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safarigirlsp · 1 month

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These asks are fun! I can’t wait to see what stories you have in the works 🖤

🍒What genres/tropes do you find yourself using most often?

🥝Who are your literary influences, and have they shaped your own writing?

🥕What's your favorite fic you've written, and why?

🍔What's a headcanon that hasn't made it into a published fic yet?

Thank you for sending this! It's like most of the gang's all back! Let's keep this craziness going for a while!

🍒What genres/tropes do you find yourself using most often?

My two favorite genres to write, as if it isn't obvious xD, Are adventure and Horror. For tropes, if these are tropes, I love Bitchy Banter, Strong Women Kicking Ass, Men Having a #BadTime, and Manly Men Doing Manly Things. I really can't get enough and although I should probably branch out more, I just love these so much I want to wallow in them over and over xD.

🥝Who are your literary influences, and have they shaped your own writing?

In terms of classics, I love Jane Austen and her banter and color, Alexandre Dumas for adventure and his epic thematics and penchant for revenge, and Poe for all things lovely, dark, and vibey.

For modern writers, my all time favorite is Wilbur Smith and honestly, if I could write like him, I would love it. That's my goal in life, truly. I'm enjoying Evie Dunmore at present. Crichton and Preston/Child are also favorites.

🥕What's your favorite fic you've written, and why?

Oh no. This is always impossible for me xD.

For Jacques: Wargrave Hall (This is truly almost finished. Sorry for the wait!). Here There Be Monsters

For Mills: Maneater. I need to write more for him!

For Flip: The Case of the Colorado Cannibal. The Devil Went Down to Dodge City.

For Kylo: Kylo the Malevolent co-written with the wonderful @babbushka

🍔What's a headcanon that hasn't made it into a published fic yet?

Flip is truly god awful in the kitchen. He has been almost permanently banned, with a few narrow exceptions. He does quite a good job at pancakes. The nickname 'Flip' comes from him flipping pancakes like a show off as a young fool and splattering himself with grease, thereby getting a round pockmark looking scar on his chest that he likes to lead people to believe is a bullet wound.

However, he is allowed to have a grill. Outside. Where the risk of burning the house down drops from extreme to moderate. He can grill steaks like a bad ass. He deadpans that it's part of some primal male instinct that involves bloodlust and hunting and fire. Or some horseshit along those lines. His culinary skills begin and end at grilling meats. Occasionally, he can add cheese to a burger without incident, but he knows better than to venture further out than that. It can't be denied that his steaks and burgers are to die for. Or as he puts to you when it's just the two of you, they're good enough to orgasm for, and he will make sure you do. When he really wants to wine and dine you, he will cook in just his jeans with his tits out for your viewing pleasure. When he's feeling funny, he will wear a frilly apron over his jeans and bare chest and let you laugh at him.

In my canon, Nicholas Mills is an ex fighter pilot. He was a bad boy growing up, the rebellious sort who wouldn't cut his hair or go to church or respect authority simply because it was authority. This disagreement came to blows several times with his father. Mills never struck the old man back, but it was sufficient provocation that he could restrain his father even with a broken nose to ship him off to the military to get his ass straightened out. Mills hated it, every second. He wasn't suited to the authority and the rules. But all that stayed on the ground when he took off in a jet. The freedom he felt from the first time he climbed into the cockpit was euphoric. He put up with the rules and the authority and the bullshit, even the horrible haircut, just so he could feel that freedom, chase the high that only came with flying.

After leaving the military and a nasty divorce after that, Mills was thoroughly sick of rules and regulations and authority and fucking people in general. He was smart enough to keep a separate bank account and stash away enough money to buy a plane of his own. You could say Mills skipped town. Skipped the country actually. All the way to Northern British Columbia. Someplace he can be left alone and unbothered, living the life he wants. He makes a surprisingly good living as a bush pilot, running supplies out to folks even more remote than him and flying out sportsman and outdoorsmen into the wilderness, and the occasional rescue job.

Never in a million years did Mills expect to meet a knockout like you out on one of these runs, his dream girl. And now, he's the only man who has a chance in hell of getting you both out of the wilderness alive.

I may have a fic like this in the works...

Jacques is an avid reader. He's educated and quite an intellectual, although he likes to downplay that arrow in his quiver. It pays to be underestimated. He enjoys poetry most of all and he's more of a sucker for flowery prose and romantic ideation than he openly admits. When he gets caught, he blames his interest in poetry as a necessary skill developed to get under women's skirts.

Once he's close enough to let his guard down, he will reveal his favorites and tell you how you've been in every line he's ever read. He loves to read to you. In the beginning, this was a way to seduce you into bed. It has since become his way to lull you to sleep when you're already in bed or to help you unwind while sprawled out by the fire.

He will read your favorite books with you or begin a new one together that you chose just to share the experience with you. It goes without saying that whenever you get inspired by a particular scene, Jacques is not only happy but eager and enthusiastic to act it out with you. He will invariably put the male characters to shame.

#hearts #my stuff!#my writing #65 #flip #jacques #commander mills x reader #commander mills x you #flip zimmerman x you #flip zimmerman x reader #jacques le gris x reader #jacques le gris x you

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cooliogirl101 · 1 year

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what are your top 10 bingqiu fics?

Note: These are not in any particular order of preference because I can't possibly rank these, I love them all so much.

High Mountain, How I Long by Minimalistness: This fic is just...beautifully done. The author portrays the emotions so deeply on both sides and it hurts in the very best way, yet the ending is so soft and treats the characters so gently...gahh. Only good things to say about this one.

System Restore by Straightforwardly: Short but excellent. I need more fics centered around SQQ just absolutely overwhelming Binghe with affection because that shit is A++.

you don't need poltergeists for sidekicks by nyoomer: This fic honestly made me cry, every part of it is perfect. The ending is slightly bittersweet but ends on a very hopeful note and it's just all-around an incredible story.

Plastromancy by x_los: Creepy in the best way, if you like Coraline you will adore this fic. Warning for body horror-- it's not too graphic, but definitely present. Does a very good job of portraying the monstrous edge to LBH's devotion.

to love another (and to learn yourself) by nyoomer: yet another fantastic fic by nyoomer (all their fics are fantastic tbh), starring OG!LBH and SY. Wonderful study on redemption, forgiveness, and trying to be better. The character development in this fic is fantastic and I love the way SY stands up to Bingge in this one.

Scum Villain AUs by Feynite: A collection of SVSSS mini-fics, as the name suggests. Honestly all these AUs are super creative and well-written but my favorites are the supervillain, genderbend, and dragon monster AUs.

How to stop being strung along by a guy and get what you deserve by x-los: Another amazing fic by one of my favorite authors. Red string of fate soulmates AU and I adore the potential implications here. LBH figuring out who SQQ is immediately and helping him adjust to the PIDW world? Yes please. My only complaint for this fic is that there isn't more of it.

Unfinished Business by kitsunealyc: Basically SJ dies and is reincarnated as SY (where he gets some much needed therapy) and then reincarnates back as SQQ, and tries his best to stop the whole generational trauma thing in its tracks. The whole redemption and healing process is done so, so well done here. I usually don't like OG!LBH/OG!SQQ fics but in this one they both go through so much character development (and besides, SQQ and SY are the same person here). Also, this has one of my favorite lines in a fanfic ever-- "In hate or in love, if Shen Qingqiu placed second in Luo Binghe's esteem, no one would dare to claim first." Like?? Literary genius.

but every day still new to wake up by millepertuis: This fic has it all-- humor, wholesome moments, denial, thirst (on Binghe's part-- SQQ is, of course, oblivious), hurt/comfort. I lost this fic once and spent over 2 hours trying to find it again and it was worth every bit of that time.

To Conquer an Emperor by zarasu: SY transmigrates into one of LBH's wives. I think this fic gets better as it progresses and I love the concept (Rachel for Leah by x_los is the other SY reincarnates into one of LBH's wives fic that I really love) and the character development for LBH is excellent. Also the latest chapter? LBH's self-loathing and self-doubt meets SY's unconditional acceptance? Yes please.

BONUS:

Sit With Your Soul by Tossawary: Not bingqiu but this is one of my top 3 svsss fics ever, basically it's a daemon!AU where SY transmigrates into SJ's daemon. The focus is on platonic SY/SJ but SY's interactions with LBH in this fic are adorable as well. One of my favorite characterizations of SJ.

#svsss #fic rec #also if you’ve read any of these fics please come talk to me about them #seriously I want someone to talk about svsss with

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see-arcane · 2 years

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Barking Harker: The Dracula sequel I guess I’m making

(Scraps of Dracula spoilers below)

This honestly started as a running joke with myself.

Between Dracula Daily and rereading the novel in a speedrun in the interim and generally letting my brain chew this old story apart like an over-loved dog toy, I started cooking this idea in the background. One that had some seeds in my Jonathan Harker rambles. The gist of which discuss (SPOILERS):

1. Jonathan Harker’s eerie-to-inhuman alterations after his time in Castle Dracula.

2. Theories as to what specific entity and/or cryptid Jonathan Harker might be.

3. Exactly how ride or die Jonathan Harker is for Mina. Rather, ride and die. And kill. And anything else required to ensure Mina continues to exist and that he shares whatever fate befalls her. To a spicy and outright sacrilegious extent. There’s some very literal Faustian ready-to-sell-my-soul intensity from our sweetheart solicitor when it comes to his beloved.

