We’re reading Goethe’s Faust in my English class, send tips for not losing my mind please

I realise that you sent this back in August, so presumably you’re done with reading Faust by now (hope it went well), but here are some general tips for reading older, allusion-rich classics without going crazy:

Get an annotated edition. This has been a true lifesaver for me, with everything from the Greek classics via Shakespeare to Goethe and Dostoevsky. And even with more modern classics that are perfectly accessible without annotations, having an annotated version can help you appreciate extra layers of symbolism, wordplay and allusions (The Annotated Lolita being a good example here)

Find a character to blorbify if possible. It doesn’t have to be the protagonist

Read up on the historical and ideological context in which the work was written

Find delicious sentences and underline/highlight them

Make your own silly annotations in the margins

Specifically for Goethe’s Faust: Skim the most incomprehensible bits of Part 2

INBOX  CLEANOUT

“  stop brushing me off.  i know something is going on.  ”   //   @mercybloomed​  (thor)  for  nat  !!

__________✧         HANDS         FINALLY         HALT         THEIR         TASK         OF         LOADING         &&         UNLOADING         HER         WEAPON.         a   nervous   habit   she   guises   as   preparing   for   the   mission.         she      already      knows      it      will      be      a      one-way      trip      even      if      the      others      don’t      see      it.         there      is      only      one      way      to      obtain      the      soul      stone      &&      she      intends      to      ensure      clint      at      least      gets      to      see      his      children      again.         there   has   only   ever   been   a   single   way   her   story   ends.         the   life   of   a   spy   is      dangerous,         the   life   of   an   avenger   even   more   so         (         she’s      surprised      she’s      made      it      this      far      if      she’s      being      honest         )         yet   she   had   hoped   that   she   might   get   to   see   her   family   again   before   she   went.         that   melina      &&      alexei      &&   yelena   would   know   that   everything   she   had   done   in   the   last      five   years      had   been   to   bring   them   all   back   from         ...         wherever   the   blipped   went.         non-existence.         ❛      just   a   lot   of   moving   parts   right   now.         there’s   nothing   else   to   really   talk   about.      ❜         a   lie,         but   though   she   has   made   her   peace   with   where   the   journey   will   end,         she   is   not   prepared   to   handle   the   grief   of   others.         especially      his      when      he      already      undeservedly      carries      the      weight      of      a      universe      on      his      shoulders.

ao3feed-lams inbox cleanout

After about a million years, I’ve come back to clean out this blog’s inbox and make some updates. Nothing major, but do know that if you send me an ask for recommendations, from now on I will be posting them as an open call for anyone to offer suggestions in a big post like this one. It will be anonymous, but I can tag you in your request if you ask. So without further ado... 

The most recent recommendation requests:

Do you have any angsty Alex fics without any kind of hospital or doctor mention?

i’m looking for a lams enemies you lovers with jefferson x madison and Lafayette x Hercules

i was just wondering if you had any lams fan fictions that are angst with a happy ending?

Whats the name of that one high school au where hamilton just got adopted by washington (from an abusive household) and lafayette is a transfer student from france

I wanted to find the fic where Alex gets hurt and John marries him so that Alex can have medical insurance despite them being strangers?

Any good historical Lams fics (As in set in the correct period not the real people) you can recommend??

 If you guys aren’t on ao3 yet, you really should be. No account needed, and the tagging system is a true blessing.

cleanout haul+review

under cut = some skincare products i’ve finished for a long while and am finally tossing

seeing used up products is so satisfying. i’m going to keep holding on to stuff when i (finally) finish using them to keep doing these mini post-use haul reviews, before recycling.

HADALABO Gokujun Hyaluronic Lotion

i’ve been using this (recently repurchased) as a toner. its a popular basic, cheap drugstore product that hasn’t necessarily proven to be particularly helpful, but definitely hasn’t shown any adverse effects so far either. it’s a little on the heavy side, and can take a sec to really absorb (a pet peeve of mine but 🤷🏻‍♀️ ). i’m hoping to give japanese softeners a try after this, instead of using any kind of toner (esp. astringent ones) so if you have any recommendations esp. for sensitive skin, pls drop by my inbox.

Laniege Water Sleeping Mask

i really only imagine this being particularly helpful for people with normal to dry skin, less prone to acne. it didn’t work well for me (felt like it sat on top of my skin, even if i was wearing it to bed, and didn’t necessarily wake up to particularly soft skin). for other skin types, i could see it absorbing better without having to use too much product/it can go a long way. 

Egg Pore Pack

a cute little novelty looking product packaged in the shape of an egg with a uniquely fluffy whipped texture. it was nice to use a few times with noticeably cleaner / softer skin afterwards, especially in my t-zone area where my pores are noticeably larger and more prone to clogging. i wouldn’t say this is a staple or particularly helpful after the first few uses, at least for my skin. but its a fun, cheap, n cute lil mask that might be nice to buy on a whim.

