#stuff to read
Man, books in the 150-300 years old range are strange because you’re too far removed from the context in which the text was written to experience it as “intended,” but you’re close enough to it to recognize the shape or shadow of what you’re missing.
As I’ve said i’m reading the Count of Monte Cristo and the snobbish veneer age tends to give books (or at least their cover designs) doesn’t wipe out the fact that this is an exciting, over-the-top adventure story packed to the brim with “coolness.” I don’t really know how to describe it other than it’s a Lot.
The titular character is hyper-competent at everything and has a ton of “unrealistic” skills and abilities. He’s a sailor, he’s super smart and cunning, he’s a master of disguise, he can see in the dark because of his years in a dark dungeon, he knows science and lots of languages, powerful bandit lords are at his beck and call, and he’s dark and brooding and mysterious, full of pain and a desire for REVENGE…a couple other characters have a discussion where they call him a Byronic hero and debate whether or not he is a vampire.
So far we’ve been to Rome and Paris and met up with bandit lords and ocean smugglers, hung out with high society in France, pulled off a sick prison break, found secret treasure, done opium and hashish (both at once), flirted with loads of hot ladies, and seen all sorts of marvelous luxuries and trendy gadgets and excitement. For a book that is over 1,300 pages long, it sure is fast paced.
Apparently it was originally published as a serial, which explains all the cliffhangers.
Anyway, the Count of Monte Cristo is one of those “classics” that ended up there purely by being wildly popular and I sure can see why people loved it!
There is edgy anime character art of Edmond Dantés. I checked.
OP I would DEFINITELY recommend you check out the amazing blog of @cy-lindric who has done some very nice fanart of the count of Monte Cristo and several other classics of French literature that has the EXACT vibe you’re describing
Excellent
Since we’re all stuck at home during this quarantine, and I want to plug my magazine!
Mental Realness Mag is a digital publication specifically for black femmes (of any gender identity) navigating mental health. We feature photography, poetry, prose, articles, etc. We’ve just recently published our fourth issue, and I would love if you guys could check it out. I’ve included some of the highlights below and a link to the magazine as well!
(We’re always looking for writers and visual media submissions as well!)
Thebest Wikipedia lists
List of inventors killed by their own inventions
List of scandals with the -gate suffix
Response to sneezing - that is, what you say after someone sneezes
List of places in the U.S. named after places elsewhere
List of American advertising characters (e.g. the geico gecko. There is also an article for breakfast cereal mascots specifically.)
List of superlative trees - its TREE APPRECIATION TIME
List of individual birds. There is SO much going on here.
List of deep-fried foods (aaaaaaa)
List of words that are their own antonyms
List of genres(of…everything)
List of onomatopoeias - READ THIS PLEASE
List of people who have been pied
List of voids - This is meant in the astronomy sense but I think the name is funny.
List of discredited substances - there’s a LOT going on here
List of methods of capital punishment
List of wartime cross-dressers
List of extinct dog breeds. this topic contains some of my favorite obscure facts
List of songs considered to be the worst - there is also an article about the worst books and one about the worst movies, if you’re interested
List of sexually active popes - I just think it’s funny that this is an article
List of reportedly haunted locations
List of animals with fraudulent diplomas
List of people who died on the toilet
the onomatopoeias
Ping Food (derogatory (possibly))
I wanted to add a list of fictional elements (and materials, isotopes, and subatomic particles) because I’d been meaning to find one, but then I found this monstrosity, the List of lists of lists, and I just had to add a few and then I thought to look in the tags to try to compile other people’s cool lists and then I was drawn back to The List so here is nearly three hours of wasted time in one nice neat list (wow, that doesn’t even sound like a word anymore):
List of stories set in a future now past
List of unexplained soundsfrom@hostilehospitalbeds
List of helicopter prison escapesfrom@unicorn-elvis
List of gairaigo and wasei-eigo terms (Japanese loanwords from western languages) from @passumbapper
List of common misconceptionsfrom@passumbapper
List of heavy metal genresfrom@time-and-water
Lists of renamed places for the confused time travelers and/or immortal beings here
Lists of men. It’s funny as a concept but the further you scroll the more mundane it gets. It does start off strong though.
List of catgirls. Yes, really.
List of nicknames used by Donald Trump
List of most expensive domain names
Thank you so much @dragonncat this is a great addition.