The combination of all this was stirred into one of my longest-running pet peeves about the novel.

Specifically, that for all the zesty gothic goodness promised by the opening stay in Castle Dracula—a portion of the book I’m convinced could’ve been its own novel or novella—we don’t really get everything out of it that we could. No more than we get another glimpse of Count Dracula at his most uncomfortably intimate and intimidating after that section. Following Jonathan’s unpleasant business trip, it’s all about Dracula in the shadows, sinking his teeth into England, and harassing the ensemble cast. Which is a great story! Obviously! ‘Ancient monster man coming to haunt and menace the unprepared modern characters’ is a fun time.

But damn it, the first part of the book is still my favorite. Cornered Protagonist VS Overpowered Antagonist in a confined space, sinister supernatural goings-on, manipulative power plays, knife-twisting psychological warfare, and all the gothic trimmings. I wanted more! Just like I wanted to play with all the implications and potential surrounding Jonathan Harker’s whole weird deal.

And you know what? I wanted to cram more in there. This thing was a bowl of untainted cookie batter and I could pour a metric ton of chocolate chips* into it until I was satisfied.

(*Varied monsters. Cameos. Mind games. High Octane Fuckeduppedness.)

“I have a keyboard, an open Word doc, and no inhibitions!” I shouted in full Grecian hero hubris. “I can write this self-serving literary junk food if I feel like it! And I do! So I will!”

So I did. So I am. So much so that I’ve realized I maybe, possibly, actually am making something a wee bit beyond a little public domain fanfiction.

Note: This encompasses the first four chapters.

Uh oh.

I don’t want to jump ahead of myself. I’ve self-hyped over WIPs and books-in-potentia before, then burned myself out on the expectations I couldn’t reach, endlessly writing and deleting and rewriting in a Promethean loop that killed the whole thing. NaNoWriMo damn near gutted me the one time I dared it. Putting this pseudo-announcement up here is less of a Very Guaranteed Promise I Shall Complete This Work, but more of a low-key way to jab myself into sticking to it as best I can.

(Because it really is that much harder to drop a project when you’ve mentioned it out loud and can’t pretend otherwise.)

So, yeah. Without spoilers, I am currently working on an alternate ending sequel novel to Dracula, with the working title, Barking Harker. Features include a return to Castle Dracula, more horror, more menace, more bastardry, bogeymen, and bogeywomen all over. We’ve got vampires visiting from outside Transylvania. We’ve got werewolves. We’ve got ghosts. We’ve got strange dogs. We’ve got stranger professionals in the matter of vampires and assorted occult odds and ends. We’ve got murder and madness and and macabre nightmares galore.

Any folks out there who have enjoyed my rambles and ficlets pertaining to Dracula and company, you are invited to poke me with a virtual stick every now and then in the ensuing months. Even if you’re not interested, I ask that you channel the most irritating backseat driver voice you can to occasionally ask, Is it done yet? Is it done yet? Is it done yet? The mortifying ordeal of being known/caught in the act of slinking away from Yet Another Unfinished WIP is an underrated motivational tactic.

That said, cross your fingers for me. And maybe pray for our good friend, Jonathan Harker.

He’s going to need it.

#in which I'm about to put the cast of Dracula through a narrative meat grinder #with love #dracula #jonathan harker #mild dracula spoilers #spoilers #my writing #horror #Barking Harker

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officialcombaticons · 7 months

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Okay so last year I started compiling my magpie tarot deck. These decks are an amalgam of several different decks, tailored to the owner's likes. I decided to go a step further than the norm and wanted to make a deck where no two cards are from the same deck. So that would be 78 different decks.

I'm not done with mine yet, so I've filled in the gaps with cards from full decks I own. I also have a stack of alternate cards that I swap in and out when I feel like it, which I'll probably show off in another post because this one is already gonna be very long.

Every card/deck will be listed below the cut!

0 The Fool - Eldritch Overload Tarot (Alleyman Edition) 1 The Magician - custom card from the Three of Magpies zine, art by Caleb Engelke 2 The High Priestess - The Nightmare Before Christmas Tarot 3 The Empress - Phantomwise Tarot 4 The Emperor - Happy Halloween Tarot 5 The Hierophant - custom card from the Fragmented Hierophant zine 6 The Lovers - Little Monsters Tarot (Alleyman Edition) 7 The Chariot - Britt’s Third Eye Tarot 8 Strength - Tarot of the Toiling Hands 9 The Hermit - Goddess Provisions Major Arcana 10 Wheel of Fortune - Alleyman's Tarot Booster Pack, by PhantomRin 11 Justice - Women of Science Tarot 12 The Hanged Man - Blood Moon Tarot (Alleyman Edition) 13 Death - Forager's Daughter Tarot 14 Temperance - Tarot of the Divine 15 The Devil - Ostara Tarot 16 The Tower - Lubanko Tarot 17 The Star - Lisa Frank Major Arcana 18 The Moon - Mystic Mondays Tarot 19 The Sun - Anime Tarot by Natasha Yglesias 20 Judgement - Literary Tarot (Alleyman Edition) 21 The World - Queen Alice Tarot

Ace of Cups - Prism Tarot 2 of Cups - Tarot of Brass and Steam 3 of Cups - Marigold Tarot 4 of Cups - Horror Tarot 5 of Cups - Architect's Tarot (Alleyman Edition) 6 of Cups - Lost Hollow Tarot 7 of Cups - Pacific Northwest Tarot 8 of Cups - Murder of Crows Tarot 9 of Cups - Movie Tarot 10 of Cups - Star Spinner Tarot Page of Cups - Lucine Tarot (Alleyman Edition) Knight of Cups - Essential Tarot Queen of Cups - Light Grey Tarot King of Cups - Trick or Treat Tarot

Ace of Pentacles - Art of Adventure Tarot 2 of Pentacles - Neo Tarot 3 of Pentacles - Reigning Rouge Tarot 4 of Pentacles - Climbing Rose Tarot 5 of Pentacles - Mystical Medley's Tarot 6 of Pentacles - Vivid Tarot 7 of Pentacles - Happy Halloween Tarot 8 of Pentacles - Cosmos Tarot 9 of Pentacles - Hand Drawn Tarot 10 of Pentacles - Queen Alice Tarot Page of Pentacles - Light Grey Tarot Knight of Pentacles - Wandering Star Tarot Queen of Pentacles - Antique Anatomy Tarot King of Pentacles - Queen Alice Tarot

Ace of Swords - Mushroom Hunter's Tarot 2 of Swords - Pulp Tarot 3 of Swords - Lord of the Rings Tarot 4 of Swords - Tarot of the Haunted House 5 of Swords - Cat Tarot 6 of Swords - Prisma Visions Tarot 7 of Swords - Tarotbot 8 of Swords - Fantôme Tarot 9 of Swords - Gothic Tarot of Vampires 10 of Swords - Ostara Tarot Page of Swords - Happy Halloween Tarot Knight of Swords - Black Tarot Queen of Swords - Tarot of Curious Creatures King of Swords - Alleyman's Tarot Booster Pack, by Owlbabe

Ace of Wands - Cosmos Tarot 2 of Wands - Field Tarot 3 of Wands - Alleyman's Tarot Booster Pack, by Ambisun 4 of Wands - Rosalarian Tarot (Alleyman Editon) 5 of Wands - Tarot Bebis (Alleyman Editon) 6 of Wands - Ostara Tarot 7 of Wands - Modern Witch Tarot 8 of Wands - Golden Thread Tarot 9 of Wands - Ostara Tarot 10 of Wands - Light Seer's Tarot Page of Wands - Superlunaris Tarot Knight of Wands - Chromatic Fates Tarot Queen of Wands - Alleyman's Tarot Booster Pack, by Temple of Tales King of Wands - Light Grey Tarot

#so many cards!!!#my tarot collection #part of it anyway

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saint-starflicker · 7 months

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Overview and Criteria for Gothic Fiction

Gothic as a genre of fiction novel emerged in the late 18th century and early 19th century. Modern scholars frame these works as part of a Romanticist pushback against the Enlightenment era of calculated, scientific rationalism. In English literature, these may also have been artistic expressions of the collective anxieties of British people regarding the French Revolution. The term hearkens back to the destruction of the Roman Empire in the 5th century CE at the effect of Gothic peoples, an event that marks the beginning of the medieval era. As early as the year 1530 CE, Giorgio Vasari criticized medieval architecture as gothic, that is "monstrous", "barbarous", and "disordered" contrasted against the elegant and progressive neoclassical architecture reconstructions. In the late 20th century, a subculture of post-punk horror rockers began to be described as Gothic as well. This subcultural goth variation characterized itself by an aesthetic of counter-cultural macabre and "enjoyable fear".

Notable early works of what would become the gothic literary "canon" are listed as follows: The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole (1764), The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne by Ann Radcliffe (1789), The Castle of Wolfenbach by Eliza Parsons (1793), and The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe (1794). Udolpho is the name of a castle. Early gothic literature was intertwined with an admiration for gothic architecture, sorry to Vasari Giorgio who hated that sort of thing so much but is an outlier and should not be counted.

