Yeah, Irene Totally Abhors Mornings.

Oh my god, yes! That would be awesome and I’d read the hell out of it!

Raziel referring to Kai as Irene's Prince makes me want to write a fic about them getting trapped in a fairy tale. I do not need more ideas until I finish what has already been started

Ooh this is cool! And for sure counts as evil, you’re on the way up in the villain stakes, at the moment I think you’re a local nuisance villain but you’re stepping it up.

Kissing prompt #2 with Silver x Kai because it's Sunday

“Can I kiss you?” Kai tried to not snort too derisively. “Have you never been curious about kissing a Fae? How… narrowminded? I thought that you would be more adventurous than that. Keep it in the species? Oh, that would make miss Winters is the exception.” Kai turned to snap at him but stopped short, lips parted to bitterly spit out some pithy remark, but it died on his tongue.

Kai had some protection against Fae, due to his inherent nature as a dragon, and a noble born one at that, glamours could be cut through, a warm knife through butter. Most of the time. Sometimes he was caught off guard and he found himself swept up in the flow of a narrative, and even though he knew that it was all a story, he couldn’t get himself out of the current he was drowning within.

He was beginning to see why Irene was always so tense around Silver.

She was steeling herself against the man’s powers.

Something Kai was beginning to wish he knew how to do.

“Has the cat got your tongue?” Silver asked, he smirked and tilted his head ever so slightly, lavender hair catching the light and seemed to be threaded with gossamer. He slowly blinked his golden eyes, the pupils were wider than normal, something only usually seen in Silver at the end of a very long party with plenty of liquor, or when he chose to turn his eyes to a new prey.

“Shut up.” Kai forced out between gritted teeth, the small voice at the back of his head, that he wished he could gag, wished that Silver keep talking with that low, stroking, purring voice, in tones not unlike music.

Silver pouted. He flicked the tip of his tongue out to wet his lips and Kai swallowed thickly, the tension in his spine intensified and it was hard to not move toward Silver and take him in his arms and kiss him and-

Kai screwed his eyes shut and took a shaky breath, trying to breath deeply, but his lungs failed him.

“Did I touch a nerve, my dear prince?”

“I said shut up.” Kai opened his eyes again and managed a small reprieve when Silver took a slight step back, mildly alarmed by the red glow that Kai’s eyes had taken on. “You are a disgusting creature. I can tolerate working with the Fae, I can accept that we need to find a way to live in harmony, but I will never tolerate the way that you try to use people like they are nothing but your playthings.”

“They enjoy being my playthings. Believe me, I ensure that each and every one of them enjoys it.” He paused, and then. “I’d make sure that you enjoyed every moment that you would spend in my bed. We don’t even have to use the bed, if you prefer.” Kai would have hit him, he wanted to know what that flawless skin felt like under his…

No. He refused to allow himself to be drawn in by this creature.

He swallowed again and the red faded out of his eyes, like dying embers.

“So, can I?” Silver asked, taking another step forward.

“Can you what?” Kai sneered.

“Can I kiss you? I have never kissed a dragon before.”

“I will not be a notch in your bed post.”

“Oh, dear prince, we could be so much more than that.”

Does this continue to add to me being evil? First I start killing off everyone, and now I wont let anyone get a kiss.

Essays

Here’s a (non-exhaustive) list of essays I like/find interesting/are food for thought; I’ve tried to sort them as much as possible. The starred (*) ones are those I especially love

also quick note: some of these links, especially the ones that are from books/anthologies redirect you to libgen or scihub, and if that doesn’t work for you, do message me; I’d be happy to send them across!

