1. Susan Sontag—As Consciousness Is Harnessed To Flesh: Journals And Notebooks, 1964-1980, 2. Phoebe

“How do you know I’m not a monster ? - Do you think you are ? - Not many people like me, though. - Because monsters only like other monsters.”

My First Summer (2020), Katie Found

I need you to love me more, love enough to drown it out (mitski)

― Stevie Smith, Richard Siken, Ana Lucía Ceballos Cáceres, Emily Palermo, Katrien de Blauwer, Natalie Diaz, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Natalie Wee, Jenny Slate

i've come to realize there are only two kinds of tragedies: preventable and inevitable. preventable tragedies are the kind where everything could have maybe worked out if only. if only romeo had gotten the second letter. if only juliet had woken up earlier. if only creon had changed his mind about antigone sooner. if only orpheus hadn't turned around.

inevitable tragedies are the kind where everything was always going to end terribly. of course macbeth gets deposed, he murdered his way to the throne. of course oedipus goes mad, he married his own mother. of course achilles dies in the war, he had to fulfill the prophecy in order to avenge his lover.

both kinds have their merits. the first is more emotionally impactful, letting the audience cling to hope until the very end, when it's snatched away all at once leaving nothing but a void. the second is more thematically resonant, tracking an inherent fatal flaw in its hero to a natural and understandable conclusion, making it abundantly clear why everything has to happen the way it does.

There’s lots of ways to say ‘I love you’

fatima aamer bilal, excerpt from moony moonless sky’s ‘i am an observer, but not by choice.’

[text id: my fist has always been clenched around the handle of an invisible suitcase. / i am always ready to leave. / there is not a single room in this world where i belong.]

i love you in the strongest way there is

via nozu on tumblr // richard siken // charles bukowski // nothingbutloveforyou on tumblr // inanotherunivrse on tumblr.

― Ovid, Metamorphoses