One example of French gothic literature in this vein is Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo, published in 1831 although the story is set in 1482 and it was about a gothic cathedral rather than a gothic castle. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen is an affectionate parody of the gothic literature genre and a staunch defense of the gothic novels' artistic merits. It was completed in 1803 but not published until 1818 after the author's death.

In Northanger Abbey, a character recommends to her friend a list of books in this genre, all the titles of which were publications contemporary to the time the author was writing about them: The Italian by Ann Radcliffe, Clermont by Regina Maria Roche, The Mysterious Warning by Eliza Parsons, Necromancer of the Black Forest by Lawrence Flammenberg, The Midnight Bell by Francis Lathorn, Orphan of the Rhine by Eleanor Sleath, and Horrid Mysteries by Carl Grosse.

The appeal of these stories was less the architecture itself and more the emotions evoked by being haunted by the past, threatened by unknown histories, frightened by misunderstood monsters, and in awe of wilderness and nature. All of this would be set at or relative to a location: a gothic building. Heroines in gothic stories would commonly be abducted from convents that they sought refuge in, or confined to convents or other locations against their will when they try to exercise their freedoms. Other common tropes became the journey of a gothic heroine in an unfamiliar country, and the horrors of being made to rely on guardians who make impositions against her wishes or best interests. In other cases, the gothic horror mixed with gothic infatuation would be shown by an invasion of sorts by a foreigner in the heroine's home country, person of color, or the occupation of a disabled person. These works frequently lend themselves to queer readings.

The common and notable qualities of what works came to be considered gothic literature between the 1819 publication of The Vampyre by John William Polidori and the 1896 publication of The Werewolf by Clemence Housman, naturally expanded and evolved with the inclusion of more works within this genre. Even now in the 21st century the continued recognizability of the gothic applies to new additions to the genre. The criteria for what qualifies a gothic story follows:

Ill-Reputed Work. The story is accused of being degrading to high culture, bad for society, immoral, populist or counter-cultural. At the very least, it's considered bad art and ugly.

Haunted by the Past. This can be found in a work framed accordingly in the cultural context that inspired the authors, such as early 19th century English literature of this genre as a response to the French Revolution. Works emblematic of the Southern Gothic in the United States could be framed in the context of the anxieties surrounding the Civil War. More often, however, it is personal history that haunts a gothic character.

Architecture. This is not necessarily mere mention of a building, or even a lush description of literally gothic architecture. This is more a sense of location. While it stands to reason that confined locations are buildings, the narrative function of architecture can be served by themes of isolation and confinement. Social consensus that is impossible to navigate or escape is a gothic sentiment. This is, of course, more clearly qualified if the architecture is literally a building.

Wilderness. This is not necessarily natural environments, but rather situations that are unpredictable and overwhelming. Storms can be similarly admired, those "dark and stormy night"s. The anxiety invoked by nautical horror emerges from the contrast between a human being made to feel small and out of control when situated on the open ocean and all its depths and mysteries. The gothic simplicity of fairy tales relies on the inhospitable and chaotic woods full of bandits, wolves, and maybe even witches. Logically, a city should be more architecture than wilderness, but if the narrative purpose is chaotic unpredictable vastness horror rather than confinement horror then the city can become a gothic wilderness. This is, of course, more clearly qualified if the wilderness is literally the weather.

Big Mood Energy. This is what I call a collection of emotions evoked by the design of gothic literature. The sense of vulnerability in the face of grandeur, or overwhelming emotion, is known as Sublime. The betrayal of that which is supposed to be familiar is known as the Uncanny. A disruption or disrespect of identity, order, or security is known as the Abject. Gothic literature often evokes disgust and discomfort with ambiguity, or showcases melodramatic sentimentality, or includes heavyhanded symbolism. Gothic literature explores boundaries and deconstructs the rules that keep readers comfortable.

Optionally, Supernatural. As a response to Enlightenment-era science and rationalism, the supernatural found new importance in gothic literature, symbolically and in the evocative emotions it wrought.

The growing edge of genre gothic I think can be found in genre overlap with picaresque stories, detective mysteries, works of libertine sensationalism, science fiction, fairy tales, and dark academia. Quaint tropes are subverted or transformed, and new ones can emerge in the symbolic conversation that works of fiction can strike up with one another. I hope the above criteria remains a useful guide.

Sources:

Peake, Jak. “Representing the Gothic.” 30 April 2013, University of Essex. Lecture. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B51o-1KTJhw

Nixon, Lauren. “Exploring the Gothic in Contemporary Culture and Criticism.” 4 August 2017, University of Sheffield. Lecture. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZP4g0eZmo8

"Why Are Goths? History of the Gothic 18th Century to Now". Wright, Carrie. 17 December 2022. www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrIK6pBj4f8

"8 Aspects of Gothic Books". Teed, Tristan. 19 June 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NULLOYGiSDI

Burke, Edmund. A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful. London, Vernor & Hood, etc., 1798. Originally published in 1756.

Freud, Sigmund. The Uncanny, Penguin Books, New York, 2003. Originally published in 1919.

Kristeva, Julia. Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection, translated by Leon Roudiez, Columbia University Press, New York, NY, 2010. Originally published in 1984.

Commentary and reading list under Read More.

Commentary

I owe to Tristan Teed the idea of framing emergent gothic literature as countercultural to Enlightenment rationalism and science, and this pushback symbolized by wilderness; Dr. Jak Peake for contextualizing gothic literature as an artistic response to civic unrest in general, and highlighting the fear of seductive immigrants in Bram Stroker's Dracula more specifically; Carrie Wright for the feminist readings of the literary references in Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, and Dr. Lauren Nixon framing the term gothic as originally meaning bad art—the lattermost aspect I personally consider integral to the genre as it must remain a constant interrogation of what artistic expression we as a society consider "bad art" and why. Both Wright and Teed inspired the aspects list applied to an otherwise categorization-defiant genre that gothic literature is. Critical Race Theory readings and Queer Theory readings of works considered part of gothic literature canon, I would say are informed by the works themselves being very suggestive of these readings. Sheridan Le Fanu's 1872 Carmilla influenced Rachel Klein's 2002 The Moth Diaries that blurred the lines between the homosocial and the homoerotic at a girl's boarding school. Florian Tacorian (not listed in these citations, but go watch his videos) highlighted Romani presence in adaptations of Victor Hugo's Notre-Dame de Paris, as well as Emily Brontë's 1847 novel Wuthering Heights. The work of another Brontë sister, Charlotte Brontë, is more often mentioned as though closer to the core canon gothic literature, and the eponymous Jane Eyre contends with a Creole woman confined to the attic of her new home (this was written in 1847, the race issue was made explicit in Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys published in 1966 that was a retelling of Jane Eyre.)

Notes on the works of gothic literature mentioned: As of this writing, I have read Northanger Abbey, The Vampyre, Carmilla, Dracula, and only half of Notre-Dame de Paris. I have only watched a movie adaptation of The Moth Diaries. (Update as of the 8th of October 2023: I finished reading The Moth Diaries by Rachel Klein. This whole essay was posted on the 1st of October 2023.) (Update as of December 2023: I finished reading Jane Eyre.) Despite taking the internet handle Poe, American gothic literature is pretty much completely alien to me. I might have read a handful of other works that might be arguably gothic, but have not mentioned them here so I would not count them in a list of works that are mentioned in this essay and that I have personally read. The initial list was a semi-facetious argument for the presence of gothic architecture in gothic literature based on the titles alone. Note also my focus on gothic literature from the British Isles, with a mention of only two titles from Germany (Der Genius by Carl Grosse, translated into the English The Horrid Mysteries by Peter Will; and Der Geisterbanner: Eine Wundergeschichte aus mündlichen und schriftlichen Traditionen by Karl Friedrich Kahlert under the pen name Lawrence Flammenberg, translated into the English Necromancer of the Black Forest by Peter Teuthold that was first published in 1794) and only one from France (Notre-Dame de Paris 1482 by Victor Hugo). This is not to say that there was little to no Romanticist movement in Germany or France in the 18th and 19th centuries compared to Britain. Friedrich Maximilian Klinger's stageplay Sturm und Drang premiered in 1777 and lent its name to a proto-Romantic artistic era that was supremely Sublime and Big Mood Energy. The earliest French gothic novel I could find via a cursory search engine search was Jacques Cazotte's Le Diable Amoureux, 1772, and I deliberately selected Notre-Dame de Paris for mention instead to demonstrate the continued theme of architecture and variety in architecture: churches as well as castles, and to affirm the representation of disability in gothic literature because Quasimodo (a character in the book) is deaf and according to John Green had contacted spinal tuburculosis that left the character hunchbacked. I have not read any of Le Diable Amoureux, let alone the half that gave me the temerity to list Notre-Dame de Paris among these gothic works.

