cordeliaistheone reblogged
tobystephensweekly
Toby Stephens on his favourite TV Show growing up.
“If you’re not interested in the gritty realism of a story in which your favorite characters could die horribly at any time, it’s because you’re a naive comfort-reader who can’t handle hard-hitting fiction.”
No, friend. I just prefer to read stories featuring characters I find interesting, and if they drop out of the narrative, I no longer find the story compelling.
And honestly what the fuck is wrong with comfort-reading?
Can we please collectively reject the idea that books that make you happy and have happy endings are somehow intellectually inferior to books that are angst-ridden and where all the characters suffer and/or die?
The superiority of ‘gritty’ books is steeped in misogyny. ‘Happy’ books are obviously for women and children who need to be protected from the horrors of the world that can only been properly understood and appreciated by the Vastly Superior Intellect and Life Experience of Men. Men want real books where people suffer and die! It’s more real! The realism!!!! It’s REALLER! Like. Can we just. not. Realer =/= intrinsically better.
People read books for different reasons. All those reasons are legitimate. Someone reading a good romance book is the same as someone reading a good crime thriller or a good YA fantasy. If it’s for fiction, it’s for enjoyment, and no genre of book is superior.
If you’re reading the fluffiest piece of domestic fucking fluff that’s cavity-inducing and makes you make muffled screaming sounds over the unbearable cute, your enjoyment is just as intellectually valid as John Smith reading Game of Thrones or some political thriller.
Be highly suspicious of anyone who tries to genre-shame you when it comes to fiction.
If anyone tells you they’re reading Game of Thrones for the realism… run. Run very fast.
cordeliaistheone reblogged
“Filmmaking has always been a form of activism for me and that will never change. But as I get older I realize there’s another part of myself that needs self-care and there’s an inner child that needs to be tended to. I was getting burnt out, so the idea of doing a film that deals with inspiration and positivity really spoke to me and made for an incredible process along the way. I needed to restore myself and I hope that this film has that capability for others. It’s not an easy time in the world right now so I hope that, in the old tradition of films being a form of escapism and a way to dream, this film can do that.“ - Brie Larson on Her Directorial Debut ‘Unicorn Store’
cordeliaistheone reblogged
People talk about escapism as if it's a bad thing... Once you've escaped, once you come back, the world is not the same as when you left it. You come back to it with skills, weapons, knowledge you didn't have before. Then you are better equipped to deal with your current reality.
cordeliaistheone reblogged
"Sometimes I'm stressed and I'm sick of things and I need to forget about them for a while, so in Harry Potter you're taken to this wonderful imaginary world where everything is so different. But also the main characters are completely real and modern so you can relate to them."
cordeliaistheone reblogged
Under the hive-like dome the stooping haunted readers
Go up and down the alleys, tap the cells of knowledge -
Honey and wax, the accumulation of years -
Some on commission, some for the love of learning,
Some because they have nothing better to do
Or because they hope these walls of books will deaden
The drumming of the demon in their ears.
Louis MacNeice The British Museum Reading Room
cordeliaistheone reblogged
Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisioned by the enemy, don’t we consider it his duty to escape?…If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if we’re partisans of liberty, then it’s our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can!
J.R.R. Tolkien
cordeliaistheone reblogged
robinsoncruesoes-deactivated201
The hunting hat, the movies, the carousel—that’s his way into us. That’s how he gets inside of us and makes us care, makes us believe in him, makes us realize that he is a person in the same way that we are. So ultimately Frank, that’s my answer to people who say that “all that English class stuff ruins books.” All that English stuff is Holden’s way into us, and our way out of ourselves.
John Green on Holden Caulfield and The Catcher in the Rye
#John Green#The Catcher in the Rye#J.D. Salinger#Nerd Fighters#i haven't watched the vlogbrothers in years as i got to stressed i couldn't catch up#i adore you though#this is perfect#i used to hate all the pointless analysis and want straight answers but now i get it#now i'm all about the analysis#education#schooling#analysis#english stuff#holden caulfield#perfection#humanity#life#escapism#understanding
