when kafka said ‘you wouldn’t believe the kind of person I could become if you wanted it’ and when brontë said ‘if you ever looked at me with what I know is in you, I would be your slave’ and when Sartre said ‘if I’ve got to suffer it may as well be at your hands’

when kafka said ‘you wouldn’t believe the kind of person I could become if you wanted it’ and when brontë said ‘if you ever looked at me with what I know is in you, I would be your slave’ and when Sartre said ‘if I’ve got to suffer it may as well be at your hands’

"it gets easier with time" have you ever considered I want it to be easy now?

real

unwilling narrator

the weight of a story is hard to bear but someone's gotta be atlas

no more "in my humble opinion", from now on it's "from my grandiose and objectively correct deductions".

*me, literally sick with want* whatever

I'm fascinated by how the formatting of different social media sites affect how text is read.

For instance, a line break on Tumblr indicates a new idea.

But a reblog break indicates that time has passed.

Nobody understands the bond between a girl and the mediocre book she read when she was 13 years old.

i hear a good lyric and start mentally holding up blorbos like im in the home depot paint aisle comparing swatches

shirt that says “as above” and booty shorts that say “so below”

oh... to wear a pretty dress and have a knife

𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔐𝔞𝔦𝔡𝔢𝔫, 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔐𝔬𝔱𝔥𝔢𝔯 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔱𝔥𝔢 ℭ𝔯𝔬𝔫𝔢

Power Signalling

Kneeling. (It’s not popular for no reason.) Ordered to kneel as punishment or as a show of deference. Shoved physically to the ground by hands on their shoulders, maybe a kick to the back of the knee. Picking themself up off the ground but only getting as far as hands and knees. Crawling because they haven’t got the strength to stand any more. Dropping to their knees from exhaustion, or despair.

Personal space. Casually invading it. Uninvited touch - from the deeply creepy to something as simple as a firm hand on the shoulder. Standing too close - especially if taller or otherwise physically stronger. Conversely, hurrying to get out of someone’s way.

Eye contact. Staring someone down. Who is first to look away? Averting eyes for one’s social superiors. Insisting that someone maintain eye contact while you’re talking to them. Insisting that someone never look you in the eye. Trying to de-escalate by avoiding eye contact. Singling someone out just by looking at them. Too frightened or ashamed to look someone in the eye.

More generally, attention. The room falls quiet when they walk in. Who cuts in, and who gets talked over. Ignoring those who are beneath your attention. The excited attention given to the object of respect and idolisation. The careful, wary focus given to a potential threat. Deliberately attending to something else to appear less threatening. Deliberately burying oneself in something else to avoid attracting unwanted attention.

Codified status behaviours. Bowing to one’s superiors. Bonus points if there are differentiated kinds of bowing for different status differentials. Soldiers coming to attention when a superior officer comes in. Saluting. Who greets whom first? Serving food in a particular order. Standing up when a respected person enters the room.

Non-verbal threats. Just resting a hand on a weapon, or perhaps even just near a weapon. Cracking knuckles or rolling shoulders. Clenched fists. The little come-get-some-then lift of the chin. Stepping from a conversational stance into one that’s balanced for fight or flight. Pointing a weapon at someone. Casually brushing aside a weapon.

Conversely, de-escalation and surrender. Open hands, spread in front of them. Hands above head. (Raised slowly, transitioning from the simple woah-calm-down gesture to full on surrender as the situation gets tenser.) Going still. Slow, careful movements being sure to keep hands where they can be seen. Laying down weapons. Hands on head. Getting down on the floor. Deliberately making oneself vulnerable to prove non-hostile (or non-resisting) intent.

Alternately, deliberately showing “vulnerability” to demonstrate how little of a threat you consider the other person. The slouch of villainy. Casually putting weapons away or turning one’s back, confident that they won’t do anything. Open posture, casual, relaxed in the face of apparent danger.

Signs of fear. Flinching. Trembling. Closed, defensive posture. Tension. Backing away. Fidgeting. Lip-biting. Arms hugged close to chest. Or refusing to lower defences. Checking for escape routes. Trying to insist that they don’t come any closer.

Offers of or requests for help. Extending a hand to help someone up off the ground. Reaching out a hand in a silent plea. Do they have to ask for help? Are they willing to accept it? Do they get a choice? Who has plenty and who has to rely on the other’s goodwill? Picking someone up off the ground. Carrying them. (Dropping them?) Adjusting someone’s clothes. Withholding aid.

An addition! Because I’ve found some of the stuff I learned in stage director training is remarkably useful in conceptualizing use of space when writing prose, and this one seems particularly overlooked and isn’t in op’s excellent catalogue.

It’s possible to do power plays without getting near to or directly acting in the direction of the person you’re playing at, and one great way is by claiming pieces of the set.

A character can vastly expand their area of influence by laying a hand on a table, for example. If you’re standing on opposite sides of a large table, and one of you puts your hand down, that can symbolically take you up into the other party’s personal space in a much subtler and more deniable way than actually getting up in their face.

This can be used equally well to convey affection or threat.