This sparseness is due to my own interest in the emergence of English-language gothic literature focused on Britain between the years 1789 and 1830, in keeping with Ian Mortimer's definition of the Regency era in Britain. That, and the information from the sources I have cited, are what I based the criteria that I offer for what makes a novel genre-compliant to gothic. The narrative psychology and historicist analyses of The Castle of Otranto as an outlier published earlier than the timeframe I confine myself to, is for another essay perhaps written by somebody else. Similarly, my argument for the lineage of picaresque heroes from Paul Clifford to The Scarlet Pimpernel, Don Diego "Zorro" de la Vega, and ultimately the angst-filled cinematic version of Bruce Wayne as overlapping the picaresque with the gothic is a blog post for another time. I have read some works by the Maquis Donatien Alphonse François de Sade and I utterly and unutterably abhor all of it, will the spectre of his abysmal depravity ever cease to haunt me—but I think I can make an argument for his works being gothic even as he argued for himself that they were not; I have no plans of doing so.

My main intention in writing this overview and criteria is to lay the groundwork for examining the overlap between Gothic as a genre and Dark Academia as a genre, which I aim to evaluate in future essays by using this criteria.

List of Works Mentioned Above

The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole (1764)

Le Diable Amoureux by Jacques Cazotte (1772)

The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne by Ann Radcliffe (1789)

The Castle of Wolfenbach by Eliza Parsons (1793)

The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe (1794)

Necromancer of the Black Forest by Lawrence Flammenberg (translated by Peter Teuthold, 1794)

The Horrid Mysteries by Carl Grosse (translated by Peter Will, 1796)

The Italian by Ann Radcliffe (1796)

The Mysterious Warning by Eliza Parsons (1796)

Clermont by Regina Maria Roche (1798)

The Midnight Bell by Francis Lathorn (1798)

Orphan of the Rhine by Eleanor Sleath (1798)

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (1818)

The Vampyre by John William Polidori (1819)

Paul Clifford by Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1830)

Notre-Dame de Paris 1482 by Victor Hugo (1831)

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (1847)

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (1847)

Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu (1872)

Dracula by Bram Stroker (1897)

The Werewolf by Clemence Housman (1896)

The Scarlet Pimpernel by Emma Orczy (1905)

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys (1966)

The Moth Diaries by Rachel Klein (2002)

#dark academia #goth lit #Austenblogging #Northanger Abbey #← my bias #poe.txtwall

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frankensteinshimbo · 1 year

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Frankenstein Pt. 1 - Accidentally Transmale

For the next post in this series click here!

My book club had its first meeting on Sunday night, and I thought it would be a good idea to write down my observations about Frankenstein, Or The Modern Prometheus here. (lmao, I hate how formal that sounds, but my attention to detail will not let me merely post Frankenstein, so anyway)

I've never actually read Frankenstein because my high school teacher was determined that we should read Dracula for our Gothic lessons. I actually cannot emphasize more how much no other class read Dracula. It wasn't in the curriculum for Gothic lit. It just wasn't. The curriculum was set up for Frankenstein by having us start with Pygmalion and the concept of self ownership over yourself versus being shaped by someone else and how that tied into the theme of literary canon as a whole, ect. ect. There is no original work and everything written is a Frankenstein that questions its own authenticity.

We talked about Stoker's religious fear over sexual immorality, and now I am just full of useless literary vampire facts because we went into a rabbit hole of other types of vampirism. That's a whole other story.

As far as Frankenstein goes, I was fairly certain that as far as the themes and structure of the plot, I had nothing to really contemplate on. Because it is just so ingrained into the American psyche. Victor Frankenstein created a monster he did not want and that lived in intellectual abandonment and emotional negligence. There are tiers of understanding to what those themes mean (Frankenstein was the doctor, not the monster; Frankenstein may have been the doctor, but he was also the monster), but I really only expected to find out how Mary Shelley chose to construct the story rather than anything new about it.

But I ended up finding themes of myself in Frankenstein. I think that's by merit of Shelley putting a lot of her childhood into him, which he extrapolates on at length. Of course a male character who can create life and arduously undergoes the labor of doing so only to be horrified by the result will provoke transman questions by coincidence.

His immediate abandonment of something he has spent months looking over, only to cite how aesthetically horrific it is is fucking ridiculous. But. It's also understandable. He cites that as he worked, that he thought things would essentially "buff-out" with animation, but that upon that animation, consequence was what set in.

And I can't say. I cannot say that has not been my horror story in recent years in this country. To force myself to carry something inside of you that you can repress until it's in front of you. That said, Frankenstein still very much sealed his own tomb from the inside. I just find the theming put in front of me all the more potent because of some accidental snag of relatability. And maybe it's not so accidental. It might not be meant for transmen explicitly, but these questions have to be time old for anyone with a womb, and it's an interesting vehicle to launch into the beginning of the bigger horror.

I haven't gone through the whole of the story yet, so I'll be writing stuff piece by piece.

#Frankenstein #Victor Frankenstein #transgender #transman #the modern prometheus #by quinn #Frankenstein Or The Modern Prometheus #Mary Shelley #Here in My Garage #<- Name of the book club #Honestly wouldn't be surprised to find out that this is a common reading #I'm just so isolated from any frankenstein fan club on here lmao

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spookfished · 8 months

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kades big media roundup (august)

hiii! like i said in my last post i spent a big portion of august being sick :| which involved spending like a Lot of the time sitting around playing pikmin 4, going "oh i think im thinking so hard about pikmin that its making me more tired?" and then playing more pikmin anyways. i 100%d this game guys it was so serious

books/comics/written media: paladins strength by ursula vernon: this is part of the saints of iron series, but i dont think context from the other books is really needed! romantasy/murder mystery about a nun and a paladin travelling together to the city by chance… they both have their own agendas but something draws them together 0///0 i found this really fun!! may have too much blood and guts for a pure romance fan but its very sort of pragmatic and down to earth in that ursula vernon way. nice dynamic between the leads, had a delightfully creepy (and sad!) antagonist and wrapped up threads from the previous book very nicely. would recommend 👍

in other words by jhumpa lahiri: semi autobiographical literary fiction about a (pulitzer winning) author who decides to move to italy and start writing exclusively in italian. (its translated!) hmmm as someone who also really loves languages but also doesnt really have the resources or desire to do something like. move to a different country (i mean maybe!) and only speak and write in that language from now on (probably not), it was a really interesting perspective. i was sort of put off by her attitude towards bengali but the whole "triangle of languages" theory makes sense… the writer is very straightforward and honest feeling in a way thats almost irritating sometimes but i think thats how a lot of artists are. and the concept alone is still very interesting.. lol anyways its a very short read so id still recommend 👍

the twisted ones by ursula vernon: horror. a woman is tasked with cleaning out her late hoarder grandmothers' house, located in rural north carolina. this was ursula vernons first horror book, i think! i was a little disappointed bc this wasnt very scary, exactly--but i feel like ive also been learning that even if i startle easily, my horror threshhold is actually very high……? i ended up liking what moves the dead more (it was scarier!) but this still had a fun cast of characters. still worth a read though :3 i enjoyed it

dungeon meshi by ryoko kui(catchup): manga about a group of adventurers looking for their lost friend. stuck in the dungeon for months on end, they resort to eating monsters! ohhhhh my god drags down myface dungeon meshi is literally one of the best manga out there and im glad everyone recognizes this. its about desire and need and the way unfulfilled desires is what propels our lives forward and gives them meaning and also how its SUPER IMPORTANT TO GET 3 NUTRITIOUS MEALS AND SLEEP 8 HOURS and all that. lol. phenomenal art i cant help but think that ryoko kui draws women as only a lesbian can..? highly recommend 👍

witch hat atelier by kamome shirahama(catchup): coming of age/fantasy manga--a girl discovers the secret behind the magic that powers her world. she's determined to use it to save her mother, but it may bring a heavy price--or maybe not at all…? like vita nostra (which i read last month!), this is also a book about learning magic that focuses heavily on pedagogy itself (which in this case is also a direct parallel to learning about art/drawing!). however, unlike vita nostra the characters are more like 10-11, and so it also takes a much more gentle and compassionate approach to how we should learn. but it also tackles some really interesting themes about restriction of information, and if said info should be restricted and why! and sort of digging deeper into the idea of "a secret hidden from the normal world". the art is soooo gorgeous i think its all done by hand? looks like a picture book can honestly get a bit overwhelming. highly recommend 👍

bloom into you: f/f manga about a girl who has never fallen in love, and a girl who never wants to be loved. bloom into you is one of those Yuri Classics that i enjoyed a lot as someone who has complicated feelings about romance :3 theres that really interesting quote thats like "love isnt about wanting someone to change or stay the same. when i say 'i love you,' its an expression of faith that even as you change, youll always be the person i adore"….. very interesting! also the sort of idea that you cant 'no true scotsman' love--you can just decide that you love someone, and then you do? kind of? anyways i thought it was pretty interesting :3