Literature + Writing

Godot Comes to Sarajevo - Susan Sontag

The Strangeness of Grief - V. S. Naipaul*

Memories of V. S. Naipaul - Paul Theroux*

A Rainy Day with Ruskin Bond - Mayank Austen Soofi

How Albert Camus Faced History - Adam Gopnik

Listen, Bro - Jo Livingstone

Rachel Cusk Gut-Renovates the Novel - Judith Thurman

Lost in Translation: What the First Line of “The Stranger” Should Be - Ryan Bloom

The Duke in His Domain - Truman Capote*

The Cult of Donna Tartt: Themes and Strategies in The Secret History - Ana Rita Catalão Guedes

Never Do That to a Book - Anne Fadiman*

Affecting Anger: Ideologies of Community Mobilisation in Early Hindi Novel - Rohan Chauhan*

Why I Write - George Orwell*

Rimbaud and Patti Smith: Style as Social Deviance - Carrie Jaurès Noland*

Art + Photography (+ Aesthetics)

Looking at War - Susan Sontag*

Love, sex, art, and death - Nan Goldin, David Wojnarowicz

Lyons, Szarkowski, and the Perception of Photography - Anne Wilkes Tucker

The Feminist Critique of Art History - Thalia Gouma-Peterson, Patricia Mathews

In Plato’s Cave - Susan Sontag*

On reproduction of art (Chapter 1, Ways of Seeing) - John Berger*

On nudity and women in art (Chapter 3, Ways of Seeing) - John Berger*

Kalighat Paintings  - Sharmishtha Chaudhuri

Daydreams and Fragments: On How We Retrieve Images From the Past -  Maël Renouard

Arthur Rimbaud: the Aesthetics of Intoxication - Enid Rhodes Peschel

Cities

Tragic Fable of Mumbai Mills - Gyan Prakash

Whose Bandra is it? - Dustin Silgardo*

Timur’s Registan: noblest public square in the world? - Srinath Perur

The first Starbucks coffee shop, Seattle - Colin Marshall*

Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Mumbai’s iconic railway station - Srinath Perur

From London to Mumbai and Back Again: Gentrification and Public Policy in Comparative Perspective -  Andrew Harris

The Limits of “White Town” in Colonial Calcutta - Swati Chattopadhyay

The Metropolis and Mental Life - Georg Simmel

Colonial Policy and the Culture of Immigration: Citing the Social History of Varanasi - Vinod Kumar, Shiv Narayan

A Caribbean Creole Capital: Kingston, Jamaica - Coln G. Clarke (from Colonial Cities by Robert Ross, Gerard J. Telkamp

The Colonial City and the Post-Colonial World - G. A. de Bruijne

The Nowhere City - Amos Elon*

The Vertical Flâneur: Narratorial Tradecraft in the Colonial Metropolis - Paul K. Saint-Amour

Philosophy

The trolley problem problem - James Wilson

A Brief History of Death - Nir Baram

Justice as Fairness: Political not Metaphysical - John Rawls*

Should Marxists be Interested in Exploitation? - John E. Roemer

The Discomfort You’re Feeling is Grief - Scott Berinato*

The Pandemic and the Crisis of Faith - Makarand Paranjape

If God Is Dead, Your Time is Everything - James Wood

Giving Up on God - Ronald Inglehart

The Limits of Consensual Decision - Douglas Rae*

The Science of “Muddling Through” - Charles Lindblom*

History

The Gruesome History of Eating Corpses as Medicine - Maria Dolan

The History of Loneliness - Jill Lepore*

The Anti-Che - Jay Nordlinger

From Tuskegee to Togo: the Problem of Freedom in the Empire of Cotton - Sven Beckert*

Time, Work-Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism - E. P. Thompson*

All By Myself - Martha Bailey*

The Geographical Pivot of History - H. J. Mackinder

The sea/ocean

Rim of Life - Manu Pillai

Exploring the Indian Ocean as a rich archive of history – above and below the water line - Isabel Hofmeyr, Charne Lavery

‘Piracy’, connectivity and seaborne power in the Middle Ages - Nikolas Jaspert (from The Sea in History)*

