#bookshops matter
Photo
Mohammed Aziz owns a bookshop in Rabat, Morocco’s capital city. The country’s illiteracy rate is still high. He works 12 hours a day, selling on average one or two books.
(via A famous bookseller from a country where 26% of the population still can’t read)
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spent a few minutes last Friday night debating the over/under on Bic allowing me to get a custom printed lighter of Aziraphale Goodomens ripping a bong (they denied Big Man Splatoon ripping a bong last fall) before I realized I already had my own two artistically-capable hands and a bottle of sparkle mod podge
15 minutes later, my beautiful son Aziraphale Custom Lighter was born. nothing like the power of arts n crafts to bring one’s stupidest but most joy-inducing ideas to life.
#to be fair I think Big Man is obviously a licensed Nintendo character no matter the style he’s drawn in#meanwhile any drawing of Aziraphale is fundamentally way less recognizable#drugs mention#good omens#aziraphale#Aziraphale would absolutely hotbox that bookshop and then try and claim he hadn’t been when Crowley shows up
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How safe is the bookshop?
I really wish I understood better which meet-up locations are more or less dangerous and, in particular, how safe the bookshop is or is not preceding S2. (This a riff off of @takeme-totheworld's recent post wondering how closely they are being watched).
It seems to me that meeting in a fully public location -- the park. a crowd, a theater audience, a bus -- allows for the most plausible deniability, and this is where we see the bulk of their interactions until Armageddon v1. This is also the argument Crowley uses when Furfur catches them at the theater: "Pure coincidence. I happened to be here, he asked for a volunteer." However, the earth observation files include photos of them taken in public places, so maybe it's not so safe. Do they know they've been photographed?
Restaurants seem to be skirting this rule, since they are technically public but comprised of groups of people who are choosing to associate with each other. They indulge in this activity at least once before S1 ("we had crepes!") and two times during the Armageddon, when the end of the world is nigh and they are more comfortable bending the rules.
Private spaces seem most dangerous to me. If you are caught together in private, there is no plausible deniability. The Bentley isn't safe from demonic intrusion, at least in S1, and we don't see Crowley drive Aziraphale around much: only in 1941 and then S1, when they're bending the rules because Armageddon. They also don't seem to use the flat except maybe the night before the swap.
The bookshop is where things get murky. How often do angels drop in on Aziraphale prior to Gabriel and Sandalphon visiting in S1? Is Aziraphale also subject to random communications through his phonograph like Crowley is through the Bentley radio? Is Crowley protected against hell when he's in the bookshop and, if so, has that been true since its opening in 1800? It seems in S2 like only angels/demons who are invited can come into the bookshop. Was that true before S2? Is the bookshop only an "independent embassy" (which makes no sense) once Aziraphale is sort-of retired from heaven in S2?
I think this plays into how we understand their relationship, especially prior to S2. How dangerous is it to be caught by another angel or demon socializing or being intimate with the hereditary enemy? (I'm thinking of physical intimacy, yes, but this could also apply to day drinking bouts and naps on the couch). Being a "trusted stooge and confidant" seems pretty dangerous in 1941 part 2, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if their cozy evening in the bookshop is interrupted in 1941 part 3.
Of course, feelings can outweigh prudence. So they could at various moments decide to take a risk to be together.
#some of my confusion may stem from reading fan fics where they spend lots of time lounging around the bookshop#the answer may not matter as much as recognizing they are never really free#even if they aren't actively policed very much they may self-police out of fear#good omens analysis#good omens bookshop#ineffable husbands
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inside of you there are two wolves
#good omens spoilers#go2 spoilers#good omens#aziraphale#HE IS EVERYTHING TO ME#also we have an ADDRESS his bookshop is an ANGELIC EMBASSY#and LOOK at that text about baraqiel i am 👀 👀 👀 👀#i truly hope we never find out crowley's angel name bc he's crowley and that's all that matters#but the description is kinda 👀
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so good omens. hm. truly I dont know how to feel. this is the most well executed cash grab i think ive ever seen. like. oh for sure this season Should Not Exist. but neil and presumably a lot of other people looked at it and thought. well that could make a lot of money. and like, these are people who can write and make good tv, like its not bad! its just the most patiently obvious cash in i think ive ever seen. it’s a completely different show. its.. fine. its taking all the things the rabid fans said they wanted and just giving it to them. and like. theyre just gonna keep going you guys asked for a straight drama romance and your going to get it. theyve committed to it now. and theyve done everything right like, there’s nothing truly offensive about it. and for those mad about the cliffhanger guys this is pat and parcel for romance shows they want to make money theyre gonna milk it for all its worth. they cant just live happily ever after, if they did we wouldnt have a season 2 in the first place. truly the right thing to have done with the story was to just have them kiss at the end of season 1 and never touch it again. but now we have this. cool.