beastars: coming of age manga, set in a world kinda like zootopia but if someone thought about it way more. legosi, a large grey wolf struggles with distinguishing between his carnal desires and his, uh, carnivorous desires. ok EYE really liked it but also i think it handles a lot of themes really weirdly… maybe this is because legosi is just really fucking weird (this is definitely part of it) but in many ways beastars portrays the split between men and women as being even more uncrossable than the split between herbivores and carnivores.. which to me was surprising since the manga itself is written by a woman? definitely look up a TW list if youre planning on reading lol. it definitely has some of the best "what if animals lol" worldbuilding out there. i had louis/legosi/haru ot3 in my heart the whole way through LOL but i, uh, dont really think legosi and haru work as a couple just by themselves .. also the gaybait in here is crazy. i think past the midway or maybe 3/4 point it kinda starts to lose focus, but it still had a lot of compelling drama. yayyy louis beastars i think more theater kids should go through unbelievable self-inflicted pain

beast complex: anthology about the surrounding stories of the ppl of beastars. SO fun many people agree that the best part of beastars was the worldbuilding and this was basically all that. very fun :3

surviving romance: horror/adventure? chaerin wants nothing more than to live her fated fairy-tale life--so much so that people other than her love interest appear as nothing more than extras. one day ZOMBIES ATTACK!!!!11! very fun :33 maybe this is just me but is meta stuff getting more popular because of orv…? its not doing it as well ngl but still entertaining. chaerin trying to gain the trust of ppl that she originally didnt gaf about is fun

video games: pikmin 4: pikmin 4!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! its a game about being 1 inch tall and controlling your hordes of small creatures (pikmin) to gather things like fruits. i think i bought this when i was sick because i saw a post that was like "pikmin cured my executive function" lol everyone who plays pikmin doesnt fucking shut up about what an indie gem it is but theyre kinda right………pikmin is really good…. its all about finding beauty and joy in the small intricacies of this wide world……i know some people were annoyed by the story parts but i thought it was cute idk :] and oatchi was there . recommend if you like games like starcraft or if you like watching ants carry around a giant caterpillar

movies: farewell my concubine: coming of age/literary/tragedy/historical/??? its a wong kar wai movie. dieyi has nothing in his life but the stage, where he plays as the faithful concubine to a doomed king. his life offstage is much more fraught. i would dearly love to read any articles or things about this movie so if you got anything come find me? ALSO if you have the forbidden cancelled broadway adaption script please let me know. im so curious. ok so its a wong kar wai movie so everyone knows its crazy good already. did watch it when i was sick so not super coherent ideas about it but its like omggggg dieyiii hes so doomed. the way it integrated with history was also interesting (i kinda cant believe someone made a rakugo-based adaptaiton of this. bro it doesnt WORK like that) its really interesting that like dieyis single point of friction between himself and consort yu is his gender.. but that constant emasculation is also what allows him to be so unique in theater and have a special bond w xiaolou.. man well it really was a movie. i want to see it again in a couple months maybe..? its about performance and gender and Performance of Gender and sexuality and cyclical violence and art during a time of strife and art as apolitical and also art as very political. and also a lot of other stuff. very awesome

we are the tigers: thriller musical about a terrible group of cheerleaders coming together for the first meeting of the year. and bad shit happens!!! omg i love girls who kill. and girls who kill each other i dont think this was particularly deep or anything but i enjoyed it :3

nope: horror movie about oj and em, two siblings struggling to keep their stunt horse business running after their father dies. ok well like above its a jordan peele movie so of course its very good. scary as well! i loved the themes… i went back to when ppl were talkingabout the movie to see what people said! ngl i kinda thought jupe was going to have a bigger part in the movie but he was cool as he was. idk it was just very enjoyable and had a lot of things to think about. the idea of spectacle and like.. tragedy-voyeurism are something thats really important to examine closely in times like these i think?

when harry met sally: ROMCOM YAYY about a man and a woman meeting each other across multiple periods of their life. literally one of the only romcoms i can remember my dad openly admit to liking it really deserves the hype. its so heartfelt and sweet and genuinely funny and the character development is so good. its like gay people for straight people

how to lose a man in 10 days: romcom about a guy who thinks he can make any girl fall in love vs a girl who is trying to give the worst dating experience possible. um well it was ok? i only really felt the chemistry between the main leads in a couple of scenes (like when she visits his home) it wasnt really funny or romantic enough..? especially given that most of the humor was predicated on LOL LOOK HOW SHITTY AND CONTROLLING GFS CAN BE which is like ok fine. whatever. idk it was ok

annihilation: horror about a group of scientists who go into a unsettling area to see whats wrong with it.. um well i read the book first and i had heard that this was a pretty good adaptation ? a la howls moving castle book vs movie. i thought it was pretty good? but WAY more focused on the horror stuff than the book, and also (bc its a movie) not really able to focus on the characters interiorities as much..? and also like the way the characters slowly lose it in weird ways and their dynamic frays was one of the cooler parts of annihilation (book) to me. i think at the time having queer characters and characters of color and a cast comprised almost entirely of women was a pretty big deal though i think i heard a lot about it on tumblr lol. its hard not to nitpick on lots of details but i thought it was pretty good overall! a lot of the differences that i didnt like that much made sense as a migration from book->movie--like for example if theyd made the mc as cold and unfeeling it would have been harder to have her be a sympathetic movie protagonist. i thought the infidelity plot w the professor was kind of a timewaster though . anyways still recommend 👍

blue beetle: action movie about a guy whos blue and a beetle. i liked this a surprising amount but i also saw it with friends. the first half of the movie is kinda better than the first also being a tokusatsu fan makes me go "wow this would be so much better if it was with suit actors" lol but the first half of the movie was sooo fun i think also had a really good depiction of a genttrifying city which i enjoyed

oppenheimer: historical drama about that one guy. copy pasting my thoughts from discord: even my dad who liked the movie more was like wow… this movie was kinda too long idk i think it was like technically cool in terms of like imagery and sound and actgin and stuff. but i like wasnt really moved LOL. christopher nolan is playing a little game where i have to recognize as many white men in sequence as possible and im going to be real i can manage maybe like 3? also the whole outer shell plot with strauss and misha collins (EDIT: it was not misha collins) who literally unironically said "youre the god of shadows now" (????) was like. um well this is really intricate but also i dont really care…? like am i supposed to have a stake in this…..? and sort of the intertwining of that story combined w the creation of the atomic bomb was like kinda so-so (my inability to tell faces didnt help w this) it was fine but not really my kind of movie. omg i did like the part with like all the thundering applause and stuff but it blows up there was this part where they kept on being like omg the X incident. all this stuff happened with X and i was like wow what is it….. turns out it was literally referring to a recurring character that i neither remembered nor could recognize. sad

us: horror movie about doubles. YESSS SO FUCKING SCARY i watched this on the airplane to school and the old lady sitting next to me had to watch me hyperventilating and clutching my chest and the whole nine yards. definitely the scariest jordan peele movie. man and the twist at the end was so freaking good. i think its the scariest because the danger is so there, and so immediate, but the beginning part of the movie actually succeeded (for me?) in getting you to be invested in the characters as well. i was wondering if maybe the doubles were also supposed to be connected to like ideas of caricature about black people..? it leaves just enough unanswered that youre still scared. and the questions that do get answered leave you with………THE HORRIFYING TRUTH!! god what a good movie

moonlight: coming of age about a boy who struggles with being black and gay during the crack epidemic of the 80s/90s. < sorry if this isnt a good summary i remember this was a pretty important film when it came out.. i watched part of it a couple years ago and then just remembered to finish this month. its a good movie… you kinda just sit with it yk. hm i (obviously?) dont have a lot of experience with black masculinity but i thought it was interesting how vulnerability can be like taken away from you or you can withhold it from yourself..and that can feel or even be really powerful! but its also like never too late to do that until youre dead. waves my hands around

thanks if you got to the end of this :3 stg ive had like 5 books on loan that ive had on loan for several months by now? idk if ill be able to get to them now (its the beginning of the school year..) but hopefully. i will do that soon. me n neil are sort of planning to get into "film bro movies" were watching the shining soon im very excited. see you later!

#txt

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davidmariottecomics · 5 months

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Keeping Your Comic Perspectives Broad

Hi there!

This week, I've had a lot on my mind. I saw a conversation going around Bluesky about whether the big two are publishing comics for kids in a way that's reflective of their multimedia presences. I'm reading Bill Griffith's Three Rocks: The story of Ernie Bushmiller, the Man Who Created Nancy and, somehow, moments after putting it down after reading for a bit this morning, managed to open Bluesky to a creator I like having no idea who Nancy is. Becca and I each read the Palestine section of Joe Sacco's Journalism since it's the only Sacco book I have that I know where it is in the house, unfortunately. And, being a Sunday morning, I did my usual Sunday round-up of new releases on the Shonen Jump app and on Webtoons. Plus all the comics I read as a regular part of my work day--action-adventure with funny animals (Sonic), action-thriller with giant monsters & robots (Godzilla), and pitches and shorts of horror and sci-fi and superheroes and all sorts of stuff. I've enjoyed a lot of different types of comics, and all of that goes back to a different conversation I saw going around earlier on Bluesky, of why comics creators who may not particularly enjoy superhero stories should still recognize the fundamental comics storytelling that they've built and refined over the past almost 100 years.

So, today we're talking briefly on all of that in talking about the importance of keeping your perspectives broad on what the medium is and can be.

Is Nancy the Purest Expression of Comics?