The Vikings and their age - Nils Blomkvist (from The Sea in History)*

Mercantile Networks, Port Cities, and “Pirate” States - Roxani Eleni Margariti

Phantom Peril in the Arctic - Robert David English, Morgan Grant Gardner*

Assorted ones on India

A departure from history: Kashmiri Pandits, 1990-2001 - Alexander Evans *

Writing Post-Orientalist Histories of the Third World - Gyan Prakash

Empire: How Colonial India Made Modern Britain - Aditya Mukherjee

Feminism and Nationalism in India, 1917-1947 - Aparna Basu

The Epic Riddle of Dating Ramayana, Mahabharata - Sunaina Kumar*

Caste and Politics: Identity Over System - Dipankar Gupta

Our worldview is Delhi based*

Sports (you’ll have to excuse the fact that it’s only cricket but what can i say, i’m indian)

‘Massa Day Done:’ Cricket as a Catalyst for West Indian Independence: 1950-1962 - John Newman*

Playing for power? rugby, Afrikaner nationalism and masculinity in South Africa, c.1900–70 - Albert Grundlingh

When Cricket Was a Symbol, Not Just a Sport - Baz Dreisinger

Cricket, caste, community, colonialism: the politics of a great game - Ramachandra Guha*

Cricket and Politics in Colonial India - Ramchandra Guha

MS Dhoni: A quiet radical who did it his way*

Music

Brega: Music and Conflict in Urban Brazil - Samuel M. Araújo

Color, Music and Conflict: A Study of Aggression in Trinidad with Reference to the Role of Traditional Music - J. D. Elder

The 1975 - ‘Notes On a Conditional Form’ review - Dan Stubbs*

Life Without Live - Rob Sheffield*

How Britney Spears Changed Pop - Rob Sheffield

Concert for Bangladesh

From “Help!” to “Helping out a Friend”: Imagining South Asia through the Beatles and the Concert for Bangladesh - Samantha Christiansen 

Gender

Clothing Behaviour as Non-verbal Resistance - Diana Crane

The Normalisation of Queer Theory - David M. Halperin

Menstruation and the Holocaust - Jo-Ann Owusu*

Women’s Suffrage the Democratic Peace - Allan Dafoe

Pink and Blue: Coloring Inside the Lines of Gender - Catherine Zuckerman*

Women’s health concerns are dismissed more, studied less - Zoanne Clack

Food

How Food-Obsessed Millennials Shape the Future of Food - Rachel A. Becker (as a non-food obsessed somewhat-millennial, this was interesting)

Colonialism’s effect on how and what we eat - Coral Lee

Tracing Europe’s influence on India’s culinary heritage - Ruth Dsouza Prabhu

Chicken Kiev: the world’s most contested ready-meal*

From Russia with mayo: the story of a Soviet super-salad*

The Politics of Pancakes - Taylor Aucoin*

How Doughnuts Fuelled the American Dream*

Pav from the Nau

A Short History of the Vada Pav - Saira Menezes

Fantasy (mostly just harry potter and lord of the rings)

Purebloods and Mudbloods: Race, Species, and Power (from The Politics of Harry Potter)

Azkaban: Discipline, Punishment, and Human Rights (from The Politics of Harry Potter)*

Good and Evil in J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lengendarium - Jyrki Korpua

The Fairy Story: J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis - Colin Duriez (from Tree of Tales)*

Tolkien’s Augustinian Understanding of Good and Evil: Why The Lord of the Rings Is Not Manichean - Ralph Wood (from Tree of Tales)*

Travel

The Hidden Cost of Wildlife Tourism

Chronicles of a Writer’s 1950s Road Trip Across France - Kathleen Phelan

On the Early Women Pioneers of Trail Hiking - Gwenyth Loose

On the Mythologies of the Himalaya Mountains - Ed Douglas*

More random assorted ones

The cosmos from the wheelchair (The Economist obituaries)*

In El Salvador - Joan Didion

Scientists are unravelling the mystery of pain - Yudhijit Banerjee

Notes on Nationalism - George Orwell

Politics and the English Language - George Orwell*

What Do the Humanities Do in a Crisis? - Agnes Callard*

The Politics of Joker - Kyle Smith

Sushant Singh Rajput: The outsider - Uday Bhatia*

Credibility and Mystery - John Berger

happy reading :)

Not a pro, but what else can I say? I HAD TO DRAW THIS AMAZING TRIO

The city of brass by S. A. Chakraborty is great and although technically adult, I read it when I was 15 and loved it and it didn’t feel too adult at all.