#about me#it didnt have the charm of the first one.#i will say that.#the thing that was charming about the original is it was a romance happening in the back of a world ending plot#but given center stage#loads of people have talked about how zira and crowley fully dont affect the plot at all#anathema and newt and the them are the people who truly have agency who affect things#zira and crowley are just hanging out and running around london thats what was Funny!!!#it was charming!#but this is a cash grab. and newt and anathema are not what the people want to spend their money on#so we get maggie and nina. who do fuck all! it doesnt matter if they fall in love!! thats never followed up on!!!#they arent interesting!! what the fuck is maggie compared to anathema device! to adam!#its just because the idea of people figuring out that the bookshop is fucking weird is funny on the surface#this show just took every good omens fanfic trope and threw it in a blender!#gabriel and Beelzebub even got together!! what the fuck!!#all of the writing just went into the main two and everything else fell by the wayside#which is how you cash in on a hot ticket romance. not how you make a good story.#jesus christ i miss the book.#good omens
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paris & galway
#a bookshop is a home no matter where you are#books#bookshop#dark academia#dark academia aesthetic#chaotic academia#romantic academia#mine#bookblr#writerblr#paris#galway#france#ireland#travel#photography
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King Ottakar's Sceptre (1938-9)
Health
Sleeps - 3
Ow! - 15 (head injuries - 3; hospitalised - 1, with suspected concussion but left before being treated)
Eats - 3 (szlaszjeck and szpradj, unknown meal, and bread)
Unconscious - 2 (both relating to head injury)
Emotions
Cries - 1 (castafiore-related rather than emotion-related)
Angry - 1 (at Snowy for stealing bones from a natural history museum lol)
Afraid - 2 (thought he ate snowy :|; got dropped from an aeroplane)
Crumbs! - 1
Great snakes! - 1
Eureka! - 2
The Law
Arrested - 2
Imprisoned - 2
Activities
Violence - 5
Radio - 1
Reads - 2
Travel
Motorbike - 1 (crashes - 1)
Car - 4 (drives - 1; hit - 1)
Boat - 2
Plane - 4 (pilot - 1; fell/jumped/was dropped out - 2)
Horse and cart - 1
Ambulance - 1
Peril
Shot at - 4 (hit - 1, by anti-aircraft guns while in a plane; uninjured)
Hit by car - 1 (accidental, driven by King Muskar, no serious injuries)
Dropped from a plane - 1 (and jumped once when aircraft was on fire after friendly fire)
Thompsons? - Yes
Thomson spoonerism - 1
Thompson spoonerism - 1
Bianca Castafiore? - yes
Sings - 4
QUIFF DOWN - 0
#found out that the bookshop ottakars was literally named after this book#god i wish that place still existed#i bet THEYD sell french copies of tintin adventures . not that im bitter that i can never find them or anything#i REally love KOS. but also im not going to lie the plot kind of confuses me sometimes lol#i know that possibly bc herge was veiling his references to nazism a bit#but at the same time sometimes it seems a bit thin lol#like why does what tintin experiences make him correctly suspect that the sceptre is going to be stolen#like i know hes a smart intuitive lad but also#i know for sure i wouldnt have got there. its a bit of a reach#theres other stuff but anyway#it doesnt matter i still rly enjoy it#with pleasurski!#i listed szpradj as non alcoholic#bc contextually that seems to make the most sense i think?#like i think it seems unlikely that syldavia Doesnt have a national alcoholic beverage#but at the same time we also know it has quite strict import laws and in the country itself it seems to be p regulated#idk ive always seen syldavia as somewhere where alcohol IS quite heavily regulated#tintin#herge#king ottakar's sceptre#tintin stats
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some aziraphale doodles :3 (the second one is my favorite hehe)
do not repost!!
