swim through the fires to stay in this world

I discovered this poem via musesfool, who related it to Natasha (valid). To me, it brought to mind Tremaine Valiarde and Regina Mills. Basically, this is a poem for emotionally damaged ladies.

Dogfish
by Mary Oliver

Some kind of relaxed and beautiful thing
kept flickering in with the tide
and looking around.
Black as a fisherman's boot,
with a white belly.

If you asked for a picture I would have to draw a smile
under the perfectly round eyes and above the chin,
which was rough
as a thousand sharpened nails.

And you know
what a smile means,
don't you?

*

I wanted the past to go away, I wanted
to leave it, like another country; I wanted
my life to close, and open
like a hinge, like a wing, like the part of the song
where it falls
down over the rocks: an explosion, a discovery;
I wanted
to hurry into the work of my life; I wanted to know,

whoever I was, I was

alive
for a little while.

*

It was evening, and no longer summer.
Three small fish, I don't know what they were,
huddled in the highest ripples
as it came swimming in again, effortless, the whole body
one gesture, one black sleeve
that could fit easily around
the bodies of three small fish.

*

Also I wanted
to be able to love. And we all know
how that one goes,
don't we?

Slowly

*

the dogfish tore open the soft basins of water.

*

You don't want to hear the story
of my life, and anyway
I don't want to tell it, I want to listen

to the enormous waterfalls of the sun.

And anyway it's the same old story – - -
a few people just trying,
one way or another,
to survive.

Mostly, I want to be kind.
And nobody, of course, is kind,
or mean,
for a simple reason.

And nobody gets out of it, having to
swim through the fires to stay in
this world.

*

And look! look! look! I think those little fish
better wake up and dash themselves away
from the hopeless future that is
bulging toward them.

*

And probably,
if they don't waste time
looking for an easier world,

they can do it.

Title: Progeny
Author: redbrunja
Fandom: Fall of the Il-Rien
Characters: Ilias, Tremaine
Rating: PG-13
Author's Note: written for chomiji  
Summary: "Tremaine was entertaining the idea that Davret's newborn had the power to curse people."

( Read more... )

Okay, about a week ago I was talking to my mom - or, well, whinging about how I was reading only textbooks or travel books and all I wanted to do was read a novel. To which my mom went, "so read a novel."

So I picked up Martha Wells' Wheel of the Infinite. Now, I bought this paperback from a used bookstore, so it had that really nice, really intense used-book smell. You know the one I mean, right?

Last friday, I went down to the local independent bookstore, which has an espresso book machine (aka, a machine that can print a book in about, oh, fifteen minutes. Watching it was so cool - it had this great hot ink smell too.

All of which makes me know that books are not going anywhere in the long term. I highly doubt that most people who be able to give up the sheer tactile pleasure of books.

Now, on to the books themselves....

Like Death of a Necromancer, Wheel of the Infinite suffers from not being The Fall of the Ile-Rien trilogy. ( more )

Now, on to The Shadow Queen, which I loved so, so, so, so so much. Not since Queen of the Darkness have a loved an Anne Bishop book this much.

( deliciously dark details )

I reorganized my bookmooch account (canceled one, opened another, put some books up for mooch that I likely won't be rereading), did more research for SakuraCon hotels, bought text books and now am organizing my checkbook.

Thus, meme.

1. Pick 10 of your favorite books or series'.
2. Post the first sentence of each book. (If one sentence seems too short, post two or three!)
3. Let everyone try to guess the titles and authors of your books.



Some of these - most of these - I will be quite impressed if people guess correctly.

[ETA: sorry about the lack of cut. It vanished when I edited this post, and I'm afraid to fuck with the formatting more.]

Comment on this post. I will choose seven interests from your profile and you will explain what they mean and why you are interested in them. Post this along with your answers in your own journal so others can play along.

aj  gave me:

abhorsen:

The rank of Sabriel, the awesome heroine of Garth Nix's Sabriel. Imagine a quick witted school girl killing zombies and crossing back and forth between a WWI-era world and the classic fantasy-land. Awesome action, a magic system that makes sense, and a sweet, nicely underplayed romance.

canon underwear meta:

Once upon a time, chomiji posted an announcement on her livejournal that she had posted fic. We commented, and then their was comments about the underwear of the Sanzo-ikkou (Minukura approved, thus the 'canon'). That conversation, mutated, spawned, and almost reached 1,000 comments, which, considering it was four people chatting, was pretty damn impressive.

fictional women you hate:

You know those girls you hate because they hate tits and emotions and get in the way of the slash? Fuck you, she's awesome.

kimi wa petto:

The Japanese title of the manga 'Tramps Like Us' which is about when a japanese journalist has a very bad day (her fiance left her for his pregnant girlfriend, she punched on of her superiors after he came onto her drunkenly at a party, and she got demoted) and finds, on her way home, a homeless dancer. After he oh so cutely pleads with her, she lets him stay at her apartment if he'll be her pet.

The heroine, Sumire, is me. I am not even kidding a little bit. Thoughout the manga I was constantly stopping and going, 'oh my god, I do/think/feel that too!'

I actually named my new computer after her.

nymphadora tonks deserved better

This one is kinda self-explanatory. Tonks was badass. She deserved better than to have Kishimoto possess JK and write the Lupin/Tonks romance, which I shipped hardcore until it actually happened. (Which is why, boys and girls, that you choose carefully when shipping canon).

the fall of ile-rien

The series of books by Martha Wells that starts with The Wizard Hunters. It contains Tremaine, who is, in a world of warriors and mages, a half-suicidal playwright raised by her criminal mastermind of a father, and who has everyone going in circles around her. The action takes place in two different worlds - one a WWII mix of France and England and the other a tropical and less technologically advanced society that is the only functional matriarchy I have ever read.

veronica/weevil

My fanon pairing for Veronica Mars. Veronica is the nancy-drewing daughter of the ex-sheriff and Weevil is the leader of a motorcycle gang. It illustrate how perfect they are for each other, let me simply tell you that Veronica is driving to search for the truth the way people lost in the desert search for water. Of everyone in Veronica's life, Weevil is the only person who has never gotten pissed at her for it. Also, they have a long history of saving each other.