Mood

In that great discourse with the living dead which we call reading, our role is not a passive one. […] We engage the presence, the voice of the book. We allow it entry, though not unguarded, into our inmost. A great poem, a classic novel, press in upon us; they assail and occupy the strong places of our consciousness. They exercise upon our imagination and desires, upon our ambitions and most cover dreams, a strange, bruising mastery. Men who burn books know what they are doing. The artist is the uncontrollable force; no western eye, since Van Gogh, looks on a cypress without observing in it the start of a flame. So, and in supreme measure, it is with literature. A man who has read Book XXIV of the Iliad - the night meeting of Priam and Achielles - or the chapter in which Alyosha Karamazov kneels to the stars, who has raid Montaigne’s chapter XX (Que philosopher c'est apprendre à mourir) and Hamlet’s use of it - and who is not altered, whose apprehension of his own life is unchanged, who does not, in some subtle yet radical manner, look on the room in which he moves, on those that knock at the door, differently - has read only with the blindness of physical sight. […] To read well is to take great risks. It is to make vulernable our identity, our self possession. In the early stages of epilepsy there occurs a characteristic dream (Dostoyevsky tells of it). One is somehow lifted free of one’s own body; looking backbone sees oneself and feels a sudden, maddening fear; another presence is entering one’s own person, and there is no avenue of return. Feeling this fear, the mind gropes to a sharp awakening. So it should be when we take in hand a major work of literature or philosophy, of imagination or doctrine. It may come to possess us so completely that we go, for a spell, in fear of ourselves and in imperfect recognition. He who has read Kafka’s Metamorphosis and can look into his mirror unflinching may technically be able to read print, but is illiterate in the only sense that matters.

George Steiner, “Humane Literacy” from Language and Silence (via mesogeios)

Instead of doing literally anything else that may be considered “productive” I went ahead and made this.

I present to you my list of Classic Lit Authors Sorted into Hogwarts Houses:

William Shakespeare - Ravenclaw

Emily Dickinson - Hufflepuff

H. P. Lovecraft - Ravenclaw 

Leo Tolstoy - Gryffindor

Edgar Allan Poe - Ravenclaw

Oscar Wilde - Slytherin

Robert Ervin Howard - Gryffindor

Jane Austen - Ravenclaw

Mark Twain - Slytherin

Ernest Hemingway - Gryffindor

Aldous Huxley - Slytherin

Sylvia Plath - Ravenclaw 

Ray Bradbury - Ravenclaw

William Blake - Slytherin

James Joyce - Slytherin

William Wordsworth - Hufflepuff

Lewis Carroll - Ravenclaw

Walt Whitman - Slytherin

Ralph Waldo Emerson - Ravenclaw

T. S. Eliot - Ravenclaw

Victor Hugo - Gryffindor

F. Scott Fitzgerald - Gryffindor 

George Orwell - Slytherin

Virginia Woolf - Ravenclaw

J. R. R. Tolkien - Ravenclaw

Toni Morrison - Gryffindor

Mary Shelley - Ravenclaw

Percy Bysshe Shelley - Ravenclaw

Charles Dickens - Gryffindor

Charlotte Brontë - Gryffindor

Emily Brontë - Slytherin

Anne Brontë - Hufflepuff

George Eliot - Gryffindor 

Louisa May Alcott - Gryffindor

Joseph Conrad - Slytherin

Jack London - Gryffindor

Henry James - Ravenclaw

Bram Stoker - Slytherin

Franz Kafka - Slytherin

E. M. Forster - Hufflepuff

Ayn Rand - Slytherin

Joseph Heller - Slytherin 

Harper Lee - Hufflepuff

J. D. Salinger - Slytherin

Arthur Conan Doyle - Ravenclaw

Agatha Christie - Slytherin

Roald Dahl - Ravenclaw

Frank Herbert - Slytherin

Octavia E. Butler - Ravenclaw

Vladimir Nabokov - Slytherin

This is obviously not a complete list (there are 50 here) and there will be a follow-up with more in the future! I am very sure about some of these (anyone who has ever met me or looked at my blog knows how hard it was to restrain myself from putting Oscar Wilde first) but I’d love to hear other people’s opinions if anyone has some!

Special thanks to @amapofyourstars for helping me sort these people even though she had little to no interest in any of their lives.

“so maybe this bridge was always meant to burn / maybe we were handing the matches back and forth back and forth / waiting for someone to strike out / waiting for someone to say / okay this is enough / I need to see some light / I need to see some flames / let’s set this ablaze and not call the police / let’s close our eyes and run opposite ways / I think I need to get away from you for awhile / I think I need to make sure I can never come home to you again.”

