apoemaday:

Have You Ever Tried to Enter the Long Black Branches?

by Mary Oliver

Have you ever tried to enter the long black branches of other lives–
tried to imagine what the crisp fringes, full of honey, hanging
from the branches of the young locust trees, in early morning, feel like?

Do you think this world was only an entertainment for you?

Never to enter the sea and notice how the water divides
with perfect courtesy, to let you in!
Never to lie down on the grass, as though you were the grass!
Never to leap to the air as you open your wings over the dark acorn of your heart!

No wonder we hear, in your mournful voice, the complaint
that something is missing from your life!

Who can open the door who does not reach for the latch?
Who can travel the miles who does not put one foot
in front of the other, all attentive to what presents itself
continually?
Who will behold the inner chamber who has not observed
with admiration, even with rapture, the outer stone?

Well, there is time left–
fields everywhere invite you into them.

And who will care, who will chide you if you wander away
from wherever you are, to look for your soul?

Quickly, then, get up, put on your coat, leave your desk!

To put one’s foot into the door of the grass, which is
the mystery, which is death as well as life, and
not be afraid!

To set one’s foot in the door of death, and be overcome
with amazement!

To sit down in front of the weeds, and imagine
god the ten-fingered, sailing out of his house of straw,
nodding this way and that way, to the flowers of the
present hour,
to the song falling out of the mockingbird’s pink mouth,
to the tippets of the honeysuckle, that have opened

in the night

To sit down, like a weed among weeds, and rustle in the wind!

Listen, are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life?

While the soul, after all, is only a window,

and the opening of the window no more difficult
than the wakening from a little sleep.

Only last week I went out among the thorns and said
to the wild roses:
deny me not,
but suffer my devotion.
Then, all afternoon, I sat among them. Maybe

I even heard a curl or two of music, damp and rouge red,
hurrying from their stubby buds, from their delicate watery bodies.

For how long will you continue to listen to those dark shouters,
caution and prudence?
Fall in! Fall in!

A woman standing in the weeds.
A small boat flounders in the deep waves, and what’s coming next
is coming with its own heave and grace.

Meanwhile, once in a while, I have chanced, among the quick things,
upon the immutable.
What more could one ask?

And I would touch the faces of the daises,
and I would bow down
to think about it.

That was then, which hasn’t ended yet.

Now the sun begins to swing down. Under the peach-light,
I cross the fields and the dunes, I follow the ocean’s edge.

I climb, I backtrack.
I float.
I ramble my way home.

Anonymous asked:

What kind of stories would you say are better suited to be written as fanfic? What kind of ideas work better/worse as such — for both long (to incredibly long) and short (to incredibly short) stories?

avelera:

I’m going to take a step back because your questions requires a definition of fanfiction.

Fanfiction, in my opinion, is a derivative work that requires knowledge of another author’s work in order to be effective to the audience.

This is why, in my opinion, protestations that John Milton’s “Paradise Lost” and Virgil’s “The Aeneid” not being fanfic are based on a value judgement towards fanfic that I find inaccurate. People who protest that those are not fanfiction have a value judgement in which fanfiction inherently means “low quality”, which is a separate paradigm of understanding than my own. However, in order to derive the full enjoyment and understanding of “Paradise Lost” the author John Milton assumes deep knowledge of Christian dogma. The story does not work if you have no idea who God, Satan, and Jesus Christ are on a fundamental level and why Salvation is a good thing and Damnation a bad one.

Likewise, “The Aeneid” assumes and requires familiarity with the story of the Trojan War. The impact is severely lessened if the audience does not know what the Trojan War is, who the major players were, and why Aeneas would be fleeing Troy with his father and son. Characters they meet along the way lack impact if you don’t know them as figures from the Iliad and Odyssey by Homer, a separate author.

As a note, a writer cannot create fanfiction of their own original work. An original character in an original universe cannot be a Mary Sue, unless we change the definition (which I believe we should, to one better understood as “an unconvincing power fantasy” but I digress). The Odyssey is not fanfiction of the Iliad unless we believe that Homer did not write both of them. This gets convoluted when we start talking about things like mythology and shared universes.

However, “Fifty Shades of Gray” though it began its life as fanfiction, is not fanfiction, wild as that may sound. That is because though Fifty Shades in its original form was “Twilight” fanfiction, a reader does not require knowledge of Twilight to understand and enjoy the story in its current form. They might derive some deeper enjoyment from knowing its origins but that falls more into the category of “reference” at this point, in my opinion, than “derivative”.

“Referential” is different than “derivative” by the way, in my mind. “Shrek 2” might make visual gag references to other works like “Lord of the Rings” that are more effective if the viewer has seen Lord of the Rings, but the story itself does not require you to have seen Lord of the Rings to follow it or to enjoy it. The story stands on its own without requiring you to stop what you’re doing, watch Lord of the Rings, and come back.

So, to your question, first and foremost story length has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not a story is better told as a fanfic.

What determines whether a story makes more sense as original fiction or as a fanfic is depth of knowledge of another work by a different creator in order to fully appreciate it.

A story about a high school girl falling in love with a vampire that ends in tragedy does not inherently need to be a Twilight fanfic. You can start from scratch with new characters in a new setting and no knowledge of Twilight would be required, though an audience familiar with Twilight might better understand the author’s frame of reference.

