“Kazul’s not my dragon.“ Cimorene said sharply. “I’m her princess. You’ll never have any luck dealing with dragons if you don’t get these things straight.”
Dealing With Dragons - Patricia C. Wrede
I saw this art when I was 11 years old and I was like “this is the best drawing in the history of the world”
The artist is Trina Schart Hyman, an incredible and prolific talent who passed away in 2004. You can find a ton of tributes to her online from other illustrators and organizations, like the children’s literary magazine Cricket, which she helped create. She illustrated over 150 books, won the Caldecott Medal and Honors, and helped other artists land gigs for decades. She was also gay, hilarious, and one of the first white children’s book illustrators to include diverse characters.
“You have to be so motivated that you have to want to draw so badly that it’s like taking away your oxygen not to draw. It has to be so much a part of your expression and your personality that you cannot live without it. You can’t go for more than two days without drawing. I mean, it is that basic a need for me.”
“[As a child,] I was too imaginative and sensitive. I used to burst into tears at the slightest thing and I was terrified, of people especially. I had trouble, I think, separating reality and fantasy. I learned to read early and I loved to read and I just lived in storybooks and in pictures. That was more real to me than the world. And, in a way, it still is.”
“For the past thirty years I’ve lived in a big old farmhouse in northwestern New Hampshire. Some part of it always needs fixing – there’s always a room falling off or a roof caving in – but to me it is home. Mostly there are walls and walls of books that hold it up and keep out the cold. I live here with my partner, Jean, who helps me keep it all going, and our two dogs, two cats, and five sheep. Jean is a teacher and the director of a little school where kids actually have fun learning.”
[To fellow illustrator Jim Arnosky] “I want a page of hands. You need to learn to draw hands.”
[To Arnosky, who lived in a rural Pennsylvia cabin with his pregnant wife and kid] “I’m giving you this cover assignment on one condition: that you get water put in that cabin.”
[To author Eric Kimmel] “Why is it that whenever someone writes a story about knights, ladies, and dragons, they send this shit to me?”
[To a Caldecott commitee organizer who asked if she enjoyed the dinner at the ceremony] “Oh, yes. Especially the dessert. It looked like a large chocolate penis.”
[To Kimmel] “Listen, Eric. I know this is scary for you now. It’s really nothing in the big scheme of things. Do you want to know what’s going to happen? We live. We die. And in the middle we have some good times and some bad times. That’s your story. That’s my story. That’s the story of everybody who ever lived and whoever is going to live. You just hope that when the end comes, it will be quick and won’t be too painful.
“As for what you just told me, it will work itself out. The best result you’re hoping for probably won’t happen. But neither will the worst. It will end up somewhere in the middle. It’s all about money anyway, which is not that big a deal. You’ll write a check and that will be the end of it. Life moves on and so will you. I promise that the next time we get together we’ll have a drink and laugh about it.
“There’s one more thing I want you to remember while you’re going through it all. Pills help. So does booze. And so do friends. So use them.”
[On the Dykes on Bikes at a mid-90s Gay Pride Parade in San Francisco, to Kimmel] “Did you see that, Eric? There are a lot of us.”
Hate it when TikTok farm cosplayers and cottagecore types say stuff like “I’m not going to use modern equipment because my grandmothers could make do without it.” Ma'am, your great grandma had eleven children. She would have killed for a slow cooker and a stick blender.
I’ve noticed a sort of implicit belief that people used to do things the hard way in the past because they were tougher or something. In reality, labor-saving devices have historically been adopted by the populace as soon as they were economically feasible. No one stood in front of a smoky fire or a boiling pot of lye soap for hours because they were virtuous, they did it because it was the only way to survive.
Taking these screenshots from Facebook because they make you log in and won’t let you copy and paste:
I feel so insane about ai. I’ve had face-to-face conversations with people who use it for therapy, who use it to calculate the safety of pill interactions, who use it for all their emails and grant applications and legal documents and academic papers and finance sheets and for every single question they have about the world, and if you tell them about the ecological costs they just laugh and say “I guess I’ve used a lot of water.” and I’ve been in multiple gatherings of 10+ people where I’m THE ONLY PERSON who doesn’t use chatgpt. it’s turning me into a ranting raving pariah, because how don’t you people see??? why don’t you understand??????? this bullshit didn’t exist five years ago, you absolutely do not need it, and it is destroying everything
the commodification of friendship is the most annoying thing to come out of the internet in ages. like actually i love to break this to you but you’re supposed to help your friends move even if it’s hard work. or stay up with them when they’re sad even if you’re gonna lose sleep. you’re supposed to listen to their fears and sorrows even if it means your own mind takes on a little bit of that weight. that’s how you know that you care. they will drive you to the airport and then you will make them soup when they’re sick. you’re supposed to make small sacrifices for them and they are supposed to do that for you. and there’s actually gonna be rough patches for both of you where the balance will be uneven and you will still be friends and it will not be unhealthy and they will not be abusive. life is not meant to be an endless prioritization of our own comfort if it was we would literally never get anywhere ever. jesus.
Look, it’s a weird hill to die on, especially when I don’t really explain, but children deserve to experience fear, disgust, and discomfort in safe scenarios where they can process those sensations.
Media for children used to be scary and that’s important.
“Since it is so likely that (children) will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise you are making their destiny not brighter but darker.” ― C.S. Lewis
“Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.”
Unpopular opinion: Being intelligent isn’t an excuse for being unkind.
Pretentious asshole is OUT! Pretentious Sweetheart is IN! Wearing dapper clothes and holding the door open for others makes you feel COOL AS H*CK! Glance up from your hefty books to give a stranger a smile!! Quote literature to inspire others! Be presumptuous in the way that you presume that everyone needs their day to be a little brighter!!!
Administration showed us this tweet on day one of grad school and boy did it hit home
“distinguished yourself by being kind” is my literal life motto at work, holy shit
i NEED people to realise foreshadowing is. in fact. a literary device. and not a Bad Thing. the audience picking up on your hints is a Good Thing. because. it makes the story and it’s conclusion make sense. and some people will not see those but enjoy seeing them on a second read through. red herrings are one thing but if your novel consists of nothing but red herrings it’s not a coherent story it’s just a collection of paragraphs that don’t actually plausibly link to one another. you’re not fighting with the audience you don’t look clever you look like you don’t know how basic fiction works. be vulnerable for once in your goddamn life and don’t treat writing like a game to be won where the audience losing is a good thing.
I am whatever the opposite of a speed runner is. I am a game meanderer. I have to look at literally everything. I am overly cautious in every way. I forget to pause and wander away from the game. I take a minimum 7 hours to get through any given level. If you give me a timer I will cry.
“Well if we hold presidents accountable for war crimes then Clinton and Obama would be in jail”
Awesome. There’s plenty of stuff those guys need to answer for.
“Well if we expose the Epstein List, that will ALSO affec-“
There is not a single name you could put up there that would make me not want that list made public. You could tell me Mr Rogers was on that list and I would still want it out there. You could tell me my own grandmother was on the list (may she rest in peace) and I would still want the list out there.
I think if there is a name you would rather protect instead of achieving justice then you have some very serious soul searching to do because that world is dying and you are about to be left behind or eaten by it.
i dont really post so much nowadays but i am living for travis’ reactions to all the different characters they meet during the campaign like its the whimsy!! the excitement!! i love them so much and i love watching someone at the table react so strongly too
