Jon Foster/from Boneshaker by Cherie Priest What is Steampunk? For a way to explain a fantasy subgenre, Steampunk is not very descriptive. According to The Steampunk Bible (2011), it can be explained most easily by this equation: Steampunk = Mad Scientist Inventor [invention (steam x airship or meta…
The oldest person alive was born on April 19, 1897, meaning that April 18th, 1897 was approximately the last time the Earth was inhabited by an entirely different set of people and if you don’t think that’s the realist shit ever then you can get right on outta town.
![fotojournalismus:
Nature shows a colourful contrast as a bright yellow blossoming field is seen next to a still green grain field near Proetzel, Germany on May 19, 2013.
[Credit : Patrick Pleul/EPA]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/16e069d84b06e51df6c1e45f349d558f/tumblr_mn43crKLyD1r44q44o1_500.jpg)
But the biggest surprise of “Aschenputtel” [Grimm brothers version of the Cinderella story] is that it’s not about landing the prince. It is about the girl herself: her strength, her perseverance, her cleverness. It is a story, really, about her evolution from child to woman.
It is Cinderella herself who plants the magic tree and requests the finery for the ball (which is celebrated over the course of three days). She walks to the party each night rather than traveling by enchanted coach. She leaves not because she has some arbitrarily imposed curfew but because she has danced enough. Then she escapes both the pursuing prince and her own father by hiding in a dovecote or nimbly scaling a tree.
When the prince finally comes a-calling, shoe in hand, Cinderella greets him in her sooty rags. He may be looking for the beauty with the dainty foot, but, as Joan Gould, the author of Spinning Straw into Gold, notes, she demands that he witness the woman she has been, dirt and all, not just the one she will become. So while he provides the occasion for her transformation, he is not the one responsible for it— she can only do that for herself.
(Source: feministdisney)
ana prvacki, do it yourself chivalry. 2008
prvacki radically reverses the medieval concept of chivalry by removing her own clothes to place under her feet
LGBTQ* Poets You Should Know: Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine
(following excerpts from Poets.org)
A volatile and peripatetic poet, the prodigy Arthur Rimbaud wrote all of his poetry in a space of less than five years. His school shut down in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War, and the young Rimbaud took the opportunity to seek adventure, running away from home twice. He left again after Napoleon III’s surrender a few months later, and wandered the countryside until he ended up in Paris. Then sixteen, he lived as a vagabond on the streets until the poet Paul Verlaine noticed him.
Verlaine was thoroughly astonished by this boy’s talent after having read Le Bateau ivre (The Drunken Boat), and took him home to live with him and his new wife. Though Rimbaud’s social ineptitude and harsh manners forced him to move out, he and Verlaine became lovers. Shortly after the birth of his son, Verlaine left his family to live with Rimbaud.
Their infamous affair was erratic and often hostile. After eighteen months living together in three countries, their relationship ended abruptly, following an incident where a drunk and hysterical Verlaine shot Rimbaud in the hand.
why are we so desperate for the affection of the friend who never calls, the cheeks that slide away from our lips, the eyes that never meet our own? our grasping hands always reach out for the love we do not have. we are never content with the love that is already ours. if we do not have it, if it is not freely given, we want it more & more, we are blind to what we already have.
if he never texts you, forgive him. if she never asks how you are after you ask after her, forgive her. if you can tell, deep in your gut, that she does not want you, that she does not want to be around you, that the burning desperate desire to be friends that you carry like a stone in your pocket is not one she holds, forgive her. and let them all go, smiling, waving goodbye.
maybe this is as far as you will ever get with them - a smile a wave a how are you pretty good how are you. maybe it will always break your heart a little, that they did not want you as much as you wanted them. it is okay. it is, really. look around. you have so much love. for every friend you are grasping for there are five who are blessing you with endless infinite declarations of love. don’t ignore what you have in favor of what you don’t have any longer. let them go. see your mom, your best friend, your coworkers, your roommate, and don’t bemoan what you don’t have any longer. you have so much. you are so blessed. let them go.
