it's been a while since i did a book review post but i'm not sure if i can be normal about this one boys
cloud cuckoo land by anthony doerr is a novel about the preservation of a (fictional) diogenes play of the same name. but it's actually a book about five of God's most autistic soldiers and the ways in which this play shapes their lives. but it's actually a book about how books and stories give our lives meaning in the face of unthinkable horrors. but it's actually about the hope that his niece will feel better.
this book says it's all worth it. even the shit parts. maybe especially the shit parts. it says if you can make it to the end of the story maybe something beautiful will be waiting for you there.
The future is a benevolent black hole.
Sagittarius A* / Kathy Acker, Pussy, King of the Pirates / Outer Wilds (2020) / Is There a God-Shaped Hole at the Heart of Mathematics? / Drain for overflowing water at Sambuco Dam, Lavizzara Valley / ? / Thomasin Frances, Hole Theory (15/10/2022) / Bryan’s Ground, a public garden in Herefordshire on the Welsh border. / odd, weird, strange and unusual / Mark Z. Danielewski, House of Leaves / Evil (2019-2014) / Judas H., Overflowing With Empty / Illustration of the Annular Eclipse of 1836 from “A fourteen weeks course in descriptive astronomy”, Joel Dorman Steele (1836-1886) / @imdad_barbhuyan on Instagram / The moon’s Copernicus crater. Through magic glasses. 1890. / Kaveh Akbar / Dune (2021) / Yousif M. Qasmiyeh, The Camp is a Bait for Time / Darina Muravjeva, Hole / Hilde Heynen in Heterotopia and the City / x / Leonard Cohen, Beautiful Losers / x / Louise Glück, from Descending Figure / Anne Carson, Eros the Bittersweet: An Essay. / Caitlyn Siehl, What We Buried; from “A Letter To Love” / Lara de Moor, Orb (2014) / Sam Sax, Pig / The National - Wake Up Your Saints / Aleksander Rostov / Sanna Wani, from “Princess Mononoke (1997)”, My Grief, the Sun / Gregory Orr, [i want to go back] / Thomas Ott / ? / Judas H., Overflowing With Empty / James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room / Massive sinkhole swallows house in Florida / Edna St Vincent Millay, in Letters (1952) /Silent Hill 4 (2004) / @/vren-diagram / Anne Boyer, What Resembles the Grave But Isn’t / Law of Holes / Scarlet Hollow (2021) / Lucy Dacus - Cartwheel
(part one)
all songs can be found on this playlist here
“Hell is the absence of people you long for.” - Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel // ‘You Already Know’ by Bombay Bicycle Club, Kathryn Williams
sprinkles of tinsel embroidered into the velvet sky, craving the caramel smoothness of being with that one person, weeping hearts stained with crimson scars and gaping holes of unknowing, subtle watercolour sweeping through the clouds but pretending it’s the most vibrant colour palette
“So many things pass secretly between people anyway.” - Normal People by Sally Rooney // ‘Mallory’ by Back to Yours
crimson fireworks exploding in embers that dull too quickly, chipped scarlet nail polish, eye contact that stabs like barbed wire but comforts like favourite sweaters, shattered mirrors looking more beautiful on the wooden floor then they ever looked on your wall
“How tremendous the agony of unmade decisions.” - If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio // ‘This December’ by Ricky Montgomery
ancient buildings built out of frosted mysteries and unlabelled passions, black coffee gone cold into thick treacle, unappreciated paintings bleeding with secrets from the missing years, clouds of fog rolling over dew stained hills, fresh silk brushed against comforting cotton
“You’re my favourite person of all time.” - Elenor and Park by Rainbow Rowell // ‘Haven’t Met You Yet’ by Michael Buble
lemon sherbets bubbling in your stomach at the sound of someone’s name, craving the soft touch of another, vibrant shades of paint splattered across your hours, golden sparkles flying out of fingertips, thoughts that fall off the train track, pearly stares soaked in memories to be made
“Sometimes it’s good to go to war, just to know you can.” - Power by Naomi Alderman // ‘Ego’ by Koren Grace
rusted metal wiped clean of oppression and silence, wearing your glittered tiara with pride, cowering in fear from the strongest lioness’, learning ethereal angels can be just as terrifying as obsidian stained witches, the sound of sharpened swords in-time with the tapping of stilettos
“He looks at me like I am a girl brought in with the tide, rare and scarred and broken. A girl found in the roughest waters, in the farthest reaches of a dark fairytale. He is looking at me like he might love me.” - The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw // ‘Something About Her’ by The Kents
frothed hands formed out of the tips of waves, frosted eyes glazed over by charcoal memories, jack frost planting deep kisses on your cheeks, gentle beats from a thawing heart, smoky figures built of bonfires and whispered stories, shutting your eyes and jumping deep
You are stuck in a time loop.
This Road by Poe / post by @janemorris / Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1990), dir. Tom Stoppard / Circles by Marion Ethel Hamilton / Happy Death Day (2017), dir. Christopher Landon / Alan Wake II / Fatigue Empire by Cynthia Cruz / Black Sails episode XXXII
being a only child is like. I'm the eldest. I'm the responsible one. I need to live up to their expectations. I'm their baby. I know everything. I don't know anything that matters. I'm their golden child. I'm their biggest disappointment. I'm nothing like my parents. I'm the worst version of my parents. I'm the exact copy of my parents. I miss them. I can't stand being on the same house for more than a week. They love me. They regret me. I get everything they can offer. I get their whole attention. I can't do anything wrong. I can't fail. I inherited every flaw they have. I'm a mistake. If they fight it's my fault. Everything is my fault. I'm not that important. I'm everything for them. They don't need me the way I need them. They raised me and now they expect me to be somebody else different from them. I'm nothing without them. I'm my own person. I can be everything I want to be. I can't cross their beliefs. When they die I'll be alone. I have been alone since I was born.
Jeff Goldblum as Zeus calling all his god children to complain about the mean humans, but no one is picking up, and his voicemails get increasingly more frustrated, will live rent free in my brain for the foreseeable future.
fatima aamer bilal, excerpt from moony moonless sky’s ‘you have always been a performer, never just a person.’
She/her | 20 | Mostly failing to "hold my balance on this spinning crust of soil."
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