates me.
the catcher in the rye is horrible, the writing feels as a call for attention from a child, but a grown man writes it. It blows my mind that schools push this subpar book and demand kids read it. I have no idea why people consider this a classic
I promised not to judge, so I won't. I can see where you're coming from though
Middle school bully Bakugo and Midoriya but it’s a darr man video
Why the fuck do guys seem to think that every conversation is an argument of some kind??
Like, Zan and I were talking about the usage of the word "simp" and that the online circles I move in tend to use it as a sort of compliment rather than an insult. Like, "oh, a guy who's kind and is willing to help me out and stand up for me when needed and doesn't treat me like garbage or meat? Fucking neat!" and he starts talking about how that's "anecdotal evidence" and that it isn't "admissible". I'm confused af at this point, cause when tf did we go to court over this?
I had to actually explain to him that I wasn't arguing over anything. I was literally just pointing something out. There was no counterpoint or opposition in that instance, no argument. Just a thing I had noticed.
And, fucking hell, this happens a lot when trying to talk to men. They always assume whatever I'm saying is some form of argument that they have to take the opposing side of.
Why can't a conversation just be a conversation? Why does it need to be an argument or debate? Why can't we just talk?
I am so frustrated. It makes me not want to talk at all.
The Mists of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley, was recommended to me by one of my English teachers, who was also at one point my theater teacher. She said it was a feminist retelling of the myths involving Moran and King Arthur. So, I am so sorry to say that it is just…rubbish.
Okay, some of the cultural and fantasy elements are interesting. There is genuinely cool world building done tying everything together, whether that be Avalon itself or Camelot.
But...the characters.
Morgan, or Morgaine, at first acts as a blank slate of sorts. She's interested in the culture that surrounds her, and it's through her eyes that we get to learn about the world. That said, she takes a face-heel turn which is just...bizzare. It's like the plot is going "oh wait, we forgot to make Morgan EVIL so she does things people would consider EVIL" even though the plot doesn't necessarily demand it??? There's this one point where she basically goes "actually you know what doing incest with my brother is fine actually. I should have acted like a girlfriend to him after that and manipulated him to do my bidding" and. girl????? And it feels like the whole way the book is trying to justify it? Like, yeah in the original myth there's a sense of betrayal. But not like this?
And Gwen. Gwenhwyfar. Ohhhh my god. Her introduction is kinda neat, since it gives some perspective on how mentally ill women would have been treated back then. It quickly becomes annoying though. She's a religious fanatic. A Christian religious fanatic. Also she threatens to cheat on Arthur in order to bear a child. Also she's having an affair with Galahad. Gwen just...always has something to complain about. And it's not a good experience to read.
Arthur. Hmmm. He's portrayed as somewhat wishy-washy, constantly being pulled back and forth between the opinions of Gwen and Morgaine. Like...this is such a bad thing for a king to be. But he's honestly somewhat chill?
Plus there are just...so. many. unnecessary. sex. scenes. I would have given the author a bag of caramels for half of them to be fade to black moments.
The author is very clearly pro-pagan and anti-christian. I fall somewhat in line with that, not anti-christian but I can understand why someone would be. That said. The author kind of rubs the faults of christianity in the reader's face. Repeatedly. It's not subtle.
Overall, I have read a lot of retellings of different myths. This might just be my least favourite retelling of a myth ever.
Oh god The Mists of Avalon.....
I read this in middle school. It was a mistake. This book is so far up its own ass. I've read a lot of pretentious books, but this one nearly gets the top spot (nothing could beat out The Dream of Perpetual Motion or literally anything by Donna Tartt).
Morgaine becoming evil definitely felt like Bradley suddenly remembered that she was a villain in the legend and hastily shoved it in. She could have easily not made her evil, and just gone with the idea that history twisted the facts. That would have suited the character better, as well as playing into the "feminist" themes since history does often villianize women who don't deserve it.
And I put "feminist" in quotes because this book is like the definition of White Feminism.
Also, Marion Zimmer Bradley was a horrific person. Not joking or exaggerating here, she was pure evil. Epstein levels of evil. Humbert Humbert evil. Look it up if you want to, but be warned that it is genuinely awful and reading about it is pretty harrowing. There's a reason I chose those specific comparisons.
Replies to this post regarding Hogwarts Legacy
This is one of the most bad faith takes I've seen on this, and I've seen some pretty bad ones.
I'm not going to argue on this. I mean, that whole post is about how there really is no more arguing to be done here, you either value people's lives or you value personal entertainment. You've gone for the latter. You just don't want to admit it so you spew out this garbage to justify it to yourself.
If you want to play the game, just play the stupid game. It's not like anyone is going to physically stop you. But for goodness sake, shut up about it. You're all just making yourselves look even worse.
BTW your transmedicalism and antisemitism are showing. Thought you might want to know
1) TIL Hank Green is bi. Neat.
2) Of course the replies on this immediately devolved into 10 year old bs about how John Green is bad because he wasn't cool with people calling him a pedo based on vibes. Good grief
in hysterics
Messy bi who dresses like a four-year-old despite being in my 30s
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