At fifteen you had the radiance of early morning, at twenty you will begin to have the melancholy brilliance of the moon.
— F.Scott Fitzgerald, ”This Side of Paradise” (1920)
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17 hours ago with 5,236 notes
the château of my heart: VANISHING ACT ↘
3 days ago with 287 notesLearning to love my body is still
not an easy thing. I stand in front
of the mirror and trace what isreflected back at me: long limbs,
rounded shoulders, the wheeling
nipples that hang from my breasts,rose-brown. I curl a lock of dark
hair around my finger and tug hard
on it. I wrap it around my neck like
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5 days ago with 2 notes
The public critical perception seems to be that works of children’s literature, with a few notable and usually time-honoured exceptions, do not really deserve to be called ‘literature’ at all, and are generally somehow second-rate and functional rather than of high quality, creative and deserving of critical attention in the way that serious adult literature clearly is.
— Eithne O’Connell, “Translating for Children” in G. Lathey (ed.), The Translation of Children’s Literature. A Reader (Topics inTranslation 31). Cleveland, Buffalo, Toronto: Multilingual Matters Ltd, 2006 (via translatingforchildrenandya)
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1 week ago with 18,497 notes
People will kill you over time, and how they’ll kill you is with tiny, harmless phrases, like: ‘be realistic.’
— Dylan Moran (via mellowhighs)
1 week ago with 191 notesExactly twenty years after Andrew Sullivan’s seminal essay “The Politics of Homosexuality,” Minnesota state representative Tim Faust (D) delivers an absolutely extraordinary, stirring speech on marriage equality, leading the Minnesota House to pass the same-sex marriage bill with a vote of 79:59.
Well, I have to start by admitting that not too long ago, I probably would have voted ‘no’ on this bill, but in the past there have been a couple things that changed my mind on this… . The question that keeps going through my mind over and over again is, “Do we, as a society, have the right to impose our religious beliefs on somebody else?” A right that I have taken for granted, and most of the people in this room have taken for granted, since the day we realized what the opposite sex is. That is a right I have taken for granted for a long time, and yet some people, because of others’ religious beliefs, do not have that right.
[…]
Last summer, I got married. And, before that, I had dated a woman for four years. And she was a wonderful woman, and I realized, after four years, that I could’ve married her and I would’ve been happily married to her for the rest of my life. But I also realized I could be happy without her. And I decided, after four years, that I wasn’t going to marry somebody I could live with — if I got married again, it was going to be to somebody I could not live without. And so we broke up.
And in a few months, I met my wife. And it didn’t take me very long to realize this was somebody I could not live without. And how lucky I am, how lucky we are. And yet, in this state, there are people that feel that way about each other, that cannot live without that other person, that feel the same way they do about each other that I feel about my wife — and yet, because of religious beliefs of other people, they do not have the right that I have taken for granted since the day I realized what the opposite sex was.
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1 week ago with 505 notes
[love letter to self]
i don’t think so. but, i forgive you, girl, who tallied stretch marks into reasons why no one should get close. i forgive you, silly girl, sweet breath, decent by default. i forgive you for being afraid. did everything betray you? even the rain you love so much made rust out of your jewellery? i forgive you, soft spoken girl speaking with fake brash voice, fooling no one. i see you, tender even on your hardest days. i forgive you, waiting for him to call, i forgive you, the diets and the cruel friends. especially for that one time you said ‘i fucking give up on love, it’s not worth it, i’d rather be alone forever’. you were just pretending, weren’t you? i know you didn’t mean that. your body, your mouth, your heart, made specifically for loving. sometimes the things we love, will kill us, but weren’t we dying anyway? i forgive you for being something that will eventually die. perishable goods, fading out slowly, little human, i wouldn’t want to be in a world where you don’t exist.
i don’t think so. but, i forgive you, girl, who tallied stretch marks into reasons why no one should get close. i forgive you, silly girl, sweet breath, decent by default. i forgive you for being afraid. did everything betray you? even the rain you love so much made rust out of your jewellery? i forgive you, soft spoken girl speaking with fake brash voice, fooling no one. i see you, tender even on your hardest days. i forgive you, waiting for him to call, i forgive you, the diets and the cruel friends. especially for that one time you said ‘i fucking give up on love, it’s not worth it, i’d rather be alone forever’. you were just pretending, weren’t you? i know you didn’t mean that. your body, your mouth, your heart, made specifically for loving. sometimes the things we love, will kill us, but weren’t we dying anyway? i forgive you for being something that will eventually die. perishable goods, fading out slowly, little human, i wouldn’t want to be in a world where you don’t exist.
— Warsan Shire, “and were you being good to yourself?” (via lifeinpoetry)
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1 week ago with 270 notes
If you’re reading to find friends, you’re in deep trouble. We read to find life, in all its possibilities. The relevant question isn’t ‘is this a potential friend for me?’ but ‘is this character alive?
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In responding to a possibly sexist interview question, Claire Messud offers a beautiful definition of great literature.
Pair with Virginia Woolf on how to read a book and Margaret Atwood on literature’s “women problem.”
(via explore-blog)