Like... probably! Yeah. Nancy is great, whether you're talking about modern Nancy or classic! It is the only comic I consistently remember to read every day (though I try very hard to keep up with my other two current dailies, Dumbing of Age and Gil Thorp). I am not the first to say that Nancy is a comic inherently about comics, about the format and the ways in which we interact with them. In fact, there's a whole book called How to Read Nancy which contends that you can understand all complexities of comics through a single Nancy strip. Which somehow manages to be a bold claim and something so inherently true if you've ever read Nancy that it almost renders the book superfluous.

Something a lot of folks who are not Nancy-heads probably don't realize is that the strip is *technically* 101 years old. It started as a different strip, Fritzi Ritz, with a different creator, Larry Whittington. Nancy herself showed up in 1933, and accidentally kinda took over. Good for her. And, under Bushmiller's (and later assistants') pen, it became this just really condensed form of comics in usually 3-4 panel gag strips that play with all the conventions of the form. I've mentioned the new Comic Devices site and I genuinely believe you can probably find any of the devices mentioned in the great history of Nancy strips.

With this high pedigree and recognition by many cartoonists and the heights of how big it got as a newpaper comic, you'd think Nancy would be an instantly recognizable character to anyone who has ever read a comic and... she's iconic, no doubt, but especially now, I don't think that's true (see the above where I mentioned a creator I like having no idea who Nancy was).

The Conventions of Superheroes

The reason I bring up Nancy in particular is that Nancy is a comic strip. Yes, Nancy has also been a comic book and many strips are also now digital as well as print, but my point being, outside of a few strip collections and your more literary books like Three Rocks or How to Read Nancy, you aren't going to see a lot of Nancy at your local bookstore or comic shop. And that's also kind of one of the things I love about comics as a medium. While there are obvious downsides too, I do love that comics readers are spoiled with choice. Whatever genre may strike your fancy, whatever method of comics storytelling--single issues, collections and OGNs, webcomics, strips, weird hybrid things, whatever--you can kind of find and enjoy if that's what you want.

I bring this all up in reference to superheroes because there is still, even within creator spaces, I think there tend to be misconceptions about what "superhero comics" are, or bad experiences with superhero comics leading to a rejection of the breadth of that form of storytelling.

Take, for example, the many times I have gone into a bookstore (not usually comic shops, but bookstores) and have seen a display that reads something like "Comics without superheroes" and then it has Sandman on it. I think my local library's had that sort of display too. And I'm like... Martian Manhunter and Doctor Destiny are in volume 1 of this thing. Sandman is very much a part of the DC universe, it's just not telling "traditional" superhero narratives. But it is a book that exists within and because of superhero storytelling. Same with pretty much all of early/retroactively Vertigo--Swamp Thing, Doom Patrol, Animal Man, Hellblazer, Lucifer, that weird Prez one-shot, etc.

Or, alternatively, take the folks who love My Hero Academia and don't have the same relationship with other superhero comics. Yes, the actual forms of them tend to be different, but that thing wears it's Big 2 influences on its sleeve.

I think I'm drifting a bit, so to refocus on the point--even if you don't think you like superhero stories, chances are, there are some that would really resonate with you because superhero stories aren't a monolith. And, y'know, I also sometimes wonder if I'm the one with odd taste because while I may have genre preferences in the types of media I consume, I'm usually pretty flexible with trying different samples from different forms and finding stuff I like even if not everything's for me (like... I'm not a big jazz guy, but there's definitely some that does it for me). And the reason you'll find that there are stories that work for you is superheroes are a vehicle for storytelling the same as many other things. Superhero stories can be political commentary, they can be self-aware, they can be horror or romance or suspense or or sci-fi or sometimes even non-fiction autobiography. What you want is likely there, there just might be some extra footwork to find what you want.

And, if nothing else, you can find some amazing craft within superhero comics. I often link to it because I think it's quite the analysis, but years ago, ComicsAlliance ran a really great multi-part piece on superheroes as the basics of color theory and how that can apply outside the world of superhero comics. So many tricks to lettering and layouts and foreshortening and the ways in which we can create shorthand or pose bodies or create interesting juxtapositions can be found in superhero comics. And that's true of kind of any type of comic. You can find bits that you like there.

The other reason I stress all of this, and one of the other big misconceptions I think people sometimes have about superhero comics, is as I mentioned earlier, I saw a thread questioning basically "Are there comics starring Spider-Verse star, Spider-Gwen, that my middle grader can read?" And the short answer is yes! She's got a major role in Marvel Action: Spider-Man. A lot of her comics runs, honestly, pretty kid-friendly as long as you accept that your kid might have some questions about like... a few instances of word choices or like relationships. Which is how a lot of comics still are--we think of single issue comics that aren't shelved in the kids section as being "child inappropriate" and certainly, some of them are, but a lot of them are fine for an inquisitive kid. And, yes, publishers are trying to make it easier with clearer options for younger folks, like the DC younger reader graphic novels program or Marvel's Scholastic books.

Enjoy a Little of Everything Here's the big takeaway. If you let them be, comics can be a buffet of delights. You can sample so many different things and eat as much as you want and sometimes find, sure, this soup doesn't really work for you, but the one next to it slaps. And I think the best creators are people who recognize that and fully embrace it and try to read a lot of other comics in their various forms and genres and also, of course, consume plenty of other non-comics work too and maybe have some sort of life outside of pop culture. But whether it is trying to stay abreast of what is currently happening in comics to see if someone else is executing a similar idea or to be able to recommend a book to a lost parent or to really be able to seek out the things you personally enjoy and be able to incorporate the best of that into your own work, I think you've got to take comics with a broad perspective.

That's it for me this week! See ya soon!

What I enjoyed this week: Blank Check (Podcast), Reverse 1999 (Video Game), Joe Pera Talks with You (TV show), Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (Anime), Gone Girl (Movie... I might've watched this two weeks ago, but hey, still slaps), Three Rocks (Comic), Journalism by Joe Sacco (Comic), Nancy (Comic), Lego Masters (TV show)

New Releases this week (11/15/2023): Godzilla Rivals: vs. Mechagodzilla (Editor) - As an aside, a couple of my Godzilla creators, Kara Huset from Rivals: vs. Mechagodzilla and Lane Lloyd from an upcoming War for Humanity cover, are going through a bit of a tough time and could use some extra work. If you've got anything to send their way, I can vouch for 'em! They are both creators where in like 3-5 years, you'll be notable for getting them before they blew up!

Final Order Cutoffs next week (11/20/2023): Sonic the Hedgehog #68 (Editor)

New Releases next week (11/22/2023): Brynmore #5 (Editor)

Announcements: Do you have $10, want some cool comics, and also want to do good in the world? Adam Szym put together Comics for Gaza's Children on itch.io. They're already a third of the way to their overall goal and just launched this morning. It's over 100 items from more than 50 creators across a ton of different genres. I have a comic in there because Becca volunteered Jimmy Squarefoot as well as their adult NSFW comic with letterer Duke NuCum, Rivals. All proceeds are going to the Palestine Children's Relief Fund.

If you have more money to give, the Cartoonist Cooperative is doing E-Sim cards for Gaza. You can donate a digital sim card so that residents can get access to the internet and have more functional phones and, in exchange, get some comics or a drawing or whatever else is available from the many participating artists.

You can also give more directly. If you don't have money, and I get it, you can call or fax or email or show up at the offices of your representatives. And, of course, if you need to step away for a bit so that you can do more again later on, please take care of yourself.

And this last part is unlikely, because you're someone who reads and/or works in comics, but if you've still got a couple of dollars, why not support some struggling artists? Aside from those already mentioned, you can visit my webstore, my Patreon, or my Kofi, and you can always visit Becca's portfolio/shop/Patreon/Twitch streams too. Depending on what time I have to go through things and update my shop, I'm hoping to do a little something for Small Business Saturday-Cyber Monday.

Pic of the Week: When Becca and I were grocery shopping the other day, we saw a genuinely very impressively sized eggplant. It was bigger than their hand. And hilarious eggplant as dick aside, honestly, it made us kinda bummed that we don't like eggplant because that's just a really impressive veggie!

#comics #comics editorial #superhero conventions #nancy #fritzi ritz #three rocks #eggplants

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ibrithir-was-here · 4 months

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Ok, tried to post this before but it seemed to disappear so let’s try again 😅 @see-arcane you said there should be a Monster High kid for Algernon Blackwood, so here’s Willa!

#my art #literary horror monster high #monster high #monster high oc #algernon blackwood #the willows

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witchyfashion · 7 months

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Best Horror of the Year, Vol. 1

An Air Force Loadmaster is menaced by strange sounds within his cargo; a man is asked to track down a childhood friend... who died years earlier; doomed pioneers forge a path westward as a young mother discovers her true nature; an alcoholic strikes a dangerous bargain with a gregarious stranger; urban explorers delve into a ruined book depository, finding more than they anticipated; residents of a rural Wisconsin town defend against a legendary monster; a woman wracked by survivor's guilt is haunted by the ghosts of a tragic crash; a detective strives to solve the mystery of a dismembered girl; an orphan returns to a wicked witch's candy house; a group of smugglers find themselves buried to the necks in sand; an unanticipated guest brings doom to a high-class party; a teacher attempts to lead his students to safety as the world comes to an end around them...

