does anyone from course want to swap folio poems that haven’t been critiqued in class?
harryjamesnotpotter asked: You are the coolest kid to ever exist. You make me happy and smile and stuff. I'm not lying when I say that there's not a single thing I dislike about you. Keep on keeping on.
<3
LBGTQ* Spoken Word Artists You Should Know
Lacey Roop “Gender is a Universe”
While squatting down to take a piss I read
gender is a universe and we are all stars.
scribbled on the wall of a bathroom stall
I was so in awe by this that I went home and poured myself a flask
crawled on top the roof to ponder what I had read
I stared with amazement at the vastness of constellations just wonderin’ if God has become an angry drunk
because of the ignorance and intolerance he sees in us?
We like to stereotype, nitpick, criticize, and compare black and white,
judge each other because of hairstyles, and pant size
I guess that’s why everytime I go out at night I always get asked
Are you a dude or a dyke?
And all I wanna say is
Oh hi, dude bra’! Ummm, I don’t know, how ‘bout you ask your girlfriend since she was the one who went down on me last night.
But I refrain and say
Well, I’m a little bit of both and sometimes neither
Give him a hug then walk away while he stands there intrigued still trying to figure me out
and I’m not really offended as much as I am saddened by how it never occurred to this guy
that people’s sexual preference doesn’t diminish the fact that we are still human
It’s an atrocity to me that we still have to be reminded of this
Did you know that it took nearly 400 years after
the first American settlement before
the white man recognized that black people had souls?
And I wonder if it is going to take 400 more before people
quit telling me that they think it’s cute that I kiss girls
As if my lifestyle is some trendy fashion statement
gay ‘till graduation bullshit
curious exhibitionist
I wish my mom would quit telling me
this is a stage I’m going through
and recognize that this is a skin her daughter has finally felt comfortable enough in for me to tell her about girlfriends
‘Cuz from 2nd grade ‘till I was a sophomore in college
I camouflaged my feelings because the state of Mississippi
has it written that love can only exist between a man and a woman
as if a state has the right to dictate who you choose to spend the rest of your life with
But on nights when I’m sleeping next to someone soft
I can’t help but wonder about the ones still struggling in my hometown like
Mikey who had to put a silencer over his heartbeat
because it thumped too loud whenever Andrew was in the room
he was afraid that Calvary would condemn him.
Or Irene who used to dye her hair bright blue to distract
people from staring in dismay at her and Shay’s interlocked fingers
As if homosexuality is a disease instead of just another form of loving
I just hope that when I go out tonight I won’t get asked
How do lesbians do it?
As if heterosexual missionary position is the only type of sex there is
because that would be fucking boring
I think I might just crawl on top my roof and get drunk with God again so he can hear me when I ask him to keep an eye out on
Irene and Mikey or anyone else who is being taught
to be ashamed of themselves for their feelings
because tonight I don’t wanna have to explain myself.
I’m tired of having to explain myself.
I don’t wanna be distinguished as gay, straight, lesbian,
queer, dude, or dyke
just human
because gender really is a universe
and we need to accept that we are all but mere stars
a part of one great galaxy.
———————————–
(Source: designlikeyougiveafuck)
I love John Green.
I have too much time on my hands.
(Source: serpientes)
Beautiful Libraries → Neil Gaiman’s Personal Library (The Basement, Neil Gaiman’s Home)
Take the 3D tour here.
one day i WILL have a library like this in my home
only it will have a ladder too
(Source: bachelorjohnwatson)
So, like. It is no secret that I am super-into Stephen King. From where I’m sitting I can see 5 of his books in my bookshelf (Christine, Insomnia, the Tommyknockers, Hearts in Atlantis and Everything’s Eventual), which is a lot for a poor student with no job and a tiny student allowance.
I’m not super into horrors. Okay, that’s a lie, I’m pretty into horrors, but I’m also pretty into mysteries and thrillers and romances and sci-fis. I just. Books, man, books. I don’t have a favourite genre, I just like to read.
Anyway, Stephen King was the first adult horror writer I ever read. Before him I’d read, like, every single Goosebumps book ever written and some Vivian Vande Velde short stories and this awesome book called How To Disappear Completely and Never Be Found, but no proper horrors. I started reading him because I had this friend on the internet, Hannah (We were writing buddies. We wrote fanfiction together), who was a goth from Tennessee who wouldn’t stop telling me about how much I would love his stuff.
The first book of his I read was the Shining, because it was the only one the library had in at that moment that I’d actually heard of. I think I polished it off in a week. Usually I can read a little faster than that, but I wasn’t reading after dark for… pretty obvious reasons, I think.
My absolute favourite thing about Stephen King is that he is a horror writer who doesn’t hate the world. He creates gorgeous, nostalgic worlds that you’d actually like to live in, and then populates them with monsters - and some of them are real. In Pet Sematary (which I couldn’t actually finished, because it was SO FRICKING SCARY), the entire first half of the book is just the main character being a dad and hanging out. I mean, there was some mildly creepy stuff, like the old dude across the road telling him NOT TO GO TO THE PET SEMATARY (which he pretty much cool-story-bro’d, obviously), but mostly it’s just wholesome family fun. And then all of a sudden there was a zombie cat and a dead toddler and I was just. Nope. Couldn’t finish it.
My favourite Stephen King book is one called From a Buick 8. I’ve read it 3 or 4 times. It’s about an evil car, but it’s pretty different from Christine, which I also really liked, mostly for how well the music references gelled with the actual storyline (the book’s made up of three parts - Teenage Car Songs, Teenage Love Songs and Teenage Death Songs - and the book is about exactly that). Basically, this teenage dude’s dad dies, and so the guy goes and hangs out with his dad’s old work buddies, the state cops. The state cops have this big old Buick 8 Special in a garage out the back, and nobody ever goes into the garage. (Here’s a hint as to why: THE CAR IS A FRICKING PORTAL TO ANOTHER DIMENSION AND SOMETIMES IT EATS PEOPLE.)
Even though the book is supposed to be about an evil car, it’s also about family and the kind of friends that feel like family and just. Even though a lot of the people die, it’s still. It seems optimistic. It gives me that warm, fuzzy feeling.
Another thing Stephen King does spectacularly well is that ambiguity as to whether something’s actually real and evil or not, and the character’s just insane. In the Shining, it’s implied that maybe the house isn’t haunted, and it’s just the main character going slowly insane from being stuck inside all winter. (Although. Stephen King himself has said that yes, the house was haunted. It’s still well-done.) The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon also has this, as a young girl wanders, lost, in the woods: is she hallucinating, or is there actually a wasp-demon following her? Is the Subaudible real, and is it taking on the form of Tom Gordon to guide her out of the woods? The entire thing is fantastic.
Finally (I know this has been very long and rambling, but thanks for sticking with me), Stephen King is just such a fantastic world-builder. He’s created a group of small towns in Maine just for his stories to be set in, and they all know of the existence of the other stories happening. Bag of Bones references Cujo, and Needful Things references It, and the fact that it’s all interwoven and continuous is just amazing. I love it.
TL;DR: Stephen King, man. Amazing.
(Also, I just realised that what I thought had been one large spider is actually three large spiders that have been swapping places. Getting the vacuum cleaner out tomorrow, haha.)
