it's less about the visual for me and more about the emotional resonance, if that makes sense? Like I try to think about *why* that idea resonates so strongly for me and chase it down to its emotional core.
not pretentious at all! I follow a similar process myself. plus that Leliana/Morrigan exploration was helpful. <3 with the Blue Eye Samurai example I had in my post (cracked lineaments in teapot covers like nitamago) I've connected it to the titular character's affinity for meditation and relationality to inanimate objects in the world, and also certain other characters' fascinations with food, and also disabilities, as a characterising element. it's like creating a cartography of symbols. writing feels very much like... energy-bending, if I can use that phrase, so I'm delighted by this comparison.
Sometimes I'll read a story where I can appreciate the craftsmanship of the writer and the darker/deeper themes, but appreciation isn't the same as enjoyment.
definitely same!
if I had to explain why I feel an almost obscene thrill at reading books with, say, women committing or being implicated in socially/spiritually/politically/metaphorically gruesome things, I might rationalise it with how it feels resonant with the "truths" and histories I "feel" are true of the world: I like things that subvert mundane social infrastructures, and wrestle seriously with darker sides to things people take for granted (eg. because they're rooted in hierarchies of injustice).
I also like philosophically or anthropologically meaty books -- feels pretentious saying this because I'm sure everyone does, and nobody would ever say "I like vacuous books", whatever, but I like things I can approach like an ethical puzzle and which touch on Big Serious Topics, as I am alas a tool.
no subject
not pretentious at all! I follow a similar process myself. plus that Leliana/Morrigan exploration was helpful. <3 with the Blue Eye Samurai example I had in my post (cracked lineaments in teapot covers like nitamago) I've connected it to the titular character's affinity for meditation and relationality to inanimate objects in the world, and also certain other characters' fascinations with food, and also disabilities, as a characterising element. it's like creating a cartography of symbols. writing feels very much like... energy-bending, if I can use that phrase, so I'm delighted by this comparison.
definitely same!
if I had to explain why I feel an almost obscene thrill at reading books with, say, women committing or being implicated in socially/spiritually/politically/metaphorically gruesome things, I might rationalise it with how it feels resonant with the "truths" and histories I "feel" are true of the world: I like things that subvert mundane social infrastructures, and wrestle seriously with darker sides to things people take for granted (eg. because they're rooted in hierarchies of injustice).
I also like philosophically or anthropologically meaty books -- feels pretentious saying this because I'm sure everyone does, and nobody would ever say "I like vacuous books", whatever, but I like things I can approach like an ethical puzzle and which touch on Big Serious Topics, as I am alas a tool.