So these cases matter. They have to matter.

Mainline this straight into my veins.

Something

by Mary Oliver

Something made this yellow-white lace-mass that the sea has brought to the shore and left —

a little like popcorn stuck to itself — or a ball of prized lace-strings rolled up tight — or a handful of fingerling shells pasted together each with a tear where something, perhaps,

fled into the sea. I brought it home out of the uncombed morning and consulted among my books. I do not know what to call this sharpest desire

to discover a name, but there it is, suddenly, clearly illustrated on the page, alerting my old heart to the arrival of another strange and singular

moment of happiness: to know that it was the egg case of an ocean shell, the left-handed whelk, which, in its proper season,

spews forth its progeny in such glutenous and faintly glimmering fashion; each one tears itself free

and what is left rides to shore, one more sweet-as-honey riddle for the wanderer whose tongue is agile, whose mind in the world's riotous plenty,

wants syntax, connections, lists, and most of all names to set beside the multitudinous stars, flowers, sea creatures, rocks, trees. The egg case of the left-handed whelk

sits on my shelf in front of, as it happens, Blake. Sometimes I dream that everything in the world is here, in my room, in a great closet, named and orderly,

and I am here too, in front of it, hardly able to see for the flash and the brightness — and sometimes I am that madcap person clapping my hands and singing; and sometimes I am that quiet person down on my knees.

*examines your pdf folder* have you read them all?

Is a wine cellar meant for storing only empty bottles?

"The writer Umberto Eco belongs to that small class of scholars who are encyclopedic, insightful, and nondull. He is the owner of a large personal library (containing thirty thousand books), and separates visitors into two categories: those who react with “Wow! Signore professore dottore Eco, what a library you have! How many of these books have you read?” and the others — a very small minority — who get the point that a private library is not an ego-boosting appendage but a research tool. Read books are far less valuable than unread ones. The library should contain as much of what you do not know as your financial means, mortgage rates, and the currently tight real-estate market allows you to put there. You will accumulate more knowledge and more books as you grow older, and the growing number of unread books on the shelves will look at you menacingly. Indeed, the more you know, the larger the rows of unread books. Let us call this collection of unread books an antilibrary."

– Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable

@wearelibrarian

Joseph Henry Sharp - Afternoon Shadows – Taos (ca. 1920)

Clevedon Pier, England

My animation of a flour sack. Words can’t express how proud I am of these 11 seconds.

I’m so delighted people are enjoying this so much. It was one of my very first animations in freshmen year, after bouncing balls. I was so excited that I just poured time and love into this little guy, and I’m so happy a lot of people like the tiny story I told.

OUR FLAG MEANS DEATH | Stede Bonnet Hi all! Nice to be here. I may be landed gentry, but I’m thrilled to be granted entry.

albatrosses will wipe the floor with any species of bird you choose to compare them to. they’re the Most, or at least Extremely, by almost every metric

wingspan. lifespan. intricacy of mating dances. devotion to monogamy. investment in offspring. ability to circumnavigate the globe. literary symbolism that is flexible but not to the point of meaninglessness. eyeliner quality. I could go on

muppetness of said offspring

weird anti ideology finally leaking out into the mainstream

I'm so exhausted by all of this.

I think we're seeing the consequences of surveillance, honestly. Like they're policing themselves this heavily because they've never had privacy before, not from their parents, not from their peers, not from advertisers, not online, nothing. And with all that constant and conflicting criticism, there are no consistent rules for when they're going to be attacked so they're responding by making elaborate, false rule-sets as a coping strategy. LIke "maybe, if I act this way, I'll finally be safe" but it doesn't work so they get more desperate.

Add on all the school shootings in the US, inaction on climate change, and a pandemic that was allowed to rip through schools unchecked, kids and young adults have a deep sense that their lives are disposable. And they're right! Our society is systematically hostile and abusive to children in so many ways! However, the only child abuse society gets riled up about is pedophilia. Adults act like pedophilia is the only kind of child abuse that counts as abuse.

And that's why I think we are seeing kids stretching the meaning of pedophilia. They are looking for language that encompasses all of the kinds of abuse that they're experiencing. All of the emotional abuse of children is normalized, quite a bit of physical abuse is normalized, and the lack of privacy, agency, and bodily autonomy is all socially enforced. The truth is that all of these other forms of abuse can and do lead to sexual abuse, too. These kids are on to something, but it's getting deflected and warped by the fact that they still live in the dangerous environments they've been abused in. I think more specific language will be empowering here and will also bridge the gap between the current generation of young people and other anti-violence movements.

So if you are a child or young adult who resonates with any of the above, I want you to know that as a child abuse survivor, I believe you when you say that you've been abused. I think the anxiety about fandom websites and queer people and kink is misplaced because strangers don't usually have the structural power and access to you to hurt you but I know that there are people in you life who do have that power and I'm worried about you. I think ao3/queer/kink are just the issues that you feel safest speaking up about. I see you speaking up and I think there's more going on.

So what I can do for you, as a random stranger on the internet, is give you some resources and language so you can start to articulate your experiences and find solidarity with others.

Some terms you might find helpful:

Here's a copy of the UN's Convention on the Rights of the Child. The US has refused to sign this but it's still a good idea of what the rest of the world believes you deserve and what we know will help you thrive.

Here's a copy of the power and control wheel for child abuse. Power and control wheels are commonly used in many forms of victim advocacy to help map abuse. To be clear, we count these things as abuse because we know from research that they are traumatic. Many laws have not been updated to include all these forms, so you'll notice that many of the things on this wheel are completely legal even though we know they are harmful.

Additionally, I'm including a zine I found on peer support for suicide ideation. I know that growing up, my friends and I were always told to tell a trusted adult but we didn't have one and ended up trying to help each other through some really awful shit. This is a guide written by someone with a similar experience and it details ways to informally support someone who is feeling suicidal.

I'm so so glad to see a response to this other than:

This is a real problem with real causes. Things don't just happen for no reason because a group you don't like is inherently worse than you or incapable of making good decisions.

We are like this because of the unprecedented cultural conditions surrounding our development & socialization!!!

The house keeps its own secrets.

Based on my illustrated gothic horror series, the Deephaven Mysteries! The first book is on shelves now, with a new mystery coming this September that you can preorder wherever you get books!

once again devastated by Stede's face journey in this scene. he's been ridiculed all his life, but he just wants someone to play with and share his excitement about his favorite stuff!! and he keeps trying!!

AND THEN HE GETS EXACTLY THAT

eventually you realize you don’t want to die. you just don’t want to live the life you’re living. and slowly you try to create a life you want to live. just gotta start there.

no one needs to add “sounds fake but ok”, “no”, “well, not me”, “impossible”, etc. to this post. and i’d rather you not.

one day you think: I want to die.

and then you think, very quietly: actually. actually. I think I want a coffee. a nap. a sandwich. a book.

and I want to die turns day by day into I want to go home, I want to walk in the woods, I want to see my friend, I want to sit in the sun

I want a cleaner kitchen

I want a better job

I want to live somewhere else

I want to live

CHARLIE COX as MATT MURDOCK Daredevil | 2.02: Dogs to a Gunfight

David Tennant as Crowley Good Omens, The Ball, Season 2

Kamisaka Sekka - Puppies (Enokoro), 1909-1910