Red Avadat, Red Munia Or Strawberry Finch. 🐦🍓

Controversial Truths About Ancient Egypt Masterpost

The pyramids were built by contemporary workers who received wages and were fed and taken care of during construction

The Dendera “lightbulb” is a representation of the creation myth and has nothing to do with electricity

We didn’t find “““copper wiring””” in the great pyramid either

Hatshepsut wasn’t transgender

The gods didn’t actually have animal heads

Hieroglyphs aren’t mysteriously magical; they’re just a language (seriously we have shopping lists and work rosters and even ancient erotica)

The ancient Egyptian ethnicity wasn’t homogeneous

Noses (and ears, and arms) broke off statues and reliefs for a variety of reasons, none of which are “there is a widespread archaeological conspiracy to hide the Egyptian ethnicity”

Another day at the office

*nervous laughter*

heh…ehehehe. Who obsesses over the Winter Soldier? Not me, that’s for sure….

….

*runs*

(please do not use or repost without my permission. thanks :)

Discovering that you’re 10 days behind the Discovery of Witches RTR.

Me: I can fix this.

Literally no one:

Not a single soul:

Male authors:

one of the commissions i did for @sexybovine :)

A Bingo’s Coming!

Do you like Steve, Tony, and/or Bucky in all four of their particular combinations? Then do we have an event for you. Starting on Nov 1, you’ll be able to order cards for a four-way bingo - Stuckony, Stucky, WinterIron, Stony. Any of the squares can be filled by any of those four ships! 

Fills open Dec 1 and close June 30, 2021 - so plenty of time to get the creative juices flowing. Badges will be awarded for the traditional reasons (participation, bingo, blackout) but also for some special surprise reasons as well. 

Excited? Us too! Spread the word and we’ll see you back here on Nov 1 with further information. 

♪  Who d'you think you’re kidding 

He’s the earth and heaven to you 

Try to keep it hidden, 

Honey we can see right through you   ♪

Review of ‘The Good Soldier’ by Ford Madox Ford ---- 5/5 STARS

Three months ago, when I stumbled upon a beautiful collection of Alma Classics at a book sale, I hardly imagined that one of the volumes I selected would turn out to be one of those rare literary unicorns that ticked all my boxes. It seems unlikely, but The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford fascinated me from practically the first sentence. “This is the saddest story I have ever heard.”

The first thing you should know about The Good Soldier is probably that it’s being told from the viewpoint of an unreliable narrator and has no strict chronology. It reads like a confession and the sequence of events is jumbled according to the mood and flow of conscience of the main character, John Dowell (whose name you will likely have forgotten by the end). The story is written in such a way that you don’t untangle most of its lies and mysteries until the very last page, which gives the book the impression of being a puzzle you must put together. The suspense definitely had me race through the later chapters. 

On the surface, Ford sketches how, at the beginning of the 20th century, the lives of two couples -- one American, one British -- intertwine themselves over the years, giving way to a secret romance and betrayal. On a deeper level, Ford examines the mental processes these people underwent to get where they are now in their lives. It spares us no dirty details. Even our dear unreliable narrator finds plenty of faults within himself and ends most parts of the book on a self-critical note. The Good Soldier is brutally honest in spite of describing an intricate web of lies and the feelings of one man who was the sorry victim of it. 

Despite being first published in 1915, so many elements discussed in this book are incredibly relevant and it’s obvious why that is: The Good Soldier is a portrait of humans, and humanity has not really changed in the past century at a base level. We are still driven by love, pride, jealousy and all that other good stuff. This has led many reviewers to call the characters ‘despicable’ or ‘the worst of humanity’, but I think that’s too quick of a judgement. It was refreshing to see the dark corners of the human psyche portrayed with such stark honesty. The characters felt like people I could possibly encounter in the street; some reminded me of people I knew. Best of all, I could understand all of their motivations at any one point.

Honestly, this book handles so many subjects that we are still struggling with today. Here’s a selection: sexism, male entitlement, the objectification of women, abusive relationships, religious tension between branches of the Christian faith, the downsides of cultural conservatism, and many others. But it also brought some brighter topics to the fore, namely asexuality, polyamory and serial monogamy, male-female friendship, and the importance of responsibility and trust in any relationship. If that doesn’t sound modern then I don’t know what does anymore.

And the ending, damn, it was all I could have wanted. It was realistic and so quietly tragic that I could not help but feel sympathy for all those involved in the tale. It’s true you won’t get happy vibes from The Good Soldier, but you get tonnes of satisfaction from it instead. It’s got my full recommendation.