USian in Spain. accidentally started an unofficial cat refuge. they/them. I'm sorry but I talk about sports sometimes
Oct 2, 2018 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
An important thing white women have to understand, accept, and work against:
yes, we are marginalized by white men but when it comes to non-white people? We are not marginalized. We are not powerless. We are not just innocent unwilling victims of supremacy. We are active agents
The way we enact racialized violence is by playing up our status as "pure" in the eyes of white men. We utilize the idea that we are resources to the perpetuation of whiteness. It's why our tears are such brutal weapons when turned against BIPOC
Sep 23, 2018 • 14 tweets • 3 min read
SELECTIONS FROM "THE CAT'S BOOK OF SAINTS": A THREAD
The Half-Burnt Saint
Aug. 21
Walked away from a fire without harm but forever carried the scent of burnt fur and wore a wreathe of acrid smoke. Protects city cats from fires. Those pledged to him leave offerings of embers, ash, and salted cod
Sep 15, 2018 • 14 tweets • 3 min read
Hey so I wanna talk for a bit about older men and younger girls. By younger I mean 18-21 year-old girls and by older I mean men who are 10 or so years older than these girls
I was one of those girls. From 18-21 I was the "older man magnet," the girl who was always dating men significantly older than me. And I was exactly the kind of girl you'd imagine: smart, no self-confidence, desperate for approval/validation
Sep 9, 2018 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
For #ShakespeareSunday I present to you a thread of Shakespeare's plays but the characters are all cats
HAMLET
Cat Ghost: My brother murdered me
Cat Hamlet: k
Cat Ghost: don't you care?
Cat Hamlet: nah
Cat Ghost: that's my boy
Sep 6, 2018 • 16 tweets • 3 min read
Ok the issue re: Bannon and whether or not he should be given space in which to propose his ideas of genocide and white supremacy are valid. I think too many people are forgetting that one of the core foundations of the Bannon/Trump age is built on "internet trolling"
Meaning the methodology of Trump and Bannon is geared toward the idea that winning is about how many people you """trigger"""/anger/upset/offend
Aug 28, 2018 • 12 tweets • 2 min read
A LADIES' GUIDE TO SURVIVING GOTHIC FICTION
1. If your family falls on hard times, I know it's incredibly tempting to marry the mysterious nobleman who asks for your hand. But first ask the name of his dark brooding manor house. If it's anything like Darkwood or Devil's Grove or Hell's Gate politely refuse the offer
Aug 23, 2018 • 23 tweets • 9 min read
FISH SPECIES, THE NAMES OF WHICH COULD SERVE AS OLD-TIMEY INSULTS: A THREAD
1. HUMPHEAD PARROTFISH (arkive.org/humphead-parro…)
Aug 21, 2018 • 20 tweets • 4 min read
HOW TO ENVISION THE POSSIBILITY OF A HOPEFUL DYSTOPIA: A THREAD
"hope" and "dystopia" as concepts seem to be fairly diametrically opposed but they aren't. Not really. Dystopia has come to mean a world that's fallen, broken, become a dangerous and deadly place. But that definition ignores one important thing:
Aug 21, 2018 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
People who think that socialism/universal income would destroy human productivity and ruin the desire to do things.....do you have any idea how much MORE could be done if we weren't spending every waking moment working ourselves to death?
Imagine the books. The art. The music.
Imagine all the words, the pictures, the sculptures, the machines, the things we could produce if we had the space to do it. Imagine all we could contribute to humanity if we had that freedom. Imagine how much fuller, richer the world would be
Aug 20, 2018 • 18 tweets • 4 min read
MAGIC IN THE TRUMP ERA: A THREAD ABOUT WHAT FANTASY NEEDS TO BE IN A TIME OF LOOMING DANGER
There's a conservative streak in fantasy fiction we tend to overlook, or wish away. We don't want to believe our bearded mentors and our boarding schools rife with structure and tradition are ways of enforcing systemic obedience. But they are.
Aug 17, 2018 • 15 tweets • 7 min read
TEN WORKS BY BRUEGEL THE ELDER THAT COULD INSPIRE LIKE A HUNDRED FANTASTICAL STORIES EACH: A THREAD
Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Dutch Master. DEEPLY WEIRD.
BtE painted some massively weird paintings that, of course, are all tied to Christian morality and junk but if we look past the moralizing and focus on the PLETHORA OF GROTESQUES, we find INSPIRATION
Aug 15, 2018 • 18 tweets • 5 min read
BOOKS THAT, UNLIKE HARRY POTTER, ACTUALLY DO HAVE INNOVATIVE MAGIC SYSTEMS: A THREAD
Inspired by this rant from last night:
I get SO IRRATIONALLY ANGRY when I see the Harry Potter series on "Most Interesting/Original Magic Systems" book lists. Like. Sweet Teething Jesus there is so very little original about the Harry Potter magic system. It's basically the Standard Fantasy Magic System tbh
Like. Even if you enjoy Harry Potter you have to admit that waving a magic wand and saying vaguely Latin-ish words is not....original. Or particularly interesting. Which is fine. You don't need to have a Totally Original System to have a good book!
Aug 14, 2018 • 13 tweets • 2 min read
Oh hey it's time for another writing exercise/procrastination adventure that I probably won't finish but will at least be fun
1 like = 1 magic system I'll come up with off the top of my head
1. A magic system based on the manipulation of fungal networks. Control of the fungal wires that span whole forests give these magic workers insight into the language of trees and if they master the magic, they can grow cities like forests using the fungal expanse
Aug 10, 2018 • 12 tweets • 2 min read
WHAT CATS KNOW ABOUT HUMANS: A THREAD
1. They know we cannot see well in the dark so in the small hours of the night when we are most vulnerable they hunt the formless things that hunger for us.
Aug 9, 2018 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
I just want fantasy and scifi written for adults, about adults, that isn't a grimdark tangle of hopelessness and violence. I just want the aesthetics of the best YA fantasies transformed into stories for adults.
I like YA! I think so much of it is so well done!
But I want to read books written for an adult audience. I don't want to invade spaces made for teens and I want books that are written for me.
Aug 5, 2018 • 33 tweets • 6 min read
ALTERNATIVES TO STEAMPUNK: A THREAD
First off: steampunk is definitely cool and I understand its appeal. The fusion of technological aesthetics with literary material so many of us grew up knowing (Jules Verne, HG Wells, etc.) provides a fertile ground for stories and art.
Aug 3, 2018 • 16 tweets • 5 min read
SO YOU WANT TO WRITE A MEDIEVAL EUROPE-BASED FANTASY BUT YOU DON'T WANT TO BE AN UNORIGINAL TOLKEIN/MARTIN CLONE: A THREAD OF SUGGESTIONS
Look we think of the Middle Ages in Europe as a dour procession of plagues and God stuff. And there were plenty of plagues and lots of God stuff! And also rugged manly bearded knights on white steeds with noble eyes or whatever. But that's boring.
Jul 23, 2018 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
Hi I'm gonna talk about libraries ok?
My early childhood was a dangerous place. My father was a deeply wounded man who made sure everyone around him was wounded too, mostly his wife and children. My mother walked a very thin line. Libraries were a refuge
We had no money that my father wouldn't drink away. My mother had so few options for her children, so few safe places for us, When we lived in Trenton, NJ we had the library and free museum days and that was it
Jul 17, 2018 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
HEY OK ANOTHER WORLD HISTORY WORLDBUILDING THREAD!
This one is gonna be kind of short because I took some benadryl and might fall asleep BUT UNTIL THEN: BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS ABOUT ANCIENT MIGRATION
Link to past thread 1: