THE ERL-KING by Angela Carter
Lay your head on my knee so that I can’t see the greenish inward-turning suns of your eyes any more.
xxiii.
last night, you left
punctures in my skin. bullets
fired from your tongue, and
my teeth are cracked
from where i tried to swallow
them whole.
my mouth is a casket,
negative space swollen
with wounds that ricochet.
this morning, i ran
my tongue over the ridges
on the roof of my mouth.
i will remember each one.
i will count the tears as if
they are gifts, reminders
that i will never again open
myself to you, and that
my blood tastes of your
regret.(h.a)
Photography by Nick Knight featured in A Magazine curated by Martine Sitbon
literature meme ∙ characters ∙ marya morevna (deathless)
“perhaps all a tsaritsa is is a beautiful cold girl in the snow, looking down at someone wretched, and not yielding.”
whats your literature meme?
ASKED BY Anonymous
it’s not mine, it’s this!
ugly, by warsan shire
Your daughter is ugly.
She knows loss intimately,
carries whole cities in her belly.As a child, relatives wouldn’t hold her.
She was splintered wood and sea water.
They said she reminded them of the war.On her fifteenth birthday you taught her
how to tie her hair like rope
and smoke it over burning frankincense.You made her gargle rosewater
and while she coughed, said
macaanto girls like you shouldn’t smell
of lonely or empty.You are her mother.
Why did you not warn her,
hold her like a rotting boat
and tell her that men will not love her
if she is covered in continents,
if her teeth are small colonies,
if her stomach is an island,
if her thighs are borders?What man wants to lay down
and watch the world burn
in his bedroom?Your daughter’s face is a small riot,
her hands are a civil war,
a refugee camp behind each ear,
a body littered with ugly things,but God,
doesn’t she wear
the world well.
literature meme ∙ characters ∙ midori kobayashi (norwegian wood)
“That’s the kind of death that frightens me. The shadow of death slowly, slowly eats you away at the region of life, and before you know it everything’s dark and you can’t see, and the people around you think of you more dead than alive. I hate that. I couldn’t stand it.”
LITERATURE MEME
I haven’t found any literary memes, so I created one myself. Adjust it, improve it, add to it, etc. Just celebrate world literature!
- EPIC
- MOVEMENTS
- GENRES
- TROPES
- POETS
- PROSE WRITERS
- CHARACTERS
- SHORT STORIES
- POEMS
- PROSE
xx.
there will be days that bleed
from the oldest corners of your heart,
with tired muscle strained
beneath the wear of ligament and
forgotten wounds.
there will be days that ache
with the dull weight of time
in your bones, every regret
built into the hollows
of your knuckles as you crack
them, once by one.
if you want to cry,
cry. you will
tremble. the earth will shake
between your ribs: lightning
will crack between your teeth.
you will breathe broken, with
the thrum of half the world’s torn
wing fluttering in your mouth.you will swallow it, and you will
fly.
(h.a)
what did you think of the great gatsby movie? i thought it untrue to the nature of the book.
ASKED BY Anonymous
i would have to disagree with you there then, because i thought it quite true to the nature of the book. granted, i already knew they’d change a couple of things which is pretty natural from book to film, and i knew baz would also have his own spin on things. i think the bare bones of the film was true to the book - except for the additions like nick’s mental illnesses which might have been a bit unnecessary, seeing as they weren’t entirely qualified, and the structure of the film, i think the content was all picked from the book. even if they missed out nick/jordan (which i was a little annoyed about) and they shortened myrtle’s appearances, i still thought it was true, but sort of along a different line of interpretation. all the symbolism was there, all the characters were there, but i think baz might have concentrated a little too much on the over indulgence aspect. he changed a delicate, simple book into something a lot more extravagant and boisterous, but i just sort of saw that as a different interpretation of the book itself. i still loved it though, even if it did have a few flaws! (the first half was very slow, daisy was too sympathetic, i don’t think myrtle was quite vital enough, and - shoot me - but i don’t think leo quite came out of his shell until the second half. nick was absolutely perfect though, i thought, and i was suprised by the actor who played tom. jordan was my favourite, it’s a shame we didn’t see more of her!)
xxii.
i want to be
your first fire:
i want to be the first lick
of flame upon your naked wrist,
setting your veins alight with
blue fire, cool paralysis.
my heat will seep into the
bloodlines beneath your cheeks,
split into the inflamed whisperings
of my name under your skin;
itching, aching, burning, scarred.
i want you to feel the trembling
premonition of dried heat under
heavy eyelids, and be afraid
of how i did consume you.(h.a)
history meme ∙ (2/7) pairings ∙ hadrian & antinousHadrian had a close relationship with a Bithynian Greek youth, Antinous, which was most likely sexual. During a journey on the Nile he lost Antinous, his favourite, and for this youth he wept like a woman. Concerning this incident there are varying rumours; for some claim that he had devoted himself to death for Hadrian, and others — what both his beauty and Hadrian’s sensuality suggest. But however this may be, the Greeks deified him at Hadrian’s request, and declared that oracles were given through his agency, but these, it is commonly asserted, were composed by Hadrian himself. Antinous drowned in 130. Deeply saddened, Hadrian founded the Egyptian city of Antinopolis in his memory, and had Antinous deified – an unprecedented honour for one not of the ruling family. The cult of Antinous became very popular in the Greek-speaking world. (requested by anon)
