The Sign Of High Quality Is The Fact The Book Was Banned By The Government. Trash Literature NEVER EVER

i killed a plant once because i gave it too much water. lord, i worry that love is violence.

— José Olivarez, from “Getting Ready to Say I Love You to My Dad, It Rains,” Citizen Illegal

…there is something to be said for these shiftless days,

John Ashbery, The System  (via mauriacs)

i wish to radiate moonlight and heavenly energy at all times

“How often do I lull my rebellious blood to rest, for you cannot imagine anything so erratic, so restless as my heart.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther (via theclassicsreader)

Imagine having someone miss you, yearn for your presence. They think of you so fondly, find pieces of you hidden in their favourite novels, and tucked away inside the prettiest songs. To them, you are the dark and comforting embrace of a storm, the gentle caress of a dream. A friend, a lover, whomever they may be, they make you understand the word ‘love’.

from Mary Shelley’s preface to the 1831 edition of Frankenstein

Reading Times, Pennsylvania, October 14, 1926

If you mourn the death of ancient languages but do not mourn the death of innocent black people, you need to reevaluate your priorities.

If the burning of the library of Alexandria or of Notre Dame brings you to tears but do not care about the fires started by desperate and grieving protesters demanding justice, you need to reevaluate your priorities.

It is okay to love and be passionate about things from the past, but we must also care about our present. 2020 will someday be history too. Don’t let yourself be on the wrong side of history. Don’t ignore the racial injustice that is all around us.

“Bysshe looked, as he always looked, wild, intellectual, unearthly; like a spirit that had just descended from the sky; like a demon risen at that moment out of the ground.”

— Thomas Hogg on Percy Bysshe Shelley (also, coincidentally, my aesthetic goals)

god I wish someone would describe me as wild, intellectual, unearthly

honestly the fact that I wrote so much about Mary Shelley in my English mock that I got an 8 despite not even finishing my article just sums me up