What frightens us, what unnerves us? What causes that delicious shiver of fear to travel the lengths of our spines? It seems the answer changes every year. Every year the bar is raised; the screw is tightened. Ellen Datlow knows what scares us; the twenty-one stories and poems included in this anthology were chosen from magazines, webzines, anthologies, literary journals, and single author collections to represent the best horror of the year.

https://amzn.to/46GHmTO

#horror #scary

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lord-of-the-ducks · 2 years

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I’m so glad that people on tumblr are reading Dracula and making memes about it because I’ve been STARVED for Dracula memes for literal years. I have to scour the internet for groups specifically dedicated to the book (and not the god awful 1992 movie, I’ll rant about that another time though) and when I do find these groups and find memes, they’re usually really broad and frankly not very funny. Like, impact font “JONATHAN AT THE CASTLE BE LIKE” sort of thing. I laugh, because my standards are low and I’ve occasionally found some really funny stuff, but I had to actively search for this stuff.

Now hundreds of strangers on tumblr who are infinitely funnier than I am are making memes about Jonathan being a recipe blogger and no joke, I haven’t laughed this hard in years. I also feel like the biggest fucking nerd on the planet because as soon as I see a joke/meme that is specific enough that it shows that the OP actually read Dracula and knows what they’re talking about, I’m on the floor cackling so much that I can’t breathe. It’s like that one post about chefs going nuts for memes about working at a restaurant. . I’m taking so many screenshots just because I want to have more Dracula memes to show people.

Anyway, apologies for the incoming rant, but I vaguely heard that there was someone throwing a fit over people making Dracula memes and not treating the book seriously, and I’m not sure if that’s true or if it’s just a case of the internet being the internet, but let me make something VERY clear as someone who owns 13 books related to Dracula and even more about vampires in general, and has been doing research on Bram Stoker for pretty much my entire high school career, and will probably be doing so years into the future:

This book is fucking ridiculous.

I’ll talk later this month about why I’m so passionate about it (I already scheduled posts for days I think tumblr is going to go crazy) but anyone who tells you that Dracula is a serious gothic horror novel is lying through their teeth. It’s not. People didn’t start taking it seriously until after Bram Stoker died and the book started getting adaptations. Most of the people I’ve seen call Dracula a literary masterpiece don’t seem to actually have read Dracula, they’re just projecting all their feelings about the most well known monster in western fiction onto the book that created him.

I’ve definitely said this before, but if I accomplish anything in my life, I want it to be making classic literature more accessible. I’m the most anti-gatekeeping anyone could possibly be. But if I see any supposed Dracula veterans being pretentious about it, I am going to gatekeep the FUCK out of them because I firmly believe that anyone who has actually read the book should know that it is fucking ridiculous. I’ll be the first to tell you that this book has massive flaws, from the racism and misogyny and internalized homophobia, to the fact that there are just some bad writing choices like describing exactly how the protagonists found all 50 of Dracula’s boxes in way too much detail. Seriously, I was talking to my uncle a couple months back and he told me that he’s reading Dracula since I like it so much, and first thing I did was reassure him that *yes, that part of the book is boring as hell, it could have been a couple sentences, I promise it goes back to being cool*.

Don’t let ANYONE tell you that you’re enjoying this book wrong. I’ve been making some of the jokes about Jonathan having queer dreams from paprika and being the world’s biggest wife guy for years, and it warms my heart to see people who are also finding those things funny. Even if it’s not high brow or whatever, you’re still engaging with the text. And if you are having trouble understanding the 125 year old language, there is no shame in looking things up. There’s a sparknotes study guide with a summary for each chapter, along with character descriptions and analysis, and if you think that would help you, go for it! If you think an audiobook would help you, there’s a bunch of free ones on YouTube since Dracula is in the public domain, and I’m sure you could also find some on other platforms. There’s also an excellent summary done by Overly Sarcastic Productions over on YouTube, and while I do have a couple nitpicks, it’s really funny and engaging and FUN FACT! THE ENTIRE REASON I READ DRACULA WAS BECAUSE THAT VIDEO MADE ME WANT TO! I read this book for the first time already knowing what happens because it’s much easier for me to read older texts when I don’t need to worry about figuring out what the hell is going on!

(Side Note: I didn’t name myself after Red on purpose, but when I realized that I had given myself the same name as the youtuber who introduced me to my favorite book ever and made me fall in love with literature in general, it made my name so much more meaningful)

I know I’m not the only Dracula veteran who feels this way too. I’ve seen so many people who this book means a lot to expressing excitement at the fact that so many people are reading and genuinely enjoying it, and I’m sure if any of them saw someone being an asshole about it, they would not hesitate to drag them through the mud.

This post was longer than I expected, but I just wanted to express how much I love all the memes and that I’m going to unleash my full fury on anyone who has the audacity to suggest that it’s not the “correct” way to enjoy Dracula. Also, if it isn’t clear, I also have a lot of pent up rage at people who shame others who need audiobooks or study guides

#bram stocker's dracula #daily dracula #dracula daily #Dracula

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good-wine-and-cheese · 2 years

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if you’re still doing monster headcanons, what couples costume do you think the characters would wear to costume party with their s/o? 🥺 tysm

Yes I love doing these! Okay so for this I am going to write each response as if the specific character is the one who got to choose the couple theme.

Kenzo Tenm: I feel like Tenma is honestly a bit uncreative when it comes to this sort of thing and, for the most part, would prefer to go with what his partner wants...however if it was up to him, he would probably go with something relatively easy to do, like going as doctors (lol he's already got the outfit) or one of those super easy pre-made costumes from stores, like a superhero or pirate. A younger Tenma might have opted to go as musicians from his favourite groups but I think he might feel he's too old for that now.

Eva Heinemann: She would go all out with this and if her partner doesn't want to put in the effort she would gladly do the entire thing for them or hire professionals for makeup. Theme wise I think she would go for something fun that fits the season of the party, so for Halloween she might do something like a corpse bride/groom but for a more generic party maybe a prince/princess, something like that. But it would always be a traditionally "romantic" theme.

Heinrich Lunge: I actually think Lunge would enjoy coming up with a costume theme a lot. He may be logic brained but he's also very clever and creative. It would depend on who other guests are, because he would definitely want to pick a theme that would make people intrigued. Alternatively: Lunge definitely saw the original star trek (60s) and totally thinks Spock is rad so they would go as star trek characters. No I'm not projecting.

Wolfgang Grimmer: Like Tenma I think he would probably go for a more "traditional/simple" theme, simply because he just isn't used to this sort of thing for himself and would only have minimal social experience with costume parties to know how they would be themed. That said, I feel like he would find humour in having himself and his partner dress up as a classic spy archetype.

Rudi Gillen: Rudi strikes me as someone who deeply enjoys horror and thrillers. I feel like regardless of the time of year, he would choose some sort of monster theme. But he also strikes me as the type who would want to show off his depth of knowledge of a genre, so he might pick monsters from a less "common knowledge" horror story, or a folkloric theme, or the "original" version of a monster from their literary works and explain all of that to any unwitting partygoers who ask. They just wanted to know what the costume is dude.

Nina Fortner: I think Nina enjoys reveling in mundanity. Instead of some sophisticated costume I feel like she'd enjoy dressing up as, say, delivery persons, or construction workers, teachers, just some random everyday profession. She might put a twist in it especially if the party is supposed to have a theme already but generally it's simple stuff like that.

Johan Liebert: I think he would find the premise of a costume party extremely funny, and rather than a particular "theme" would take it to the artistic extreme of dressing up as high level concepts, such as dread or excitement. I don't think they would be especially sophisticated costumes though, just enough of an "outfit" that it expresses the idea he wants. Low budget high concept.

Karl Neumann: Karl doesn't strike me as being super into costume parties, and maybe feeling out of his element coming up with a theme, but he would probably want to pull from what is already familiar to him. I feel like he would pick characters from books he enjoys, or TV or film. He'd definitely put effort into making sure the costumes look good, rather than the store-bought kind.

Jan Suk: Suk is a simple boy with a simple mind. You know he would do cops and robbers. Though who would be the cop and who would be the robber? I feel like he has a hard time letting go of being a cop but for fun he'd switch it sometimes.

Lotte Frank: Absolutely some kind of historical costume. Though not necessarily "prince/princess from a certain time period" I feel like she'd have more fun playing the roles of, say, common folk of different professions. So like, a blacksmith and a farmer or something like that. She'd also try to make it as authentic as possible, so if she chooses a knight she's going to do her best to make period-accurate armour. She LARPs btw

Christof Sviernich: Christof would probably pick something thematically tragic or unsettling. Something like Romeo & Juliet complete with accessory (fake(?)) dagger and poison. Maybe they don't even have the accessories right away but take them out later to completely change the tone of their theme. Something that on the surface people might recognize as sweet but the more you pick up the details the more it becomes a tragedy instead.