#hes thinking about his demon#this is supposed to be post s2#not sure why hed be back in the bookshop but it doesnt matter#hes so cute#aziraphale#aziracrow#good omens#good omens s2#gay people are real#michael sheen#doodle#art#fanart#good omens art#good omens fan art#obsessionsart
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beezebelb and gabriel going off to alpha centuri because crowley said they should is so funny. like you just gave the honeymoon plans you booked years in advance to your ex boss and your partners weird colleague that you hate. and you did this even before your own proposal flopped
#like did you let them have it because you want to stay on earth? with aziraphale? running away no longer the ideal?#you two can have it we’ll find someplace else to settle#a place where aziraphale can keep the bookshop and the food and the humans he likes and you can keep the car and be with him#and perhaps one day you’ll drive to the countryside and find yourselves a cottage#really hasnt it always been about preserving what aziraphale loves?#after all you always have what you love so long as you’re with him#doesnt really matter to you what happens to the earth. just that you can stay as you are and for aziraphale to keep the things he loves#and after everything you’ve done to preserve these things. the bookshop. the earth and its people. his goodness and morality.#out of love and devotion to your one person. to keep what you two have for eternity. for aziraphale never to be unhappy or without you#as you cannot be without him#when he says nothing lasts forever it all becomes meaningless doesn’t it?#these acts unappreciated. everything you’ve built together torn down. the struggle to keep such a relationship alive become futile#subverting war between your opposing kinds and thwarting the apocalypse so you two can stay together and not be parted?#well actually all you've done to protect the earth and what it represents. to reject the woes of heaven/hell. its all been for naught.#all you’ve done for love didn’t matter. didn’t make a difference.#even the bookshop will cease. something you thought would keep aziraphale there — with you — when you alone aren't enough to make him stay.#what was once ‘my own side’ had become ‘our side’ and now it’s just you once more#what is left for just you when you’ve built everything around being an ‘us’. always just ‘us’#even if earth burned and everything aziraphale loved went to waste - there could still be 'us'#off to alpha centuri where you’d only have eachother#that would be enough for you wouldn’t it?#even though it wouldn’t last#you both hold onto naive hopes#running away together would solve everything. one kiss would solve everything#so you must’ve been saying to yourself: whats the point of saving whats doomed to fail?#whats the point of loving when nothing lasts forever#gomens#qzth
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The definitive history of World War II from the African American perspective
Over one million Black men and women served in World War II. Black troops were at Normandy, Iwo Jima, and the Battle of the Bulge, serving in segregated units and performing unheralded but vital support jobs, only to be denied housing and educational opportunities on their return home.
Without their crucial contributions to the war effort, the United States could not have won the war. And yet the stories of these Black veterans have long been ignored, cast aside in favor of the myth of the “Good War” fought by the “Greatest Generation.” Half American by Matthew F. Delmont is American history as you’ve likely never read it before!
Their bravery and patriotism in the face of unfathomable racism is both inspiring and galvanizing. In a time when the questions World War II raised regarding race and democracy in America remain troublingly relevant and still unanswered, this meticulously researched retelling makes for urgently necessary reading.
#african america history#African Americans#poppy appeal#books#black lives matter#ww2#usa#wwII#anti racism#education#waterstones#bookshops#manchester#london#liverpool#history#european history#african american history#malcolm x#martin luther king jr#world war two#new york times#matthew delmont#military history#forces tv
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#tender is the flesh#agustina bazterrica#bookstagram#indie bookshop#words matter pitman nj#new jersey
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Life is never easy, and there is a thousand ways to live it.
The Little Paris Bookshop
#The Little Paris Bookshop#Nina George#book#quotes#reading#words that matter#quote#Novel#books#wordsthatmatter#queue#wordsthatmattered#grief#book quotes
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mojo dojo casa house
Howdy folks! Sorry for the delay, I was, uhhhh covering the Tour de France. Anyway, I'm back in Chicago which means this blog has returned to the Chicago suburbs. I'm sure you've all seen Barbie at this point so this 2019 not-so-dream house will come as a pleasant (?) surprise.
Yeah. So this $2.4 million, 7 bed, 8.5+ bath house is over 15,000 square feet and let me be frank: that square footage is not allocated in any kind of efficient or rational manner. It's just kind of there, like a suburban Ramada Inn banquet hall. You think that by reading this you are prepared for this, but no, you are not.
Scale (especially the human one) is unfathomable to the people who built this house. They must have some kind of rare spatial reasoning problem where they perceive themselves to be the size of at least a sedan, maybe a small aircraft. Also as you can see they only know of the existence of a single color.
