Lighthousekeeping - Jeanette Winterson / Annihilation - Jeff VanderMeer

breaking out of my self-imposed posting ban just to say how surprised i am that there aren't more stories that combine cyberpunk & d*rk ac*dem*a, since both sort of similarly critique on the wide gap between the elite and the working class. or maybe that's too surface-level but i'm just saying. or maybe d*rk ac*dem*a hasn't surpassed its status as mere aesthetic in regular(?) spaces like i know a lot of circles here (& some corners in online book communities) do understand that core of the... genre...... should, in fact, condemn the elitism of academia rather than romanticize it.

baru facing the same choice as max in S4 whether or not she would marry a man to keep her rightful place at the top, therefore betraying her loves & herself. i want so bad for baru to make the same choice, to find a compromise & still be recognized as the true power, the fairer hand, but also i can see her betraying tain hu & the revolution. because why else would the book be called the traitor baru cormorant. we know this. we're too smart not to know this. the end has been determined before it even began.

i love you cursed blades passed from one tragic hand to another

it fucked me up to just be at home for more than a week like my mind & body had flashbacks to 2020 i haven't been in direct sunlight it's genuinely so upsetting

like. ok. am i supposed to be normal about it 🧍🏽‍♀️🕳

JUST FINISHED READING ANNIHILATION 🧍🏽‍♀️🕳

just finished true detective s1 🧍🏽‍♀️🕳

ok so it's about Jungian psychology then............... 🧍🏽‍♀️🕳

Hiii so I’m rewatching black sails for the first time, got to 3.10, HOLY SHIT, and I’m wondering what you think— when flint tells silver that he doesn’t need to worry about overthrowing/destroying flint, do you think flint in that moment is saying/threatening that flint will be stronger than silver, or is he saying that James is ready to give up flint once silver challenges his rulership in that way? Maybe both, maybe ambiguous?

hiii thanks for swinging by! <3 truly one of the most interesting scenes.. ok so i don't think it can be viewed as surface-level as flint telling silver that he's much stronger than him & therefore cannot be destroyed by anything silver might deliver him later. that interpretation to me seems like barely looking at outermost onion layer. though the latter reason you mentioned is possible, since we've already heard from flint at the end of S2 where he tells miranda about the burdens attached to this persona he created, i'm still not sure this is the primary reason. despite the audience's knowledge of the ending & flint's genre awareness, it doesn't mean he expected with such specificity that silver will force him to shed this persona. (though if we look at it through silver's incredibly blurry lens, we will have an inkling as to how it'll play out through his conversation with madi in the same episode: "it's a hard thing to look your successor in the eye and know that their time is nearing while yours is almost through")

for me, flint's response "i wouldn't worry too much" comes from a place of love. he enumerates the things that didn't kill him, none of which have truly Known him. they have only viewed flint through the distorted image by which they/civilization chose to paint him with. silver likens himself to the three people who have known & loved flint in varying degrees. so in this moment, though silver (maybe) views it as the natural succession of leadership, flint is comfortable & secure in his place as silver's.... uh.. "friend"... ok i'm saying it. flint knows in this moment that he loves silver & i don't think he can imagine any form of betrayal that would result to ego death, literal death, identity death, or whateverelsedeath. can't fully remember what steinberg said about how flint didn't see it coming that the person closest to him, his best friend essentially, will be the only thing standing in his way at the end. & i think flint is also optimistic that silver will see the war through, especially because of madi. to me, he is saying something like nothing you can do will ever match the monumental hurt & grief that has been imposed upon me by any adversary before you. but of course, we all know what happens. 🧍🏽‍♀️🕳

Drop the black sails silver springs MV link bestie <3

um. hee hee 🧍🏽‍♀️🕳

you'll be safe here by rivermaya.. 🧍🏽‍♀️🕳