"
What if we’re setting these boys up for sexism by telling them that they simply won’t enjoy this novel, no matter how much they like dystopian futures, because the main character is a girl?
[…]
When I was growing up, I was encouraged and even expected to relate to male characters. All of us felt some kinship towards Holden Caulfield or The Perks of Being a Wallflower‘s Charlie, even and especially we girls. But a teenage boy reading and enjoying A Tree Grows in Brooklyn? Laughable. She gets her period in that one, after all.
Somehow, I’m not convinced that the issue is boys inherently being disinterested in female characters. I’m more convinced that the issue is that we raise our boys to think they shouldn’t be interested in female characters. Maybe in patriarchy the worst thing a boy can be is interested in silly girl stuff. Silly girl stuff like adolescents fighting to the death, teenage rebellion against the government, spies, technical geniuses who crack sinister codes, romance, death, comedy, and tragedy.
I’m not about to sell out teenage boys to some washed-out notion that they can’t relate to female characters. I think they’re smarter than that. The question is whether literature for young adults (and all ages) will stop holding up the white straight male character as the ideal so that our boys get the chance to see the world from a new perspective.
""She was beautiful, but she was beautiful in the way a forest fire was beautiful."
"[Humans do such terrible things to each other that sometimes my brain tells me they must be evil. But my heart still isn’t convinced.] I just hope we can survive."
"My own heart, broken like bones."
"[It’s late now.] Perhaps
it was only a long day the color of honey and blue,
perhaps only a night, like the eyelid
of a grave look that encompassed
the measure of the sea that surrounded us,
and in this territory we found only a kiss,
only ungraspable love that will remain here
wandering among the sea foam and roots."
"[And if the earthly should forget you,
say to the silent loam: I flow.]
To the rushing water speak: I am."
"I have ever thought
Nature doth nothing so great for great men
As when she ’s pleas’d to make them lords of truth:
Integrity of life is fame’s best friend,
Which nobly, beyond death, shall crown the end."
"But now it is still light and the blackbirds are singing
as if their voices are the only scissors left in this world."
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor: UK Covers
Still forever angry at this book, still forever annoyed BUT
PRETTY SURE
I PREFER THIS COVER TO THE ONE I HAVE. ESPECIALLY THE ONE WITH THE RED DOOR OH MY GOD
His Dark Materials
Forever favorites. Have been feeling like rereading these, too. I miss Lyra and Will something FIERCE :(((((
my favourite place at home (by Exilinsulaner)