#naoki urasawa's monster #monster asks #monster headcanons #also I'm adding to this that Lotte goes to renaissance fairs and so does Lunge but like as the trekkies pretending to be lost in time #probably not really but it's a funny concept #yes really for Lotte tho

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finishinglinepress · 1 year

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FLP CHAPBOOK OF THE DAY: We Are Mary Shelley’s Monster by Danielle Byington

ADVANCE ORDER: https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/we-are-mary-shelleys-monster-by-danielle-byington/

We Are Mary Shelley’s Monster tunes in to #history and the present through poetry from the author’s perspective, as well as how and where those moments exist collectively for the rest of the world. Frequently, #mythology ushers the reader through this chapbook, either in the context of ancient gods and goddesses or modern figures and celebrities. This crafting of the past within the present through familiar names and events intends to highlight the damage done, but also remind us of how we might heal on humanity’s circular path.

Danielle Byington is an educator, author, and artist. Her poetry has been published by various outlets, and her first chapbook is The Absurdity of Origins (Dancing Girl Press, 2019). Byington’s visual art—a significant backdrop to her poetry—has been part of exhibits, public art installations, permanent collections, journals, and cover art. Her ardor for the intersection of language and visual arts manifested in 2020, as she created the educational business Sight into Insight, an ambition which has received a number of grants for research, creating literature-based videos, and a series of paintings. Byington enjoys life with her Shakespearean better half and three ridiculous cats.

PRAISE FOR We Are Mary Shelley’s Monster by Danielle Byington

Danielle Byington’s We Are Mary Shelley’s Monster troubles the divide between the ordinary and the sublime. These poems teeter on the edges of beauty and of horror, wrestling with preternatural muses/demons such as the bronze coil of a dead cottonmouth, “dreaming bad dreams with me / about humanity’s white mouth,” and the haunting image of Sylvia Plath’s strappy high heel shoes. Painterly and literary, Byington’s poems offer “the past stitched to the present” in a remarkable tapestry. Her poems detail “our connection to the red line of history, / and other time-sensitive things like newspapers and flowers.” These poems warn that our breath is dangerous, a possible poison contributing to the deterioration of artifacts and knowledge. Even so, We Are Mary Shelley’s Monster sings with marvel and hope in the face of ongoing threats and decay just “as autumn / referees all things to rust.”

–Emily Rosko, Poetry Editor at Crazyhorse/swamp pink

We Are Mary Shelley’s Monster is a book of brilliant ghosts, of headless snakes, of the moon falling from the sky, of Anna Nicole Smith’s beauty mark, Sharon Tate’s remarkable hair, and Sylvia Plath’s final pair of shoes. Readers encounter the water-bound spirit of Virginia Woolf and chase the troubled genius that haunts the legacy of Zelda Fitzgerald, where even the rain that falls in Asheville is “trying to tap her awake/…easing us all toward paradise.” As a multi-disciplinary artist and a comprehensive scholar of literature, Danielle Byington invites us into the serious collaboration that happens between viewers and texts and reminds us that the world is a text we are reading, from the insurrectionist absurdity of “masculine livestock on the Capitol stairs” all the way back to the light emanating from Plato’s cave. The range of reference and the depth of perception are dazzling in her unforgettable book. Byington creates poems that illuminate our interactions with art and culture, and that prompt us to consider how deeply our lives are made and remade by the works of art we engage.

–Jesse Graves, author of Merciful Days and Said-Songs: Essays on Poetry and Place

Danielle Byington’s We Are Mary Shelley’s Monster paints a portrait of Zelda Fitzgerald poured into air and of a snake’s white skull, of Anna Nicole Smith riding the bareback of methadone and of a rabid dog’s bottomless barks. With these startling poems, Byington gives us beautiful women who have bookended what men have barely started. This is a book full of moments that give us new names for both history and ourselves.

–Karen Salyer McElmurray, author of Wanting Radiance and Surrendered Child: A Birth Mother’s Journey

Please share/please repost #flpauthor #preorder #AwesomeCoverArt #poetry #chapbook #read #poems #history #mythology

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cuntessa-rexy · 1 year

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Behind the bars of the cage

My mind is many things. Demented, twisted, uncouth, promiscuous, sadistic, masochistic, and wandering. With all those things wrapped into one, there is one thing for certain. My mind is a brilliant facade of mystery and mayhem.

What do I do?

I write.

---☆--------------☆---

Below are glimpses of my works and interests, which offer a small step into the confinement of my mind. These little flashes are a reflection of my own literary interests. If you enjoy my style, feel free to message about commissions where I will make your own literary fantasies come true.

What themes do I write about?

Monsters, Furry, Humanoids, High Fantasy, Cyborgs and Robots, Romance, Beasts, Horror, Gore, Macabre moments, Smut, CNC, Captivity, Taboo Kinks, and more.

What will I not write?

Anything that revolves around ages below 18.

If it has themes that could appear to involve a minor, it is a hard no from me.

Though I will write Dd/lg stories, I will ensure all characters are over the legal consenting age.

Navigation:

#TheCuntessa - Main tag. Anything I post will have this tag.

#CuntessaScrolls - These are SFW posts.

#CuntessaBrothelWorks - This is the NSFW Tag

#CuntessaPleasures - This is something really cool I found.

Any tags aside from those will be standard letting you know what the post is about.

#Monsters, #Furries, #Tentacles, and such.

If you found that you enjoy my writing and wish to commission a literary work feel free to use the messages, or check out my Ko-fi by clicking the link above.

I hope all you deviants enjoy yourself in Cuntessa's slice of Euphoria.

#TheCuntessa #CuntessaBrothelWorks #Cuntessa #CuntessaScrolls #CuntessaPleasures #writing #writing commissions #monster fucker #knotty #gorewhore

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darkdoverpseeker · 1 year

Note

🕊 (resending as some details needed to be fixed)

Summary:

18+ F writer, yearning for some *darker themes* and detailed rp. Seeking MxF pairing. Mains as female characters. Currently interested in exploring Incest/taboo themes (brother/sister or stepcest). Favours dead dove: do not eat, (dark) romance, gothic & supernatural horror genres. Desires 70/30 or 60/40 story & smut split.

Platform: discord.

Type: novella(multi-para, multi-message).

oc x oc.

Like/interact with post if interested!

I'm a detailed writer, and avid brainstormer who would love to rp alongside an 18+ partner very into the collaborative aspect of rp– this includes engaging in in-depth planning before rp begins and during rp stages, headcanons, oc-developing, pinboards, playlists, and other interactive aspects.

I operate on a equal-effort system, this means if i'm sending multiple messages worth of planning and hcs, I expect the same back and similarly, if you offer me this– I will provide both feedback and similar effort :)

To add more background detail:

Hi! I'm an 18+ F writer that's itching for a very specific kind of dark rp. Essentially, I've recently garnered an interest in very taboo & forbidden relationships, specifically the idea of an incestual/stepcest relationship, featuring ideas of codependency and obsession, dwindling sanity, and the festering of immoral desire. Now, I don't condone such themes outside of writer, but I've recently found the idea of incest interesting in a purely literary way, so I would like to find a detailed/seasoned/interested writer who may be willing to explore the theme of incest in an rp, where there is also a darker background plot to spur things forward and create a very eerie atmosphere...

After all, it could be interesting to pursue and apply psychological reasonings to explain why the characters can engage in this taboo of a brother & sister lusting for one another without recoiling, and I think molding the environment to be one that only facilitates and pushes them further together would be intriguing. Therefore, I do think a heavy theme like incest would be very suited to a plot with supernatural/gothic horror elements, in either a modern or historic setting, where the characters belong to powerful families in their hierarchy, where they have a role akin to soldiers or rulers, all so there is a high potential for scandal, isolation, and corruption aspects to be in place. Maybe pseudo-religious vibes, unhinged actions, demons/monsters/angels, and dark morality could be present as secondary themes. Truly, I do think a plot akin to the tv show 'supernatural' could work well, or one that's more 'got/hod-ish' and I'm also willing to experiment to find a plot that works and suits both mine and my partners tastes and the characters.

In terms of the dark romance, I'd love to have themes like obsessions & corruption play a huge part in the character's decision to pursue one another. Dub-con/non-con aspects are welcome. Gore is also fine. Other smut/nsfw/kink aspects can be discussed in dms.

Really, more than just writing the taboo- I want to do an exploration of the psychology behind pursuing a relationship of this sort. What would drive these two forbidding beings together, when no sane person could ever fathom the idea of them coming together? What was so different about them that they could not help choosing each other? Where and why did things go wrong for them? And alongside this, I'd also like to explore the aftermath of the taboo/forbidden relationship– I really want to write about the obsession&possessiveness that plagues the characters as they embark into that dark relationship- their persistence, the secrecy, the way they'll lash out at the slightest idea of the other wanting an out, the hot&heavy ideas of knives or guns at the others' throats, fierce arguing to wild kissing, sneaking around and threats to reveal the others dark secrets, killing people all for the sake of their love, insanity, and debauchery just unleashed ...

I'm very into headcanoning and planning and detailed discussion about the characters, themes, and their development in ooc, and would love a partner who is into the same.

(Note: I only write female characters and so, I'd love to find a partner of any gender (strong preference for other female writers, but this isn't strict) to take up the M role in this rp.)

like if interested!

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