Bookoisseur

1.5M ratings
277k ratings

See, that’s what the app is perfect for.

Sounds perfect Wahhhh, I don’t wanna
anyroads
generalgrievousdatingsim

the one experience that unites all 90s and early 2000s kids is experiencing at least one work of fiction with a deceptively adorable illustration of cute animals on the cover who live in societies with an established political system, hierarchy of leadership and culture and are driven from their homes by human activity and/or engage in violent conflicts with other animals in similar communities that lead to many of the characters’ brutal deaths, which are described in graphic detail and which left you briefly emotionally traumatized by being confronted with the concept of your own fragile mortality before you were 10

generalgrievousdatingsim

image
image
image
image

the 4 horsemen

generalgrievousdatingsim

image
image
image

it has been brought to my attention that this was an ENTIRE GENRE of children’s fiction for some reason

jaded-ace-of-spades

You forgot An American Tail

dreamyblackchild

Expectation: “Yay, cute talking animals going on fun adventures and learning about friendship!”

Reality: “These cute talking animals are going through a lot of traumatic shit. The world they live in is dangerous, the stakes are super high and these small critters deal with war, death, betrayal, and oppression. Have fun reading, kids!”

anyroads

I love that this post was hash tagged with Don Bluth because yeah

pluckyyoungdonna
endbittersweet

a friend of mine tried to sell his soul on ebay and the starter price was $10 and people were bidding on it but before anything happened ebay took it down and sent him an email explaining that if he was selling a soul that didn’t actually exist then it was against their policy and if he was selling a real soul then that is a human body part and it is also against their policy 

arawol

#well done ebay for solving that philosophical conundrum

tag by @ilthit

pluckyyoungdonna

Dividing up eras of tumblr

tearlessrain

It just occurred to me that I kind of arbitrarily started referring to “first age” “second age” and “third age” tumblr one day because I realized during a discord conversation that it really can be divided up very effectively between a couple major events that changed the fabric of the site’s culture almost overnight, but nobody but me ever refers to them that way, so by way of explanation:

  • First Age: everything before Dashcon. Art communities were still largely thriving on the internet and social media still mostly existed out from under corporate monopolies, and people were just wildly guessing about how to use it. We were in the last hurrah of the internet wild west and lolcats were still a thing. Tumblr was just a fun and quirky place, we were blissfully writing unironic posts about tumblr university and fandom vs hipster and the “I like your shoelaces” thing, Hank Green wrote a goddamn song about tumblr, we were all like Adam and Eve dwelling in Eden unaware of their sin. Potterheads grab your wands.
  • Second Age: post-Dashcon, but pre-Purge. We have all eaten the fruit of knowledge and there is no going back. There are no more secret code or tumblr university posts because everyone knows firsthand how badly that would go. Fandom culture is forever changed. We are now aware that we live in a hellish cringetopia but have absolutely no plans to leave, because by now a combination of monopolies and a sneaky rise in purity culture has the internet by the throat (but not in a kinky way, that would scare off advertisers) so there aren’t a lot of better options, and at least our relatives can’t find us here. A lot of artists now have their primary presence on tumblr. The lax policies regarding nsfw and controversial content mean it’s a good space for queer creators and sex workers despite the many shortcomings we’re now aware of. The porn bot plague really kicks into full gear to the point that every time our follower counts go up we’re ready with the block/spam button like the uncles from Secondhand Lions picking off traveling salesmen. The drama starts to get really fucking weird, with classics such as the human pet guy and the bone-stealing witch.
  • Third Age: post-Purge. After changing corporate hands a few times, the drive to make the internet safe for our Good Christian Advertisers and hypothetical children has finally reached us, and brings with it TERFs, purity culture, and the Porn Ban, which was allegedly a solution to the porn bots except that it clearly wasn’t at all. The large community of sex workers and artists that was keeping tumblr afloat as anything resembling a viable social media site have made a mass exodus and a lot of the rest of the userbase followed them, mostly to twitter or a few doomed attempts at tumblr copycats. Tumblr is now a mad max clown car full of people too stubborn to pack up and leave for a functional website. It’s a post-apocalyptic wasteland whose only remaining merit is that even without the ability to post porn we’ve managed to make ourselves such a complete anathema to advertisers that we’re mostly just left alone. We’re all just tired. Some people still run art blogs but nobody outside of tumblr ever sees them.  Literally all we have going for us is that we’re not twitter and we have +5 resistance to capitalism. And Xkit.
pineaberry

Tag yourself. At which era did you enter this hellsite?

weeaboo-god

Second age

a-peculiar-potoo

Third Age

triflesandparsnips

First Age, but I had already survived Strikethrough on Livejournal, I knew what was to come

bookoisseur

First age. We who survived bway message boards and Live Journal have thick skins and expected it all.

pluckyyoungdonna
veeaziel

image

every day i am percieved™️

biggest-gaudiest-patronuses

There is a reason for this though!

