richard siken crush: “litany in which certain things are crossed out” \\ josé saramago cain \\ richard snow and dirty rain \\ namwali serpell the furrows \\ ??

kofi

i think actually knowing how a story is going to end is really important sometimes, like you simply can not have that impending sense of Dread set in Right if you don't know where it's headed. you can't interact with it in the same way people interacted with stories for hundreds of years knowing how it was going to end before they ever even heard it for the first time it's ending was so fundamental to the world they lived in

“Fairy tales, then, are not responsible for producing in children fear, or any of the shapes of fear; fairy tales do not give the child the idea of the evil or the ugly; that is in the child already, because it is in the world already. Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon.”

— G.K. Chesterton

the thing about writers is that we will find a story that fulfills one specific niche and proceed to consume it repeatedly while analyze every detail in order to reproduce the exact emotion it evokes in us within our own works

I saw this movie about the power of stories and I've been thinking about how important our own stories are. Our own history matters, what made us who we are matters, but the stories we tell ourselves matter too. How we narrate our lives. How we feel about ourselves helps to shape how we present to the world. I think we all want to be the protagonist in our own lives, but we often push ourselves aside and don't prioritize the most basic of needs. I believe I should narrate my own life, I believe I can talk gently with myself as I narrate it. I can be understanding with my own issues instead of so critical about them. I can walk this world and not feel shame for taking place in it just imperfect as I am.

am i not enough? have i not torn myself to shreds for you? have i not pulled from the back of my mouth my molars to gift them to your greed?

is it not my blood on your cheek and my tears on your palms? have i not rubbed myself raw, dear, to give you -

this is the way the story goes. it is as old as the molten stone beneath us. there is only one way to cast it.

come. let me play for you the way i have stretched my smile from one corner of my mouth to the next. let me give you my vocal chords.

watch me unravel my lungs. they're yours, see.

until the story ends my heartbeat. until the story picks flesh from bone. until you reach the end of me, i am yours.

darling thing, you're reading me to death.

yeah

call ur mom The Narrative the way she fucks me a lot

kitty ^

Stories and Healing

The child is sick. The mother carries it to bed and sits down next to it. And then she starts to tell stories. What is one supposed to make of that? [...] We know about healing through stories from the Merseburg Incantations. It is not only that they repeat Odin's wording; rather they tell of the circumstance, the reason that he first used them. What's more, one knows how the story that the sick tells the doctor at the beginning of the treatment can become the beginning of the healing process. This prompts the question of whether the story can establish the right climate and conditions for some curative treatments. Whether perhaps every illness was curable if it only passed down the river of narration far enough – right to the mouth. Considering how pain is a dam which withstands the stream of narration, one can clearly see that it is broken through where the declivity is steepest and everything which stands in its way is being carried into a sea of fortunate forgottenness. The caress forms the bed for this stream.

"Denkbilder", Walter Benjamin and Asja Lacis (Projekt Gutenberg DE) (emphasis mine)

Let go of the heavy laws of the commercial publication world! Let go of the idea that canon is the only reality worth thinking about! Remember your ancestors and their oral epics! REJOICE and FROLIC with your FRIENDS' OCS! REJOICE and FROLIC with their HEADCANONS and FANFICTIONS!

marie howe (interviewed for bomb magazine by victoria redel) \\ geetanjali shree tomb of sand

kofi

love stories where english empire comes up against the flesh-and-blood reality of a god and culture beyond its narrow understanding of the world and the encounter strips away the finery of colonialism and reveals utter fucking violence underneath. the terror where hickey tries to dominate the tuunbaq after his decimation of a netsilik family and is eviscerated for it. apostle 2018 where thomas can only understand to free the goddess after his experience of the fury and fear and violence of the boxer rebellions. there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy :)

Me, after forgetting to cut the top off an onion before dicing it: “Aw dammit”

The Gordon Ramsey that lives in my head: “Don’t worry there, this mistake isn’t going to ruin anything. No need to be too hard on yourself”

Me: “Wow, that’s…not what I was expecting”

Gordon: “Of course, you ought to know by now that I don’t shout at cooks just to do so. I do it because the people in hit television show Kitchen Nightmares are putting their services out into the public and claim to be good enough to have the title of head chef. You’re just some guy in your twenties making beef stroganoff for yourself and your roommate. I’m kind of a dick, yeah, but I’m not gonna scream at you for a minor mistake like this”

Me: “Oh….well…thanks”

Gordon: “You’re welcome…cunt…”

We do not enjoy a story fully at the first reading. Not till the curiosity, the sheer narrative lust, has been given its sop and laid asleep, are we at leisure to savor the real beauties.

— C. S. Lewis, ‘On Stories’

Some spins on the "mostly male team with a token woman" trope:

The woman is trans and stayed in her old circle of bros even after transition

The woman is the only one in her circle of "girls" who didn't turn out to be a trans man

Preview of Sam Long’s story, drawn by the amazing Cynthia Yuan Cheng! (@cynthiaycheng, cynthiaycheng.com)

Becoming Who We Are Kickstarter ends Dec 14! Preorder now to help us fund the book!

bit.ly/becomingkickstarter