Serious post
Here is an actually serious post about my problems with escapism/depression. I have put it under a cut for convenience.
COLDFIRE FANART OMFG LET ME LOVE YOU *FLAILSQUEE* Aherm. Yes. Yes Good. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH *SQUEE* No but but Tarrant looking all smirky and evil and pretty and thank you for making my morning :D
COLDFIRE FANS. They’re out there!
The Atlantic: It sounds like you’re saying that literary “talent” doesn’t inoculate a writer—especially a male writer—from making gross, false misjudgments about gender. You’d think being a great writer would give you empathy and the ability to understand people who are unlike you—whether we’re talking about gender or another category. But that doesn’t seem to be the case. Junot Diaz: I think that unless you are actively, consciously working against the gravitational pull of the culture, you will predictably, thematically, create these sort of fucked-up representations. Without fail. The only way not to do them is to admit to yourself [that] you’re fucked up, admit to yourself that you’re not good at this shit, and to be conscious in the way that you create these characters. It’s so funny what people call inspiration. I have so many young writers who’re like, “Well I was inspired. This was my story.” And I’m like, “OK. Sir, your inspiration for your stories is like every other male’s inspiration for their stories: that the female is only in there to provide sexual service.” There comes a time when this mythical inspiration is exposed for doing exactly what it’s truthfully doing: to underscore and reinforce cultural structures, or I’d say, cultural asymmetry.
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WRITEITREADITKILLIT: Junot Diaz on Men Who Write About Women This is very important to me and very well put. And it’s definitely not just men… Many women writers are equally oblivious, and unless they actively fight against the current, they fall into the same trap. I feel like it’s especially true coming from a fandom-based background: many young female writers are so enamored of their favorite male protagonists that they unwittingly adopt an almost misogynistic story structure where they put their hero on a pedestal and give the bare minimum attention to female characters, or even actively put them down. Also. I recently read a book series by a female author with a “strong female protagonist” but it turned out the only relevance she had in the end was to produce a CHILD. I was seriously annoyed. |
Occasionally, there arises a writing situation where you see an alternative to what you are doing, a mad, wild gamble of a way for handling something, which may leave you looking stupid, ridiculous or brilliant -you just don’t know which. You can play it safe there, too, and proceed along the route you’d mapped out for yourself. Or you can trust your personal demon who delivered that crazy idea in the first place.
Trust your demon.
Trust your demon.
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| — | Roger Zelazny (via writersrelief) |
Speaking of things I drew, here is a thing I drew. It will go on a shirt. I am hoping the shirt will be gray, but it looks okay on black too.
Desire to draw Coldfire Trilogy fanart only getting worse. And may start leaning more towards slash. Haven’t been down THAT path in a while!
Friends/followers: if you feel it is in your best interest to block #coldfire with Tumblr Savior, I understand D:
When I think of Damien Vryce I automatically picture Daniel Craig if that helps any ._. (such a Tarrant fangirl)
Let’s definitely roll with that. Because Daniel Craig is the hottest.
So, for some reason when I think of Gerald Tarrant I think of Richard from Tales of Graces. And Andrys must look like Howl from Howl’s Moving Castle.
But together, Vryce and Tarrant look like Guts and Griffith from Berserk. Because of the homoerotic undertones the similar themes/relationship between the characters.
I DON’T KNOW IF YOU KNOW WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT I’M SORRY
I ONLY THINK IN TERMS OF CARTOONS
Never be a self-employed artist on your taxes if you can help it (and I CAN’T help it T_T)
It’s very expensive and confusing and painful.
Trust no one, my friend. No one. Not your most grateful freedman, not your most intimate friend, not your dearest child, not the wife of your bosom. Trust no one.” Especially on April Fool’s Day!
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I, Claudius. Herod’s caution to that clever fool, Claudius- (via 38nvc38)
Oh, mom. |
How my family declared an all-out April Fools’ Day war
The players:
Myself, Rachel and Hilary all live together and share an internet connection.
My mom: Traditionally helps me and Hilary prank my dad every year.
My dad: Gullible as all get-out.
Dede: My dad’s wife. Used to work for AT&T.
Hilary, Rachel and I had this brilliant prank idea to call my dad and tell him that we were being contacted by Comcast and the FBI, and were suspected of dabbling in illegal internet piracy. We would have my mom send him worried emails and claim that we had received several calls requesting an investigation. It was just believable enough to work.
First thing I did was call my mom to let her in on it and brief her on her role. I started out with a friendly April Fool’s Day greeting of “Can you leave work on short notice? My car broke down on the freeway,” which got her pretty good, but I quickly let her know all was well, and that I had just been warming up for the real debacle we were about to instigate. She, too, could play a part in our historical prank!
Mom readily agreed and shot off a couple of pretty believable concerned parent emails to Dad.
Shortly afterwards, we got a call from my dad, which I put on speakerphone for the benefit of my roommates, who had difficulty suppressing their laughter as I put on quite a show. I made up stories of downloaded software and ill-gotten serial numbers, movies, TV shows… all quite convincingly. I even made my voice go high pitched and panicky at critical moments. Finally, I put on a brave front and told him I would try to look into it further and call him back.
Then the shit hit the fan.
I called my mom up to let her know how our prank was progressing thus far, when I was interrupted by another call from my dad, who proceeded to let me know that he had called a lawyer who was asking for a $5000 retainer. That’s my dad for you— he always goes over the top and had a tendency to jump the gun. Not only that, but Dede, his wife, was on the phone with some of her friends at AT&T, looking into how Comcast could be tracking our internet usage, and what were our rights, etc.
I told him to STOP CALLING PEOPLE but I couldn’t really come up with a good reason why. He reluctantly agreed, and I hung up and immediately called my mom, telling her the jig was up, and that we had to reveal all to Dad, lest he call the police or spend any money on a lawyer! BUT, Mom was in a conference and wouldn’t be free until 1:30. She desperately wanted to be there for the big reveal, so we’d have to hold Dad off for another forty-five minutes while he freaked out and probably called everyone he knew and got us all in trouble.
Then, neither he nor Dede answered their phones while I called them each at least three times trying to sort things out.
When Dad FINALLY called me back, I told him we were on the phone with Comcast and that everything was being sorted out so please stop taking this so far and stop calling lawyers! (That would buy us some time while mom finished up her meeting.)
Then, to be on the safe side, I spoke to Dede privately and let her in on the prank, telling her to keep an eye on Dad and to stop him from doing anything drastic.
With a sigh of relief I turned to my roommates to have a good laugh at Dad’s gullibility and insane overreation. Then the phone rang again.
It was my mom, my dad, and Dede, on conference call, letting me know that (as you have probably guessed) THEY HAD KNOWN ALL ALONG that we were pranking them, and the whole time I’d been putting on my best show for them, they too had been acting, had never called anyone, and best of all, were laughing at my gullibility.
Turns out my mom was a little sore about being taken in by my initial “car broke down on the freeway” joke, so in retaliation, the first thing she did after I proposed the prank was call my Dad and give him the opportunity to pay us back for all the years of April Fools’ Day agony we had inflicted.
There’s a lesson in this:
MOM IS A TURNCOAT