YA Books by Muslim Authors

Once Upon An Eid edited by S.K. Ali and Aisha Saeed 

Mirage by Somaiya Daud 

Love From A to Z by S.K. Ali 

We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal 

The Light at the Bottom of the World by London Shah 

The Candle and the Flame by Nafiza Azad 

The Weight of Our Sky by Hanna Alkaf 

The City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty 

A Pocketful of Stars by Aisha Bushby 

This Green and Pleasant Land by Ayisha Malik 

Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed 

The Love and Lies of Rukshana Ali by Sabina Khan

Amina’s Voice by Henna Khan 

The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar 

The Gauntlet by Karuna Riaza

Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed 

Sofa Khan is Not Obliged by Ayisha Malik 

The Girl and the Ghost by Hanna Alkaf

Sunbolt by Intisar Khanani

feel free to reblog with recs of your own!

Am an utter fanatic for those scales and the floor, this is fabulous

i tried to explain what generational trauma is to someone recently and they were like “oh so because something happened historically, you get to have issues about it now?” and no.... that’s not what that is.

when i was in 8th grade, on my class trip to washington dc, we visited the holocaust museum. it’s a wonderful, extensive, informative place, and it’s a beautiful tribute to the victims. as a jewish kid, i knew what the holocaust was. i’d faced antisemetism every day of my life, and will continue to do so. i knew what had happened to my ancestors not too long ago.

but when i stood in that museum. in the recreation of the cattle trains used to move us to the camps. in the recreation of an auschwitz cabin, staring at the map of the camp. when i saw the pile of shoes and jewelry taken from the victims. when i learned how their hair, so very much like mine, was cut for having texture. and how their teeth were pulled for the gold fillings. i had a panic attack.

it was embarrassing, but i was a shitty little 8th grader, and i tried to hide it. but I couldn’t breathe. it was like there was a band around my chest the entire time i was in the museum. i was surrounded by ghosts, by the whispers of emaciated men and trapped women and crying children.

what is generational trauma?

it’s the psychological idea that trauma can be passed down through multiple different ways. trauma can change you significantly, even rewrite neural pathways and physically change how you think. that, paired with the cycle of subconsciously sharing our trauma with our children, as well as mixing with the trauma we learn as we grow, leads to some really rough patches in our relationships with our identites.

this is a really great 4 minute video from the healing foundation about the trauma carried by aboriginal people in Australia. tw for some really heavy topics, but all presented in a relaxed and serious environment.

what do we do?

well, honestly, i don’t know. it’s not like we’re gonna stop sharing our stories with our descendants, nor our histories. we can’t get rid of things related to our identities that give us our own trauma, the bigotry we face unfortunately isn’t going anywhere.

but being aware of your generational trauma is a good step. it’s not just being “sad” or “sensitive” to history. it’s our history still affecting us today. when your indigenous friends are made upset by discussions of colonization, when your black friends feel the weight of a millenia of racism placed on their shoulders, when your gay friends ask you to please stop using that word, when your trans friends see another historical figure deadnamed and misgendered, when your jewish friends can’t talk about the Shoah without their voices breaking.

so why the fuck are you lecturing us?

our murdered ancestors live on in us, in our eyes, our hearts. we are reminded of them constantly, made painfully aware of who we are and how many people hate us.

we were not supposed to survive, and if most of the world had their way, we wouldn’t have. (no, the allies were not heroes of wwii, you turned us away at your borders and continue to let us die from nazis today. if america had had the option, they wouldn’t have given a shit about jewish victims, but that’s a whole other essay i could write)

it’s time to start acknowledging the past, acknowledging your generational trauma and the trauma of those around you. i’m not making up an excuse to “have issues”. at the time i’m writing this, october 2020, i’m 17. i have felt this weight my entire life, and i will continue to shoulder it, as will everyone else.

my point is, maybe we can shoulder that weight together. maybe then it won’t weigh us down as badly. we have solidarity, and we are tough, and resilient, and strong, and beautiful. your generational trauma is something to be aware of, but not ashamed of. we can do this—change the world for the better. we can break the cycle so our descendants don’t feel as we do.