Ok, but if you were eating a single bowl of cereal alone where would you sit? Personally I am a head of the table type person but I understand that others might be more discreet.
It is undeniable that they put the "great" in great room. You could race bicycles in here. Do roller derby. If you gave this space to three anarchists you would have a functioning bookshop and small press in about a week.
The island bit is so funny. It's literally so far away it's hard to get them in the same image. It is the most functionally useless space ever. You need to walk half a mile to get from the island to the sink or stove.
Of course, every McMansion has a room just for television (if not more than one room) and yet this house fails even to execute that in a way that matters. Honestly impressive.
The rug placement here is physical comedy. Like, they know they messed up.
Bling had a weird second incarnation in the 2010s HomeGoods scene. Few talk about this.
Honestly I think they should have scrapped all of this and built a bowling alley or maybe a hockey rink. Basketball court. A space this grand is wasted on sports of the table variety.
You would also think that seeing the rear exterior of this house would help to rationalize how it's planned but:
Not really.
Anyways, thanks for coming along for another edition of McMansion Hell. I'll be back to regular posting schedule now that the summer is over so keep your eyes peeled for more of the greatest houses to ever exist. Be sure to check the Patreon for today's bonus posts.
Also P.S. - I'm the architecture critic for The Nation now, so check that out, too!
If you like this post and want more like it, support McMansion Hell on Patreon for as little as $1/month for access to great bonus content including a discord server, extra posts, and livestreams.
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#architecture#design#mcmansion#mcmansions#ugly houses#interior design#bad architecture#2010s#2019#Illinois
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-the bookshop-
aziraphale: *enters*
gabriel, smiling: hey, your spouse went to get coffee
aziraphale, nods: right. okay
aziraphale: ...
aziraphale, realises: what? crowley isn't my spouse
gabriel, chuckles: yeah, they are
aziraphale, insistent: no!
gabriel, matter-of-fact: well, you knew who I was talking about so *shrugs*
aziraphale, panicking: that- I don't- it's irrelevant
gabriel, mutters: you're irrelevant
aziraphale, folds his arms: for your information, crowley and I are above such basic human social conventions. what we have means so much more than that
gabriel, sighs wistfully: must be nice having a spouse
aziraphale, huffs: *walks off haughtily*
gabriel: :D
-later-
crowley, returning with coffee: angel?
gabriel, appears from behind a bookcase, continues dusting: your husband's in the back
crowley, heads to the back room: thanks
#aziraphale curious: are we married? / crowley tired: I think we invented it angel#ineffable husbands#aziracrow#good omens#good omens 2#ineffable chatfics
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Here's a neat detail:
Not to talk about season 1 Good Omens in the year of our Lord and Season 3 announcement 2023, but I kind of just realized another little moment that's very sweet and true to real life.
I really like that Crowley isn't just fine again after he learns Aziraphale survived the bookshop burning after all. Normally in stories when there's a "surprise, I'm alive!" moment, the characters just kind of celebrate for a minute and then move on business as usual. But Crowley doesn't. He continues to be visibly be shaken and a little unfocused throughout his conversation with Aziraphale, and when he has to explain what happened, he starts crying again.
I don't know I just thought that was a really nice detail because anyone who's experienced similar whiplash in real life knows about that... residual grief period I guess? I think this was a core memory that informed a lot of Crowley's behavior in season 2, you don't ever really forget that moment you lost them no matter how brief. There's just something very loving and vulnerable in him being like "I thought you were gone, and even though I know now you're ok, I want you to know just thinking about it upsets me deeply."
#don’t just let male presenting characters cry when they’re at rock bottom#let them cry because ‘’whoo boy! that was really scary and I still have a lot of feelings ☹️’’#good omens#ineffable husbands#season 1#Aziraphale#crowley#aziracrow#meta#analysis#biceratops
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i’m so totally normal about the fact that aziraphale’s last (known) deliberate foray into the queer community was when he learned the gavotte at the fictionalized hundred guineas club (!!!) in the 1800s and now in the 2020s he’s like “grindr? what’s that?”
many are talking about his repression which is very valid… and yet the thing to me that stands out about aziraphale is that he’s actually… incredibly stable in his identity and that identity IS incredibly queer. queer by the standards of heaven AND by human standards as well
metatron describes his “de facto partnership” with crowley as “irregular.” and in fact aziraphale in his entirety is irregular. he likes and makes it his business not only to understand but to be a connoisseur of all manner of things angels aren’t supposed to even remotely care about. food. music. books. theatre. sleight of hand. and more.
