I love to consume media. I love it. Whether it’s reading, watching a movie, listening to music; literally anything. I’ve always had a really specific artistic vision, and a lot of times my friends don’t really understand my references, so I wanted to put it in an article, so hopefully someone, somewhere will relate to it!Â
No. 14 Pas De Deux, by Tchaikovsky of The Nutcracker (as performed by any orchestra or philharmonic)Â
When I was younger, I was a ballerina. I didn’t stick with it past, probably, about 11, since it got rather expensive and it started to not feel good anymore. However, I had always dreamed of being Clara in the Nutcracker. Now, in my 20s, I’ve seen that stick with me, because every holiday season, I find myself listening to the Nutcracker score constantly, and No. 14 Pas De Deux is my favorite. I think it helps the little ballerina in me.Â
The Franz Kafka quote, “A book must be the ax for the frozen sea within us.”
Kafka was super weird. I briefly studied him in my Humanities class freshman year, and besides reading The Metamorphosis (roach girlies unite!), this quote really stuck with me. It’s been with me since, in the back of my head. I believe so strongly that good media has an impact on you, whether it’s good or bad, and I think if I had to make one goal for my life, it would be for my words to create a lasting impact on someone.Â
The Entire Fleabag seriesÂ
- That scene in Fleabag, where she’s on the train and Sail by AWOL is playing, and she says, “I think my period is coming.“
I think about this scene literally all the time. The song choice, the acting, all of it is literally perfect. I always like to see some intricate depictions of female trials in the media, because they always so accurately portray what it means to be a woman when I haven’t figured out how to articulate that feeling yet. This whole show did something to me.Â
Jesus christ. This scene changed my life. Possibly for the worse? Imagine telling someone you love them, and you get hit with a it’ll pass? That would kill me, maybe. I can’t even put into words what this scene does to me, but if you get it, you get it. I’m going to get a tattoo referencing this scene. It means everything to me.
Christmas and Chill by Ariana GrandeÂ
I don’t have a cool, niche, writing major explanation for this one. I just heard it for the first time in middle school and I still love it. Next question.Â
Bunny by Mona AwadÂ
Specifically this quote: “And then I recall Caroline’s face when she shaved that cinnamon stick at Smut Salon. Her head tilted back in a restrained performance of ecstasy. Eyelids fluttering open and closed like she was possessed. Did he carve those words into her peaches-and-cream flesh or did she, while he merely leaned back on her couch and observed, encouraged, supervised with eyes like smoking tar, asking softly what good is it to be left with no trace, to be wounded without the pleasure of a scar?”Â
This entire book kind of changed me. If I ever do end up writing fiction novels, I think this is how I’d want my writing style to be; haunting, drunken, and with an urgency. When I recommend this book to people and they read it, they usually report back to me and say that the whole book felt like a fever dream. I feel this way too, and it’s one of many reasons why I love it. The whole novel feels wet and nauseating, like a bruise. I love it so much. Please read it.Â
Famous Last Words (An Ode to Eaters) by Ethel Cain and 1017 ALYX 9SM
You know I had to put my girl Hayden in here. Aside from the entire Preacher’s Daughter album completely changing my personality for the worse in August of 2022, Famous Last Words awakened something in me. I’ve thought for a while that cannibalism as a motif for love, in media, is super interesting, since Bones and All, and Preacher’s Daughter. Loving someone so much you want to eat them? Literally insane. But SO fun to study.
That might be all I can think of for now. Maybe I’ll make part 2! Until then.