— where did the fire go / it never kept us warm– lily rain

No one could ever understand me better

The world burned while Atlas watched (no, that isn’t right) Atlas died screaming, trying to save those he’d watched over Aphrodite is about romantic love (no, that isn’t right) Love comes in many forms but it always leaves a mark - Aphrodite Artemis fell in love once (no, that isn’t right) Artemis loved the maidens she raised, the trees, she loved all who tried Peresphone was manipulated by the King of Underworld (no, that isn’t right) Peresphone chose power, chose love, chose freedom, she chose Achilles was golden (No, that isn’t right) Achilles was rusted, bruised and bloody. He was in love

The Myths Are Wrong by Abby S (via fireandsteelofangels)

You say prisoner, and you think of her: the girl whose veil smelled of wildflowers snatched by bone-fingers she clutches the grass and the earth bears stitches in the shape of her fingernails she clutches the grass and the earth screams. You say prisoner and you think of her: the cursed girl she has known death without having died. You say prisoner and you think of her: you think of him, soaking up what last breath of wheat still remained in her; the shadow of her collarbones as the sunshine dies on her skin. But you do not know: she kissed him first. Her lips have tasted death and you know she liked it. She fed the pomegranate to herself; she devoured every last seed until juice ran down her chin. He gives her sunshine and she does not want it. She rules death with fingers still pumping with heartbeat and when she laughs the Underworld shakes, and Hades with it. You say prisoner, she says queen.

persephone, you were never doomed. (via aarontveiits)

This is what I like about photographs. They’re proof that once, even if just for a heartbeat, everything was perfect.

This absence. This emptiness. This hollowness. This nothingness. I feel them too much.

Sophia Carey (via wordsnquotes)

Awesome Underappreciated Musicals You Should Listen Too

Yeah I like the big four Tumblr musicals but these are just a few shows you should consider listening to next time you’re looking for something new.

1.) Tuck Everlasting

Based on the book of the same name Tuck Everlasting is about a girl named Winnie Foster discovering the immortal Tuck family. The father of the family is played by Michael Park who you might recognize as Larry Murphy from Dear Evan Hansen. It’s a good show with a few catchy songs. If you’ve read the book before you’ll know what to expect since it’s a pretty faithful adaptation.

2.) Dog Fight

Composed by Pasek and Paul of The Greatest Showman and Dear Evan Hansen fame this is a romance about a young man about to be shipped off to the Vietnam War and how he spends his last few nights in America where he meets Rose under unfortunate circumstances. Annaleigh Ashford (Legally Blonde) is also in the show and featured in the titular song.

3.) Carrie the Musical (Revival)

The original Carrie musical was Broadway’s biggest disaster until Spider-Man came along leaving a bitter taste in the mouths of theater junkies. Luckily the revival is much better on every level and, in my opinion, is the best Carrie adaptation to date. Christy Altomare and Derek Klena, both of Anastasia fame, play Sue Snell and Tommy Ross, the well meaning popular kids who try to help social outcast Carrie White (Molly Ranson)

4.) Galavant

A medieval musical tv show with two seasons and Timothy Omundson? This show is both funny and it has a general 2-3 songs per episode starring mostly non professional singers with the exception of a few including Weird Al as a singing monk. There’s nothing much else to say except, I believe in you Tad Cooper.

5.) Bring It On

One of Lin Manuel Miranda’s first productions, as seen by the lack of his presence in a cheerleader uniform, this musical is both creative and funny. Head cheerleader and popular girl Campbell is suddenly transferred her Senior year to Jackson highschool. Suspecting there’s something going on one she finds out the new girl, Eva might have something to do with it.

6.) Jasper in Deadland/Hadestown

These two are put together because they’re both modern retellings of the Orpheus and Eurydice tale. Hadestown is more of a jazz/blues song style while Jasper in Deadland is more a rock musical. Both have their own interpretations of the story that any mythology buff will see and love.

And like there’s a million more that I don’t have enough space to mention but it’s okay to listen to musicals that aren’t Hamilton, Be More Chill, Dear Evan Hansen or Heathers.

Honorable Mentions:

Bat Boy the Musical, Shrek, Hunchback of Notre Dame, 35 mm, Next to Normal, Repo! The Genetic Opera, The Devil’s Carnival, Anastasia, In the Heights, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-Long Blog, The Count of Monte Cristo and many, many more.