Reblog: A Chronically Online Girl’s Take on Mass-Produced TikTok Literature
Cannibalism as a metaphor for love. There are claw marks in everything I’ve ever let go of. Persephone’s pomegranate.
Fabled Fiction: Ella Enchanted
The novel, in its own regard, emphasizes the importance of unification through communication and language, while the film adaptation embraces a more direct, allegorical framework of modern politics. Both iterations have the potential to make real-world connections and leave readers and viewers alike inspired.
More Book Reviews
From Text to Tapestry: The Graphic Novel Adaptation of The Raven Boys
The trees speak Latin. Spirits rise again on ley lines. A long-dead Welsh king sleeps in Henrietta, Virginia. In Maggie Stiefvater’s wonderfully mystical world of The Raven Boys, all of these details—and more—have gripped readers for over a decade.
The Sound of Miles
First, let me preface this review by noting that I am not big on the auditory; I use my ears but think with my eyes. I read before I listen.
Meaning and mortality in kaveh akbar’s MARTYR!
This tender story unfolds with enough levity to balance out the weight of its existential themes. Akbar maintains this delicate balance well by seamlessly transitioning between witty dialogue and philosophical discussions, alongside chapters told from the perspectives of other characters.
Commentaries
Queerness and the American Family: A Meditation on Silence
I always thought my family read more like a novel than a television series. We demanded a certain seriousness, a maintained attention for nuance that does not translate to the screen.
Fixing the Performative Male Reading List
There’s nothing wrong with men reading; to villainize such an action plants the idea that men shouldn’t want to better themselves and their brains with all the wonderful information and ideas that books can contribute to society. Whatever their objective is with the charade, though, they should start picking out better books.
The Celebrity Memoir
The celebrity memoir is somewhat of a cannibalized genre. There is usually either an existing audience for the ideated book, or a hope that revived relevancy will be enough to generate one.
Short Fiction
Variations of Summer
It’s a hot, humid summer the summer before high school, and I’m back in Guangzhou, a city at once all too familiar and foreign. The perennial hazy sky, green and blue and yellow taxis speeding down the street, laundry airing on balconies.
Petal heart
Phoebe, like everyone, has a peeling heart. At age 23, Phoebe would call it a tearing, ripping, yanking heart… It is a part of growing up, this she knows. But still, it hurts.
The Parakeet
And now, Nasrin spent her days at home, alone. And the honey afternoon light, viscous and heavy, lazily spilled through the windows and collected in the corners of the room. And the late summer days bled into one another. And the people on the television…
Personal Essays
Literary London: An English Major’s Guide
What initially led me here was my fascination, hedging on obsession, with English literature. Having long studied and loved the novels and poetry from across England’s history, I simply had to come here for myself and hopefully find inspiration the same way my favorite authors did.
A Literary Race Against Time: Why I Stopped Setting Yearly Reading Goals
Deep into my self-imposed reading challenge, it seemed nothing was more horrifying than abandoning a book. Unable to separate my self-worth from my reading goal, I continued to pursue my challenge not out of any actual desire to read but for the fear that my status as a reader and writer would be minimized if…
Pompous Students & Pomegranates: The Visceral Palimpsest of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History
My summer of 2022 was blistering hot and filled with three-star reads. After consuming dozens of books that left me uninspired and unimpressed, I’d lost all hope of coming across a new favorite novel of the season.
Interviews
Interview with the Author: Joan Sung on Family, Writing, and her New Memoir, Kinda Korean
I have been writing since as long as I could remember. Back in the early nineties, I would write on my dad’s old typewriters and word processors. I enjoy being able to be unfiltered, to let my feelings and thoughts flood pages.
Interview with the Director: Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812
After wandering the UC Berkeley campus in search of a place to record, Karen Canfield and I settle into a building every English major is extremely familiar with: Wheeler Hall. We find a quiet alcove on the top floor and begin our conversation.
Talking with Tavi Gevinson
You need different things to feel like you know characters in a film than you need if you’re reading a graphic novel.
Visuals
Art: Of the Places We’ll Go
The following two pieces are part of a four-piece series titled Of the Places We’ll Go. Death, Then Life, Arami Matevosyan You never claimed residency on earth. Somehow the idea of mortality was never enough—you wanted to live through the fruits of the next couple…
Artwork: Wakey Wakey
I’m not much of an artist—or really, any of an artist. I can’t draw, can barely read my own handwriting, and if I paint it looks like a bird took a technicolor shit. But I like Photoshop—the files, clicking, filters: it’s technical, but meritocratic. Here,…
Artwork: Baby Birds
Oh what soft sweet merriment That carries with it such a beauteous glint In the hearts of all those who feel its wonder To cross their paths to make them ponder On the love that dwells In their souls as deep as wishing wells Upon…
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