The original tweet summarizes it pretty well. Fanfic tends to be popular among certain types of neurodivergent people (aka people most likely to read excessively as a child, and have burnout as an adult) for the same reasons that we tend to hyperfixate–neurochemical signaling (I hope I’m using that phrase correctly). What I mean is, for people who are really dependent on changes in dopamine/serotonin/neurotransmitter levels, who have low levels or wonky neural reward systems (perhaps the most common types of neurodivergence)…people like us rely on dependable external sources of those neurochemicals. In order to function, we spend a lot of our free time trying to level out our brain chemistry using things that can reliably bring us a steady stream of joyful moments (rewards) without costing too much of the mental effort that is already in short supply. 

significantly: the investment of reading has to be balanced with a steady “return on investment”–and this return has to start fairly quickly. because again, we don’t have a lot of attention/energy to invest on tiring things. we have perpetual “low batteries” in that regard.

that doesn’t mean these stories are “simple,” or that they lack complexity or value–only that the reward has to come in short regular intervals, and it has to have a low “upfront cost.” these stories are only “easy” to read in the sense that the effort we put into them is rewarded in a timely manner. which is why fanfic stories are so perfectly formulated for neurodivergent readers–they are often beautifully written, but skip a lot of the upfront costs (of introducing new characters, of world-building, of getting the audience emotionally connected to the story elements).

the nature of fanfiction is that the reader has a pre-existing relationship with this world and these characters. that–combined with the shorter average length of fics–means that fan fics very quickly start rewarding the reader in a way that traditional fiction struggles to. that’s not a bad thing! and maybe it’s something more traditionally published writers should be paying attention to.

Fanfic, as a genre, has been uniquely helpful and accessible to many neurodivergent readers who would otherwise struggle to immerse themselves in stories. I’m glad so many of you have found a way to love and enjoy reading again! The important thing is that you are spending time inside stories you love–the way those stories are published or presented to the world is just one detail. The fact that you find joy in the process of reading (or listening!) to stories–that is what matters.

biggest-gaudiest-patronuses

some collected tips from people in the notes, for readers interested in getting back into traditional fiction:

  • try re-reading old favorites/books from childhood. your brain knows what to expect & already has positive associations, so there’s a lower upfront cost
  • try a book series with recurring characters. again, it’s an emotional investment vs payoff thing. if you can power through the first book long enough to become familiar with the protagonist/world, you’ve then got a huge amount of literature to choose from.
  • (fantasy, mystery, YA & children’s series are useful for this btw. bonus points if it doesn’t have to be read in a particular order)
  • short story collections! these are great bc if you come across a story you don’t vibe with, you can just skip to a new one
  • if you don’t mind spoilers, consider reading a plot summary online to 1) introduce yourself to the characters 2) be able to skip ahead when the narration isn’t as gripping 3) ease your anxiety about a satisfying ending 
  • similarly, reading the book after seeing the movie
anyroads
enbytonis

i need people to understand that “save the bees” means saving the native pollinators that are actually in danger right now.

domestic honey bees are doing just fine, and in fact are out-competing native pollinators because they have human intervention giving them the leg up. meanwhile local pollinators are disappearing and with them a lot of the plants they co-evolved with will likely disappear too, along with every species that relies on those plants including us.

save your local wild bees, do that by planting native flowers, cutting out pesticides, and letting the dandelion/clover and other “weeds” grow. honey bees don’t need your help.

anyroads
kaijutegu

image
image

Gotta love seeing a golf course turn back into prairie.

spindercatscher

Life uhh finds a way

kaijutegu

It’s THE coolest thing about my hometown. This is a huge chunk of land in the middle of town, and it’s incredibly popular. There’s two miles of walking paths of varying difficulties (it’s actually really wheelchair friendly; the paved paths are nicely maintained and the hills have incredibly smooth switchbacks so that the pushing or wheeling angle isn’t too steep), play places thoughtfully carved into the prairie and woods, three lakes- one of which is stocked with bass, but the others not for fishing, just for looking, and a pavilion for meetings, parties, etc. The town has totally embraced it- it’s our busiest park and people really do respect the park rules ( respect wildlife, pick up after your dog, no off-leash dogs) and just… come out to walk and enjoy nature. There’s a smallish wetland area, 25 acres of woodland, and almost 50 acres of prairie. 

And the wildlife- I’ve seen so many birds. Deer. Foxes. Bobcats have come back to the area after being extirpated for decades. Native bees. There was a lot of pushback originally- people were worried that it would be an eyesore- but now it’s something the town really takes pride in. As it developed, people got really excited. Without any parks department solicitation, the park got two million dollars in donations and a whole bunch of in-kind donations from the hospital (four outdoor exercise ponds), the local Kiwanis club (a musical playground), and one of the local construction companies (the most beautiful tree fort you’ve ever seen… also the only tree fort I’ve ever seen with ramps). People love this place, and I really hope other towns see that you can turn a golf course into something really fun for everyone. 

anyroads

me reading this post:

image

Originally posted by actualhumancryptid