Favorite decolonialist authors and books?
Notebook of a Return to the Native Land + Discourse on Colonialism by Aimé Césaire
Black Skin, White Masks + Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon
History of Pan-African Revolt by C.L.R. James
Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam by Muhammad Iqbal
Sociology of Islam by Ali Shariati
Zionist Colonialism in Palestine by Fayez Sayegh
Groundings with My Brothers by Walter Rodney
Indigenous and Popular Thinking in América by Rodolfo Kusch
Philosophy of Liberation by Enrique Dussel
Black Metamorphoses by Sylvia Wynter
Basic Call to Consciousness by the Haudenosaunee
Native Science by Gregory Cajete
Ch'ixinakax utxiwa by Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui
As We Have Always Done by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
Peace, Power, Righteousness by Taiaiake Alfred
Red Skin, White Masks by Glen Coulthard
Autonomy is in Our Hearts by Dylan Eldridge Fitzwater
Decolonizing Methodologies by Linda Tuhiwai Smith
Critical Thought in the Face of the Capitalist Hydra by the Sixth Commission of the EZLN
ok but can we talk about fairy tail's seven year time skip and the gaps that occurred in relations through that time?
like imagine you're erza and the guy you've known since you were a kid and you care so much about is responsible for so many horrible crimes but it wasn't really his fault, not really, but you discovered that too late. and you have hope that he'll go back to how he once was but now his memory is gone and he's gonna be in prison likely for the rest of his life but there's a chance. then you go to tenrou island and you think it's the end but when you wake up it's been 7 years and now you're still 19 years old and jellal is at least 26 and he's got his memory back and he's trying to make amends and he's so far away in life experience and relations with people and you feel you were left behind, he didn't even need you by his side to grow, to be good, and he won't really need you again
now imagine you're gray and you discover one of your oldest friends, like your brother, betrays you and the beliefs of the person you had in common but then the situation gets resolved and you can find peace between each other. but now lyon is seven years older than you and he's had longer time to advance his magic, ur's magic, and you know he's had to mourn both you and ur, and potentially looked at his magic and thought he was the last one from that little family of three from all those years ago. he doesn't know ultear, who has grown since the last time you saw her a few hours ago no wait, seven years ago, and she's also trying to make up for her many mistakes and she's more kind and gentle but you won't get to know her because she's already gone so soon after you returned
it's just so sad to think deeper about the consequences of seven years passing, lives continuing on without you and thinking about how everyone that loves you and you love thought you were dead and you don't know how to fix things or fit into this new time
penelope didn't have to turn the tree bed into a riddle. she could have asked odysseus to prove his identity, to tell her something only he would know — which she actually did a few books earlier, when she asked the beggar to describe odysseus, and odysseus told her about a purple cloak with a particular golden brooch that she fastened herself twenty years ago. when penelope tells telemachus they have signs by which they'll know each other, you sort of expect more of the same. and instead, she decides to trap him. like a bug in a cup.
and it's delightful to me, idk, how odysseus has been trapped and cornered in various way throughout the odyssey, but arguably never so that he has to tell the truth to get out. (with the phaeacians, maybe? the omniscient narrator corroborates some of what he tells them, but do we really know everything?) and in fact he is not trying to get free of penelope. he wants something from her, wants to convince her, wants to be welcomed home, but until this point he's lied to her, revealed himself to other people before her, and been distant with her (though also patient! he doesn't try to strongarm or rush her into accepting him; it's his idea to sleep elsewhere).
except penelope isn't looking for him to be distant and patient. penelope lies in a way that requires odysseus to stop playing along — not only to prove that he knows what odysseus knows, but that he's willing to tell the truth about himself.
the older i get and the closer i am to reaching 30, the more the people around me try to deny me my age. it’s a constant ‘oh you’re just turning 29 again teehee 🤭’ or ‘dont tell your SO that, he’ll leave you for a younger model 😉’ and i just???? hate it?????????
i spent my entire teenaged years fighting for my life. i crawled through the deepest pits of my depression to cling to the promise of a life beyond that pain. i was so convinced that i was going to die young, that i would never see the grace of my age starting with a 2, let alone 3.
so im going to turn 30, and there’s not a damn thing anyone can do to stop me from loving it.