Vivacias - Under A Larger, Kinder Sky

@bjoralikes -> @vivacias

✨ this is a reading blog now! ✨

STOP this is the feminism checkpoint. you have to comment something you like about a flawed female character. or explode

on some more gentle book criticism it's wild that both of wu zetian's love interests in iron widow are highly educated & there are references to the aesthetics and structures of a scholar system, but there is utterly no casual reciting of classics, tactics, nor poetry from anyone. there are references to adapted forms of the classics, but it doesn't inform how characters talk or think (li shimin seems more like a guy who never got education than someone who memorizes poems to the point it destroyed his vision). I understand the whole "peasant frontier girl half literate" thing to an extent (even though it feels an odd choice) but there aren't even like idioms really. it feels very simplistic & uniform in characters' speaking style, and the world, language, and culture all read very flat because of that. tacticians like sima yi, an lushan, and zhuge liang too might have a more creative way to call someone a bitch or what is the point of reimagining them in this world is all I'm saying.

i think there was also a big miss of not even referencing half of the incredibly funny things that a star studded historical fiction cast could provide like zhuge liang never did something funny with a feather fan? no one had to bother him into working? no pranks with corpses? where is his ugly intelligent wife?

why not posture that an lushan's son gave the thumbs up on his murder? historically accurate and hilarious

Lord Golden

The Tawny Man Trilogy by Robin Hobb

another interesting thing about letty's interlude is that, despite seeing herself as equally discriminated as robin and ramy because she is a woman, she does not think about victoire at all, who is both a woman and a person of colour...

your own personal jesus.

i havent really drawn in a minute but i thought about my favorite character and here i am trying to relearn how to draw him

simply not having heard of something isn’t like a personal moral failing that u need to get defensive about. but also, an intellectual comfort zone in which Black women’s work is never recommended to you & you never seek it out—that isn’t cultivated in a cultural vacuum. its not innocent. and if you’ve been through school i guarantee you’ve had Black women’s work assigned to you before so like what gives

classic scifi novels by men r always like. page 1 here’s a cool scifi idea i had. page 2 i hate women so much it’s unreal