it’s the sort of behavior that would’ve gotten him othered, treated as a bit odd, in heaven even if he hadn’t chosen to consort all across the earth with a literal demon. and it IS treated that way - the fact is aziraphale even as an angel has got proclivities that set him apart from the rest of the host (even after offering him the highest position in heaven, metatron still acts deeply dismissive of him… like aziraphale’s bookshop is merely a quaint little hobby of his that can be easily transferred to another custodian, and not a literal extension of who aziraphale has become, full of his tartan and unique bibles and special vintages of wine and the books arranged in a very specific way)
so. aziraphale is a queer angel but of course he’s also queer to other humans. but in such a way that… he had his realization a LONG time ago, and put the matter very much to rest after that. aziraphale is perpetually something like several centuries behind schedule. he owns an ancient computer that probably continues to run windows 98 simply because aziraphale’s decided it should. he wears the same waistcoat and coat for generations because he simply likes them precisely the way they are and sees no reason to change them. but the idea that he doesn’t know how he comes across to others - of course he does. he knows he looks like your prim and proper grandfather and he prefers it that way
aziraphale looked around at humans in the 1880s and said: ah yes. this is where i fit. and promptly ensconced himself in that queer subculture. learned the gavotte. read his austen. loved crowley from afar. aziraphale is fiercely and vibrantly queer. just with the sort of assurance of someone who lives with his lover in a commonlaw marriage for decades and then shows up at city hall for the certificate once society decides it’s ‘allowed.’ like… he hasn’t had any need to know what grindr is because aziraphale’s ‘scene’ was a century and a half ago and it defined romance for him too.
but my favorite thing about aziraphale is how much of him is about appearances versus the truth. he can lie straight to angels’ faces and sleep at night. he knows he comes off soft but he once wielded a flaming sword. he dissembles helplessness but he’s far from it and he knows precisely how it makes others treat him. and at the core of aziraphale is rigidity, inflexibility of ideas… his sense of self is stable where crowley’s is malleable, and so on, and so on
and the fact that he’s continuously fixated on trying to misguidedly do the right thing, the fact that he seeks heavenly approval and wants to fit the world into his schema of good vs evil… in no way do i think that means he isn’t one hundred percent aware of how he feels about crowley or what it means about him by angelic or human standards. i’ve seen some folks saying that aziraphale doesn’t want to like kissing crowley and like… as much as i love me some brideshead revisited/atonement flavored angst; i put forth that it’s not internalized homophobia or queer panic but simply: “i’m trying to do the right thing for both of us and you won’t let me.” and “i wanted our first kiss to be different.” he was envisioning an entirely different flavor of romance than what he got but he emma woodhoused too close to the sun
like, y’all. aziraphale in all likelihood has a glorious collection of historical queer erotica. he just has a feathery diva coat hanging in his closet, and for what. “oh, good lord” he says at crowley’s revolutionary outfit in the bastille, while eyeing him up like an entire meal. he’s so good at affected propriety, at carefully constructed stuffiness, but between the two of them aziraphale’s got to be the one who has experience
aziraphale had been physically throwing himself at crowley the entire season. he orchestrated an entire regency ball so they could touch hand to hand. he spends the entire season (well, and season 1) looking at crowley like he’s particularly coveted. he looked at crowley before the fall like he was glorious and beautiful. aziraphale’s queer and he knows it and i think that isn’t his problem, it’s the fact that he wants to build a different sort of future for the two of them but crowley’s gone and thrown a wrench in it by reminding him of everything he can finally have. like. that’s the heartbreak. it’s how dare you make this ugly? i forgive you for our first kiss being all pain and salt. it’s my dearest, i wanted to make heaven as beautiful as you deserve. as sacred and safe for us as our bookshop. and i can do that for us, because once i held a flaming sword and i still remember how the hilt felt in my hands. and now the taste of you is in my mouth.
#coughs this is also why aziraphale’s a dom. but that’s a separate post#good omens#good omens 2#ineffable husbands#good omens 2 spoilers#this continues to be an aziraphale stan account#‘aziraphale is traumatized’ and ‘aziraphale celebrates the part of himself that loves crowley’ are two ideas that can coexist#feeling a bit like this take might get me flamed whoops but. i’m deep in my az feelings tonight so i guess i’ve decided to share anyway
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