Fairy Queen costume, Iolanthe, D’Oyly Carte Opera Company, 1977. Designed by Bruno Santini

With a little luck, you can find that sometimes the last person on earth you want to be with is the the one person you can't be without.

May Dramione and Pride & Prejudice never die!

Nobody is immune. Take care of yourself & get checked.

my future 9 year old child reading Harry Potter: I love this mommy me: great but stay open minded and critical and don’t take everything at face value. I have prepared discussion questions

if I ever have kids…

So... My cousin’s wife (I’ll call her Goose) asked if her daughter (Bunny) could call me to talk about Harry Potter. I had told Bunny about HP over Thanksgiving, and Goose said Bunny wanted to talk to someone after reading the first one.

This was my reaction:

Bunny is eight years old, and I absolutely KNEW this would be the year to introduce her to HP.

I had been planning for this conversation forever... and my time had come!

Or... So I thought...

Bunny calls, and she was so confused. It took a minute, but I quickly discovered the reason.

She had begun reading The Cursed Child.

Words cannot express the burning frustration growling around in my head. For the minority of the tumblr users out who don’t know, The Cursed Child is the script for the play set 19 years after the book series (Harry is an adult). Bunny picked it out at the bookstore because it had a yellow cover and that’s her favorite.

Ugh, no wonder she had questions!!!

I kept trying to keep this poor little girl positive and upbeat (because I know reading isn't her thing), but I just wanted to say hand the phone over to Goose so I can give her a piece of my mind.

I even have half a mind to call my cousin and chew him out. His wife should no longer be in charge of his daughter's reading material. This is reckless. If reading isn't your kid's thing, don't give them a novel length script to read. They aren't like regular books. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Who buys an eight year old the script to a play, never even looking at it?

What’s next? Software manuals?

For those who do care, I am arranging for the correct books to be sent to Bunny.

This will be fixed. I cannot allow Goose to ruin Bunny's (hopefully) possible interest in reading.

from ‘The Snooty Bookshop’. https://www.instagram.com/p/Bqpm_shgz2C/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1ospzzbs9wdhk

@thebibliosphere the bookshelf on the right made me think of you

Finally, my niche market.

This is what people asking for fanfiction recs is like. @anidot90 @wynkenblynken @ellesjourney @refictionista @gumwouldbperfection @agnmag @ladybear92

Yesss...

This week’s #NobelPrize-winning research, summarised: 

Physiology/Medicine: bit.ly/2ODp7di 

Physics: bit.ly/2IF7vIs 

Chemistry: bit.ly/2O4oLwJ

Mediaeval-Muse’s Global Medieval Lit Starter Pack

So… I occasionally teach medieval lit, and in the past few years, my school’s program has made our medieval studies classes more global. As a result, I’ve gotten to teach some cool things from the middle ages that aren’t from England. I figured I’d put some good starters (mostly poetry) in a list if anyone is interested. I can recommend much more global lit (Chronicles, prose, religious tracts, etc), but these, I think, are the easiest to get a hold of - mostly thanks to Penguin Classics. Note: I limit “medieval” to the 6th-16th centuries, though I acknowledge that designation is problematic because what does “medieval” mean anyway?

Ireland The Tain, trans. Thomas Kinsella Early Irish Myths and Sagas, Penguin Ed.

Wales The Mabinogian, trans. Sioned Davies

Scotland The Complete Works of Robert Henryson, TEAMS ed.

Anglo-Norman/France The Lais of Marie de France, Penguin Ed. The Song of Roland, Penguin Ed. Arthurian Romances by Chretien de Troyes, Penguin Ed.

Spain The Song of the Cid, Penguin ed.

Germany Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach Tristan by  Gottfried von Strassburg The Niebelungenlied, Penguin ed.

Scandinavia/Iceland The Sagas of the Icelanders, Penguin ed. The Volsunga Saga, Penguin ed. Italy The Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri, trans. Allen Mandelbaum The Decameron, by Giovanni Boccaccio Orlando Furioso, by Ludovico Ariosto Russia The Song of Igor’s Campaign, trans. Vladimir Nabokov

Persia/Islamic Empire Vis and Ramin, by Fakhraddin Gorgani, Penguin ed. Shahnameh, by Abolqasem Ferdowsi, Penguin ed. The Arabian Nights, Penguin ed. (3 vols) Islamic Mystical Poetry, Penguin ed. Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, Oxford ed. Turkey The Book of Dede Korkut, trans. Faruk Sumer et. al. India Songs of Kabir, Penguin ed. Mirabai: the Ecstatic Poems, trans. Robert Bly Japan The Tale of Genji, Penguin Deluxe ed. The Confessions of Lady Nijo, trans. Karen Brazell The Pillow Book, by Sei Shonagon The Tales of Ise, Penguin ed.

China Tang Dynasty Poetry, trans. Red Pine The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain, trans. Red Pine The Selected Poems of Tao Chien, Penguin ed.

Korea The Story of Hong Gildong, Penguin ed.

Mali Sunjata: A West African Epic, by Djanka Tassey Conde, trans. David C. Conrad

General Anthologies

Norton Anthology of World Literature

TBC since tumblr’s posting methods changed

Linked article URLs, in order of appearance:

1. Exploiting harassment claims

2. Bob Livingston admits claim is true

3. Truth about false allegations

4. Coming forward is traumatic

5. Accusational statistics

6. Assault victims’ memory reliability

7. Truck stop killer

8. Not worth the book deal

9. Percentage of women who have experienced sexual harassment.

The Senate voted this morning to cut off the debate on his nomination and advance the nomination to a final vote, the next-to-last step in the Supreme Court confirmation process.

PBteen Is Expanding Their Harry Potter Decor Collection

See photos of the collection

📸: Shaun Sullivan Daniel Herbert

I just finished buying all the stuff I wanted from their first line... now I need more HP decor... and a pajama set to match my sheets and a second one that will match my comforter...

edit: what do you mean the items in my cart won’t ship for over a month??? noooooo...