A story by someone other than Stephanie Meyer about how Bella Swan came to regret her choice to become a vampire is a fanfic, even if the above mentioned original story and this fanfic cover many of the same emotional beats. Because the story relies on the audience’s emotional connection, positive or negative, to the specific character of Bella Swan and the events of the Twilight series in order to follow this imagined sequel where she realized she made a mistake.

Now, that’s a pretty canon-adjacent fanfic. I, personally, am not a huge fan of fanfiction AUs like Coffeeshop AUs where very little is kept of canon except the bare minimum of character appearances. I truly do think the author would be better served to saw off the serial number and just write an original work if the only they’re keeping is the character appearances and a largely fanon interpretation of the characters. If you take out the vampires, and the high school, and you have Bella working for Edward in a high powered corporate setting and they decide to enter into a contractual BDSM relationship, I think the correct thing to do is to just adjust the story and publish “Fifty Shades of Gray” as an original novel, because you’re so far away from Twilight at that point that all you’re really keeping is the audience’s attachment to that property and some elements of the power dynamic between Bella and Edward, which are easily transposed onto another fictional couple.

However, I am not representative of all fanfiction readers or writers. To some people, presumably, the fact that these characters aren’t Bella and Edward makes the story not worth reading, even if their names are the only recognizable shared element with the original work. To each their own.

Finally, to fully answer your question I would say this:

A story that should be a fanfic is one where your goal is to specifically draw upon the depth of emotion and shared understanding of a character with the audience to make the story work. If it would require half the book to explain who these characters are and what they’ve done and why we should care about their past adventures in order to read this current exploration, you probably have a fanfic on your hands.

Ex. “I want to explore Bella learning she made a mistake by becoming a vampire.” But in order to do this anguished character exploration you have to explain who Bella is, who Edward is, how they met, what her other options were, what events occurred to drive her to her decision, etc etc. Basically, a whole separate book before you can open to what you want to write which is her staring out the window realizing she hates her life.

But, if you want to write about a character who hates being a vampire and then embarks on other adventures, and all we really need to know is that at some point their high school crush turned them into a vampire and they now regret it…? No references to the Cullens, no Jacob, no Forks, no battles over Bella and Edwards love? Then you can probably just do an original story. And eventually, after you establish your new characters and world, you might be able to circle around to the moody emotional deep dive with your original character that you wanted to do with Bella.

It’s a really nuanced question. It’s hard to anticipate everything someone might mean. It’s really dependent on the story. But I hope this makes sense!

neil-gaiman:

If I read something on the asks that feels genuinely threatening or dangerous, or that’s actually abusive, I just delete it and block the person.

If I’m answering an ask here you can assume that as far as I’m concerned even if it’s apparently threatening or angry, it’s meant humorously or with love.

It’s never appropriate to dogpile people. Never appropriate to threaten or abuse them, even if you think you are doing it for me and with the best of intentions. Don’t.

If you are upset on my behalf, or on behalf of all Tumblr users, just think “this is probably a tone-deaf attempt at humour” and let it go.

(via dduane)

derinthescarletpescatarian:

fae-of-faeness:

derinthescarletpescatarian:

derinthescarletpescatarian:

jihaad:

jihaad:

completely enamoured with this thread

ALT

yeah im sold

ALT

I need this perfume I NEED it

At that price I do not need it.

Ey @derinthescarletpescatarian , I’ve got good news for you. My friend can do this for around $30. I once ordered one for my gf called Robotic Dreams which smells like a machine shop that wanted to become feminine. My favorite is Raven which smells of burnt vanilla candles, dusty tomes, opium smoke, and incense.

YES perfume should be unhinged

(via sanctuaryforalluniverses)

nebylitsa:

thinking about the paris review anne carson interview

(via moorishflower)

thewhoreinthian asked:

“I will warn you just this once, Robert Gadling. My love, affection and devotion are seldom sought after and even rarer won. If you wish to claim them, they will come with a cost. You will belong to me, body and soul.”

“I think you’ve forgotten my hedonistic nature,” Hob said, a teasing twinkle in his deep brown eyes. “I will gladly take everything choose to give. The good and the bad. The sweet dreams and terrible nightmares. All of it. All of *you*.”

(Felt inspired and wanted to share 👀 Feel free to add anything if your lovely heart desires 🖤)

softest-punk:

Oh no I love this and it’s utterly perfect as is. That’s the whole ship thesis right there and LOOK at them, they’re gorgeous 🥰

cuubism:

In Waking Dreams - Chapter 5

Rated M, Dreamling, Fishbowl Rescue, Dream Marriage, Non-Linear Narrative, Hurt/Comfort, Angst w/ a Happy Ending

Hob Gadling was halfway through his third drunken karaoke rendition of “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” when he learned that he had a husband.

A husband who was apparently trapped in a jar.

(On AO3)

pellaaearien:

Another Word for Ache | Dream/Hob | 96k | Mature | Ongoing
Ch. 15: I Hold You

Love isn’t always magic. Sometimes, it’s just melting.
… I wrote too many poems in a language I did not yet know how to speak
But I know now, it doesn’t matter how well I say grace
If I am sitting at a table where I am offering no bread to eat
So this is my wheat field. You can have every acre, love.
- “Maybe I Need You” by Andrea Gibson

beta read by @moorishflower

banner by @mandolinearts

Note the rating change!

(via pellaaearien)