Awww, this is so adorable! *hitting Arthur repeatedly* you’re so stupid, so so stupid.

A drunk Merlin hitting on Arthur and Arthur getting very flustered (and surprisingly pleased) about it.

"Hello, your majesty," a voice slurs to Arthur's right. Oh no.

"Merlin, I was gone for an hour. All you had to do was wait in our room, how did you—" Arthur remembers that he left Merlin with Gwaine. Arthur would very much like to reach back in time and punch himself in the face. "Ah."

"You know," Merlin says, and leans into him heavily. He coughs once and tries to push him off, wrenching his lukewarm drink from him at the same time, "You're very pretty."

"Thank you, Merlin," Arthur responds, averting his eyes in an effort to stay stoic.

"No, really," and that one almost comes out like a purr, all low and secretive. "Especially when you're out of that stupid chainmail."

"Right, well, the chainmail is kind of necessary, Merlin," he manages. Speaking is rapidly becoming... difficult. Especially with Merlin draping his arm around his shoulder and mumbling into his ear.

"Is it?" His breath is hot and smells of alcohol, and Arthur has to shrug him off again.

"You aren't being yourself, Merlin."

The light in his eyes dims a little. But then he blinks and scoots toward him again—this time with an entirely different approach.

"I sometimes wonder," Merlin says with something devilish playing at his lips, "If you choose not to learn how to dress yourself."

Arthur's voice is rough when he speaks. "Why would I do that...?"

"Because," he replies with a grin, "Then... well, I'd have to keep changing your clothes for you."

He feels Merlin's hand dancing across his thigh and grips it, pushing it away. His face is burning, he must be bright pink, and his heart is thudding hard.

"You're going to regret this tomorrow, Merlin. I swear I'll make fun of you until you die."

"Worth it," he mutters as he takes to playing with Arthur's hair. He tries not to think about how nice it feels.

"Right, that's it. Enough. Time to go to sleep," Arthur says with a finality which Merlin can puzzle out, even with a muddy brain that's been addled by alcohol.

"Nooooooo," Merlin whines as Arthur takes his forearm and drags him from the tavern.

As he marches his best friend back to their lodgings, Arthur has to remind himself that princes don't fall for servants.

No, they’re one of my fave couples, they are deeply in hate/love and together forever!

Silver: Nothing ever pleases you, does it?

Vale: Not anything you do, no.

I would really recommend Perfectly Preventable Deaths by Deirdre Sullivan. It’s set in small town Ireland and the atmosphere super close and secretive. They live in a castle with secret passages- awesome! It’s hilarious and I love the characters and it’s a fast paced read as well, I tore through it.

do u know of any wlw witch story lines?? ty!!

There is a Goodreads list for Sapphic Witch Books! Personally, I can recommend

Kissing the Witch: Old Tales in New Skins by Emma Donoghue (Fairytales)

Labyrinth Lost (Brooklyn Brujas, #1) by Zoraida Córdova (Bruja bisexual main character)

The Witch Sea by Sarah Diemer (Another fairytale-ish story)

I haven’t read Spellbook of the Lost and Found by Moïra Fowley-Doyle yet, but I’ve heard really good things about it!

I’m also excited to read Toil & Trouble: 15 Tales of Women & Witchcraft edited by Tess Sharpe, which I’ve been told includes some F/F stories.

The Lost Coast by Amy Rose Capetta doesn’t come out until the Spring of 2019, and all I know about it is that the blurb promises queer witches in the woods, but that’s enough for me.

Also check out this Autostraddle post: Read These 10 Books with Queer Witches