there's our catastrophe

Octavia Butler Links

dandelionchild:

eclecticspectrum:

Now most of these are NOT aesthetically pleasing but the content is still there. Let me know if you have a problem with the links. Feel free to pass it along.

Patternist Series

• Patternmaster (PDF)
• Mind of My Mind (PDF)
• Survivor (PDF)
• Wild Seed (PDF)
• Clay’s Ark

Lilith’s Brood (formerly the Xenogenosis Trilogy)

• Dawn (PDF)
• Adulthood Rites (PDF)
• Imago (.epub)

Parable Series

• Parable of the Sower (.epub)
• Parable of the Talents (.epub)

Standalone Novels

• Kindred (PDF)
• Fledgling (.epub)

Short Stories

• Brown Girl in the Ring (PDF)
• Speech Sounds (PDF)
• The Book of Martha (.epub)
• The Evening and the Morning and the Night (PDF)
• Bloodchild (.epub)

(via note-a-bear)

The Library of Babel

citationneeded:

In any case, it is clear that a library containing all possible books, arranged at random, is equivalent (as a source of information) to a library containing zero books.^{[citation needed]}

Link

I was like “lol, pretty sure this was a borges story” then realised the article was, in fact, about said (really famous) story, and not just a clever connection I’d made

god, I’m a wanker

anyway, this article is really worth reading even if you haven’t read the story.  you should also read the story though. 

by the way, anyone who hasn’t read midnight sun — twilight retold from edward’s perspective, given up by stephenie meyers in a fit of pique after five chapters when someone leaked it — you really should.  it’s quite something.  I recommend it to everyone I know but nobody believes me. 

my five million hunger games posts aside

I actually think it’s generally a good idea to read more than just YA; it’s a good idea to read more than one genre whatever it is.  I get that a lot of literary criticism of YA is snobbish, anti-youth (particularly anti-girl) and puritanically dismissive of the pleasures of a cracking plot. but I’m seeing a lot of people launching huge defenses of YA that edge into an attack on the idea that anyone might find value in difficult or dense reading. 

whatever “challenging yourself” is to you, do that.  like that is a good rule for life in general and engagement with the arts in particular.  this should not be controversial. 

anyway whatever, I can’t tell you what to do, my point is that I will always give whatever monster hit YA series is around a go because a) I usually enjoy it b) it doesn’t take too long c) I’ve realised that YA is a really good wind-down activity, preferable to the internet or tv because of the defined end point of a novel but predominantly d) I really like understanding what everyone is talking about. and it makes me sad when people don’t wanna talk about the cool book I just read and sometimes I need to escape that crushing pain.  there is something to be said for mass culture.