People really need to take a wider view of this paranoia about age gaps and realise this is how we lose the ability to build communities. You need to be able to realise that people can have things in common with you even if they grew up in a different time/place/culture. You also need to realise you can build communities with people who don’t have obvious things in common with you, that people can have the same goals and needs as you even if in most ways they’re very unlike you. Now, more than ever, we need to be able to work together to have any chance to stand ip against the few who have so, so much more power, money and influence than any of us do individually. We need to form communities that reach across age (and class and race and sexuality and so on…).
Claudette Colvin, whose 1955 arrest for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated Montgomery bus helped spark the modern civil rights movement, has died. She was 86.
Her death was announced Tuesday by the Claudette Colvin Legacy Foundation. Ashley D. Roseboro of the organization confirmed she died in Texas.
Colvin was arrested months before Rosa Parks gained international fame before refusing to give up her seat on a segregated bus.
Tuira Kayapó brandished her machete in the face of a government official who was trying to convince indigenous leaders to accept a mega-dam project in the Amazon, 1989
“Electricity won’t give us food. We need the rivers to flow freely. Don’t talk to us about relieving our ‘poverty’ – we are the richest people in Brazil. We are Indians.”
part of kayapó’s speech during this event
also! she’s still alive! that sort of thing is always worth pointing out to show that we really aren’t too far removed from events like this! here’s a 2019 photo of her:
I just checked, she passed away in August 2024 - but not before working with a filmmaker to make an hour long movie where she explains her life and her activism. If you want to hear what she has to say for herself, here’s the opportunity.
Movie is ‘Tuire Kayapó’ (First Contact) by Pınar Yolaçan, in case the link breaks
“gender is a social construct”: fairly easy for leftists to understand
“race is a social construct”: a bit harder to swallow for some but still reasonable
“mental illness is a social construct”: this one gets you hate mail in your inbox
Gotta add previous tags on here, because this is gonna live rent free in my head from now on. The stars are real, constellations are not. Damn. Tags by @smoreofbabylon (if you don’t want me to put you on blast like this I’ll delete lol!)
I read an old interview with a male sex worker who talked about how some women know exactly what they want while others have a hard time admitting it, and he enjoyed trying to make them come out of their shell. As an example he used a customer who was too shy to admit she wanted him to be submissive so he basically became a power bottom to guide her through it. I thought that sounded like a really cute start to an erotic story I’ll never write so I just made this comic page instead.
“the US will run Venezuela directly until there’s a ‘transition’”
there we go.
in the words and candence of Trump:
“WE are going to run the country. (untilthereisasafeandjudicioustransition) … We are going to run it basically. And as you know the oil business in Venezuela has been a bust for years now… the best oil companies in the United States will invest on its infrastructure.”
Just if there is any ambiguity. The oil part was immediately afterwards by the way. I’m almost transcribing it live, you will find the transcript soon. Say what you want about Trump but he is completely transparent.
“we built the Venezuelan oil industry with American money and talent and the socialist regime ROBBED it from us, it was the largest theft of American property in history”
OH MY GODDDDDDDDDDDDD
IT’S LITERALLY LIKE IF US CAPITALISM AND IMPERIALISM MATERIALIZED INTO A PERSON. IT’S LIKE HISTORY IS SPITTING ON MY FACE. I FEEL LIKE I’M GOING INSANE.
One of the hardest things for me to learn and practice in my writing is that people do not say that much.
My character dialogue frequently feels contrived. They open up to partners too quickly, maintain perfect communication with friends, and hold back exactly the right info from enemies. Yet, irl, I’ve observed and contributed to much miscommunication, lost opportunities, and unconscious distrust of friendly motivations. Natural speech is not tailored, and appropriately expressing abstract thoughts takes skill.
We’ve heard film media fans deride “therapy talk” wherein characters uncharacteristically and eloquently divulge their inner struggles to others and receive perfect, textbook advice in response. This feels inauthentic because most humans don’t talk like that! We skirt around our problems, we feel uncomfortable when others vent, we want to avoid conflict and rejection, and our well-meant words sometimes do more harm than good.
People also tend to talk a lot, but say little. Some writers don’t want their stories stuffed with useless conversations, banter, and small-talk that don’t advance the plot—we want that story grown up and moved out! But please, include those things. Include those scenes where friends hide thoughts from friends by joking around instead, where a rival remembers someone’s thoughtless comment to use as ammo later, where a happy couple argues over a minor miscommunication. These aspects can add depth to a story that feels manufactured, or life to characters that sound scripted.
If this is you don’t stress, natural dialogue takes a while to finesse. Currently, I write the meaning behind the dialogue first then smudge it up in redrafts. As with all writing advice, this one should not be treated as a crucial ingredient, but be measured out to fit your story’s needs.
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Tea × 40yo × genderless ace entity x she/they x i write & i like stuff & i cuss a lot x writing/muse blog is tea-and-musefuel x AO3 is teashadephoenix ko-fi.com/bethtenney