Dr. Jart+ Water Drop

the first time i had used this product a few years ago, it felt like a game changer. it felt cooling, absorbed quickly, wasn’t greasy or oily, and was the perfect consistency. time had passed and i repurchased during a winter season again, and it just didn’t feel the same. my skin has generally gotten older, oilier, and dryer, and this product doesn’t work the same way it used to for me. it just wasn’t hydrating, lasting, or absorbing enough anymore and for it’s price point, i wouldn’t say it’d be worth repurchasing even if i tweaked with my skin routine to add hydration in other steps. 

neutrogena hydroboost water gel

this brings me to the current moisturizer i’ve been using for months now. i don’t like the finish as much as i did when i was first using higher end stuff like dr.jart, but it gets the job done, doesn’t make me breakout, and is cheap (although i swear it’s price is going up as it rises in popularity). its a bit on the thicker side and you can also buy it in its gel-cream form (which i honestly could not tell the difference, having tried both). its an alright product, but i still feel like i could use a pinch more hydration, and its thickness/time it takes to absorb isn’t so satisfying. 

heimish All Clean Balm

i bought this to try just before Banila’s Clean It Zero balm (which i had been using prior) reformulated and stopped using mineral oils as an alternative. its only negative selling point had to be its very strong scent, im assuming because of its papaya ingredients which are supposed to help work as natural exfoliators. i’m now back to using clean it zero as i believe it is cheaper (currently using the nourishing formula, but i enjoyed the subtle and vague fruity smell of the original formula) and i can’t say i see/feel a noticeable difference. if anything i’d give heimish a leg up for it’s packaging as it has a built in place to leave your spatula separating it from the product. also fair warning with any balm product, if you get this stuff in your eyes, your vision is going to be blurry for a minute until youre done with your routine. 

Announcement: Inbox Cleanout

Kii says:

Hello, friends and followers of TTSG!

As you may remember, last year around this time, we started an annual inbox cleanout. Last year, we had about a thousand asks in our inbox that had accumulated, and this year, we have over three thousand. Obviously, even if all our mods were working around the clock, there’s no way we’d be able to answer this many asks. 

For this reason, we’re choosing to post some of them in our unanswered question tag. Not every single one will be posted, so don’t worry about 3,000 posts hitting your dash all at once. We will be posting questions that are unique (that we haven’t answered before) and will be relevant to and hopefully helpful to multiple people.

We greatly appreciate anyone who’s able to help us answer these questions by replying to or reblogging the posts with information.

These will be scheduled to post starting today and will be finished up by the end of January. If this makes your dashboard too chaotic, you are welcome to block the tag #unanswered question. 

If you find your question has been posted without an answer, it’s nothing personal. We just cannot answer every ask due to the sheer volume of them, and we’d rather give someone else the chance to answer it than just delete it forever.

I can relate to your post about fiction and online harassment because I've read some pretty messed up stuff willingly when I was younger too and it didn't deal any damage to my mental health at all even years later and I knew it was fiction. I've also been bullied and I still hold big grudges against my bullies so I can relate to that one especially.

The thing about books is that you can always put them down if they’re bothering you. Unlike bullies, for legal reasons.

Do you like specialty coffee? What is your favorite thing to touch/to look at? Does learning bring you joy? (Why?)

1. I usually survive on workplace coffee machine coffee that has enough caffeine to keep me functional and not enough taste to be truly awful, so specialty coffee isn’t an absolute necessity, but I have to admit that every time I get a cup of real quality coffee, it’s like crack cocaine compared to the regular stuff

2. Cats

3. Yeah, I just think you get more out of every day of your life if you try to understand how things are connected or if you have the practical skills to do things yourself instead of asking for help or paying someone else to do it

(old ask game, I’m just going through my inbox)

I know you don't like it as much as Goethe and Mann's versions, but what do you think of Marlowe's Dr Faustus on its own?

Honestly it’s really hard for me to give a fair evaluation of Marlowe here precisely because the comparison with Goethe and Mann is inevitable. I will say that there were some really good lines and fun parts, and of course I am a sucker for the Faust legend in any shape and form, but overall it felt a bit lacklustre, and Faustus as a character somewhat inconsistent or vaguely sketched (though I suppose there are limits to how much you can flesh out a character in such a short text, compared to the hundreds of pages Goethe’s Faust and Adrian Leverkühn got each)

I don't know anyone to talk about Buddenbrooks with, but this thought will continue to haunt me if I don't throw it out there, so I'll drop it here:

ABBA's Our last summer could basically be about Toni Buddenbrook and Morten Schwarzkopf.

Damn you’re right

Just curious, have you read Oblomov? I'm a Russian major and I gotta read it for uni and I've heard so much about it being unbearably boring that I'm scared to even start and thought you might be able to give some reassurance gsksgjshdjd

This has been in my inbox since March, but I thought post-Goncharov was the perfect time to dig it up. Haven’t read Oblomov, but I really want to. If it’s any reassurance to people who dread the classics they have to read for uni/school, it’s that these books are classics because someone at some point has found them interesting/enjoyable enough to read and discuss, and by reading the books you get a chance to discover why people in the past enjoyed them

Eurovision hot takes when?

Next time the ESC rolls around, unless I’m at work that night

Oh I sent the ask on Pope's Odyssey - i really enjoyed it because Pope is a great poet and the translation really shines with his style and also. I am really just a sucker for when things rhyme

Adding that to the list of things things to check out when I get a chance